The search for a superintendent of schools for the Churchill County School District ramps up this week when the Board of Trustees meets on Wednesday, March 22 to hear from Consultant Greg McKenzie who is slated to present information about the applicants he recommends for preliminary interviews.
McKenzie reported to the board on March 8, 2023, that he was pleased and surprised with the number of applicants his search produced. Beginning on February 9 and working with Annette Cooper, human resources manager, they made several online postings with school administrator association job boards made, EdWeek (an industry publication) picked up the CCSD online application, a direct email campaign was made to western states administrators that reached over 16,000 administrators, and they made a posting on LinkedIn. Efforts yielded 23 candidate applications by the deadline, with a majority of those having a Nevada connection.
“This number of candidates exceeds the range expected for this search,” said McKenzie in a written report supplied to the board. “I’m pleased with the number of candidates,” he said during his report.
He also reported that on March 9 he would meet with a team of community stakeholders made up of 14 members of the administrators, classified, licensed, union representatives, parents, and community representatives to review the applications and begin formulating the list of candidates to recommend to the board at the March 22 meeting.
Members of this Application Review Committee were required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement prohibiting them from disclosing any information about the candidates and the candidate field, both during reviews and into the future.
The committee was tasked to review all the applications and make recommendations to the consultant about who should be interviewed for the position. Each reviewer was to submit a list of recommended candidates to the consultant who is organizing and compiling the results for presentation to the board on Wednesday.
McKenzie reported that 12 of the candidates have a Nevada connection (one of the Board’s desires), 13 have superintendent or district office experience, 9 are bilingual, and all have building-level administrative experience.
During the March 22 meeting the board will also discuss the process and scheduling of the interviews, as well as future steps of the search. McKenzie recommended discussing dates and times for interviews to be held on April 10 – 15. Interviews will be held in a public session of a board meeting, and all board members should be present for all interviews. He said there should be 8-12 major questions with follow-up for each candidate, and he asked each board member to formulate 2-3 questions. He will make available relevant portions of the candidate’s file during the interviews.
After the interviews are completed, after April 15, McKenzie will facilitate a discussion among the board members about the results of the interviews in hopes of narrowing the field to 3-4 candidates. At that point, the board will make decisions about inviting finalists to visit the district, plan meet & greet activities for the staff and community, perform background checks and schedule second interviews.
We will continue to report on the search process. The meeting Wednesday is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in “The Pit” at the Old High School, 690 S. Maine Street.
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