By all counts, the Rockport School Committee has made an excellent choice for the town's next superintendent of schools.
Indeed, Robert Liebow's ability to lead a school system, serving 11 communities in Maine, and his community outreach were both being lauded in Rockport and in Maine's Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island region, where a local newspaper editor told of Liebow's commitment to regularly visiting even the system's smallest island communities, taking his own boat out to check out a tiny school and speak with school and local officials.
But Liebow, who reportedly backed out of a chance at the Ashland superintendent's job Tuesday to remain a finalist in Rockport, also praised officials and residents here for their support of the town's schools. And there may be few greater signs of that than the extraordinary commitment by the School Committee and the Superintendent Search Committee to see this task through.
Just a little over three months passed between the time current Superintendent Susan King announced her planned June retirement and Liebow's acceptance of the job late Wednesday night. The efforts of both the School Committee, headed by Michael Kelley, and the Search Committee, led by Pamela Brindamour, should enable Rockport's school district to make a smooth transition.
To that end, we join in congratulating Liebow, welcoming him to the Cape Ann educational community, and wishing him the very best.
We also congratulate all on the School and Search committees for an important job very well done. Their commitment and persistence have set high bars for other communities to follow.
