School board hears South Carolina School Boards Association outline for superintendent search, cost $18,000 base
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Summary
Scott Price of the South Carolina School Boards Association presented a proposed 4–6 month superintendent search process that includes community surveys, focus groups, confidentiality until finalists are named, and a base fee of $18,000 plus additional administrative charges; board members asked about applicant geography and retention estimates.
Scott Price, executive director of the South Carolina School Boards Association, told the Chesterfield County School Board that a typical superintendent search runs about four to six months and emphasized the board controls the search design.
"It's your search," Price said, describing a process that includes electronic surveys and focus groups to gather community input, preliminary screening of applicants, and a multi-night interview schedule that would bring roughly nine semifinalists before the board and reduce them to three finalists. Price said the base fee in the proposal is $18,000 and that the association would add "an additional anywhere from 5 to 7" for administrative expenses as described in the proposal materials.
Price told board members that recruitment can be national in scope if the board wants to "throw a wide net," and advised the board to keep applicant identities confidential until finalists are named. When asked about the geographic mix of applicants, Price estimated "probably about half of them would be from out of state" if the district received 20 applications. He also estimated that 75–80 percent of selected superintendents from past searches have remained through an initial contract term.
Board members asked about typical steps and the role the association would play; Price said the association would conduct initial screening, help schedule and run interviews, provide draft questions and sample contracts, and assist with background checks at the finalist stage. "We do preliminary interviews and screening of applicants," he said, adding that deep background checks (criminal, civil court, financial and credentials) occur only for finalists.
No formal decision to hire the association was recorded in the public portion of the meeting. After the presentation Price offered to remain for further questions and the board later moved into executive session to discuss personnel and the superintendent search.
The presentation materials referenced a draft timeline and pricing included in a proposal packet distributed to the board.
Next steps: the board indicated it would take time to review the proposal and could ask Price to remain for follow-up questions; no binding contract or vote on hiring the association was recorded in the transcript.
