NORTHAMPTON — Following the departure of former principal Bryan Lombardi this summer, Northampton High School is in the midst of a search for its next leader, a process that’s hit a snag after criticism by a search committee member.

Earlier this month, two candidates for the Northampton High School principal position — Lori Vaillancourt, interim principal of Northampton High School and previously an associate principal of the school, and Ted McCarthy, principal of Sutton High School — spoke at a public forum at the Northampton High School auditorium.

Days later, the district announced it was suspending the search process after it received a complaint from a member of the search committee alleging that the group had improperly screened candidates. At the time, the district did not provide more details about the substance of the complaint and said it had hired an independent law firm to investigate.

The Gazette obtained a copy of the emailed complaint through a public records request​​​.

“I think the hiring process we followed for this position was badly flawed and limited access to information so severely that there is a major risk of making a choice with insufficient information,” reads the email from Mickey Buhl, a member of the search committee and parent of three children, two of whom are in the district, sent to Superintendent John Provost, Mayor David Narkewicz, and members of the School Committee.

In his email, Buhl who lives in Florence and is the executive director of Opportunity Academy, a public high school in Holyoke, recommended that the district hire McCarthy.

“I think it is very important for Northampton HS to have a strong outside,” he wrote, later adding “significant change and growth does not come from internal leaders.”

Buhl also outlined a number of issues he had with the search process. He said he thought there were limited ways for parents to provide feedback and no effective way to collect student feedback.

“Certain aspects of the hiring process I have never experienced before,” he wrote in the email, “such as members of the hiring committee not being able to discuss what qualities they felt were most important in the next leader or how they assessed the qualities of the individual candidates until after the interviews were complete.”

Candidates were not screened thoroughly, he said Tuesday.

“I think a more thorough review of each candidate would have helped a lot, and I think that had we done that, we likely would have interviewed more candidates,” he said.

Buhl said he thinks highly of the high school, “really one of the best schools I’ve experienced,” he said. “I have really been blown away by the quality of teaching my kids have gotten there.”

At this juncture, he said, “​​​​​The school could go to a really special place — a place that’s rare for schools to get to.” Explaining his motivation to voice his concerns, he said, “We’ve got this opportunity to get a special principal, and I don’t think the process was thorough enough to make sure the best candidates were moving forward in each step.”

Finalists Vaillancourt and McCarthy emerged from a pool of 19 candidates, and before the search was halted, the district said it hoped to conclude the search process by Thanksgiving.

Now, Boston employment and education law firm Stoneman, Chandler & Miller is conducting an independent investigation of the committee’s procedure, according to Provost, who said he would not comment on the investigation until he got the results.

Lesley Wilson, principal of JFK Middle School, is the chair of the search committee made up of volunteer members, including teachers Lisa Leary, Ester Locke and Ryan Parent; counselor Karen Hidalgo; clerk Yammira Santos; educational support professional Paula Rigano-Murray; parent Danielle Pedalaborde; administrators Celeste Malvezzi and Antonio Pagán; and School Committee member Susan Voss.

Wilson declined to comment on the complaint.

Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.

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