On Monday, Februry 28th, the Board of Education authorized the issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit bids for a professional firm to assist in the search for the ultimate successor of Dr. Klein.
Those who read my research on what other school districts typically do in such a search see that using an outside firm for this purpose is the norm. It’s the smart thing to do.
There are two significant takeaways from this particular action:
- It clearly indicates we will engage in a national search for a successor. This does not mean local candidates won’t be considered, but rather they will compete on a national scale.
- It establishes the general timeline for how the process will proceed and conclude.
In the RFP, the Board laid out a general timeline indicating, should all things go as planned, how and when the stages will proceed and ultimately conclude. Here’s a likely timeline.
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Plenty of detail needs to be attended to within these many stages. I suspect most of these would be ironed out on April because we need to map out what needs to be done at the outset. A couple examples would include how we intend to gather community interests relative to a new superintendent. In my reasearch, surveys are fairly common. I could envision a survey being released in May, early enough in the process to get a broad base of feedback.
Also, as it relates to community involvement, public forums of different flavors are common. Sometimes initial interviews happen, to some extent, publicly. In Ann Arbor, final interviews were public. In Bloomfield Hills, this stage appeared less public and indeed even the finalists names were redacted even from printed updates given to the public. Lots of questions need to be answered about these kinds of issues.
In general the timeline is very favorable to all parties. We’re in a position that avoids the need for an interim superintendent because we’re not pressed for time. At the point when final interviews are happening, we would be in the summer months so whatever candidate we ultimately choose should be able to disengage from their current position in time for him or her to start the 2011-12 school year in Grosse Pointe. It also allows a solid three to four months of overlap of the former to future superintendent.
I do, however, think that if we can keep that final offer/acceptance period closer to the end of July or early August it would be better for all parties involved. There is a good chance stress will be created if we decide to hire a currently seated superintendent from another district given their decision to leave just beofre the start of their school year. In two instances I’ve researched (Ann Arbor and Grosse Ile) a finalist bowed out in the final stages. Reducing the stress of that final decision would be beneficial in that regard.
All in all I think we’re off to a good start. Within two weeks of Dr. Klein’s announcement we have commenced the process in a formal manner and stand well positioned to maintain a timeline that would serve all parties well. I’ll keep you posted on how the serach firm selection process proceeds.