The search for our new Superintendent began over the summer. We met with our search consultant, Dr.
Vince Coppola, from Western NY Educational Service Council, to receive a
timeline and a description of the search process. The new school board members wondered,
“Why do we need to hire a consultant to help us hire a Superintendent?” However,
we quickly learned how complicated the entire process is. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into hiring
a school Superintendent. With 40 years of public education experience, thirteen
years as a Superintendent and over 75 searches under his belt, Dr. Coppola was
instrumental to our success.
In mid-September, with the assistance of the school board,
Dr. Coppola distributed surveys to representatives from a number of school and
community groups. These focus groups included the Board of Education,
Administrators, Central Office Staff, Teachers, Support Staff, Parents,
Students and Community. Each focus group (aside from the school board group)
was made up of approximately 12 people. The purpose of these initial surveys
was to gather information from three questions that were designed to provide
those participating with important input into the Superintendent selection process.
The responses were condensed and were then presented as a written report for board
members to study.
The three questions that were asked to all focus group participants
were the following:
1. What are the positive things about Warwick
Valley Central School District and the community that would attract someone to
want to come here and be your next superintendent?
2. What are the issues and concerns that the
next Superintendent should be aware of so they can enter the district “hitting
the ground running?”
3. What are the personal and professional
characteristics that you are looking for in the next Superintendent?
The next step for everyone was to put into rank order a list
of the “Top Ten Proposed Characteristics” for the next WVCSD superintendent.
Everyone in the groups ranked our Top Ten Characteristics out of a list of
twenty given statements. The data was then collapsed and the list from
all of the focus groups was presented to the school board. In combining the data from all the groups nine characteristics emerged as highly important so we used them to guide us in our selection process. Here are the characteristics in rank order:
·
Outstanding
written and oral communication skills
·
Ability to
clearly identify problems and develop effective solutions
·
Person of
unquestioned integrity
·
Reflective
thinker- not impulsive
·
Committed
to involving staff, parents, students and community in decision-making
·
Strong
presence in the schools and community
·
Strong
commitment to improving student achievement/student success
·
Strong
background in instruction and student achievement
·
Evidence
of success in the implementation of effective district financial practices
We reviewed all of the information and data with Dr. Coppola
and then he drafted a brochure for our district that announced the job opening.
Advertising for the position was posted in several different places and Dr.
Coppola also recruited potential candidates at Superintendent conferences
throughout the state.
In November, we met with Dr. Coppola again and he shared with us the complete list of applicants for our school district. There were 11 applicants in the
initial pool and we narrowed this down to six candidates to interview. Dr. Coppola then provided each board
member with a packet to review for each candidate. These packets were no less
than a dozen pages each and included candidates resumes, credentials,
certifications, transcripts, district entry plans and recommendations. We each spent several hours privately
reviewing each packet and took careful notes.
The six candidates were contacted by Dr. Coppola to arrange
the interview schedule. Throughout the process, keeping the candidates identity
confidential was not just a choice but necessity. All of the candidates were
employed in other districts. News of these interviews could have caused
unnecessary turmoil in their communities. This is another reason that using a
search consultant was helpful. Our search consultant was able to get candidates
that would not have come forward through an advertisement on the On-line
Application System for Educators, (OLAS) for fear of lack of confidentiality in
the process.
Not only did Dr. Coppola need to arrange the schedules of
our six candidates, but he also needed to bring the focus groups back in for
these interviews. Two people from each of the original focus groups were
selected to form an interview team of twelve members. We made sure that we had
representatives from the Administrators, Central Office Staff, Support Staff,
Teachers, Students, Parents and Community.
Each candidate was first interviewed by a focus group for
one hour and then was interviewed by the school board for one hour or more. Dr. Coppola provided all of us with many interview
questions to choose from and we tailored these questions to fit our district.
We also created a number of our own questions for the candidates. We met for
three nights in a row from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm to do this first round of
interviews. Afterwards, we received the comments and concerns from the focus
group and then combined them with our observations. By using this data we were
able to select three candidates from the original pool to invite back for a
second interview.
The second interviews were more complex for the candidates.
This time around each candidate would be doing a ‘walk-through’ of our entire
district with BOE members, followed by an evening interview with the entire
board. Our goal on the walk-through visits was to observe how these candidates
interacted with building principals, teachers, students, administration, and
support staff. The candidates visited each school building, the bus garage and
central office as well. Following the tours were interviews with the focus
groups. These days were long as
they began the tours at 8:30 AM and didn’t stop until after their final
interviews with the BOE in the evening.
To show the size and scope of this process, each person involved spent approximately:
- 20 hours interviewing candidates and reviewing interview responses
- 15 hours reviewing credentials
- 6 - 8 hours prepping questions for candidates and reviewing focus group feedback
This does not include BOE meetings, work sessions and individual board member research on candidates that also took place during this time.
The process though long was thorough and left no question
unanswered. We have had the pleasure of meeting a variety of educators from NY
and NJ. They shared a number of personal experiences with us, and offered their
perspective of our school district. In the end a clear leader emerged. We are
confident in our choice of Dr. David Leach and welcome him as our district’s
next leader.
Through this process our newer BOE members grew to understand and appreciate the time that our seasoned members have put into superintendent searches in the past. Together we learned about each other and our values. We came through the course of this search with a clear understanding that hiring an instructional leader with vision who is able to implement a plan that prepares our students for the 21st century is of the utmost importance. Dr. Leach was our unanimous choice.
Submitted by: Shannon Hockswender and Eilleen Gagliano
