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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > December > 15
Monday, December 15, 2008
Olentangy schools and the secret superintendent search
Last week, I got an email from Columbus Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow about Olentangy Local Schools’ confidential search and how it might compare to what Springfield is investigating.
Officials there are operating under the same philosophy as Springfield officials - that confidentiality will improve the candidate pool - the Dispatch reports.
By all accounts, Springfield board members are not interested in going as far with the confidentiality as Olentangy has. Board President Donna Picklesimer and search firm Director Ron Barnes have said the board is looking to keep candidates confidential only until they are selected to be interviewed. Once they are invited for an interview, their names would be made public.
Olentangy kept the first round of interviews confidential and has just now released the names of its two finalists.
Olentangy looks to be taking a page out of Cincinnati Public Schools’ playbook a few years ago. Basically, in both cases, the searches were kept a secret by eliminating the paper trail; there were no formal applications, candidates took their resumes back from board members after initial interviews and there were no notes kept from the screening interviews, at least none with names (Cincinnati’s search firm is reported to have used code names for their notes, instead of the actual candidates’ surnames).
Ludlow’s Right to Know blog does a great job of watching this and other public records issues for anyone interested in following.
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Are you going to the Springfield schools search forums?
About 80 percent of the information search firm officials collect this week about the wish list for Springfield’s next superintendent and high school campus director will be run-of-the mill.
Passionate, fiscally responsible, good communicator.
It’s the other 20 percent that consultants will hone in on to find the right fit for the two key leadership positions, said Ronald Barnes, a director at Illinois-based BWP and Associates, Inc.
“Those characteristics and attributes that come out… about 80 percent of them are the same in every district,” he said. “It’s those other unique things that we’ll listen to carefully to find out what the community’s telling us in our meetings.”
Four representatives from BWP will be in town Dec. 16-18, meeting with board members at a special board meeting Tuesday, Dec. 16 and then conducting focus groups and community input sessions throughout the day Dec. 17.
Invitation-only focus groups include various sections of the community, said board President Donna Picklesimer, including staff, students, parents, residents and community leaders.
“We heard loud and clear … that all segments of the community want to be represented and want their voices heard so we felt this was a way to do that,” she said.
Meetings in the evening Dec. 17 will be open to the public to give input and will last up to 50-60 minutes, said Barnes.
Anyone who can’t make a meeting can download a profile form from the district’s Web site. That feature will be available throughout the process, but the information can be included in the firm’s written report if received by Dec. 20, said Barnes.
“Anything that comes in after that will be used and read, it just won’t be part of our report,” he said.
The district aims to have a new superintendent selected by mid-April and then will finish the search for a campus director for Springfield High School.
Are you going to Wednesday’s forum?
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