21 March—This is the press release disseminated by the paid messenger service on behalf of the Region 20 Board of Education announcing the region’s new superintendent.

Trigger warning: The release doesn’t say anything about the new super’s tight fiscal fists. But evidently he cut $3.2 million—32 teaching jobs—in Southbridge, Massachusetts, a city of about 18,000. (The four towns in Region 20 have a total population of about 15,000.) Not to be construed as a criticism of the new super, but one wonders why he didn’t cut administrators and/or (other) frivolities.

Dr. Villars demonstrated his tact and political prowess last night: “This will be a challenge, but it’s one of the things I found attractive about the job. The finances, even though they are a big deal, are being addressed in a collegial way by the board and I found that attractive too. This is clearly a group of people who care and are trying to work through a difficult situation.”

Of course, boards and other affinity groups do tend to circle their wagons. But Jeff is quite right. Because they have no choice.

We take Jeff at his word that he looks forward “to working collaboratively and transparently [editorial emphasis] with the entire community to build a strong and prosperous Regional School District.” That would be a nice change. But why did he leave out economically?

You can find fuller coverage of the new Region 20 superintendent, including lots of pictures, on Litchfield.bz . . .