NORTHFIELD — Two area women vying for the Northfield Elementary School principal’s job will appear at community forums next week.
Megan Desmarais and Dianne Ellis are the finalists being considered to replace the retiring Tom King and the public will have an opportunity to meet them in the school cafeteria on Wednesday. Ellis is scheduled to appear at 6:30 p.m., and Desmarais at 7:15.
The principal search committee — composed of teachers, parents, students, administrators and school committee and community members — reviewed 23 applications and produced four semifinalists before Ellis and Desmarais were named finalists.
According to information from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, Desmarais started her career in public education in 1992 as an instructional assistant at Smith College Campus School in Northampton before teaching fourth grade at West Elementary School in Plymouth. She has been a fourth-grade teacher at Deerfield Elementary School for the past 18 years.
Desmarais, of South Deerfield, graduated from Bridgewater State University with a bachelor’s degree in education. She also has a master’s degree in education from Curry College in Milton and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from American International College in Springfield, with a major in school leadership.
Ellis worked as a home/school liaison at Ralph C. Mahar Regional High School in Orange in 1997, after serving in a human services position. She has also been a special education administrator at Mahar and worked at Educational Coordinator School Based Services Inc. for four years, according to the Pioneer Valley Regional School District. She was assistant principal at Bellows Falls Middle School in Vermont and for the past five years has been an elementary principal in the Athol Royalston Regional School District.
Ellis, of Turners Falls, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She also has a master’s degree in applied psychology from Antioch University New England and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in education administration from UMass Amherst.
King has worked in education for about 40 years, spending more than half of his career teaching in various elementary schools, including a seven-year stint as a sixth-grade teacher at Northfield Elementary. His final day will be June 30.