CLYDE — The search for a new superintendent for the Clyde-Green Springs School District has begun.
During its regular meeting on Dec. 21, the board of education approved a contract with North Point Educational Service Center to conduct the superintendent search at no cost to the district.
“They contracted with us at no cost, and we do it with no charge whatsoever to them, which is a considerable savings,” North Point Educational Service Center’s Doug Crooks said. “There are groups out there that charge from $7,000-10,000. We do it at no cost for them because they’re a client district of ours.”
Most school district’s choose to have an outside company conduct the search for them, according to Crooks, but a few districts choose to conduct the search on their own. Having NPESC conduct the search saves the board a lot of work, including posting the job, handling applications and contacting candidates to inform them if they didn’t get the job, all of which Crooks said his organization will handle.
After the start of the year, NPESC will post the job and will begin accepting applications, according to Crooks.
“We will go ahead and post the position to about 11 different posting sites that are available to us,” he said. “We’ll keep it posted about eight weeks, so it’ll be posted throughout January and February. During this part, the Clyde-Green Springs board will not be part of the process. It will all go through us. We send out applications and all of that.”
For the most part, the search will be for candidates in Ohio, due to each state having different standards and licenses for superintendents of school districts.
“There’s one that goes out nationally, but typically they’re done within the state,” Crooks said. “You have to be certified within the state to be a superintendent. Sometimes it’s an easy process and sometimes it’s not. When you do those national searches, people have to go through the process of getting certified.”
The school board will once again be involved in the process after the job posting has been up for eight weeks.
“We’ll put it all together after the eight weeks of posting, and I’ll give all of the information on each applicant to each of the board members,” Crooks said. “After that, I’ll meet with the board, and they’ll vet the applications and will determine how many they want to bring in for interviews.”
Having the school board vet the candidates themselves is something that a lot of search organizations don’t do, but Crooks feels it’s important to let the board look over every application, rather than just the ones NPESC deems worthy.
“That’s different than some of the organizations that conduct searches,” he said. “Other organizations will vet candidates and suggest the ones they feel the board should meet with. We don’t do that. We go through every application with the board so that they can review them.”
After the board chooses the candidates they would like to interview, Crooks will set up interviews times for the candidates and board members to meet.
“It’s usually a series of two interviews that take place,” Crooks said. “In between the interviews is when reference checks take place.”
The goal is to have a new superintendent in place by Aug. 1, but Crooks feels the board could have a new superintendent picked much sooner.
“The goal right now is after the eight weeks of posting and then interviews and reference checks, they’d be ready by the end of April to hire their next superintendent.”
The district’s current superintendent, David Stubblebine, announced his resignation from the job at a special board meeting earlier in December. Stubblebine will continue to serve as superintendent until his contract expires on July 31, 2016.
