Swansea meets three school superintendent candidates. Here's what they had to say.

SWANSEA — With three days before the School Committee conducts final interviews and selects the next superintendent of schools, the three finalists gathered at the Mark G. Hoyle School on Monday night for a community night question-answering forum.

The format featured the three candidates — Robert Silveira, Craig Levis and Scott Holcomb — and three meeting rooms. One room was for families/community members, another for school staff, and the third for students. The candidates individually rotated from room to room, with each session lasting 25 minutes.

This report was based on the three sessions in the families/community room.

This event served not only as an informational session for members of all three groups but also as a vehicle for citizen input. On Thursday at the police station, the School Committee will meet to conduct the final interviews for the candidates and then to select, by majority vote, the next superintendent.

While there will be no public input at Thursday's meeting, attendees at Monday's forum were given a QR code by which they can send their input, via the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, to the Swansea School Committee committee in advance of Thursday's meeting.

Current Superintendent John Robidoux announced on Oct. 30 that he would not seek to renew his contract, which expires on June 30. He cited a difficulty in working with the School Committee.

Meet the candidates: Swansea is hiring a new superintendent. Here are their bios.

Robert Silveira: Ready to move beyond principal job

In opening remarks, Silveira, the Case Junior High School principal, explained why he is pursing the superintendent position. “It's time for me,” he said, adding that he feels he can do good “beyond the walls of Joseph Case High School.”

He said principals in the town school system visit other schools, giving him knowledge of the system as a whole. He said he pays close attention to Swansea public school issues, including transportation and school building projects, beyond those affecting the junior high school.

Asked to offer his top three priorities if selected as superintendent, Silveira said bringing unity back to the school department, intensifying focus on safety and security, and improving student reading proficiency at the elementary and junior high levels. On the reading, he said, “We're not tracking as well as we can.”

Before becoming junior high principal, Silveira was the assistant principal. Before moving into administration, he taught science in Swansea and then at Tiverton High School.

“I want to return trust to the position of superintendent,” Silveira said.

Craig Levis: Swansea schools need a strong brand

Levis, 62, an educational consultant, was asked how long he could be expected to stay on as superintendent if he is selected. The former superintendent in Coventry, Rhode Island, Levis said he stepped down from that position and went into consulting to help care for his mother, who was suffering from dementia.

“I'm in a different place now,” he said, adding that he anticipates working until he's “68 to 72.”

Levis said he's a recovered alcoholic who has been sober “a long time.” He said that in recovery, he learned a very important life lesson in not being self-focused that would serve him well as Swansea superintendent.

“When I turn my attention somewhere else, a miracle happens,” he said.

Levis talked about how during his tenure as Coventry superintendent, he worked with businesses and corporations, creating pathways for graduates who may not be taking college route. He said Coventry students could earn cybersecurity certificates that could give them $60,000 jobs right out of high school. “There are 400,000 unfilled (cybersecurity) jobs in the United States,” he said.

He said the school system must create a strong brand. “What do we excel in? What are we proud of?” he said. “Based on the data, we're in the middle. … When you're in the middle, it's easy to become complacent. … How do we push ourselves forward?”

Robidoux declines contract renewal: Swansea's superintendent of schools plans to leave after this school year

Scott Holcomb: Assess everyone's goals, then create an improvement plan

Principal at Taunton High School since 2021, the 6-foot-7 Holcomb, a Bishop Feehan High School graduate, previously was superintendent in North Attleboro from 2017 to 2021 and assistant superintendent there from 2014 to 2017. He began his career in education as a science teacher at Bellingham High School, where he taught grades 7 to 12, head-coached freshman and junior varsity football though he had never before played or coached the sport, and was girls' basketball head coach at age 27.

He said he spent this past Saturday “cruising around” Swansea. He made a stop at the regionally famous Continent Bakery and was amazed when what he thought was a $100 shopping spree resulted in a bill of only $42. Based on what he saw and heard, he said, Swansea is a community of people that take care of each other.

Among his top priorities if selected as superintendent, Holcomb listed a “district improvement plan lining up with school improvement plans lining up with administrators' and teachers' goals.”

He said he would give special education a whole-tiered assessment, making sure it claims everything it can when seeking state funding.

Holcomb said he would immediately implement a 90-day entry plan that would include seeing “what the community sees as priorities.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: 3 up for Swansea school superintendent job; forum hears pitches