Time running short for Waltham school superintendent choice, official says

WALTHAM

Waltham School Committee Vice Chairwoman Susan R. Burstein said Wednesday that she is still waiting for her fellow committee members to return their performance evaluations for Superintendent Susan I. Parella.

The committee's last meeting of the year -- and Burstein's last as a committee member after being defeated in her re-election bid -- is Dec. 19. Ideally, the superintendent's evaluations should be finished prior to the start of the current school year, but this year, members said they'd been busy with staff and faculty contract negotiations.

At a meeting held Dec. 5, the members decided not to use an outside search firm to find the next superintendent. Parella's contract expires in August 2008 and it is unclear if it will be renewed. Burstein was the only dissenting vote on the motion.

Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, who also serves as chair of the School Committee, said in an e-mail that she was in favor of having an outside firm search for Parella's successor, but she does not vote in committee unless there's a tie.

-- Stephanie V. Siek