Schools Tech Director Job Still Vacant Six Months After Resignation

When for the EG School Department, Supt. Victor Mercurio said . Six months later, the position is still vacant and, after a second candidate withdrew in December, interviews must start again.

“He went to pursue a different opportunity,” Mercurio said Friday about the most recent candidate. Neither candidate offered an explanation, according to the superintendent.

The hiring committee met on Friday and could start again with interviews as early as this week, he said.

“We have some folks who had applied originally that we were somewhat interested in. We’re going to have them come back and interview some of them,” Mercurio said. “Probably right now it looks like six candidates to interview.”

Questions about why it has taken so long to hire someone have been percolating around town for several weeks. It was a main topic of discussion at the Thursday night Meadowbrook PTG meeting, according to three different sources. EG Patch was told that some even questioned whether or not a specific EGSD technology director was needed, since the district has survived six months without one.

Mercurio said Friday that the department absolutely did need a tech director. “In the interim, we’ve had some folks who’ve kind of sub-ed and that’s enabled us to get the reports in to RIDE that we need,” he said referring to data report submissions required by the R.I. Department of Education.

Parent Jen Condon, who attended the Meadowbrook meeting, expressed her frustration with the delay via email:

“While I am pleased that they took time after Jerry retired to evaluate and re-write the job description for the Technology Director position, I can not understand why it has taken over six months to fill the position.”

She continued, “This is either a position that needs to be filled much sooner rather than later or it needs to be determined if there is a current town position that will fill the needs and have that person become involved with the school's technology issues.”