Littleton School Committee Interviews First Superintendent Finalist in Public Session

LITTLETON — March 30, 2026 — Littleton School Committee opens final superintendent interviews, questioning Ayer Shirley administrator Charles Cleary. The committee convened March 30 in the Multipurpose Room at the Center on Shattuck for the first of two consecutive evenings of finalist interviews, with Chair Justin McCarthy, Vice Chair Binal Patel, Clerk Elaine Santelmann, and members Jeanine Wood and Sean Aherne each assigned specific questions from a 14-item prepared list. Cleary, who has served as assistant superintendent of the Ayer Shirley Regional School District for eight years and who defended his doctoral dissertation the week prior, fielded questions on community engagement strategy, budget cutting, SEL integration, crisis communications, and staff recruitment, citing programs including OpenSciEd, BRIGHT, and a Cartwheel virtual counseling partnership as examples of his administrative work. He told the committee directly that he lacks prior superintendent experience, invoking a story about his first teaching principal who called him a "high risk, high gain candidate." A second finalist interview was scheduled for March 31; no votes were taken.