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Board begins planning superintendent search; members favor new approach and local focus
Summary
Board members reviewed a draft superintendent search timeline and debated whether to repeat past national search practices or pursue a more locally focused, hybrid process; members asked staff to further define vendor services and to reuse past search data where useful.
Kenzie (staff) presented a draft timeline for a superintendent search that would begin in the fall with vendor selection and community engagement, open applications in mid-December, screen candidates in February and hold final action in March, with a contract start date of July 1. The timeline mirrored prior cycles but was explicitly labeled a draft.
Why it matters: the board will choose the district's next superintendent; several members said previous searches did not serve the district well and asked for a substantially different approach that could be more locally focused and more board-led.
Board comments and requested refinements
Several board members expressed a desire to change how the district runs the search: one member said they had "absolutely really no interest in doing it the way we've done it in the past," and several suggested a hybrid model that limits full outsourcing and instead uses a vendor to augment internal work. Andrew suggested the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) as a lower-cost option for some services but noted WASB cannot actively recruit current Wisconsin superintendents. James urged the board to clarify which services they want from an external vendor and to account for the preparatory work required for community focus groups and profiling.
Next steps
Staff will refine the scope of services the board would like from an outside vendor, consider hybrid search models, and return to the board with options; several members asked board leadership to consider a more active board role during the process.
