A search firm assisting the Rochester City School District in hiring a new superintendent has recommended a handful of applicants out of a pool of 30 to be interviewed for the position.
BWP and Associates presented their suggested candidates to the RCSD at the end of March, according to Kevin Castner, who was on the BWP search committee for the district. These individuals will be interviewed by the district’s board of education, and finalists were to be presented to the community in early April, Castner said. He noted that the RCSD will release the finalists’ bios, and the board of education will organize public forums during which each finalist will be introduced to the community.
“We selected our recommendations and presented them to the board from across 15 different states. It’s a diverse pool of applicants,” said Castner. “The district will be in charge of the interviews going forward, but I know that community input is important to them.”
The criteria for selecting candidates for the RCSD position was based on a leadership profile that BWP developed and presented to the board of education Feb. 19. The profile was created based on feedback from the board of education, district employees, parents and the community regarding the skills, professionalism and experience they wanted to see in the new superintendent. Castner said the BWP team used this profile to select the final candidates.
According to the leadership profile, the most important skill for the new superintendent to have was communication, and the most important characteristic was the commitment to the community. Community members also indicated that experience in a multicultural environment was another important trait for the new superintendent to possess, BWP noted in its leadership profile.
The RCSD plans to hire a new superintendent by July. For more information on the search, visit bit.ly/2Jl9bek. To see the final leadership profile and information on the position, visit bit.ly/2UFR8k5.
