September 3, 2010
by Susie Pender
Tuesday evening, September 7, starting at 7:00 p.m. in the high school academic commons, the Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education will interview two superintendent search firms under consideration for engagement by the district. The community is invited to attend and participate in these interviews.
According to the email sent from the school board earlier this summer to community members, “We anticipate each interview to last one hour, with time provided for questions from the audience. After the interviews, the Board will take time to hear community members’ thoughts and comments regarding the search process and the firms interviewed.”
Community prep for the interviews
In anticipation of these interviews, the school board has mounted on the district website the report prepared last spring by School Leadership LLC, entitled “Specification Development Report, May 25, 2010.”
That report is a compilation of the findings gleaned from focus groups and a survey conduct last spring to determine leadership characteristics certain members of the community suggested would be desirable in the next superintendent. Since the release of that report, the school board has not officially taken a position on whether those characteristics identified in the report are those they will seek in a new superintendent.
More recently, the school board added to the district website the “New York State Council of School Superintendents Study of the Superintendency - 2009,” prepared by the Council of School Superintendents. It offers the survey responses of 698 school superintendents in New York State, a 66% response rate. Where possible, the survey responses are separated into geographical categories, so it is possible to see statistics specific to the Lower Hudson, Metro and Long Island areas.
To view either of these reports, and all correspondence from the school board relating to the superintendent search begun last spring, click here: http://www.ccsd.ws/board_education.cfm?subpage=1049271,
Schedule of interviews
The schedule for the September 7 meeting is as follows:
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.: Interview with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates
8:15 - 9:15 p.m.: Interview with J.A. Roy Associates
9:15 - 10:00 p.m.: Questions & Comments
The district used Jacqueline Roy of J.A. Roy Associates, an educational-search consulting firm based in Massachusetts, when they conducted the search five years ago that resulting in the hiring of former Superintendent David Fleishman. Prior to that, when the district conducted a search that concluded with the hiring of James Donovan, they used a search firm that is no longer in business.
Charles Fowler of School Leadership LLC, who did preliminary research work for the district this past spring, which included collecting data from focus groups and through surveys on desired characteristics of a superintendent, has withdrawn from consideration. According to School Board President Janet Benton, “he is too busy at this time with other searches to take this on.”
John Chambers, the district’s current interim superintendent, is on a one-year leave of absence from Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, based in Illinois, for whom he conducts superintendent searches. When he was hired to become the superintendent of The Bronxville Schools in 1991, J.A. Roy Associates was the search consultant for Bronxville.
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