New Cape school head gives ‘fresh perspective’

Meredith Nadeau

Meredith Nadeau, for one, is happy the Cape Elizabeth School Board was unsuccessful in its first effort to find a new superintendent.

Nadeau, a Bowdoin College graduate who was named to the town’s top education post last week, said she saw the job listing the second time it was posted, after an initial search did not net a candidate suitable to the school board.

“I went to school in Maine, so I know what a beautiful area it is,” she said Monday. “Cape Elizabeth is a similarly sized district, and clearly has a strong value for education. It was just good fit for my family and I.”

Nadeau, 42, is now a director of instruction from the Oyster River School District in Durham, N.H. She will relocate to Maine with her husband and two young children, ages 3 and 5. Her first day on the job will be July 20.

Dr. Kenneth Murphy, former superintendent of the Yarmouth schools, will continue as interim superintendent until Nadeau takes over.

The three-year contract approved by school directors includes a base salary starting at $123,000.

That’s $10,000 more than was paid to Cape Elizabeth’s last full-time superintendent, Alan Hawkins, who retired in December.

“It’s market value,” said School Board Chairwoman Mary Townsend, referring to Nadeau’s compensation, the highest of any person on the Cape Elizabeth payroll.

According to Town Manager Michael McGovern, Cape Elizabeth has not hired a first-time superintendent since 1975.

“I like that,” he said. “I think it will give her a fresh perspective.”

Townsend chose the same phrase in her praise of Nadeau.

“I’m excited about her fresh perspective, what it can bring to the district, and how that will energize and motivate our staff, our students and even our community,” she said. “I think she’s the visionary we were looking for.”

After the initial search for Hawkins’ replacement was unsuccessful, in March, the district launched a do-over.

Both searches yielded the same number of resumes, 33, with the second batch drawing applicants from 18 states. According to Townsend, 10 finalists from the second round were interviewed for the open position, which will lead a 200-strong staff and a student enrollment of “about 1,700.”

“The pool did seem stronger the second go-round,” she said, immediately after the announcement, at an 8 a.m. special board meeting. “In terms of the process, I would say the board really took an active role in the second search. We started doing our own head-hunting, looking for districts that might have up-and-comers and rising stars.”

Nadeau, who began her career in education 18 years as a middle school language arts teacher, earned her bachelor of arts from Bowdoin and holds a master’s degree in education from the University of New Hampshire. She is a doctoral candidate at Boston University. Although details have not been finalized, she said, tuition reimbursement similar to that provided for other Cape school employees is anticipated.

Nadeau says she is on the career path she predicted in an interview for her first teaching job, when asked where she saw herself in five, 10 and 15 years.

Nadeau answered that she hoped to have earned her master’s degree within five years, and be working in special education, which she did, and that she wanted to be an administrator by year 10. She met that goal as well, spending a total of eight years at the elementary level, as both a K-4 assistant principal and a K-6 principal.

She has been in her current position in Durham, N.H., since 2008, where, in addition to director of instruction, she wears hats as director of special education, data assessment, humanities curriculum and professional development.

“Every time I have made a change in my career, I have felt as if I am as prepared for it as I can be,” she said. “You’re never totally prepared for everything, but I’ve worked in education for a long time and I’m excited about the transition.

“I hope that people will feel comfortable stopping into the [central] office and introducing themselves,” said Nadeau. “One of the great benefits of working in a relatively small district is that you do have the opportunity to meet people and hear from them first hand.”

“She’s very energetic,” said Townsend. “Her intelligence is extraordinary. She motivates others by being so highly motivated herself.”

“Meredith Nadeau has the credentials and experience for the position," said the search committee co-chairman, Michael Moore, who, with fellow School Board member Mary Williams-Hewitt, conducted a site visit of Nadeau’s New Hampshire district.

“The visit confirmed her commitment to student learning,” said Moore. “She has a very clear philosophy of who and what the schools are here for. It was refreshing that this was a consistent theme no matter who we spoke to.

“She generated remarkably consistent and extremely positive feedback – both from those who've known her for years and those in our district who've met her as part of the search process,” said Moore, who went on the cite Nadeau’s “inner calm.”

“She has fantastic interpersonal skills,” he said. “She doesn’t get ruffled. I think part of that reflects her experience in special education.”

“I’m not prone to panic,” said Nadeau. “What I love about education is that most every problem has a solution, and usually multiple solutions. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to get there.”