East Aurora School District 131 board members have moved to fill an interim superintendent post with the district’s former director of human resources.
Steve Megazzini will step into the interim superintendent role that had been filled by Marion Hoyda, who recently submitted her resignation. He is set work with the district’s other, current interim superintendent, Mark McDonald, and he will also be promoted from a director to an assistant superintendent.
Megazzini will be paid $145,000 annually plus a 20 percent bonus for duties as interim superintendent, both prorated, according to a copy of his new contract approved at a meeting Monday. He is also eligible for reimbursement for expenses.
The contract runs through June 30. If it is not extended or changed before then, Megazzini is set to become assistant superintendent of human resources when the contract ends.
He replaces Hoyda, who’s last day is set for Sept. 29. The plan had originally been for her to become a district consultant after she steps down, but that move has been put on hold until the curriculum department and a curriculum committee can better determine the district’s consulting needs, district officials have said.
Hoyda worked as a curriculum consultant for the district in 2013, and worked again in the district as a consultant shortly before she and McDonald became interim superintendents in July 2016.
Megazzini was hired under the previous superintendent in 2015, and McDonald has said he has a superintendents’ license.
McDonald has highlighted what he described as Megazzini’s empathy and decision-making skills and said he is respected. He has said Megazzini and Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Beatrice Reyes Childress have been asked to lead the district when McDonald and Hoyda have not been there.
McDonald and Hoyda are both retired, and each can work only 100 days each year before facing pension penalties.
The superintendent moves come as East Aurora board members are debating their options for leadership of the district next school year. They recently heard a presentation from a state school board association on superintendent searches, and must now decide if they want to move forward with the association’s search resources, look at other search firms, or use a combination of the two.
Some board members expressed concern that any search firm would screen out candidates the board might want to review. Some said they were concerned about the time frame for the search, and wanted to make a decision on how to proceed quickly so the search process could begin.
“Rushing this process is going to get us exactly where we got last time,” school board President Annette Johnson said. “So we need to slow this down and make sure we are really making the right decision.”
McDonald acknowledged some concerns about using a search firm, but ultimately recommended the board use one for at least some parts of the search process.
