As it begins to build a profile of qualities it wants in a new superintendent, Austin ISD will soon be reaching out to more than 200 local stakeholder groups and individuals to gain feedback on its ongoing search.
AISD Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley said at a media briefing June 26 that if local groups want to be part of that process they can contact her office.
"We're scheduling some evening meetings for community forums as well as some lunchtime meetings," she said.
Lunchtime forums will take place July 15–17 at Baker Center, 3908 Avenue B from noon to 1:30 p.m. Evening forums will be hosted from 6:30-8 p.m.:
July 15:
- Bowie High School, 4103 W. Slaughter Lane
- Reagan High School, 7104 Berkman Drive
- Summitt Elementary School, 12207 Brigadoon Lane (Vietnamese interpretation provided)
- Travis High School, 1211 E. Oltorf St. (in Spanish)
July 16:
- Crockett High School, 5601 Manchaca Road
- Eastside Memorial High School, 1012 Arthur Stiles Road (in Spanish)
- Lanier High School, 1201 Payton Gin Road
- McCallum High School, 5600 Sunshine Drive
July 17:
- Akins High School, 10701 S 1st St. (in Spanish)
- Anderson High School, 8403 Mesa Drive
- Austin High School, 1715 W. Cesar Chavez St.
- LBJ Early College High School, 7309 Lazy Creek Drive
AISD board of trustees elections will be held in November. Board President Vincent Torres told media the district's most up-to-date schedule involves plans to identify a candidate before the next board takes office, but the new board members would actually vote on the superintendent.
"The idea there is more to be thoughtful in taking the right amount of time needed to do it rather than thinking, 'we need to have this board or that board make the decision one way or another,'" he said.
Exact dates are not yet set in stone, but in August or September, the district's executive search firm, Ray and Associates Inc., will present a superintendent profile and begin recruiting candidates that meet district requirements, Torres said.
Superintendent candidates will have until around Sept. 20 to submit applications, which the board and search firm will review, Torres said.
Torres said the board decided to conduct what it calls a "closed/open" search process.
He explained the board defines a completely open process as making candidates' names available to the public from the moment they apply for the position, while a completely closed process would keep all information from the public until a sole finalist is named.
AISD plans to name between two and four candidates as finalists whose names will be presented to the public for another round of community feedback sometime in October or November, he said.
"The community is most interested in who are the people that we're really seriously considering," he said. " [our process will be] closed up until we make those last candidates known, and then that's where we will open it up to the public," he said.
Torres has been providing weekly updates to the community on the superintendent search but will take a break from doing so for the week of July 4, he said. Updates will resume July 11.
The district has already received feedback from the community on its superintendent search, Torres said. AISD launched a survey June 20 for community input.
"We know everyone isn't going to be accessible through the Internet, or everyone isn't going to be able to come to a board meeting, so whether they phone or fax or drop by or talk to us in person, we want all of that information to make a decision as a board," Torres said.
More information is available at www.austinisd.org/superintendent-search.