AMHERST — Douglas Slaughter, who served as temporary superintendent for the Amherst, Pelham and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools for the 2023-2024 academic year, is joining the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District as its assistant superintendent.

The regional district’s School Committee, at its Nov. 21 meeting, voted unanimously to appointed Slaughter to the role of assistant superintendent for finance, operations and human resources, pending successful contract negotiations with Superintendent John Provost.

During his interview, Slaughter, the last remaining candidate brought forward by a search committee, cited his almost 20 years of working for the Amherst public schools, both in information technology and in the business office, as well as his time serving on the town’s Select Board and Finance Committee.

Slaughter said he understands the challenges and opportunities facing school districts from “a wide variety of experience and a wide spectrum of information that I’ve gathered over the years in the different roles I’ve had in the different places.”

In addition, Slaughter told the committee he is looking forward to taking on more responsibility in the operations and using his experience in finance. He also noted he would be a good fit for a regional district from his experience dealing with officials in Amherst, as well as Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury. He described himself as a good and proactive listener always open to feedback and expertise from the community and School Committee.

Slaughter, who had been finance director for the Amherst public schools since late 2019 and was twice interim superintendent, has been replaced on an interim basis by Shannon Bernacchia, following a vote by the Amherst Regional and Union 26 school committees on Nov. 22.

“I’m now transitioning away from the (Amherst) district at this point,” Slaughter said.

Before the vote, Hampden-Wilbraham School Committee Chairwoman Michal Boudreau said Slaughter’s information technology knowledge, his business experience and time as acting superintendent, along with his collaborative approach, would work well for the district.

“I was encouraged, intrigued and excited about what he brings to the table with his background,” Boudreau said.

Provost, the former Northampton superintendent who became Hampden-Wilbraham’s superintendent in 2022, told the School Committee that it reflected well on Slaughter that Amherst schools twice turned to him to serve as interim superintendent.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.