The Haverhill School Committee is set to conduct public interviews Thursday of the three finalists for the open position of assistant superintendent of schools for finance and operations. The Committee seeks to select a single finalist that same night.
These public interviews come after a screening committee Monday completed interviews of five applicants for the opening on the School Committee. These five were culled from an original pool of 19 applicants.
Up for the job is Peter H. Gray, director of finances for Natick Public Schools. Gray has served as assistant superintendent of schools for Hamilton-Wenham as well as Carver. Gray said, “Haverhill Public Schools will offer (a) challenge.” Gray received a doctor of education degree from University of New England and serves as adjunct professor of leadership and accounting at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
The second candidate is Ian P. Gosselin, who currently serves as the school business administrator for the Methuen Public School System and previously held positions on the Methuen School Committee and on the executive board of the Lawrence Teacher’s Union. Gosselin has a background in both regular and special education and has served as principal or headmaster for pre-k to eighth, middle and high schools. Gosselin claims experience in increasing “staff proficiency and efficiency.”
Michael J. Pfifferling, who currently serves as the school business administrator for Wakefield Public Schools, is the final of the three candidates. During his six-and-a-half-year tenure, he oversaw construction of a middle school building and assisted in the opening of the Early Childhood Center at Doyle School and the Purposeful Opportunities for Successful Transitions Academy in Wakefield for older special education students. Pfifferling emphasized his “fiscal transparency and solid core values.”
The School Committee has been on the hunt for a candidate since Brian O’Connell stepped down under pressure at the end of January and following the recent failure to successfully negotiate a contract with Maria Silva.