Wanted: A new superintendent

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Those key traits proved to be the main theme of a Tuesday night session between Ontario School District staff and residents designed to publicly kick off the search for a new superintendent. The above traits were in addition to a number of other qualities and qualifications recommended to and approved by the Ontario School Board following the hearings Tuesday that will be used in a brochure to send out to potential candidates interested in the position. The dual meetings, which were attended by 31 staff members at the afternoon session and 22 community members, including some of the same teaching staff, were conducted by Oregon School Board Association Executive Consultant Donna Herren, were the next step in the superintendent search process and featured a variety of opinions that were condensed into the final recommendations.

Prior to naming the qualities and qualifications, community members at the evening session were first asked to name some good qualities about the school district as well as some challenges superintendent candidates might need to be aware of during the interview process. Of the good qualities, the dual enrollment program with Treasure Valley Community College, strong FFA and vo-tech programs and excellent employees were named as positive initiatives by the crowd.

On a longer challenges list, high poverty, overall economic challenges, cultural challenges, old facilities, low test scores and a “disconnect” or mistrust of the school district by the community were all listed.

The meeting attendants had even more ideas of what they wanted to see in the superintendent hired, many repeats of qualifications and qualities previously mentioned or included by Herren based on her knowledge of the community.

There was some disagreement as to whether the new superintendent hired should be late in his career or earlier. Ontario Dr. Ben Peterson suggested the person hired should have plenty of experience in his or her field and not looking at Ontario as a jumping off point, whereas community businessman Fred Weigand suggested somebody who views the job as an opportunity to improve and grow in their career.

"I think we need to look for somebody who's trying to grow their career and not rest their career," Weigand said. "We've had a lot of enders. We need a builder."

Classified employee Uniserve representative MaryKay Brant suggested the new superintendent should be somebody who can inspire creativity and help move an agenda forward by coalescing people in the community.

"The schools should be the heart and soul of the community," she said.

The audience members agreed the new superintendent should be aware of the cultural differences in the community as well and have an understanding many people in the school district live in poverty. It was also suggested a bilingual superintendent would be ideal, but not required.

While it was suggested both by a few community members it would be a challenge to find a superintendent to meet all the qualities and qualifications desired, and Ontario School Board member David Cox said such a person probably wouldn't stay in the district for very long if he or she possessed all those qualities.

Herren was more optimistic. She said, while a few more in number than usually included, the qualities and qualifications were pretty similar in concept and number to what other school districts are looking for as well, and they were not unreasonable.

"Good candidates will be able to meet those qualifications, no problem," she said.