After a nationwide search, the Essex Westford School District Board has named Dr. Mark Holodick as the next superintendent of the District. Holodick will officially begin on July 1, 2025.
“Our Board is grateful and delighted to announce EWSD’s next superintendent, Dr. Mark Holodick. After an intensive national search and comprehensive community engagement, it is deeply exciting to find a superintendent who is not just supremely qualified but uniquely equipped to lead our District in this particular moment in time,” said EWSD Board Chair Robert Carpenter.
“Mark demonstrates a deep level of thoughtfulness, understanding, and care; not just for operational systems but for the specific individuals within them. He is approachable, an active listener, and someone who meaningfully solicits and leverages ground-level feedback. While Mark has an incredible background of relevant experience and skills, he also showed his capacity to meaningfully connect with our staff, parents, and taxpayers. He approaches complicated situations with a sense of humor and a desire to collaborate.”
“Finally, Mark has not just demonstrated success in public educational leadership, he has deep insight into administering education within the context of economies of scale in a small state. He is the ideal leader to not only empower our staff, students, and schools but also to navigate our District through the uncertainties of the state-level education landscape,” added Carpenter.
“I am incredibly excited about and grateful for the opportunity to serve as superintendent of the Essex Westford School District,” said Holodick. “From the completion of the initial application through the entire interview process, I have been impressed with the School Board’s commitment to stakeholder engagement and the community’s interest in the operations and performance of the District.”
“It’s obvious to me that the entire community is dedicated to all children in Essex Westford and has high expectations for academic performance, social-emotional growth and well-being, global citizenship, and more. This is all captured in the District’s Portrait of a Graduate and is a fine example of the type of focus that’s needed to increase opportunities and improve outcomes for students. I look forward to working with all staff and stakeholders to build upon the success of the District and recognize that it will start with listening and learning from the many who have contributed to its success over the past eight years.”
Following current superintendent Beth Cobb’s announcement that she would retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year, the EWSD Board worked with the Alma Advisory Group to begin the search process for a new leader starting last September. Cobb was hired as the first superintendent of the then newly formed EWSD, starting on July 1, 2017.
Alma helped lead a transparent search process that included community surveys, community gatherings, focus groups, and interview panels made up of teachers, students, principals, staff, families, and community partners. That input helped inform the job profile and competencies required of a new superintendent.
Interviews with the three finalists named in February were made public. Staff, students, families, and other community members had the opportunity to provide feedback on the candidates to the Board, which helped inform the final decision.
“I want to personally and sincerely thank the over 1,200 families, staff, students, and community members who participated in the superintendent search process. Community feedback and engagement crafted the superintendent position description to drive the process and identify top candidates. Community members, parents, staff, and student interview panels overwhelmingly and meaningfully highlighted the most crucial considerations in identifying Mark as our superintendent,” said Carpenter.
“This has been an incredible collective effort leading to this shared collective victory for our entire District. Although this year has been challenging, we are grateful to look ahead with optimism and excitement for EWSD’s next chapter with superintendent Dr. Mark Holodick.”
Holodick comes to the EWSD after serving as Delaware’s Secretary of Education since January 2022. Before joining the Delaware Department of Education, he served for two years as a senior leadership specialist for the University of Delaware’s Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL). In this role, he coordinated the Governor’s Institute for School Leadership and served as lead faculty for DASL’s Principal Preparation Program. He also conducted research in collaboration with school districts and charter schools, and designed and facilitated research-informed professional development for school leaders.
From 2009-2020, Holodick served as superintendent of the Brandywine School District in Delaware, following a long history with the District as a student, teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Prior to being named Brandywine School District’s superintendent, he was the principal at Concord High School as well as at a blended middle and high school in the Delmar School District. In his educational leadership roles, Holodick has been continually committed to a foundation of professionalism, customer service, equity, and meeting the needs of all students. He recognizes the importance of developing the whole child through unique and diverse programming, after-school enrichment opportunities, athletics, the arts, and a rigorous curriculum.
Holodick was one of four Delaware superintendents to originally spearhead the BRINC Consortium, an organization made up of school districts that focuses on personalized and blended learning, access to technology, and collaboration. He has been recognized as the Delaware Association of Educational Office Professionals’ 2016 Administrator of the Year, the Delaware Association of School Librarians’ School Administrator of the Year, and by his peers as the Delaware Chief School Officers Association (DCSOA) 2017 Superintendent of the Year.
Holodick is a member of the statewide Vision 2025 implementation committee and previously served as both president and vice president of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA). Additionally, he has served as DCSOA president, on the College Board’s Superintendent Advisory Board Council, on Goldey-Beacom College’s Board of Trustees, and on the board of the Delaware College Scholars Program.