The Katy ISD board of trustees nominated Ken Gregorski as the district’s lone candidate for superintendent in a 4-3 board vote at the Dec. 17 board meeting.

The next step for the district is a 21-day waiting period, which is governed by state law to let the public know the board has selected a lone candidate, said Justin Graham, the district’s general counsel. The earliest the board could offer a contract is Jan. 7. The next board meetings are scheduled for Jan. 14 and Jan. 21.

Gregorski has been serving as the district’s acting superintendent since November and was appointed as the district’s deputy superintendent December 2016. Other positions Gregorski has held during his 26 years in public education include associate principal and assistant principal at Katy ISD, assistant superintendent for human resources at Allen ISD, principal at Fort Bend ISD and teacher in El Paso ISD, according to his biography on Katy ISD’s website.

Board member Dawn Champagne and President Courtney Doyle said during discussion Gregorski was the only applicant for the position and was interviewed. Champagne said this interview occurred in closed session immediately preceding the Dec. 17 open meeting.

KISD posted the job vacancy for the superintendent position Dec. 3. It closed Dec. 14, and only district employees were allowed to apply. Graham said at the Dec. 17 and Dec. 11 meetings that by law the board cannot disclose applicants unless the board choses to name someone as the lone candidate.

Before the board voted on naming Gregorski as the lone candidate, board member Rebecca Fox presented an amendment to postpone the vote for the agenda item, use a national search firm and use community input. It was voted 4-3, and so it failed.

President Courtney Doyle said two years ago the district sent out thousands of surveys, of which less than three percent responded back. These responses helped the board in 2016 choose Superintendent Lance Hindt, who resigned in May after several allegations arose claiming he was a bully during his teenage years.

“Based on where our community is, and based on … where our district is, I think that we are in a perfect position to be keeping this district going in the path that it is going in with an internal candidate,” Doyle said.

However, Fox pointed out that many people have moved into the district since 2016 and that focus groups were also pursued to develop the characteristics the board used to narrow down candidates during the superintendent search process in 2016.

Despite the divide in votes for Gregorski, Doyle is confident that the three board members will support the him going forward.

“I did not take our vote tonight, as a 4-3, that there were three members that voted against Mr. Gregorski,” Doyle said in an interview after the open meeting. “More that they wanted the search to be [different] but not they were against him as a person. They know that Mr. Gregorski is the man for the job, and that he can do the job.”