Newly appointed Superintendent Jennifer Voyik (middle left) smiles as the School Committee votes to name her the schools next superintendent.
Photo credit: SHCTV15
SOUTH HADLEY — During its May 15 School Committee meeting, the committee approved the appointment of Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Voyik as the district’s next superintendent.
At a past School Committee in April, Superintendent Mark McLauglin announced this would be his final year serving in South Hadley.
Even when the School Committee voted to promote him from interim to full-time superintendent for the 2024-25 school year, School Committee Chair Eric Friesner explained the reasoning for just a one-year contract because McLaughlin “lives mighty far away.”
Through his four years, McLaughlin calculated that he has spent 3,600 hours in the car for commuting and stated, “for the sake of my family and myself, I think the time has come to seek a little bit of a different direction, so that I can have a little bit more time in my life.”
Following the announcement, the School Committee met with Massachusetts Association of School Committees Field Director Liz Lafond to discuss a superintendent search.
Friesner followed up with McLaughlin and posted the position internally. The School Committee also agreed that an informal meet and greet with potential candidates would also be a good idea.
After that meeting, South Hadley hosted three meet-and-greets with potential superintendent candidates. Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Business Operations Jennifer Voyik was the only superintendent candidate at the meet and greets.
Before the meet-and-greets, a community survey was posted about the overall superintendent search.
People at the meet and greets received a survey to give feedback about Voyik as well.
Friesner shared the survey results. Twenty-nine community members answered the general superintendent search survey. Of the 29 people, half were parents and the most were a mixture of students, educators and a few other community members.
Although there was a mix of answers, the community showed based on the choices given that the strength they are seeking the most from the next superintendent is a “experienced professional with outstanding community, interpersonal, management skills.”
The meet-and-greets attracted 25 people over the three days, according to Freisner, and there were only eight responses to the survey.
Each survey did have a favorable impression of Voyik. Friesner said, “All eight said some version of, ‘You should hire her for superintendent.’”
Strengths that were expressed by the community about Voyik included business knowledge, experience, dedication, and being pleasant and personable.
After a little discussion and hearing the survey results, the School Committee approved appointing Voyik as the next superintendent pending successful contract negotiations. She would begin serving the role on July 1.
Friesner stated, “Of all the things I’ve voted on in about three and a half years to four years, I feel like this is one where I feel really, really good about that. Part of me wants to say congratulations to Jennifer Voyik, but a bigger part of me wants to say congratulations to South Hadley.”
Voyik was appreciative of the appointment and said, “I’ve really enjoyed working in South Hadley and I want to thank you for your confidence in me and I’m really looking forward to continuing to work in the district in this different capacity.”
The School Committee also discussed filling a vacancy on their board after School Committee member Jackson Matos recently announced his resignation.
The vacancy will be filled by appointment. Anyone interested in filling the position must submit a letter of interest to Executive Assistant to Administration Kristin Maher via email at kmaher@southhadleyma.gov or through the mail to: Selectboard Office, 116 Main St., South Hadley, MA, 01075. Letters of interest and any additional documents must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 5.
Once the application deadline passes, the School Committee and Selectboard chairs will pick a date to have a joint meeting to conduct interviews with the applicants.
The appointee will serve on the School Committee until the next town election in April 2026.
Those interested in applying can do so at southhadley.org under “Community News.”
