Chair Stephanie Fante opened the Nov. 13 meeting of Lawrence City’s Personnel and Administration Committee and framed the night's work as the first round of structured interviews to fill three appointed seats on the school committee. “The purpose of this process is, obviously, to have a fair, consistent, and transparent process of this evaluation and interview of the candidates,” Fante said, describing a memo prepared by the personnel director that guided the format and scoring.

Fante told applicants and committee members that the personnel director, with assistance from the city attorney and city clerk, prescreened applications to confirm they met the job qualifications. Candidates who passed the prescreen were invited to this round. The committee will evaluate candidates on a score sheet with a maximum of 30 points; individual question ratings use a 1–5 rubric, with 5 given for answers that supply strong, specific examples.

All completed score sheets and related notes will be retained by the personnel department under the city's record-retention policy, Fante said. She also described a sealed envelope containing materials that was locked in city council storage and will be hand-delivered to the HR director after the interviews.

Fante explained how the selection pathway will work: after the committee completes these interviews in executive session, the personnel director will forward the top two scorers in each category — finance, education, and legal — to the full city council. The full council will then conduct second-round interviews and make final appointments to the three seats.

Before beginning interviews, the committee handled two brief procedural items. Councilor Anna Levy moved to come out of recess and was seconded by Councilor Wendy Luzon. Later, Levy again moved that the committee enter executive session for personnel interviews; Luzon seconded. The committee took a roll call and the motion to move into executive session carried unanimously, after which most participants were placed in the Zoom waiting room and the interview process began.

The committee named Sarah Perez as the first candidate to be interviewed. The meeting record shows the committee planned to reconvene the public session after the executive session concluded. No final appointments or public votes on candidates were taken at the Nov. 13 meeting.

Next procedural steps: the personnel committee will complete its executive-session interviews, the personnel director will forward top two candidates per category to the full council, and the full council will hold second-round interviews and make the final appointments.