After the 2013-2104 school year, Superintendent Cory Lunn accepted another superintendent position in Iowa.  For this school year, Tom Nelson was put on the job as an interim, until a permanent decision was made.  The last time the school board searched for a superintendent, they hired a search firm of three people, in which they paid them about $15-18 thousand.  This time, a few of the current school board members had gone through the process before, so they decided to conduct the process themselves and save the money.

The school board was divided up into two committees.  The first committee of three people was responsible for coming up with a process as to how the search would go.  The second committee of four people was to come up with a leadership profile of characteristics they would look for in a superintendent, and also to develop the interview questions.

School board member Kathy Buchholz served on the process committee and said, “We developed a process, part of it was based on what we did previously, and then we recommended it to the entire school board, and they accepted it.”

The deadline for applications was Jan. 31.  Each of the board members was given a handful of applications to take home and a ranking sheet for each.  They read through all of  the applications and ranked them with either a five, a three or a one in terms of how interested the board member was in wanting to interview that person.  When an application was received, they were given a number, and at this stage in the process they can only refer to the people as numbers.  No names of applicants were released until they were selected to do an interview.

Stillwater Area High School Principal Rob Bach said, “It’s a public job…The public nature of what we do demands that that be a part of the process for picking someone.”

At the school board meeting on Feb. 10, a ranking list was released that showed a list of the candidates in order of decreasing ranking number given by each of the board members.  By the end of that meeting, the group was to have decided on six candidates that they are interested in interviewing with a couple alternates.

“A superintendent clearly needs to have an academic understanding of education and making sure that the education that we’re providing is benefiting the students who enroll here,” said Buchholz.

Once people accept an interview, then the school district will give a press release, saying the names of the candidates that they will be interviewing.  The interview date for those candidates was on Feb. 21.  On that day, each of the candidates met with three groups of people for 45 minutes each.  One of the groups was composed of parents, one was staff and the school board of seven was the third group.

Bach said, “I think it’s a good process. They have input from staff, which includes teachers and administrators…They have got input from all kinds of different bargaining groups…As long as you have a process that allows everybody to have input, you can’t ask for too much more than that.”

That evening after all of the candidates have been interviewed, the board will start discussing which of the six, they believe are finalists.  Once the finalists have been chosen, the board can visit their current workplace and meet their current coworkers.

“It’s a very public process…people who apply to be superintendents, they have a lot of courage because everyone can sit in, everybody can watch, people can go and check out where they are currently working,” said Buchholz.

The finalist interview days are set for March 2-4, in which one of the top three finalists will be on each day.  This day will be more informal than the previous interview, where the finalist will visit some of the elementary schools, the junior highs, and the high school, and meet everyone who he/she will potentially be working with.  The final decision will be made the Thursday after interviews are completed.

Stillwater Board Chairman Tom Lehmann said, “The superintendent is essentially the face of our district.  This person is most responsible for the successes of our district.   It takes an exceptional person with a unique skill set to be a great superintendent.”