Doug Slaughter Appointed Interim School Superintendent

Jennifer Shiao’s School Committee Blog

Editor’s note: . Jennifer Shiao is a member of the Amherst School Committee. Her original posts can be found here.  An archive of her blog posts in The Indy can be found here.

ARPS Finance Director Doug Slaughter was appointed Interim School Superintendent, at last night’s joint meeting of the Regional and Union 26 School Committees. The appointment is effective September 1, 2023 and is backfilling Michael Morris who separated from the districts as of August 31, 2023.

The committees’ intention is to have Doug serve as interim superintendent for the 23-24 school year, while the committees implement a search for a permanent superintendent.

The votes to appoint Doug interim superintendent, to lower his compensation from the proposed $173,611.10 annualized salary to $170,000, and to approve his contract, were all unanimous.

Doug is now on an unpaid leave of absence from his finance director role, while he serves as interim superintendent. The committees and Doug will next need to determine how to backfill his finance director responsibilities.

This is the second time Doug has been appointed to fill the superintendent role. In May, he was appointed acting superintendent while the superintendent was on medical leave.

*For a refresher on the various school committees, see my previous blog post Amherst has two school committees?

This blog reflects my own views about the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committees – it does not represent the view of the committees, the district, or the superintendent. This blog complies with Open Meeting Law, as long as a quorum of School Committee members do not engage in deliberations in the comments. Comments are welcome. I may respond to comments, but I will not respond to all comments. Sign up here using the “follow blog via email” form to be notified when I post a new entry.  You can email me at jennifer@jenniferamherst.org.