DOVER — The Capital School District board has selected national firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to lead its superintendent search.
During its Wednesday meeting, the board met with two associates from the company who will be working on the search. Board members Dr. Tony DePrima and John Martin worked with Delaware School Board Association Executive Director Dr. John Marinucci to select a search firm following a request for proposals late last year.
“They met all of our required points that we were looking for and absolutely were the favorite firm among all three of us who were reviewing those,” Dr. DePrima said Wednesday.
Capital has been helmed by Interim Superintendent Dr. Sylvia Henderson since July, after former Superintendent Dr. Dan Shelton took the same post in the Christina School District.
Now, the district is on track to have someone in the role permanently by July 2021, according to associates from HYA.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Ed McCormick and Dr. Monica Browne of HYA laid out their expectations for the next few months.
The firm is identifying a focus group of those in the community (school staff, students, parents, government groups, local universities, etc.), who will create a survey and interview each school board member to determine the ideals for the next superintendent.
HYA will compile two documents with that information: a leadership profile for the new superintendent and a list of desired leadership characteristics, said Dr. Browne. Both documents will be presented to the board for approval publicly, she said.
The firm will be responsible for managing applications, screening and interviewing all candidates and checking their references prior to the board beginning its own interview process.
HYA will help the board through its interviews and the selection of finalists. Once a candidate is elected, HYA will help set goals for the year in a “transition phase,” Dr. Browne said.
Right now, the firm hopes to have leadership profiles before the board Feb. 17, with a slate of candidates decided by March 19 and interviews beginning March 24. The second round of interviews are on tap for March 31.
Selection would occur within the first two weeks of April, said Mr. McCormick.
“We’re pushing for the first couple weeks of April because the person we bring in, undoubtedly, will be someone that’s working. I don’t anticipate bringing anyone that’s unemployed to you,” he said. “Those people may have 60 days, 90 days, in their contracts, so in order to hit that July 1 date, we need to be in April in terms of preferred candidate.”
Although there has been no advertising for the position yet, Mr. McCormick said, there have already been nine applications submitted through HYA’s website, including “some strong candidates.”
“So far, the search is living up to its national promise in that all of those nine candidates are out of state,” he said, noting there are some regional applications from Pennsylvania and Maryland but also from as far as Texas. “We’ve got to try to wake up the candidates in Delaware.”
The search will cost $18,000, district officials said.
