SOUTH HADLEY — With Superintendent Mark McLaughlin poised to leave the district at the end of the school year, the School Committee has identified a front-runner to take his place in Jennifer Voyik, current assistant superintendent of finance and business operations.

“Jennifer Voyik is what I would look for regardless if we did a full superintendent search,” School Committee Chair Eric Friesner said during the committee’s May 1 meeting. “We’re looking for someone who knows the community, who is invested in our community, who is highly competent and that we’ve worked with for years. All the boxes are checked.”

Voyik has been with South Hadley schools since 2019, working her way from payroll coordinator to her current position. She oversees non-instructional aspects of the district, including finances, human resources, food service, transportation, technology and facilities. In a letter of interest for the superintendent position, Voyik said she also collaborates with the superintendent on curriculum development and serves at the Title IX coordinator.

While her background is in business, Voyik received her master’s in science of education at Wilkes University. She grew up in Holyoke and has a “deep-rooted connection to western Massachusetts,” she wrote.

“This region is my home, and I am committed to staying here and contributing to the vitality of the communities I know and love,” Voyik wrote. “South Hadley has become especially meaningful to me — through its educators, students, and families, I have seen firsthand the strength and potential of this district.”

At the April 3 School Committee meeting, McLaughin affirmed he would not continue as superintendent when his contract expires at the end of the 2024-2025 school year.

“I’ve calculated that over the nearly four years that I’ve been in South Hadley, I’ve spent just about 3,600 hours in the car commuting,” he said. “For the sake of my family and myself, I think the time has come to seek a little bit of a different direction and have a little more time in my life. I’ve never been prouder to work with any administration team that I have with this team.”

McLaughlin lives in Nashua, New Hampshire, which is roughly two hours away from South Hadley.

He came to the district as assistant superintendent of curriculum, but was promoted to acting superintendent in January 2023 after former superintendent Jamal Mosley resigned. McLaughlin signed an interim contract for the 2023-2024 school year and decided to stay another year as full-time superintendent to ensure the Mosier Elementary School Building Project moved to the eligibility phase.

During the committee’s April 7 meeting, Liz Lafond, field director of Massachusetts Association of School Committees, recommended the board first consider internal candidates who are already familiar with the district’s inner workings and students.

“I don’t know if I’m overstepping when I say why look elsewhere when you have someone in the district that has been mentored, is prepared, knows how to carry the work forward that is happening and knows the plan for the work going forward,” she said.

Not only is spring the “worst time of year” to conduct a search since most of the candidates are leftover from other searches, Lafond said, but qualified superintendent candidates are currently scarce in western Massachusetts.

“I’ve participated in assisting two districts in the past few months in hiring a superintendent,” she continued. “Those two communities decided they would in fact do full searches. It took one three months and one two and a half months, and both districts then, after putting all that time and energy into searches, hired their interim because they found out that the interims stood out far and above the other candidates that came to them.”

School Committee member Danielle Cooke noted that the district chose Mosley, an outside candidate, over an internal one the last time it replaced the school leader. Mosley left after less than a year.

“I just think the credentials speak for themselves,” committee member Daniel Vieu said on May 1. “Jennifer is an incredibly informed candidate and been part of the process for years now, and it doesn’t get better than that.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.