A recent editorial regarding the hiring of a new superintendent of schools in North Attleboro ("NA transition a little too fast," Aug. 14) raised some interesting issues. I would like to present my thoughts, having served on the North Attleboro School Committee for two terms and been involved with hiring Rick Smith back to North Attleboro as Middle School principal, two assistant superintendents and two superintendents.

We hired Alan Brown as assistant superintendent after a search process. When Joe McKeigue left suddenly as the school year was about to begin, the school committee was left to conduct the infamous "nationwide search" or hire from within. I called then chairman Henry McDeed and discussed with him my thoughts about skipping the "nationwide search" and offering the job to Alan Brown. I had served on the subcommittee that had recommended his hiring to the full school committee. School committee members can discuss issues personally without posting a meeting.

Mr. McDeed said my thoughts should be brought to the next meeting and be discussed by the committee. I made the motion to hire Alan and much discussion ensued. A search would have taken most if not all of the year to bring in a new person and the assistant superintendent would have been asked to act as superintendent while the search was being conducted. He could also be one of the candidates. All of these things were discussed and debated at great length.

Alan expected to be asked to fill in while the search was conducted. Instead, he was offered the full time position and he accepted the job. There were no secret meetings and all discussion was held with the entire committee in attendance. There was no disruption to the school year, no time-consuming search and no expense associated with a search. Having people ready to be promoted to the next level is a desired management practice.

When Alan was hired away from us a few years later, we were faced with the same situation. Assistant Superintendent John DeGoes agreed to act as superintendent but would not be seeking the permanent job. We then had to resort to the "nationwide search." The process lasted almost a full year. I believe we incurred about $10,000 in expenses. This is where some problems with a search can be seen. Simply stated, you can only hire someone who applies for the job. They have to want to come here. They also have to agree to work for the advertised salary. Believe me when I say that they want to start at least at the top and then some, either in the form of more cash/stipends and/or more benefits than advertised.

After a long process of review, public input, interviews, site visits and public interviews, a consensus developed for one candidate. She withdrew her name from consideration near the end of this process. We tried to make the best choice from the remaining candidates and hired Richard Hoffman. Two of the other candidates ended up locally in Foxboro and Norton. Current school committee member Tony Calcia was part of the process in his first term. Two years later, Hoffman was gone.

I completely agree with Calcia that there was no need for a "global search" to replace Rick Smith. It's also not a secret that other communities have conducted superintendent searches; this information is in the newspaper and other trade type publications.

Hopefully, the school committee had hired a capable assistant superintendent and he had been given the opportunity to learn and develop into a successor to the superintendent. Jim Rice has been here for a few years, has been evaluated and the school committee knows him and what he can do. It doesn't take secret meetings, clandestine deliberations or rocket science to know that a top replacement candidate is already in house.

School committee members can certainly have their own thoughts about personnel issues and a successor to the superintendent. Committee members certainly get to know the people working for them and have insight into their ability. Christopher Frost was perfectly within his rights to express his position and nominate Jim Rice as I did in the hiring of Alan Brown. At that point, the committee still had the option to proceed with a search had the members voted to do so. I hope that Superintendent Rice will be able to hire a capable assistant to follow him and someday become superintendent of schools.

The editorial suggests that eight months is a long time to hire a replacement. In some situations that may be true, but to go through the entire process of hiring a superintendent and getting that person on board would certainly take longer. We did that just 10 years ago.

That new person must also give notice wherever they are currently working and may have to give more than the few weeks we had when Joe McKeigue left. September is a difficult time to start a search as it is the beginning of the school year and most people are already hired and in place. The new superintendent would have to be here in March to be able to take over in April. The new superintendent will have to be up to speed on the budget for the following year which will come up for discussion at the May Annual Town Meeting.

I believe the school committee did the right thing in showing their faith in Dr. Rice and ensuring the continuity of management without suffering a year of disruption.

STEPHEN E. DAILEY JR. served on the North Attleboro School Committee 1992-1998.