Lee withdraws from negotiations with Rizzo

LEE – The search for a school superintendent continues.

“The [Lee-Tyringham] Union 29…voted to withdraw from the negotiations to hire Dr. Jack Rizzo as our interim superintendent,” Lee School Committee Chairwoman Susan Harding said.

The withdrawal is as the result of Dr. Rizzo wanting to retire in the district, meaning his contract would require a long-term insurance package from the town for only working at Lee Public Schools for a couple of years at most.

“We could not in good conscience commit the town to a total financial package that would have included a long-term insurance cost for a very short post,” Chairwoman Harding said. “Our responsible decision was clearly not to go forward.”

Moving forward, the superintendency union is speaking with a retiree about stepping in to be the interim superintendent, replacing Jason P. “Jake” McCandless, who will become the Pittsfield Public Schools superintendent on July 1.

“We have already initiated a conversation with an extremely well-qualified retiree about becoming our interim for next year,” Chairwoman Harding said, adding the committee is “not yet” ready to release the prospect’s name.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on May 23, 2013. Filed under Breaking News,Education News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry