By Kelli Weldon
As it begins to build a profile of qualities it wants in a new superintendent, Austin ISD is reaching out this summer 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 provide feedback on the search they can contact her office.
"We're scheduling some evening meetings for community forums as well as some lunchtime meetings," she said.
Lunchtime forums were held at the Baker Center and evening forums took place at local high schools July 15–17.
AISD board of trustees elections will be held in November. Board President Vincent Torres said 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 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.
In August the district's executive search firm, Ray and Associates Inc., is scheduled to present a superintendent profile and begin recruiting candidates who meet district requirements.
Superintendent candidates will have until Sept. 22 to submit applications, which the board and search firm will review and pick candidates to interview.
Torres said the board decided to conduct what it calls a "closed/open" search process.
He explained that the board defines a completely open process as making candidates' names available to the public from the moment they apply for the position, and 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.
As of July 16, about 1,100 community members had submitted completed surveys on the superintendent search to AISD, according to the district. Aug. 15 is the deadline for surveys and input from community members, stakeholders and board members, according to AISD.
"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.org
