— from Chris Sutton, Orcas Island School District Board Chair —

This is an exciting time of transition for our school. Barbara Kline has announced her retirement effective June 2014. For more details regarding her retirement and long dedicated service to the district see recent articles on Orcas Issues and the Islands Sounder.

At our special meeting on November 7, the School Board discussed our search for a new superintendent and decided to form two teams.

Team One: “Position of the Superintendent”

Tasked with defining what FTE, duties, skill sets, type of ideal candidate, salary range, any alternative admin structure possibilities, etc.

Team Two:
“Search Process”

Tasked with defining who will be on the search committee, use of a headhunter or not, scope of search, interview process, final interview process, process of final vetting of candidates, etc.

Details
· Each team will be provided a community facilitator if they want one.
· The team will have a board member, but he/she will not lead the team.
· If you are on one team, you cannot be on the other team.
· Commitment to meetings is essential for anyone taking on this task

We would like to get these two teams formed by November 20. Between November 20 – December 19 the two teams will meet, and then report to the board on December 19, when we will then finalize the search process and “who” we are looking for.

If teams need more time, the report to the board and next steps can be pushed to our January meeting.

If you would like to be on either team, please send an email to me, Chris Sutton (csutton@orcas.k12.wa.us) and say which team you would like to join. We will do our best to create teams that represent our community well.