Attleboro School Committee Chooses Kenneth Sheehan for Superintendent

The Attleboro School Committee voted 7-2 with William Larson and Christopher O'Neil against, to appoint Kenneth Sheehan to the position of superintendent of Attleboro public schools on Tuesday.

The appointment is dependent on successful contract negotiations.

The committee had a long discussion deciding on what exactly they wanted in a superintendent, and it appeared confidence, budget experience and willingness to collaborate were the skills they believed Sheehan had. Committee vice chair Brenda Furtado said she was impressed with his focus on helping to build a full person, and not be completely concerned with test scores.

“Kids need to be well-rounded and that is part of their education,” she said.

She added she saw that intention in Sheehan when she visited the West Warwick School District, Sheehan’s current district, and saw what he had done with yearly declining revenue.

“There was a production going on,” she said.  “I said how did you get the funds you don’t have for this production?' He said what funds? He said he worked with area schools to get a grant from the YMCA. That’s how he maintains the arts and music. That’s a big thing for me.”

Committee members agreed though Sheehan’s 39 years of experience in education was a factor for their decision, but Chair Michael Tyler said he feels Sheehan’s work with teacher unions was huge.

“He really supported the teachers and the staff,” he said. “He sits at the table for unions. He sits there and he lays it all out and says this is what we need to do. This is more important when you’re talking about West Warwick, which had a spending cut of $10 million over four years.”

O’Neil, who voted against, said he felt Sheehan was a little too overconfident during the interview process.

“He came across as authoritarian,” he said. “I can’t see that working out well for us here at all. I suspect that we’re going to see real personality conflicts and problems resulting from them when we get into the nitty gritty of running the school system with Mr. Sheehan.”

Committee member David Murphy said he wasn’t sure about either candidate, but felt Sheehan was the best choice.

“I have significant reservations about both candidates,” he said. “Sheehan is qualified, he is a viable candidate to lead the Attleboro school system. But throughout the extensive superintendent search proves, I don’t think any of our goals was mere viability. One of the reservations ,I had over the last couple of weeks is will this selection be acceptable or exceptional. I hope that the candidate would be exceptional. I do think our school system and all school systems in the area are at a very critical juncture, where either progress will be made at a rapid pace or the districts will regress.”