Superintendent Thad King, Winchendon school district to part ways
The search will soon begin for a new superintendent of schools in Winchendon.
Thaddeus King, who served as superintendent of the district for the past year and was previously interim superintendent for six months, will end his tenure in the position effective July 31, according to an announcement from the Winchendon School Committee.
The decision to separate was a mutual one between King and the district, according to the July 14 announcement.
In May, King was a finalist for the position of interim superintendent of public schools in Billerica but was not selected for the job.
“We would like to thank Mr. King for his contributions to our school district as superintendent, interim superintendent and in his former capacity as high school principal, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic,” said Committee Chair Ryan Forsythe.
An email to King seeing comment for this article was not returned.
Search for interim superintendent to begin soon
The School Committee would soon begin the search for a new superintendent and would appoint an interim superintendent to manage the day-to-day operations in the meantime, according to the statement.
King is leaving the district during a time when many parents, students and educators were expressing concerns about the direction of the public school system in Winchendon. At a School Committee meeting in May, several residents told board members that their main issues included the alarming number of teachers and administrators leaving the district, an unwelcomed (and since paused) reorganization plan, and a general lack of transparency between school officials and parents.
More: Parents, educators concerned about revolving door of administrators and teachers in Winchendon
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School committee shakeup
King is not the only one leaving the district effective July 31. School Committee member Alicia Jordan’s tenure will also end on that date.
“I accepted a job at another school and am moving out of Massachusetts,” Jordan said. “Therefore, I am ineligible to continue on the School Committee.”
Among those who had spoken up at previous meetings about his concerns about the turnover of staff in the district was Anthony Findley, a longtime district track coach who is a Murdock alum with children in the school system. Findley was appointed to fill Jordan’s vacant position effective Aug. 1 during a joint meeting between the school committee and the select board last week.
“As a member of the School Committee, I very much hope to help get some sort of stability and stop the revolving door from spinning as quickly as it has been these past few years,” Findley said. “I am hopeful that teachers that want to teach at Murdock do and do so for many years as well.”
More: Murdock Middle School principal on leave since February - petition seeks her reinstatement
Parent and teacher concerns
At past meetings, Findley has spoken highly of Jessica Vezina, the Murdock Middle School principal who has been on personal leave since February with no clear timeline for her return communicated by school officials.
“As this is a personnel matter, I am not at liberty to comment on additional details,” said King in May.
A group of concerned parents, led by Ashley Kheti, began a Change.org petition to better communicate to members of the school committee that their group did not feel King was being truthful about the situation.
"I feel that the petition was effective in bringing awareness to the community about the wrongdoings to Jess Vezina, and I believe it gained the attention of some school board members and led them to want to investigate and get to the bottom of what really happened," Kheti said.
James Mercier, who taught music at Memorial Elementary School for nine months, told members of the school committee during a May 18 meeting that his contract had not been renewed for next year, despite the progress he had made with the school’s music program during his tenure. Mercier suggested that the reason his contract was not being renewed had to do with personal – and not professional – reasons on the part of King.
“I am simply not what Thad King is looking for in an educator – and there is something wrong with that,” Mercier said at the time. “In the absence of failure on my part, I suggest to you that the failure is his.”
School Committee member Karen Kast-McBride, while wishing King and Jordan well in their future endeavors, said she was optimistic that the changes to the board would be a positive change for the district.
"I'm hopeful that we will have a more energized board going forward," she said.
This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Winchendon School Committee: Superintendent Thaddeus King leaving
