Marion County board reviews HYA Phase I search results, agrees to Dec. 18 work session to refine job description

The Marion County School Board on Dec. 1 reviewed Phase I findings from its superintendent search consultants HYA and agreed to reconvene Dec. 18 to finalize a superintendent job description and review student PM2 test data before deciding whether to proceed with a national search.

HYA presented three documents — a 37-page leadership profile (with an eight-page executive summary), survey results and a two-page summary of desired superintendent characteristics. Stacy, a senior HYA consultant, summarized the district's strengths: "First and foremost, as a strength of the district ... was the strong community culture," and cited dedicated staff, improving leadership visibility and growing CTE and IB/Cambridge programs.

HYA reported broad participation in the process, saying 276 people took part in interviews or focus groups and 2,052 completed the survey; HYA noted those figures may overlap and cautioned the work is not a scientific random sample. In the survey's key findings, respondents rated school safety and community engagement highest while AI classroom readiness and AI tool use scored lowest.

The HYA summary identified five priority areas for a successor superintendent: building trust and people-focused leadership; clear, transparent communication; strategic and fiscal management; community understanding and advocacy; and k–12 educational expertise. HYA advised the board to use those characteristics to guide recruitment or as an evaluative tool for interim leadership.

Board members broadly supported the desired-characteristics document but debated whether to include a compensation package in the public recruitment materials. "I think the compensation piece should be left off of the desired characteristics form if we were to approve this as presented," said Board Member Campbell, who argued salary specifics can be discussed later in negotiations. The chair summarized the board's direction: remove the compensation component for now and bring the job description to the Dec. 18 work session for further edits.

HYA explained its recruitment practice: it typically posts a summary description and the desired characteristics and begins national outreach; the district job description is often finalized later in the process. Several board members said they were uncomfortable starting a national search without first approving a board-sanctioned job description.

The board also requested student-performance data to inform its decision. Deputy Superintendent White house said PM2 testing would begin at some sites the same day, continue over the next two weeks, and that the district could provide a year-over-year summative report in advance of the Dec. 18 meeting.

Public comment included two speakers addressing the search documents and district programs. Deborah Velez, chief operating officer of the Marion County Hospital District, asked that a challenge listed about early program uptake be read in context and praised the district as "phenomenal partners" for expanding fitness and nutrition programming into every public school. Jerome Gamble, president of the Marion County NAACP, said his organization supports interim superintendent Dr. Brewer as a candidate for the permanent post.

Next steps: the board will hold a work session on Dec. 18 to review and edit the superintendent job description, receive PM2 data, and then determine whether to authorize HYA to proceed with national recruitment.