BV School Board Seeks New Superintendent
Sterling R. Quinton
Buena Vista, CO
May 27, 2009
The Buena Vista School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday, May 27. The purpose of the meeting was to initiate the search for a new superintendent after three-year veteran Tina Goar announced a surprise resignation at the Board’s last regular meeting.
Representatives from the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB), Bob Cito and John Miriam, were present to facilitate the meeting. The School Board contracts with CASB to help locate potential superintendent candidates.
Cito said that while the process is open to change as necessary, it will basically look as follows:
1. Create focus groups including community members, staff and administrators, and the Board. The purpose of the focus groups will be to determine the desired qualities in a new superintendent.
2. Initiate a screening process whereby the staff, administrators, and Board review and evaluate applications.
3. Once the top candidates are found, CASB will do a thorough background check.
4. The remaining applicants will be interviewed by committees of community members, staff members, and the Board. Each applicant will be interviewed individually by each group. The groups will then make recommendations to the Board. If a satisfactory candidate is found, the Board can make the decision to hire. If no such candidate is found, the process is restarted.
The big question at Wednesday’s meeting was whether to seek an interim or permanent superintendent. There appeared to be an unofficial consensus by the District administrators and present staff that an interim made more sense at this time. The CASB representatives and the Board seemed, in contrast, to favor a permanent superintendent – at least initially.
A change of perspective occurred when Cito inquired about the difficulties the District faced in coming years. Those include: declining enrollment (currently at 952 students for k-12), future budgetary concerns, facilities – specifically new construction and repairs, personnel issues, a transitioning financial director, and the four Board seats (Good, Cain, Ommen, and Green) up for election in November.
The last item is responsible for the meeting’s shift in perspective. Cito said that the potential turnover on the Board was a game changer, and then asked if all the members up for reelection were committed to running again in November. This elicited a portentous moment of silence from the Board. Good and Green have previously indicated that they will not be running for reelection.
Cito said that there was no need for an unequivocal answer at that time but that, “you (the Board and District), may want the newly-seated Board to make this decision. If you do have a majority turnover, the needs may be different. So you may want to go with an interim. That changes a lot of things.”
The Board and staff did generate a preliminary list of qualifications, whether interim or permanent, that the new superintendent should possess. This list includes: experience with R-31’s unique issues, a great communicator, the ability to accept criticism, a desire to be a team player, a forward thinker, transparency, fiscal understanding, experience with Policy Governance, and the inclination to stay long-term.
The last point prompted some questions and discussions regarding why the District seems recently incapable of keeping a superintendent for more than a few years. Self-reflective questions from staff focused on whether the District was doing something wrong.
With so many variables in the air, the Board opted to put off a decision regarding whether to initiate a permanent or interim search process. It is expected that the Board will come to a consensus on Monday’s regular meeting. Cito indicated that the Board’s decision to ruminate for a few days was prudent, but also cautioned that the district was under considerable time constraints and urged everyone to keep the process moving apace.
The next meeting will be held at the School Administration building on Monday, May 29, beginning at 6 pm.
Bob Cito and John Miriam from the Colorado Association of School Boards help to facilitate Thursday's meetings. BV is seeking a new superintendent after Tina Goar turned in a resignation last week.
