The Board of Education met Friday morning with members of the national search firm Harold Webb Associates (HWA) and Tim Lea, chairman of the Community Superintendent Search Committee, to hammer out the final details of the process.
Also Friday, school board Chairwoman Penny Hayes said the Strategic Planning Committee has recommended that the board do away with the local accountability model.
HWA and the local committee will be asked to submit five to nine finalists to the Board of Education for consideration.
The board unanimously approved changes to a brochure that will be used to recruit candidates and a proposed calendar showing the sequence of events — including dates and times for interviews with candidates.
The board also approved the final composition of the 36-member search committee. The committee will include four principals, four teachers, three classified staff members and three high school students.
Sandhills Community College, the Chamber of Commerce, school system Advisory Council members, along with various business and community representatives, will assist in the process.
The county commissioners declined to offer a representative to serve on the search committee. Commissioner Bob Ewing served on the search committee in 1999, when the board hired Pat Russo as superintendent. Russo is resigning June 30 to become superintendent of a school system in Virginia.
“We just don’t feel it’s our job; it’s as simple as that,” said Michael Holden, chairman of the Moore County Board of Commissioners. “They weren’t involved in our county manager search. I just think we should stay on our respective sides of the street.”
Hayes said the committee would be fine without representation from the commissioners.
“We have a lot of people involved in the process and I’m sure they’ll do a great job,” she said.
The search committee will meet for the first time as a group Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the schools system’s central office.
Community forums are scheduled for April 19, 22 and 26.
The search committee and HWA have been asked to submit their semifinalists by May 15. Slots have been set for nine two-hour semifinalist interviews to take place May 18-20.
Hayes said there could be more or less than nine semifinalists after the board sifts through the applicants recommended by both HWA and the community search committee.
“We will look at the applications and there may be four that are head and shoulders above the rest,” she said. “If we get eight good ones from each side, then we might have to modify our schedule.”
HWA President Ken Underwood said his firm has been hired to assist the school board, not to hire a superintendent.
“This is your search,” he said. “We do exactly what you tell us to do.”
HWA representatives encouraged the board to let the search process work and not interact with any candidates until semifinalists are presented May 15.
Underwood said his firm is still concerned about working with a search committee, especially one so large. He told the school board at a March 26 meeting that he had serious concerns about protecting confidentiality of the applicants.
Lea said Friday that HWA could be confident that all confidentiality concerns would be considered.
The number of semifinalists or finalists could be complicated by a decision on whether the board will automatically include all local candidates in the final interview process.
Slots for all-day interviews with up to three finalists have been scheduled for May 25-27. School board members are scheduled to visit the school systems of each finalist between May 31 and June 3, with the final selection to be made by June 4.
Lea was adamant about the committee’s request to have access to any resumes and or applications sent to the school system.
“The committee was formed and appointed by the school board,” he said. “If it’s my job as chair to make sure that this process is fair and that it’s a level playing field, then I need to make sure that the committee gets all the data that is coming in for this process.
“This committee will not turn into a political football. I want to make that point clear. Our role in this is to do nothing more than to help facilitate this process.”
The board went through the brochure line by line.
The board agreed that the brochure should state that the school system “will offer a salary of at least $130,000 plus a benefits package.”
Several board members expressed concerns about whether $130,000 was too low. Hayes said she is aware of at least one former principal in Moore County who made about $120,000.
“The superintendent’s salary should reflect supervision of 22 schools and the entire system,” Hayes said, emphasizing that the $130,000 figure is a minimum. “We don’t want to lock ourselves in until we see what comes to the table.”
Hayes said the benefit packages that are offered could vary from candidate to candidate. A benefits package could include items like family health care.
“There are all kinds of things you can build into the compensation package that are not reflected on the salary line,” she said.
Hayes said she wants to ensure that both the board and the public have a full understanding of the benefits package when it is finalized.
One significant change involved the school system’s mission statement. Based on a recommendation from the policy committee, which met earlier this week, the board unanimously approved the removal of the system’s old vision and mission statements.
The two statements have been rewritten and combined. Page one of the brochure will have the system’s new mission statement:
“Our mission is to provide a safe learning environment where academics and integrity are expected from all. We challenge all students to reach their full learning potential and inspire them to become productive members of society.”
Hayes said the former mission and vision statements were outdated and that talk of changing them has been ongoing for at least a year.
“We didn’t feel that they adequately represented what we thought the community felt,” she said.
Hayes said the system’s accountability model, which has been in place since 1997, is also under review.
“The Strategic Planning Committee did decide to recommend to the board that the current accountability model be removed as a measure in our strategic plan,” she said. “It will be referred to the board and we will have to act on it.”
