The Dexter Leader
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Not one good 'fit'
Dexter extends search for superintendent
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 19, 2008
It appears the search for a replacement for retiring Superintendent Evelynn Shirk will continue well into the remaining calendar year.
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Shirk will remain on with the district as superintendent "temporarily until the Board of Education gets further along with its (second attempt) Superintendent Search Process," read the motion that the board unanimously passed this week as a followup to last Wednesday's decision to extend the search.
The district's attorney could draft a recommended motion so the district can fully continue Shirk's service for an indefinite period of time,
The board decided in a special meeting June 11 that none of the three finalists for the position "fit" the district.
The Board of Education held the special meeting to make a decision which was originally scheduled for June 2 - its most recent regularly scheduled meeting.
Board members Michael Wendorff and Ron Darr were not present Wednesday, although Darr participated via teleconference in both the 7 p.m. open session and subsequent closed session to discuss options with Michigan Leadership Institute representative Michael Wilmot.
Board President Larry Cobler was absent on June 2 but joined that meeting by teleconference.
Wilmot is heading up the search for candidates and coordinating the screening process and other facets of finding suitable superintendent candidates.
He is also under contract to the district as a strategic planning consultant for the district.
His existing business relationship with the district led to Dexter schools getting the search at a cost of $4,000, which is below their usual rate, according to Cobler.
After the closed session, the board decided that the remainder of the 20 original applicants would receive a second pass for resume screening and district officials would attempt to shore up another candidate or batch of finalists.
The first round of final candidates included Nancy Staub, Pinckney Community Schools assistant superintendent; Brian Metcalf, Marshall Community Schools assistant superintendent; and John Savel, Trenton Public Schools superintendent.
As a result of the board's decision Wednesday, those three are completely out of the running and will not receive a second chance.
Four of the 20 reached the first screening round, with the fourth dropping out before first interviews.
John Savel of Trenton Public Schools withdrew his application on June 2 as a result of the board postponing the action to the June 11 meeting. He had passed his second interview and a site visit to Trenton Schools before removing himself from consideration.
Cobler said the district would attempt to find their candidates from the pool that they have already paid for.
He did not indicate that an internal candidate was being considered or that the thought of moving someone on staff up to the superintendent's chair was a motivating factor.
According to Wilmot's estimation, the district could have finalists by the end of November or early December.
A final candidate could cross the finish line in January, the start of the second semester of the 2008-09 school year.
The board also decided to reform their search committee, consisting of Cobler, and fellow board members Kim Covert and Bonnie Everdeen.
"We're going to do a little bit more research on the pool of candidates we had looked at tonight, before we decide how many we'll have a second look at," Cobler said. He said the committee will do "some calling and some meeting and a little more screening."
The search began in April, at which time the decision was made to establish a position description and posting it to solicit applicants and go from there, Cobler explained at last Wednesday's meeting.
"We selected four that went down to three candidates for first interviews and eventually second interviews that we thought would narrow the field down to two candidates," Cobler said. The board was originally going to reduce the number of candidates to two, but decided not to on May 10, citing a need for a "wider field" of candidates to make the best decision to pick someone who fit into the unique chemistry of the district's administration. "But the board felt we needed some additional time to review the candidates, and we decided to move into site visits with all three candidates."
"One thing I told all of the people that we met with at each of those sites is that we have three extremely qualified candidates," Cobler said. "Our goal was not to find qualified candidates. Now our job was to find someone who fit our district."
Cobler said that from there the board remained cognizant of its responsibility to look at what they were hearing during interviews and visits and decide if the candidates would fit.
"We agreed that none of the candidates who we have gone through this process with would fit," Cobler said. "They're all extremely qualified, but don't seem to fit."
After checking to see if there were any other recommendations, Cobler asked Wilmot for advice.
"I think you really have two options," he explained. "One would be lets take a look at some of the candidates that we talked about when we narrowed the field down to four during the paper screening, with a possibility of letting them in for a first round interview. If we find candidates in there that we thought you would want to talk to, you may want to look at someone or you may not want to look at any of them.
Wilmot went on to say that the district could also start the whole process over again, although at the current time a search would yield candidates that are out of contract with their district's and thus unemployed at that time.
"This time of year candidate approvals are the thinnest, because contracts expire," he said. "To go into the pool at this time would generate candidates that are unemployed for whatever reason.
"I would advise you appoint an interim superintendent to shepherd the district until a certain point," he said, which is what spurred the decision to keep Shirk on, according to district officials.
Wilmot added that despite having another round of finalists by winter that wouldn't necessarily mean a final candidate would be ready to go for the second semester either.
Cobler ultimately decided to stay the course.
"We've committed to a process and we're going to follow that process," he said, adding that now was the time for board members to put out their favorites from the remaining 16 for another look.
The board looked to Wilmot again for a nudge, but he simply stated that "at this juncture the determination as to whether or not there is any value in looking at these candidates is up to the board's determination, not mine."
Cobler also stated that the board has learned a lot during the process and have met people in the (Dexter) school district "that we didn't know we had," indicating that there were new layers of feedback and concern with which to bring to the screening process that weren't available for the first round candidates.
"I would have a different view of the candidate than I did that first time we went through with it."
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