Superintendent Belson's contract is due to expire June 2017.  He has yet to make a decision regarding whether he will retire or seek an extension of his contract.  The Medford School Committee members need to be proactive and develop a transparent succession plan now.   A succession plan refers to the hiring and training process, along with a search committee, that will need to be established.
It took one year to transition from one superintendent to the next last time it was done over 20 years ago. The citizens of Medford need to let the committee members know their opinions regarding extending the superintendent's contract, as well as urge them to start the process of finding a potential replacement now. Waiting for a decision to be made at the start of the 2017 school year will leave too little time to adequately find a new superintendent if it is deemed necessary.