Shaken by educator's death, officials try to fill the gap
She may have only served 11 months as superintendent, but Rosemary Joseph left an undeniable mark on the regional school district shared by Northborough and Southborough. It is one of many factors that make searching for her successor a challenge, officials say.
Members of the regional district's school boards admit they are concerned about mounting the search. Emotions are raw in the wake of Joseph's sudden death from complications of an aneurysm Tuesday afternoon.
"It is a daunting task. It took us two searches to find her," said Karen Richardson, vice chairwoman of the Northborough School Committee and a member of the Northborough-Southborough Superintendency Union No. 3. "Now here we are having to start this all over again. It was not an easy process."
The committees will begin to hammer away at the details of a superintendent search at a joint meeting on May 8, and have appointed an acting superintendent to serve the reminder of the school year.
Charles Gobron , director of curriculum and instruction, was chosen Wednesday night for the interim position. Committee members also considered Jean Bean , student support services director. Bean ran the office when Joseph was away, but the director is retiring at the end of the month.
"We have a great deal of confidence in the day-to-day operations of the district. There are no crises. It's a credit to Rosemary and Rosemary's predecessors," said Southborough School Committee chairman Paul Gaffney, also a member of the regional and superintendency committees.
Joseph, 54, began the job last May. She took over from an interim superintendent, Robert Couture after all three finalists in the regional district's first search took positions with other systems.
In her short tenure, she touched hearts and minds with her smile, strong work ethic, and desire to always put students first.
"It came across really early on in the game that being a superintendent means giving students what they need," said Patricia Montimurro , principal of Melican Middle School in Northborough. "As a person who has spent my life in education, it was great to see."
It was typical of Joseph to carve out time during her hectic workday to visit the schools and attend student events. Two weeks ago, she traveled to Boston on a Friday to watch the high school chorus and wind ensemble perform in a festival.
"She could be seen frequently in our high school passing through the halls and poking her head into classrooms," said Margaret Stebbins , chairwoman of applied arts and technology at Algonquin Regional High School and president of the school's teachers union. "Not a lot of superintendents I know of made the time to do that."
The committees will launch a superintendent search at the same time as several other districts. According to Tom Scott , executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, 25 of the 277 superintendent positions across the state are currently open. Hudson Superintendent Sheldon Berman will leave for a job in Kentucky by July 1, and Framingham Superintendent Christopher Martes was just tapped to run Foxborough's schools. Rockland is also searching for a school leader, while Weymouth and Somerville are seeking assistant superintendents.
"It's a concern for every school district because administrators are retiring faster than they are going into the career," said Shirley Lundberg, a Northborough resident and member of both the regional and superintendency committees. "We're a strong district. People want to come here. We just have to find them."
More than 96 percent of students graduating from Algonquin go on to college, and 88 percent score proficient or higher on the Grade 10 MCAS, according to district records. The school district has 4,879 students in 10 schools and an annual budget of more than a $40 million.
When hired, Joseph was praised by committee members for her quiet but firm manner and her ability to mediate disputes. A former accountant, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and a master's in education from Lesley College.
"She taught me about the role of a leader. She has a nice way of sitting down and talking with you and asking good questions that got you to the next level," said Bean, who wrote a letter about Joseph's death that was sent home to parents last week. "She taught me how to question."
Before coming to the Northborough-Southborough district, Joseph helped raise MCAS scores while working as superintendent in Harwich for three years. She served in her first superintendent job in the Central Massachusetts district of Tantasqua, where she is credited with getting five towns to build a $51 million high school.
The suddenness of her death rocked all three districts she served and her colleagues across the state.
"She was someone we would always go to for advice. She was an exceptional person, a very giving person," said Scott , who knew Joseph through her work on several association committees. Scott said his e-mail was flooded when news of her death spread through the education community.
"She's just the kind of person who wants to make a difference," he said. "That's the way she looked at the association and looked at her job."
The association plans to establish a memorial scholarship in Joseph's honor to benefit students in the three districts where she had served.
As was the case in Northborough-Southborough, Joseph was hired to run Tantasqua after the first search failed, said Michael Miller of Brimfield, a former School Committee member there and longtime friend who served with her on the local high school building committee.
"The kids loved her," Miller said, his voice breaking. "The tradition at Tantasqua graduation was the superintendent reads the names and the chairman hands out the diplomas. One year we changed that and she handed out the diplomas. It was amazing the number of kids that hugged her."
Harwich was in the middle of a fiscal crisis when Joseph was hired, School Committee chairman Tom Blute said. Budget cuts were looming, overrides had failed, and the administration was turning over at a fast rate.
"She brought a whole new energy to Harwich," he said. "She is a financial genius. She was able to really examine the budget to keep as many positions as possible."
Joseph even agreed to serve as interim principal at the elementary school for four months.
"She was happy to do it," Blute said. "She was driven and motivated by the children."
Joseph died at Brigham and Women's Hospital the day before she was scheduled to undergo surgery, after suffering the aneurysm April 7 at her West Barnstable home, friends and colleagues said.
"She was as tough as they come so you figure it's not going to take down Rosemary," said Harwich High School principal Kevin Turner , whom Joseph hired three years ago. "She was wonderful."
Her husband of 35 years, Larry Joseph, said no one thought her condition was life-threatening.
Joseph leaves two children, Leigh, 34, an English teacher at Tantasqua Regional High School; and David, 26.
"She was a great mother, a great friend to her kids and had about the kindest heart you could imagine," said Joseph, who met his wife at Bridgewater State College. "That's why she was a great superintendent, because she cared. I always liked to say she got it."
Donations to a Rosemary Joseph memorial scholarship can be sent to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents at 132 Lincoln St., Suite 6L, Boston, MA 02111. Checks should be made out to the MASS Scholarship Fund. 