Four finalists have been announced to replace Meg Mayo-Brown as superintendent of the Barnstable Public Schools.
One is from Cape Cod: Scott Carpenter, superintendent of the Monomoy Regional School District.
The others are Sara Ahern, superintendent of the Franklin Public Schools; June Saba-Maguire, chief academic officer in the Brockton Public Schools; and a candidate from Vermont, David Younce, superintendent of the Mill River Unified Union School District.
Mayo-Brown did not seek a new contract.
Nineteen people applied, according to a statement by the Barnstable School Committee and Superintendent Search Subcommittee. The subcommittee interviewed seven candidates.
The four finalists will interview in public, with the School Committee, in January.
Mayo-Brown’s future with the district has been uncertain for some time.
Eighteen months ago, the School Committee had the option to extend her contract for another year, until 2023. The committee voted 3-2 not to do so, meaning she would have to negotiate a new contract this year, but that never came to pass.
A few months after the School Committee vote, in September of 2020, Mayo-Brown made the controversial decision to suspend Patrick Clark, principal of Barnstable High School and a 1990 graduate of the school.
Mayo-Brown never disclosed her reasons, but Clark’s handling of the return to school during the pandemic made some families unhappy. The start of school was delayed at the last minute, and the class schedule wasn’t done on time.
Clark had many supporters who picketed the school and posted lawn signs around town. The suspension continued until December of 2020, when he resigned.
This June, Mayo-Brown announced she would leave at the end of the school year. She told the Cape Cod Times that the “challenges of the pandemic” did not factor into her decision to leave.
The proposed Innovators Charter School has named her executive director, if the school is allowed to open. It has applied for a charter from the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. The school would be located in Fall River or New Bedford.
