Dr. William R. Holland, who will serve as interim superintendent of the city’s schools for the next three to six months, is expected to start his new position this morning. His arrival is being greeted with optimism from Warwick educators and Mayor Scott Avedisian.

Some school principals in attendance at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting knew Holland, while others researched his background on the Internet as soon as the committee voted on his appointment.

“They did something right,” said one principal. Another was hopeful given Holland’s experience.

Avedisian said he knows Holland.

“I think it is exactly what is needed, a calming down period,” he said yesterday.

Holland will find he has a full plate with Warwick. He has served in many positions and is respected in the Rhode Island educational community. Interim superintendent is not a job he would actively seek at this point, he said in an interview Tuesday evening, moments after his appointment. He said he was asked to submit an application, and he did.

“This one fascinated me, given what the issues are,” he said.

Holland got a taste of what he will be dealing with as committee chair Jennifer Ahearn sought to shut off member Karen Bachus, who voiced her disgust that Warwick Area Career and Technical Center director William McCaffrey hadn’t been granted a second interview as a candidate for director of secondary education, a job that becomes vacant this month when Dennis Mullen retires this month. Bachus voiced her outrage over Ahearn’s banging of the gavel.

“This is a crime to do this to an inside candidate,” she said. “Shame, shame,” she protested.

“There are some strong differences of opinion here,” Holland said after the display.

But Holland, a former Rhode Island commissioner of higher education and a veteran of 40 years in education, didn’t seem to be deterred by what had just happened.

“I enjoy challenges,” he said, noting that when he took a similar role in Central Falls in 2006 he expected to hold the post for four months, but it ended up being nine. He doesn’t imagine the same thing will happen here.

In announcing the decision to retain an interim superintendent as a search is conducted, Ahearn said the interim could hold the job for three or six months. She did not specify details of a contract, but Holland said he would be paid on a per diem basis. He wasn’t sure of that rate, as it hadn’t been finalized.

Asked what he sees as major challenges as interim superintendent, Holland listed leadership. He said with new administrators entering the system there is a need for establishing a direction for the system. He expects part of his role will be assisting the committee in finding the right pick for a permanent superintendent.

“I would help with that model. I’ve done that with a number of searches,” he said.

But given what Holland has to say, the search is just part of the task.

“I see myself as someone more than just conducting a search,” he said.

The list of issues is daunting, although the committee took some of that off the table with the appointment of key administrators and changes in policies as a result of an independent investigation of how the administration handled an incident at Gorton Junior High School, in which a teacher drew phallic symbols on the arms of two girls in two separate incidents.

The committee has yet to adjust its budget by $6.9 million to match the $159.3 million appropriation for the current year; the teacher contract expires by the end of this summer; and the department needs to prepare for the closing of Gorton and Aldrich Junior High Schools and Veterans High School. Vets will become a middle school in the academic year starting in the fall of 2016 under the plan.

According to information provided by Warwick schools, Holland has served as a secondary teacher, school administrator and superintendent in five school districts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island for the first 26 years of his career. He spent the next 11 years as a professor of education and department chairman at Rhode Island College and executive director of the Rhode Island Principal’s Association.

As commissioner, Holland had responsibility for the first K-16 faculty academic dialogues that focused on improving student preparation for college, an initiative that continued for over a decade. He also oversaw a centralized $500 million higher education budget and worked closely with college presidents and legislators in implementing a historic $500 million capital project campaign on three campuses.

As professor, Holland helped create, and then taught in, the new joint doctoral program in education between Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island. As a part-time executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals for 10 years, he established and ran their first state office at Rhode Island College. As a superintendent for 20 years, he led several grade reorganization efforts and was heavily involved in strategic planning initiatives to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. In the early 1980s, while superintendent in Narragansett, both the high school and elementary school were recognized as blue ribbon schools by the U.S. Office of Education.

Since 2006, Holland has served as a consultant for Strategic Innovations in Education, a consulting firm with offices in Florida and Maine. In 2006-07 he served as a consultant and interim superintendent of schools in Central Falls.

Holland is author of five books in the last nine years, the most notable being “Selecting School Leaders – Guidelines for Making Tough Decisions,” published in 2006 by Rowman and Littlefield; “A School in Trouble: A Personal Story Central Falls High School,” published in 2010; and “Hope Realized: The College Journey of Four Central Falls High School Graduates,” was released in March 2015.

Holland quipped – or maybe he wasn’t kidding – that perhaps there would be another book in the making from his experience in Warwick. His appointment comes a day after Richard D’Agostino retired, having served Warwick schools for 33 years.

Holland was one of two candidates for interim superintendent. The other was James Halley of CRH Consulting of Jamestown. Both Holland and Halley were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting.