WESTHAMPTON — The Hampshire Regional School District’s school committees have selected Diana Bonneville, currently the interim superintendent of South Hadley Public Schools, as the district’s next superintendent.
Pending contract negotiations, Bonneville will take over the role currently filled on a temporary basis by interim superintendent Michael Sullivan, who was selected to fill this position last September following the resignation of former Superintendent Aaron Osborne.
Margaret Larson, chairwoman of the Hampshire Regional School Committee, said that Bonneville stood out to the school committees as the most experienced candidate.
“We were looking for an experienced superintendent, and we didn’t get that amongst our finalists,” Larson said, “but we did get an experienced acting superintendent.”
Members were also “impressed with the work (Bonneville) did with COVID in South Hadley, her apparent good crisis management skills and unflappability in collaboration,” Larson said. “Those were things that kept being mentioned during our meeting.”
Before her role as South Hadley interim superintendent, Bonneville was the South Hadley High School principal, starting in 2012. She was previously a social studies teacher and served in principal and assistant principal roles in Northampton and Hadley. Bonneville has a doctorate in education policy, research and administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“The one thing that I’ve learned along the way in the educational field is if it feels right, feels like a good fit, then go for it,” Bonneville said of her selection in a statement to the Gazette. “Go for it with all of your gusto. Now that the frosting is off the cake, it is time to go to work.”
She added, “I love that each school is uniquely different and special, yet collectively all believe that every student can succeed.”
