ROCKLAND, Maine — A former superintendent of the Rockland area school system is a candidate for the top post in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Lew Collins is one of 41 candidates for the superintendent job in the southwestern city. The New Mexico district serves 88,000 students, nearly one third of the entire state student population, according to the school’s website.
The district has 142 schools spread out over 1,200 square miles and employs 14,000 people including 6,300 teachers.
Collins is an educational consultant who left Regional School Unit 13 in February 2014 after a tumultuous several months in which he clashed with the teachers union, the district’s business manager and some board members.
The Albuquerque Board is scheduled to review the applications during the first week of April and narrow the pool. No date for hiring a candidate is scheduled.
Collins received a $100,000 severance package when he left RSU 13. In January 2015, the district’s auditor reported that the superintendent had been correct in his budgeting of special education costs, contrary to what the business manager had claimed. Collins said the audit vindicated him.