School board rejects interim superintendent

 The Red Oak school board decided at a meeting last week to continue pursuing hiring a permanent superintendent instead of an interim. 

School Board President Lee Fellers said 16 applications have been received for the position, which will be vacated when Terry Schmidt’s resignation takes effect June 30. 

“We feel like we have a number of qualified candidates who have sent in applications,” he said. “Since we have a really good pool to choose from, we decided to pursue our original goal of hiring a permanent superintendent instead of an interim.”

Fellers said the board hopes to have that permanent superintendent hired by the end of the month; May 28th to be exact. 

With the assistance of consultants G. Tyron and Associates,  the pool of 16 candidates will be narrowed down to about eight and at a May 18 meeting, the school board is expected to decide on four or five “semifinalists.” 

Those individuals will then interview with the school board May 20, after which two finalists will be selected. 

The two final candidates will then be separately interviewed by the school board and four “focus groups” May 26 and May 27. 

The focus groups include teachers (12 members), support staff (12), community members (12) and members of administration (eight). 

After those final rounds of interviews on May 27, the board will meet later that night to choose their final candidate. 

At last week’s meeting, the board also approved confidentiality guidelines that will be used during the interview process.

According to a board-approved resolution, the candidates’ identity will be kept confidential with the exception of the two finalists. 

Their names, resumes and applications will be released May 21, Fellers estimated. 

The new superintendent replaces Schmidt, who resigned in a letter April 9. Schmidt had been serving as Red Oak’s superintendent since July 2007.