Duplin School Board gets first look at applications
By Catharin Shepard
Published in News on March 16, 2010 1:46 PM
KENANSVILLE -- Over the next few days, Duplin County school board members will get a first look at superintendent candidates' resumes.
Allison Schafer of the North Carolina Association of School Boards has been assisting the county in the search to fill the administrative position. The search is going well, and 27 people have responded to the call for applications, an above-average number of applicants, she said.
"That's a very good number. We usually see around 20," Mrs. Schafer said.
She planned to have the application packets in the Board of Education members' hands soon, and is scheduled to present the information to the board at its meeting today. An earlier date for the presentation was rescheduled for March due to weather and illness concerns.
During the meeting, Mrs. Schafer will discuss information collected from a public survey conducted through the school system's Web site. There was a good response to the survey, she said.
"Then we come to a closed session meeting and everyone indicates who they're interested in talking with," she said about the next step in the process.
Then, the school board will bring applicants in for interviews. That is another way the NCASB will assist the county.
"We will come to facilitate that discussion, arrange the interviews and then get all of that set up, and staff the interviews, we will come to the meeting and help the board get people in and out," Mrs. Schafer said.
Part of the NCASB's role in the search process will also include making sure the county is in compliance with confidentiality and open meeting laws. And while Mrs. Schafer and her staff will not sit in on interviews with individual candidates, they will help schedule and prepare packets to optimize the process.
If the selected candidate is currently serving as a school superintendent elsewhere, under state statute he or she must give 30 days notice before leaving a position or risk having their state certification revoked. Some school districts also have a 60-day notice clause.
The interviews and selection process, including background checks, will take several months to complete. Current superintendent Dr. Wiley J. Doby's contract will end this summer.
However, the new superintendent should be in office long before the first bell of the 2010-11 school year.
"They're on target to have someone in place well before that," Mrs. Schafer said.
The next Duplin County school board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the large conference room of the O.P. Johnson Education Building. The Duplin County Education Foundation will hold a reception for Duplin County Teachers of the Year and Principal of the Year prior to the meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Duplin Commons.