The Williamstown-Lanesborough public school system has hired a new superintendent who is set to take over this summer.Doug Dias expects to take the reins of the Tri-District July 1. The district includes Williamstown and Lanesborough Elementary schools as well as the Mt. Greylock Regional School District. Currently principal of Medway High School in eastern Massachusetts, Dias previously spent five years as Canton High School’s principal. He was also in the running for superintendent spots in the West Springfield and Pioneer Valley school districts.
“I visited it, I did the research and found it to be a wonderful learning environment – one that I would want my own children to attend to be honest with you,” Dias said. “There are so many good things happening there in both communities. The commitment to education. On my site visit when I was there people were constantly children and children learning. I couldn’t come up with a reason why I would not want to be there.”
Dias will take over for Gordon Noseworthy, who was brought in on an interim basis in January. A month earlier, Rose Ellis retired after roughly four years leading the Tri-District and 15 years working with its schools. Ellis spoke with WAMC News in August.
“I feel that my schools are strong, they’re solid, capable of taking on the challenges ahead and I know there will be challenges,” Ellis said. “But there’s been opportunity to strengthen the schools and that has been gratifying.”
The Tri-District was created in 2010 with Ellis at the helm overseeing more than 240 faculty and staff and more than 1,200 students. The schools share administrative offices and services, but still have separate committees and governing bodies.
The district conducted an initial search in the fall that turned up about six applicants so another search was held in the spring with about a dozen people applying. Mt. Greylock School Committee Chair Carrie Greene says Dias was well-received by parents, students and staff during visits to the schools.
“It was clear that he was going to be a good fit for the Tri-District,” Greene said. “He was really interested in our challenges as well as our successes. Our challenge of regionalization, fully regionalizing preK-12, the building project for the Mt. Greylock Middle and High School, the relationship between the two towns and even the question of whether the Tri-District should remain a Tri-District. He was very responsive to all of those issues that we’ve been grappling with over the last few years.”
Dias holds a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Maritime Academy in marine engineering and a master’s degree in educational administration from UMass Boston. He also earned master’s degrees from Boston College in teaching and physics. His doctorate in educational leadership is also from Boston College. Poised to begin his first superintendent post, Dias says he wants to learn as much as he can as soon as he can without imposing himself on the district at the end of the school year.
“Having three distinctive school committees at times it might be a challenge, but I find it one I’m looking forward to in some ways,” Dias said. “To learn more about how each one of them is different and keeps that individuality in many ways.”
Dias is to be paid $150,000 in the first year of a three-year contract. Rates for the following years are to be negotiated.
