By CHRIS MACHADO

NORTH KINGSTOWN – With the final candidates for school superintendent narrowed down to two earlier this week, sources told The Standard-Times on Tuesday that Priscilla Feir was the frontrunner for the position.

By CHRIS MACHADO

NORTH KINGSTOWN – With the final candidates for school superintendent narrowed down to two earlier this week, sources told The Standard-Times on Tuesday that Priscilla Feir was the frontrunner for the position.

Although the vote came after deadline on Wednesday, sources said Feir would be chosen over Fred Williams.

Feir is superintendent of the Perkiomen Valley School District in Collegeville, PA. Previously she was superintendent of Muncy School district in Muncy, PA from 1996 to 1999.

Feir received her Bachelor of Science degree in education from East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, PA., a Master’s of Education in reading from Lehigh University and a Doctor of Philosophy and Education Administration from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.

Fred Williams currently serves as superintendent of Lincoln Consolidated Schools in Michigan. Williams has been superintendent at Lincoln since 2005 and superintendent of Potterville Public Schools, which is also in Michigan, from 1999 to 2005. 

He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Eastern Michigan University in teaching special education with an elementary education endorsement and a Master’s Degree from Michigan State University in special education with an emphasis on administration.

 Michael Singleton, a special education director from New York, who’s also a retired superintendent from New York, was the third candidate. Presently he’s the director of special education in Williamstown, MA. 

Singleton was also a finalist in the North Kingstown superintendent search in 1995. However, he was passed over in favor of former school superintendent Dr. James Halley.   

After the school committee interviewed each of the candidates two Saturday’s ago, Singleton was dropped from contention.

A superintendent search committee chose the final candidates from a field of roughly 30. The original charge of that committee was to find a superintendent by the beginning of the school year.

The position has been filled on an interim basis since by former Narragansett superintendent Al Honnen, who took over after former superintendent Dr. James Halley had his contract bought out.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, school committee chairperson Douglas Roth would not comment on whom the committee was going to choose.

However, he did say he was happy with the final candidates. “People worked long and hard to get us viable candidates, which obviously they produced,” Roth said. “I’m confident we have a superintendent with the two that are left.”

Since Honnen is retired with a state pension, he is only allowed to work 90 days per year. However, those days relate to the school year and not a calendar year. Therefore, he would be eligible to stay on until the end of December if the school committee wished.

Roth didn’t seem amenable to the district being run by an interim superintendent for another three months.

“We need to make a change,” he said. “It’s time to move from interim to permanent so long-term decisions can be made. I’m satisfied with the candidates. This interim stuff can end.”

While Roth was looking forward to naming a permanent candidate, fellow committee member Larry Ceresi said there wasn’t a rush and added that he didn’t know if a new candidate could be named on Wednesday.

“There are still a lot of discussions that need to take place before 6 p.m.,” he said referring to the Wednesday executive session. 

He added that the committee would be remiss if it didn’t at least look at keeping Honnen around for another three months.

“I think he’s doing a great job and I’m no hurry to push him out the door,” Ceresi said. “Even if we were to make a decision tomorrow (Wednesday), the candidates still have work to do in their home districts. They have to work out their contracts and then there’s relocation.”

Ceresi added, “I’m not saying we shouldn’t name someone but I just don’t want to leap into this. I’m comfortable picking from one of the two final candidates and if I wasn’t then I would say something. It’s just not the case.”