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Consultants present community engagement report as Richland 1 prepares superintendent search
Summary
BWP and Associates reported on a districtwide engagement that collected roughly 5,000 responses and recommended a leadership profile for the next Richland 1 superintendent; board members asked about finalist vetting and site visits.
BWP consultant Dr. Kastner told the Richland 1 School Board on March 25 that the community engagement process for the district’s superintendent search engaged “over 5,000 people” through interviews, forums and surveys and produced a 75‑page report and a one‑page leadership profile for the board to adopt.
The report, Dr. Kastner said, combined 224 stakeholder interviews, 31 stakeholder meetings, nine public forums and more than 4,900 survey responses in English plus 75 Spanish responses and more than 1,500 student responses. He said the data showed community priorities that include communication skills, managerial and financial competence and a desire for a visible, community‑committed leader.
Why it matters: The board must name and appoint a superintendent whose profile will shape hiring decisions and initial priorities for the district. Dr. Kastner said the leadership profile will be used to screen candidates and that the search will present four to six candidates for the board to consider in May, with a target of naming a superintendent in late May or June and an expected start date around July 1.
Key findings and next steps
- Engagement scale and sample: Dr. Kastner said the process produced a data set large enough that percentage results were stable (he noted changes of about one percentage point between earlier and later samples). He highlighted that students’ responses sometimes differed from adults’, particularly on school safety, which registered higher among students than adults on the survey.
- Leadership profile: The report recommends a candidate with strong communication and collaborative management skills, experience with diverse communities, instructional expertise and demonstrated success in finance and personnel management. Dr. Kastner said the search firm will recommend candidates who meet at least 80% of that profile.
- Board process: Dr. Kastner told commissioners the board should finalize a leadership profile quickly so it can be used in candidate screening. He encouraged the board to reach consensus on finalists and said BWP will provide candidate materials (applications, resumes, references and Google search findings) and offer interview training and sample questions.
Board questions and process details
Commissioner Bishop asked whether board members ever visit finalists’ communities. Dr. Kastner said board members historically have sometimes contacted a finalist district’s board chair or done limited outreach but said routine site visits by the full board are uncommon now because of public scrutiny; he suggested two board members could call a finalist district’s board chair without calling a public meeting. Commissioner Bishop and others discussed options such as a “day in the district” for finalists, which BWP has used in other searches to gather community feedback.
Dr. Kastner also said BWP will perform intensive background checks on finalists, including social media and public record checks, and that the firm will guarantee its work at no additional cost if the board rejects recommended finalists and requests a new search.
Ending
Dr. Kastner said the board is receiving the full engagement report at the same time as the public and urged members to read the appendices, which annotate qualitative stakeholder input. He closed by asking the board to reach a consensus on the leadership profile within the week so the firm can proceed to candidate vetting and interviews.
