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NATICK – Natick Superintendent of Schools Anna Nolin said the leadership team interviewed 11 candidates as part of the search process for a Principal at Kennedy Middle School.

 Kennedy Middle School Principal Andy Zitoli announced he will be retiring at the end of this school year.

Supt. Nolin said “eight qualified and diverse candidates will be moved ahead to the panel interviews.”

The panel is composed of Kennedy Middle parents, building staff, central office staff and Natick School Committee member Matt Brand.

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“In the applicant pool we had a mix of men and women, two Hispanic candidates, three candidates with a language other than English as their first language, two Black candidates, three STEM educators, two digital learning coaches, and one cross trainer / athletic competitor,” said Nolin to parents in an email tonight, March 5.

“All candidates are former teachers. This is a STRONG (STRONG) pool, wrote Supt. Nolin.

“I commend our human resources director, Ms. Davis, and our communications director, Ms. Maryland, for their recruitment efforts and for helping us to live our goals of hiring a more diverse staff for our system. Our directors will also begin our hiring committee work with an anti-bias training for committee members,” said Nolin in her email.

Superintendent Nolin wrote she met “with 41 grade 5/6 KMS students and 25 grade 7/8 this week to hear about their ideas about their new principal and thoughts on school re-opening. They sounded a lot like their parents relative to the KMS Principal. Mr. Zitoli has made a warm and loving impression on all and will be hard to replace.” 

“As for school reopening, the kids like the small class sizes, want to get back to clubs and hanging out but are worried they are being “thrown” back in and there’s no vaccine for them. The fear was real, but so was the desire to please their parents and see their friends,” wrote Nolin to parents.

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By editor

Susan Petroni is the former editor for SOURCE. She is the founder of the former news site, which as of May 1, 2023, is now a self-publishing community bulletin board. The website no longer has a journalist but a webmaster.