Process begins for hiring new superintendent for Lawrence public schools

In a search where district officials have said time is of the essence, the first steps toward hiring a new superintendent for Lawrence public schools have been made.

Requests for contract proposals have been sent to several executive search firms that aid districts in the process of hiring a superintendent. The school board has also scheduled a meeting for next Monday to vote on whether it will hire a firm or do the search in-house.

Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll announced on Nov. 23 that he will resign his position effective at the end of the school year. School board President Vanessa Sanburn, school board Vice President Marcel Harmon and Director of Human Resources David Cunningham met the following day and decided to send the requests for proposals to several search firms, Sanburn said.

At the school board’s public meeting on Monday, it will review the proposals, which will include the cost to hire each firm, as part of its decision. Sanburn said that having the proposals will help the board make a more informed decision on whether to hire a firm. The cost of using a firm has been estimated at about $30,000, which would come from the district’s general fund. Sanburn said the board will grapple with whether that cost is worth it.

“We’ll weigh that cost against the benefit of whether it will help us find someone more qualified and better to lead our district,” she said.

Sanburn said hiring a good replacement for Doll is vital to the district and to continuing the policy work of the school board.

“I think our board is good at policy government rather than trying to actively get involved in the micromanagement of schools,” she said, adding that Doll was good at working with the board to make those high-level decisions. “In order to do that and have a healthily functioning district you have to have a leader that is capable and confident.”

The board elected to hire a firm for the last superintendent search, when Superintendent Randy Weseman announced in 2008 that he would retire. Cunningham told board members last week that hiring a firm to aid in the process was typical for a district of Lawrence’s size. The district has 20 schools, a college and career center, a virtual school and about 12,000 students overall.

Regardless of which process the board chooses, it will gather information — likely by focus groups or community feedback sessions — about the ideal characteristics that the community would like to see in the next superintendent, Sanburn said.

“The benefit of using a firm would be to advertise more widely and really look for candidates that support those characteristics,” she said.

The timeline for posting the superintendent position is hastened by the fact that application deadlines are mid-January for other districts in the region also hiring superintendents, Cunningham explained after the board’s meeting last week. That means delaying posting the position would likely narrow the number of qualified candidates.

Sanburn said that with the short timeline in mind, the board hopes to post the position before the end of December. If the board decides next week to hire a search firm, it will likely vote on which firm to hire at its meeting on Dec. 14, she said.

The next school board meeting will be 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at the district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.