Tim Herbert, the current interim superintendent of the Concord School District, has been selected as the sole finalist for the permanent role.
“As a board and a community, we have had the benefit of working with and watching Dr. Herbert in action for the past 5 months as we all navigated a sudden transition and a number of significant challenges,” Board President Pam Walsh wrote in a message to families and staff on Tuesday.
Herbert, who had been the principal at Concord High School for two years, was named the acting superintendent last August after then-Superintendent Kathleen Murphy took a medical leave of absence. She passed away two weeks later.
Murphy announced last winter that she would leave the district at the end of this school year, and the school board set aside money to hire a search firm for the hiring process.
The events of the school year, however, changed those plans. The district did not engage a search firm or spend the $30,000 initially set aside for that purpose. It was taken out of the district budget it October.
“We decided this would make the most sense for where we were at the moment,” Walsh said Wednesday. “Including with dollars.”
A job posting was open for about a month this fall, Walsh said, and a hiring committee interviewed three applicants. A fourth withdrew before the interview stage of the process. Walsh declined to share details about other candidates, including whether they had been from outside the district.
On an interim basis, Christa McAuliffe School Principal Kris Gallo has stepped into Herbert’s position at Concord High.
Gallo “always had plans to retire from Christa McAuliffe this year,” Walsh said, and had informed the district of that plan before Murphy passed away. A search process is already underway for a new principal at the downtown elementary school, and another will begin for the high school principal job.
Gallo said she hasn’t made up her mind about her plans for next year.
“I’m just focusing on my current work at the high school right now and really enjoying it,” she said in an email.
Herbert came to Concord as an assistant principal at the high school in 2019 and served as principal starting in the fall of 2023. He began his career in education in 2007 as a special education teacher before serving as an assistant principal at Pembroke Academy. He holds a current superintendent’s certification and a doctorate of education, the announcement stated.
Members of the public are invited to meet with Herbert on Jan. 27 at the high school library. Concord’s Board of Education will vote on the selection at its Feb. 2 meeting.