Norton Finalizes Superintendent Choice Contract

The Norton School Committee and Joseph Baeta signed Baeta’s contract to be the new permanent schools superintendent.

“He was the best candidate of the choices,” school committee chair Andrew Mackie said. “We’re very happy we found the right person.”

The school committee chose Baeta unanimously over several other candidates earlier in January. The results were still up in the air because in November, the committee had chosen a candidate but contract negotiations had fallen through.

Now, Baeta is the permanent superintendent for Norton’s district.

During the search, Baeta said he wanted to start improving Norton’s academic standing as a district, and he said he wanted to start at the beginning by trying to implement a full-day kindergarten program and implement more technology in the schools.

“Do we want a grad requirement of an online class?” he said. ”They’re seeing that during their college education and beyond... We should be using data to define how we’re going to use our educational system.”

Mackie said during the search that Baeta’s defining moment for him he was the variety of experience he had.

“He really reflected on the variety of the experience he had and how it formed who he is today,” Mackie said. “I think in the end that his sitting experience as a superintendent ends up making him stand out. The bottom line is we heard him reflect and talk about issues that we think about and talk about in a very specific way. He’s right in the same wavelength and he’s thinking about the same things.”

Baeta had worked as a superintendent for the Holbrook school district. He has also worked as a teacher for Southeastern Regional Technical Vocational High School, the Sharon school district and the history department in Taunton. In Holbrook, he worked as the interim superintendent and high school principal before he was made district superintendent as a singular position.