Paulette Fitzgerald, the principal at Claremont Middle School, will lead Concord’s Rundlett Middle School starting next year.
The Concord school board voted unanimously Monday to appoint Fitzgerald to replace outgoing Rundlett principal Jim McCollum. She’ll be taking the helm at a school that, with just under 1,000 students, is one of the state’s largest middle schools.
Fitzgerald was recommended by a hiring committee made up of administrators, Rundlett teachers and a school board member. Superintendent Terri Forsten, who led the committee, told the school board the vote for Fitzgerald was decisive.
“It was Paulette Fitzgerald, unanimously around the table, which was fantastic to have,” Forsten said.
Sixteen candidates applied for the job, and the two finalists were Fitzgerald and Alison Bryant, the principal at Laconia Middle School. Both visited the school last week and spent a day meeting teachers, administrators, and parents and students.
The hiring process also included a tour of the finalists’ schools, and Forsten said the committee was impressed by what they saw in Claremont.
“When you walk into a school to visit, you sort of get that sense of ‘Oh – that’s kind of cool. We should take that home to Concord. And we should take that home to Concord.’ So we had some ideas.” she said. “And then we started to feel like maybe we were going to take the principal home to Concord.”
Fitzgerald is a veteran administrator, with decades of experience in New Hampshire. Prior to working at the Claremont school district, where she has been principal at the middle school since 2011, Fitzgerald spent five years as an administrator at the Merrimack Valley Learning Center and CSI Charter School, and a decade working in special education in the Jaffrey-Rindge school district.
Forsten said the Concord district wanted someone with strong experience leading a middle school.
“You look for somebody that’s really middle school-focused. And she is. She understands that to be in sixth through eighth grade. … It’s a different time in your life,” she said.
Fitzgerald’s tenure in Claremont oversaw the establishment of student advisories and a wellness committee for staff. The school also moved to a competency-based model several years ago, something Rundlett is just beginning to roll out. Fitzgerald’s experience with the new way of teaching and grading was a big plus, Forsten said.
“That was very exciting for our teachers and our parents as well,” she said.
Both school board members Jim Richards, who served on the hiring committee, and Pam Wicks, who attended meet and greets with the finalists, remarked on Fitzgerald’s ability to build rapport.
“Right away, that connection was immediate. She was very warm and welcoming,” Wicks said.
And Forsten said she liked Fitzgerald’s habit of sending a note home to parents every Sunday night about the upcoming week.
Fitzgerald has a master’s in special education from Keene State College and bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Rhode Island College.
The district is still reviewing exactly where Fitzgerald will fall within the administrators’ collective bargaining agreement, Forsten said, but her salary should be between $119,000 and $120,000. Her first day is July 1.
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 36 9-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)