March 30, 2018

To: Westport Community Schools School Committee

From: John R Brackett, Ray Shurtleff, Collins Center
RE: Presentation of Finalists from the Superintendent Search Subcommittee

On behalf of your appointed Superintendent Search Subcommittee, we are pleased to present

to you three finalists to continue in the search process.

Thirty (30) applications were received by the deadline on March 5th. (This does not include
the one application received for a construction superintendent position.) As search
consultants, we pre-screened the applications to ensure that those submitted to the
subcommittee for consideration met the qualifications set by the district and required for the
position. Eighteen (18) applications were forwarded to the subcommittee for review. The
remaining applications were made available to the committee if they were interested. On
March 20th, after a thorough review of the written application materials, the committee met
and engaged in an extended discussion of each candidate, ultimately reaching consensus to
invite eight (8) candidates in to interview. Six (6) accepted the invitation and were
interviewed during the evenings of March 26, 27, and 28.

The 14 members of the subcommittee reached unanimous agreement to forward to you the
following three educators for consideration as the next superintendent of the Westport
Community Schools. (In alphabetical order)

Richard Drolet, Ed.D. Dr. Drolet is currently Director of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment
and Accountability for the Uxbridge Public Schools. He has served in this position since
2016. Prior to his current position, Dr. Drolet was principal at McCloskey Middle School in
Uxbridge and served as Principal and Assistant Principal at North Cumberland Middle School
in Cumberland, RI. He has been a middle school teacher in Natick MA and an elementary
teacher in Virginia. Dr. Drolet earned his doctorate in Educational Leadership from Johnson
and Wales University; a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) from Cambridge
College; a master degree in Elementary Education from Rhode Island College and his
bachelor degree in sociology from the University of Colorado.

Joan Landers. Ms. Landers, since 2012, has served as the superintendent of the North
Middlesex Regional School District. Before assuming her current position, she served as
Superintendent of Schools in Wakefield, MA. In Wakefield, Ms. Landers also served as the
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Assistant Superintended for Student Services and
Director of Special Education. Previously, she was the Principal/Director of the Welcoming
Alternative School in Lynn, and her classroom teaching experience was in the Lynn, North
Andover and Bellingham Public Schools. She earned her Master of Education degree from
Salem State College and her Bachelor of Arts in Education with a major in Special Education
from Providence College.

Gary Reese, Ed.D. Dr. Reese is presently the Superintendent of Schools for the Amesbury
Public Schools. He has served in this role since 2015. Prior to assuming the Amesbury
position, Dr. Reese served as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum/Instruction in Woburn
and Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Millbury, MA. He was also an
elementary principal in Woburn, an Assistant Elementary Principal in Gloucester and a
special education teacher in the Acton-Boxborough and North Middlesex school districts. Dr.
Reese earned his doctorate from Boston College, Masters Degree in Special Education from
Fitchburg State College and Bachelor of Arts from Vermont College of Norwich University.

The community will have the opportunity to meet these finalists when they visit Westport to
interview with the school committee on April 24, 25, and 26. The schedule for each day will
be communicated when finalized.

A special thank you goes out to the fourteen members of the Superintendent Search
Subcommittee. The committee met on 5 different evenings to prepare, review, interview,
debate, deliberate and decide on the finalists presented here. Each member played a key role
in ensuring that all stakeholder groups were heard and their perspective considered. In the
end, the committee reached a unanimous decision to recommend Dr. Drolet, Ms. Landers and
Dr. Reese to the School Committee.

Members of the subcommittee were: Donna Bedard, Kathy Cummings, Tracy Priestner,
Nicole Verronneau Potter, Cheryl Olivier, Stacey Duquette, Susan Collins, Melissa Parker,
Jon Bernier, Nancy Rioux, James Demers, Irene Buck, Nancy Tripp, and Brian Valcourt.