AMHERST — A Northampton elementary school teacher is among four finalists being interviewed this week to become the next principal at Fort River Elementary School.
Sadie Cora, who has taught third and fourth grades at Jackson Street Elementary School for the past eight years, is joined as a candidate for the position by Laura Tiktin Sharick, an assistant principal in Brooklyn, New York; Lori Robinson, a teacher and administrator in the Springfield public schools; and Siby Adina, an elementary curriculum coordinator at a Worcester charter school.
The candidates’ interviews with Assistant Superintendent Doreen Cunningham, one a day through Thursday this week, are being broadcast live and recorded on ARPSTube, the public schools’ YouTube channel.
In January, Fort River Principal Diane Chamberlain and Assistant Principal Renee Greenfield announced they would be leaving July 1.
Adina, who did her student teaching at Crocker Farm School and is a Mount Holyoke College graduate, is the elementary curriculum coordinator at Abby Kelley Foster Charter School. She is fluent in English and Malayalam, and a biography provided by the schools states she would create “an environment where every student can learn and thrive through collaboration and partnerships.”
Robinson, a University of Massachusetts graduate whose formative years were spent in Jamaica, Queens, New York, has been a teacher and administrator for 25 years. She expects “to incorporate my social justice lens by assuring equity for all students, faculty, staff and parents,” according to her biography.
Tiktin Sharick’s background includes 15 years of teaching and administration for the New York City Department of Education and serving as assistant principal at P.S. 24, a preschool through fifth grade public school. She would bring an “authentic collaboration among children and adults as a critical way to create dynamic teaching and learning communities, and to eliminate the inequities of public education.”
Cora interned at Fort River while earning her master’s degree in education and also was as a long-term substitute in English as a Second Language and Spanish. She describes herself as “committed to bravely addressing issues of justice and equity in order to ensure a learning community that affirms every student.”
Parents and guardians are invited to send comments and feedback to Cunningham at CunninghamD@arps.org by May 5 at 6 p.m.
