The Newton School Committee named Anna Nolin, superintendent of Natick Public Schools, as the next superintendent of Newton Public Schools (NPS) during a school committee meeting on Friday. Nolin will assume the role on July 1.
“It’s such a complex job where you have to be the educational leader, the managerial leader, and a community leader,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, who is also a member of the school committee, said at the meeting. “What [Nolin] talks about with direct experience and a sound theory of the case … outcomes and data, kept surfacing in a very positive way.”
The process of finding another NPS superintendent began last April, when former NPS superintendent David Fleishman announced that he would step down from his position at the end of the 2021–22 school year.
After serving as the NPS superintendent for 12 years, Fleishman became the president and chief executive officer of Jewish Vocational Service Boston, a non-profit that provides services in career development and adult education in New England.
In June 2022, shortly after Fleishhman officially resigned, the school committee voted to approve Kathleen Smith, former superintendent of Brockton Public Schools, as interim superintendent of NPS, according to a memo from the NPS’ interim superintendent search team.
The school committee formed a search committee in October 2022 to seek out candidates for the superintendent position, which included a group of volunteers ranging from NPS administrators, educators, families, students, and members of the wider Newton community.
The school committee, the group of volunteers, and the consulting firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates spent the last few months compiling candidates.
The final two candidates—Thomas Anderson, superintendent of New Bedford Schools, and Nolin—participated in community forum interviews on Wednesday and Thursday before a final decision was made by the school committee on Friday.
“I wanna thank everyone who has—from our faculty and our staff, just looking around this room—you’ve all touched various points of this process,” Tamika Olszewski, chair of the school committee and Ward 4 school committee representative, said. “You’ve all been deeply assisting this school committee to make this decision we just made, and we appreciate you.”
