Brendan P. Walsh

Dr. Klein’s retirement puts the district in a position it has not been in thirteen years – in the market for a new superintendent.  

That’s not particularly normal.  This study on the superintendent tenure topic reports that “superintendent turnover averaged 6 to 7 years, regardless of the district’s size or location.” 

Some board members, including me, are involved in people management in our day jobs.  Recruting, interviewing, and hiring people is not new for some of us.   But doing so for such a specialized position as a superintendent of a public school system is generally new ground. 

However we can learn a great deal, and quickly, from the many, many school districts around the Metro Detroit area who have just recently gone through or have recently wrapped up a superintendent search.  I’ve compiled information that could help inform our superintendent search efforts and provide broader context to the endeavor.

Public school districts in Ann Arbor, Novi, Bloomfield Hills, Walled Lake, Rochester, Plymouth-Canton, Grosse Ile, and Lake Orion are just some of the examples for which I have found a good deal of information.  These are some the largest school districts in the state and in some cases among the most prestigious.  All of them have recently completed, or are on the verge of hiring, a new superintendent.

Some patterns are discernible.  Most retained a search firm to allow for a collection of applicants from across the country.  Beyond that the processes are generally similar, but the pace varies from situation to situation relative to the timing of the current superintendent’s departure. There are also some nuances in terms of the use of forums, surveys, offer and negotiation strategies, and the like. Lots of great data for us to mine.

A major difference among the scenarios is whether the current superintendent’s retirement announcement comes very near the start of the school year.  Depending on that and the length of the notice, an interim superintendent may be the wiser path.  Ann Arbor is a good example.  Their superintendent resigned unexpectedly in August and gave immediate notice.  They had no choice but to go the interim route.  More often the superintendent gives enough notice to allow a replacement to be hired in enough time before the next school year. 

In Grosse Pointe we’re closer to the latter scenario.   Dr. Klein graciously gave us 46 weeks notice.  In actuality, we really need to be looking at things this way.  Whoever our next superintendent is, he/she is working in a school district right now whose school year will be over by the end of June.  That is four months from now.  We want to be in position so that our candidate of choice can disengage from their current position after the end of their school year, but before the ensuing school year starts in September, seven months from now.

Ideally, to be fair to all parties involved, we’d all be better off if the preferred candidate were to be committed to Grosse Pointe closer to June than September.  It may make the decision for the preferred candidate easier in that regard rather than add the stress of leaving their current position so close to the beginning of the next school year. Reference the Grosse Ile entry in the report for just such an example.

My immediate reaction is that we need to get on with the search as soon as possible.  Not rush into it, but “begin the begin” as the saying goes.  I’ll be advocating that we release an RFP for national search firm services before the end of February.  Doing so will keep us well on track for an orderly, well-paced, but not rushed search.

I encourage you to review the report below.  It will provide context for the news you will see relative to our search.  I’ll post updates from time to time as situations change. For example, the Ann Arbor interviews are this week and even last night Rochester Schools met to discuss search criteria.  These are the kinds of things I’ll update in the report.

Stay tuned and I’ll continue to share what I learn and feel free to ask questions.
Notes on Recent Superintendent Searches