WILBRAHAM — After an exhaustive search, the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee authorized Superintendent John Provost to hire Douglas Slaughter to be the district’s new assistant superintendent of Finance, Operations and Human Resources.
After Aaron Osborne, who had been in the assistant superintendent role since 2020, left the district, a search committee was formed and there were seven applicants. Two candidates were recommended for interview by the entire committee, Slaughter and William Metzger. Prior to the interviews, however, Metzger withdrew his name from consideration.
Several members of the School Committee said they were pleased with the variety of experience under Slaughter’s belt. He has been the finance director in the Amherst Pelham Regional and Public School District and has served as the acting superintendent of the district twice. Previously, he was the school district’s director of information systems. Slaughter also has experience in municipal government, serving on Amherst’s Finance Committee, Select Board and Capital Planning Committee. Building on that background, Slaughter told the School Committee that he “understood the constraints and concerns of the regional school district.”
The School Committee took turns asking Slaughter questions. School Committee member Timothy Collins asked Slaughter about his process for building a budget and how he would “sell it” to the School Committee and the towns. Beginning with a forecast and level service budget, Slaughter said he would match it against the resources, while maintaining a contingency for unforeseen circumstances. “There’s a balancing act” when presenting the budget to the towns, he said, adding that sometimes, crafting a budget that everyone can accept requires finding “creative” solutions while upfront with the reasoning behind financial decisions.
School Committee member Michael Tirabassi asked how Slaughter would handle not having all the needed information, such as state aid figures, when building the budget.
Slaughter said it can be “challenging” when all the figures are not known in time for the budget process. He said he would need to present estimates in areas where that is possible, while continuing dialog and being “open and honest” about which figures are firm, and which are best guesses based on the given information.
Building on Tirabassi’s question, School Committee member Sean Kennedy later told Slaughter that Minnechaug Regional High School has capital needs that are “coming due.” Owned by the district, the financial responsibility for the building is split between the towns in keeping with the regional agreement. “With good communication, we’re going to get transparency. With transparency, we’re going to get trust, and a lot of that’s on your shoulders,” Kennedy said, adding that inaccurate numbers are “the first place trust can erode.”
Slaughter responded, “You have to be careful about putting a number out. The first one you put out is an anchor and it sets the conversation in a way that you may not be able to move it.” He said that he considers, “What are the best numbers we can put out that I understand, that I can defend, that I can describe and generally, I want to make mistakes in ways that work for our favor over time.” He also reiterated, “The dialog needs to be frank and well-informed.”
Slaughter expressed an understanding of the gravity and impact that finance and operations mistakes can have on the school district. “When you start missing things that, in the $50-, $60-, $70 [thousand], it starts being a person’s job. It starts being whether you offer or don’t offer a section in high school of something.”
When School Committee member Sherrill Caruana asked Slaughter about listening to the public, he said communication is “a critical part of the work” and added, “I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas.” He said that the School Committee and the superintendent make the decisions for the district, but not being “defensive” or telling people why something cannot be done is important. He said he would need to “be open” and “honest about what you are trying to understand.”
With technology having an increasingly robust role in schools, School Committee member Richard Rediker asked Slaughter what he felt technology’s role should be in education. “Technology is not always the solution to some problems. Sometimes, it can be,” Slaughter said. He added that it can be integrated at all levels of education. Noting young people are “digital natives,” he said that because they are self-taught, their level of knowledge is not always even, nor is their understanding of the dangers of the internet. He said educators need to “level that playing field” and “make sure to build the skills they need and savvy that they need.”
During the deliberation, Kennedy, who had been part of the search committee, acknowledged all the “amazing” candidates for the role before saying Slaughter had “good answers” and a “solid” resume. Similarly, Tirabassi said he was “impressed with what I saw today.”
Collins asked Provost for his input, as the superintendent works closely with the position Slaughter was pursuing. Provost expressed an approval of Slaughter as a candidate and said he seemed authentic to reflect how his references described him. Caruana said he seemed to be a “well-rounded” person “who enjoy[s] life.” School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau also said he felt “authentic and honest.” He was pleased with his variety of experience, history with a regional school district and familiarity with municipal finance.
The district has entered into negotiations with Slaughter.
