Article from the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Amherst names five finalists for open elementary school principal posts Posted At : 4:24 PM Posted By : newsroomRelated Categories: Amherst, Education, News By MARY CAREYStaff Writer AMHERST A Crocker Farm Elementary School assistant principal, three Massachusetts educators and a doctoral candidate at New York University are the finalists for three elementary school principal posts within the district. All five candidates will be visiting Amherst schools and meeting with students, staff and parents as well as community members through Wednesday of this week. One or two candidates will meet with community members beginning at 6:30 p.m. each evening at the middle school. Principal posts at Crocker Farm, Wildwood and Fort River elementary schools are being filled this year, as is the principal post at the middle school. Sandra Delaney, who was in town Monday, is currently assistant director of curriculum and instruction in the Newton public schools, a position she has held since 2003. She began her career there as a language arts specialist, followed by a five-year appointment as a kindergarten through eighth-grade academic challenge coordinator. Delaney, who graduated from SUNY-Buffalo and has a master's degree from SUNY-Binghamton, has also been an elementary classroom teacher for five years. She has conducted national workshops on academic challenge and differentiation of instruction, standards-based learning and English language arts and literacy. Michael Morris, who meets with school officials, staff, students and parents today, is currently an interim assistant principal at Crocker Farm, after teaching there and at Fort River Elementary School. A graduate of Amherst College, he has a master's degree and certification in educational administration from the University of Massachusetts. Morris is the director of the Pipeline Project, a collaboration with Amherst College and the schools aimed at giving children extra social and study skills support. He has taught mathematics and language arts to special education students and taught in the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Amherst College. Catarina da Silva, who is also in town for interviews today, is a doctoral candidate at the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island and has a master's degree in reading education from Boston College. Da Silva taught for one year in the Providence public school system and for four years in Boston public schools and was literacy coordinator for four years at John Marshall Elementary School in Dorchester. Jill Pasquini-Torcia, who visits Amherst on Wednesday, has been a teacher in the Brockton schools and became the instructional resource specialist there. From 2004 to 2007, she was assistant principal of Gilmore Academy, a public school in Brockton, and has also supervised the summer academic support program there. Pasquini-Torcia graduated from Boston College and has a master's degree in literacy and language from Framingham State College and certification in educational leadership from Bridgewater State College. Ray Sharick, who will also be in town Wednesday, is current principal of Fisher Hill Elementary School in Orange. He was an elementary teacher in Vandergrift, Penn., and taught sixth- and seventh-grade at Colonial Beach Schools in Virginia. Sharick was a field coordinator and supervisor of Elementary Teacher Education at UMass and a lecturer and advisor to students entering the teaching profession. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, received a master's degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has a doctorate in education from UMass.