School board, community set out wish list for new superintendent

Job seekers are already interested in the top job in the South Whidbey School District, according to consultants who have been hired to find a replacement for departing Superintendent Fred McCarthy.

LANGLEY — Job seekers are already interested in the top job in the South Whidbey School District, according to consultants who have been hired to find a replacement for departing Superintendent Fred McCarthy.

The hitch? The job won’t officially be posted until Feb. 21.

“We’re not really quite ready for applicants,” said Michael Boring of McPherson & Jacobson, the executive search firm hired to find a replacement for McCarthy.

Boring said the early interest in the job was sparked by a notice on the website for the Washington State School Directors’ Association that said the South Whidbey district would be looking for a new superintendent.

Applicants will have to wait, however, until the school district knows exactly what it wants.

District officials took a big step in getting there this past week.

The district’s superintendent search team hosted a series of meetings with students, teachers, community members and the school board to talk about what’s needed in a new superintendent, and have also gotten plenty of feedback about the positive attributes that may attract top-quality candidates.

South Whidbey has a lot going for it, Boring said, and the school district does, too.

“The South Whidbey community is just a very positive place to live. It has a lot of benefits for families, it’s a lovely area. Culturally, it has a lot of opportunities for people,” he said.

Boring said people talked about the strengths of the school district, as well, and the dedication of teachers and staff.

“They care about the kids,” he said.

One theme was repeated many times in the meetings.

“It’s just a place where people are involved and help each other,” Boring said.

Much of the meetings were devoted to compiling the essential characteristics needed in the next superintendent, who will replace McCarthy at a time when the district continues to struggle with fewer dollars — additional cuts of $750,000 to $1 million are expected in the next budget, which follows $4 million in cuts over the past four years — as well as the still-unpopular decision to close Langley Middle School. The school board met in a special session this past Wednesday for about two hours to talk about what they’d like to see in a new superintendent.

Boring said it’s important that the board spell out what it wants, because it’s something the candidates themselves want to know before they consider applying for the job.

“When I look back at my years as an applicant, I really was very, very concerned about what was in the minds of the board members … individually and as a group. Do I fit?” he asked.

The list turned out to be long.

Board members said they wanted a good communicator. Someone who could motivate administrators and teachers and be passionate for high student achievement.

Also needed: an innovator. School Board Member Fred O’Neal said children don’t learn at the same rate, yet the educational system is built on the assumption they do.

“Are we going to get somebody who’s really good, really excellent at doing what we have always done — which is the wrong thing to be doing,” O’Neal said.

“If we end up doing more of the same, even if we do it better, we have really screwed the kids,” he said.

There was more on the wish list, and members of the search team hung sheets of butcher-block paper on a board-room wall to capture each suggestion from school board members.

The comments eventually filled five pages, with officials eager to offer what they wanted in a new chief of schools:

A collaborative leader, one who sets high standards and expectations.

A consensus builder; a manager; a tech-savy someone who is passionate about improving student achievement.

A strategic thinker with a proven record, a leader both competent and confident, and authentic, not political.

And maybe most of all, a change agent.

School board members then tried to consolidate the list, which the consultants will use to create a brochure about the job and other recruitment materials.

Al Cohen, a consultant with the search team, tried to make sense of 30-plus attributes for a new superintendent that had been suggested, moving from one sheet of suggestions to the next.

“I feel like Vanna,” Cohen said, empathizing with the “Wheel of Fortune” star as he made his way from one end of the wall to the other, checking off an attribute on one butcher-block comment sheet before noting it on another across the room.

Board members said they didn’t expect to find one candidate who has it all. Some things, though, were needed more than others in a new superintendent.

School Board Member Leigh Anderson said she wanted someone with backbone; firm but fair.

“My preference would be for us to have a leader, rather than a manager. A leader first,” Anderson said.

The new hire is expected to start later this year. McCarthy will retire from his post as chief of South Whidbey schools at the end of June, after nearly five years with the school district.

Consultants from McPherson & Jacobson said the school district is looking for a new leader at a good time; the January-through-April time frame is historically the best time to find a superintendent, since job seekers have time to consider a move, and it also gives their current employer time to find a replacement.

The job vacancy will be posted on Feb. 21, and applications will be taken for six weeks, until April 4.

The school board is expected to meet on April 25 to select semi-finalists, with full-day interviews with those candidates slated on May 7.

McPherson & Jacobson, an executive recruitment and development firm based in Omaha, Neb., has conducted successful recruitment efforts for school districts across the country, in districts both large and small.

In Washington state, the company’s clients last year included Federal Way, a school district with an enrollment of more than 21,000, down to Northport, a district with 162 students.