Article from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, March 1, 2008

Interviews, background checks done for five Amherst finalists By MARY CAREY Staff Writer Saturday, March 1, 2008 AMHERST - Five finalists for three elementary school principal posts each put in 12-hour days this week, meeting with administrators, teachers, and more than 100 parents and students. Next week Superintendent Jere Hochman expects to offer three of them a job. The week's series of meetings with 30 or more parents from each of the three elementary schools - Crocker Farm, Fort River and Wildwood - was among the last "puzzle piece(s) of a much larger puzzle," Hochman told Fort River parents after their final meeting with candidate Jill Pasquini-Torcia on Wednesday. "The numbers of people that showed up, the seriousness with which they took the process and the thoughtfulness of the questions show how much people value education in this town," said Wildwood parent Mary Kiely. Background checks of all the candidates have been done, with further checks to be done of the three candidates to whom Hochman offers a post, he said. Finalists are Sandra Delaney, a Newton schools administrator; Michael Morris, current assistant principal at Crocker Farm; Pasquini-Torcia, who has been a teacher and administrator in Brockton; Ray Sharick, current principal of Fisher Hill Elementary School in Orange; and Catarina da Silva, a doctoral candidate at New York University. Pasquini-Torcia, an Easthampton native, and da Silva are also finalists for the principal post at Mosier Elementary School in South Hadley. Delaney said she finds the Amherst schools appealing because they have the diversity of some inner city schools but are relatively small. "When times are tough, you work together," said Delaney, who repeatedly stressed that she favors collaborative teaching methods. Sharick, who lives in Amherst and has a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, said he has been impressed with the education his children are receiving in Amherst. "I really want to take off the gloves and get into professional development," he said. Morris, an Amherst College alumnus, hopes to continue projects he is supervising at Crocker Farm matching children with students from the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College. Da Silva, who speaks Portuguese, Cape Verdean and Spanish and was a literacy coordinator in Dorchester, said , wants to put into practice the theory she has learned at NYU. Pasquini-Torcia said she wouldn't try to turn any of the school "upside down," but would lead them forward, using the experience she gained in Brockton schools as a teacher and assistant principal