Bangor school chief search in full swing

BANGOR – Members of the school committee are firming up plans for finding the city’s next superintendent of schools.

Their search began a few months after the current superintendent, Robert “Sandy” Ervin announced plans in July to retire the next July.

At the time, Ervin said he wanted to give the school committee a year’s notice to help make the transition to his successor “as smooth as possible.”

During a workshop Wednesday at City Hall, committee members led by Chairwoman Phyllis Guerette were briefed on the status of the search, reviewed the timeline for getting the new superintendent on board and considered some of the qualifications and attributes they want that person to have.

The position has been advertised both in Maine and nationally in a number of newspapers and education publications, Guerette said Wednesday during a workshop at City Hall. The application deadline is Jan. 31.

She said the committee has hired the Maine School Management Association to process applications and handle preliminary screenings.

Key dates in the search process include:

. Feb. 15: Semifinalists will be selected.

. Week of March 3: First round of interviews with semifinalists.

. Week of March 17: Second round of interviews with top candidates.

. April 4: School committee’s target date for announcing its top choice.

To help get a feel for what the broader community wants, they also have provided a survey on the school system’s Web site, found at www.bangorschools.net. The survey period began Jan. 11 and winds up Friday. To take the survey, click on the “Welcome” and then “School Committee” icons, where a link to the survey appears.

Paper copies of the survey are available at City Hall and the Bangor Public Library.

Ervin became superintendent of Bangor public schools on July 1, 2000, after having served a decade as assistant superintendent.

He and his wife, Julie, who teaches at Vine Street School, have three adult children, two working in Boston and one in Washington, D.C.

A Waterville native, Ervin attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and then graduated from Bowdoin College with a bachelor’s degree in 1969.

He earned two master’s degrees at the University of Michigan, one in education administration and the other in natural resources. He also holds a doctorate in education administration from the University of Maine.

Ervin’s nearly four-decade career in education began in 1969 when he landed his first teaching job at Bangor High School. After teaching for two years, he became the high school’s environmental education coordinator for four years.

He then became principal for six years of the Rose M. Gaffney School in Machias, and in 1983, superintendent of three separate school districts: SAD 63 (Holden area), the Airline CSD (Aurora area), and Dedham. In 1990, he became the assistant superintendent of Bangor schools.