The Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education is moving into the final stages of its search for a new district superintendent, and expects to offer the position to the best candidate on Feb. 18.
The board discussed its timeline for the final stages of the hiring process at its Jan. 6 board meeting.
The board started its search for a new superintendent last July after current Superintendent Bob Dubik announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2013-14 school year. The board asked Jody Manning, OCM BOCES district superintendent, to head of the Cazenovia CSD search for its next superintendent.
The board advertised its vacancy announcement for the position throughout October and November, and received 18 applications. The candidates were mainly from the Central New York area, but some live in other parts of the state and a few applicants are from out of state, said BOE President Pat Vogl.
Last week, the board checked references and undertook a preliminary screening of candidates, and on Jan. 21it will review the credentials of all 18 candidates and select up to eight candidates for interviews in an executive session, according to the search timeline. By the end of January, the board expects to undertake initial interviews to select the final three position candidates.
Once the top three candidates are chosen, they will be invited to Cazenovia to tour the district Feb. 11 through 13, meet with community stakeholders and be interviewed by community members, district staff, students and the board of education.
The district last week released a solicitation for eight to 10 community volunteers to serve on a committee that will interview the three final job candidates Feb. 11, 12 and 13. The community committee will be one of several stakeholder groups to meet and evaluate the candidates. The other groups include administrators, teachers, non-instructional employees and students.
After the final interviews, the board expects to offer the position to one of the three candidates during an executive session on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
Also at the meeting, the board:
—Discusses possible changes to the school calendar for the 2014-15 school year to avoid teacher work days occurring on Thursdays. The board has heard numerous complaints in recent months from parents that having a Thursday with no school and then a Friday with school is problematic for childcare issues and bad for students. No final decisions have been made yet, but the board is “taking all concerns in to consideration,” Vogl said.
—Discussed a request to add a second modified softball team to the athletics program. The request came from the varsity softball coach stating that a large influx of players in grades seven through nine and a simultaneous lack of ninth and 10th grade players to have a junior varsity team will create the need to make 14 or 15 cuts when players tryout for varsity. The creation of a second modified team would prevent that situation. The board did not vote on the request but “is not in favor of doing this at this time,” Vogl said.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
