District Administration - May 2012 - (Page 50)

a new Chief The CriTiCal Task of hiring The arT of hiring Searching for a superintendent can be easier if school board members keep these ideas in mind: searCh in spring and summer. John Leuenberger, board president for LenaWinslow School District 202 (Ill.), advises districts to synchronize their superintendent search with the national job market for school executives, which peaks each spring and summer. Lena-Winslow’s first attempt at recruiting a superintendent, in the fall of 2010, garnered only 15 candidates. The same search process in July 2011 attracted more than 30 applicants. find The besT fiT. For many districts, this will come down to price, but finding a good fit between the school board’s expectations and the consultant’s style is also important, says Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. He also advises boards to carefully interview and negotiate with potential firms. Most will work with a district on a tailored proposal that meets the district’s financial and time constraints. As there are no recognized national or regional listings for superintendent search consultants, Domenech says that district leaders frequently contact the AASA for recommendations. give yourself plenTy of Time. “When school boards are engaged in a search, they quickly find out that it’s going to take more time than they anticipated,” says Domenech. As it is possible that the first round of recruitment will be unsuccessful, it also is important to specify in advance what will happen in that situation, according to Michael Osnato of Leadership Advantage. Osnato and other consultants are generally willing to conduct a second round without charging an additional fee, but terms and guarantees vary. speCify The disTriCT’s needs. Doug Eadie, a specialist in relations between boards and chief executives and president and CEO of Doug Eadie & Company, says that hiring criteria must align with the district’s top issues. “You’re going to get a lot of applications and a lot of qualified-looking people,” he says. “If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for in terms of the kinds of challenges you’ll be dealing with, it’ll be difficult to choose the right person.” Eadie organizes retreats or workshops that facilitate board communication and planning. always ask open-ended quesTions. During the interview stage, Eadie advises hiring committees to ask probing, open-ended questions that are concentrated on the district’s most pressing needs. “The worst thing is you get a person who looks really good, but because your questioning wasn’t good enough, they fail at some key things that they never understood you wanted,” he says. be Clear abouT The salary offer. Communication among board members, search consultants and candidates is critical throughout the hiring process, especially on the important issue of compensation. Gary Solomon, CEO of Proact Search, says that during the firm’s work for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, “we were clear with the candidates on what the board expected in terms of salary.” He concludes, “What we never want to happen is for [the board] to fall in love with a candidate who is too expensive.” Sanders announced his retirement in December 2010. In the Cleveland district, which serves more than 44,000 students in 122 schools, the mayor appoints the governing school board and the CEO. To identify the best candidates, however, Mayor Frank Jackson appointed a 15-person search subcommittee to work with Proact and make recommendations to the board. Proact CEO Gary Solomon says the firm knows how to approach recruitment. “We don’t believe in just calling friends of friends, or people we know, or people we work with,” Solomon says. “We do unique research for each project, both within and outside of K12, and recruit directly to each person we believe is a good fit.” With seven full-time employees and more than 100 independent contractors, Proact specializes in districts with over 10,000 students, and has conducted superintendent searches from Oakland, Calif., to New Orleans. Solomon says a typical search costs about $20,000 to $30,000 and takes two to three months. In Cleveland, Proact took 10 weeks to field 125 applications and then presented the committee with the nine candidates who best matched its requirements, which included budget and capital management experience as well as a proven ability to enact educational reform. The committee then selected three finalists for the board to interview. In June 2011, however, the board decided on a candidate who had been identified by Proact but previously eliminated by the search committee: Eric Gordon, the district’s chief academic officer and a primary author of its “Academic Transformation Plan,” which directly addressed low-performing schools and supported innovations in school organization and pedagogy. Following Mayor Jackson’s approval, Gordon was hired on a one-year contract that started in July 2011 and included the possibility of extension based on performance. The offered salary, at $230,000, was actually 12.5 percent less than that of the retiring CEO. ask your state association Another option for the superintendent search is consulting with the state assoDistrict Administration 50 May 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - May 2012

District Administration - May 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Sustainability Update
Conversations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Problem/Solution
Product Focus
Digital Reading Empowers Students
The Critical Task of Hiring a New Chief
Hard Acts to Follow
Leading the Way
Sally Reis & Joe Renzulli
CIO News
Not Your Mother’s Student Information System
Professional Opinion
Noteworthy Books
New Products
Going Mobile

District Administration - May 2012