Callie Sullivan, Board of Education Candidate

Hiring a new superintendent of schools to replace the now-departed Stephen Falcone is one of the biggest challenges the Board of Education will face in the next four years, said Callie Sullivan, a candidate for a seat on the board.

"It would be my hope they'll also have a professional search firm to do that," said Sullivan, a Democrat and former member of the Darien Board of Selectmen.

The board should "work long and hard on a job description which will lead us to the right hire," Sullivan said. "We should look at what some other cities and towns have [for criteria]. The average superintendent works for three years. It's a really hard job with a lot of moving parts."

Sullivan said a successful candidate for superintendent should have a good record of working well with a board of education and understand how the new Common Core educational standards will affect students and teachers.

To promote transparency and more communication between the board and the public, the school district's website should be improved in ways that will make it easier for the public to find information, Sullivan said.

"The special education problem arose because the drain was so clogged nobody was getting their information through," she said. "When you sit on a board, you should be told at the point when someone is lawyering up." You know there's a problem when members of the public are coming forward to complain about a person or policy, she added.

Sullivan said she spoke with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy a month ago. Malloy told her he wasn't worried how Darien would do when the state measures student achievement through new tests reflecting Common Core educational standards.

"He said Darien is a benchmark. We already have in place many of the knowledge standards that our chidren are expected to know in order to fulfill the requirements of Common Core," she said. "It's the towns like Bridgeport and New Haven who are really straining to meet the benchmark."

Sullivan has a son attending Darien High School in his junior year, a daughter who graduated last year and a nephew who moved to town and is now attending Royle School.

Sullivan has previously been active in parent teacher organizations at Middlesex Middle School and Darien High School. She sat on the Education Committee when she was a member of the Representative Town Meeting.

"I know how government works, how budgets work, how groups of people work together to craft solutions to problems," she said.

For the past 17 years, Sullivan has been editor and owner of The International Journal of Instructional Media, which publishes articles by academics on what type of technology works in their classrooms.

Sullivan's late husband, Tighe, died in a helicopter crash in October 2012. At a recent candidates debate, Sullivan thanked the community for all the support and good wishes she'd received since the loss of her husband (a Republican).

Although she's been active in Democratic politics, Sullivan said she expects to be able to work well with people in both parties. "We all need to be patient with each other. We also need to be respectful of each other's concerns.

Biographical information submitted by candidate:

Callie is well known for her involvement in Darien town government, serving 12 years in elected positions.

After serving several years as a district chair on the RTM, where she also sat on the Education and Finance and Budget Committees, she was elected to two terms on the Board of Selectmen.

She knows first hand the challenges that the town faces – fiscally and academically. She is a widowed parent of three children, a community activist and business owner.

She operates an educational publishing company, Westwood Press, and has volunteered relentlessly for organizations such as A Better Chance (ABC), the League of Women Voters and Tokeneke School. She also remains active in alumni relations for her alma mater, Williams College.