Overview
With the upcoming retirement of Superintendent Dr. Ken Wallace at the conclusion of the 2023-24 school year, a comprehensive search for the next Superintendent is underway.
The Board of Education voted to hire the search firm School Exec Connect to facilitate the process to hire the next District 207 superintendent on Aug. 7. That vote followed the Board’s interviews of four search firms during a special meeting on Aug. 2.
The decision on who to hire as the next superintendent is the role of the Board of Education. The role of the search firm is to help ensure there is a strong candidate pool, as well as provide opportunities for stakeholders to provide input to the Board to assist the Board in identifying the qualities, skills and experiences they are seeking in the next superintendent.
The Board of Education recognizes that the selection of a Superintendent of Schools is its most important responsibility for the students, staff, families, and other stakeholders of our school district community. The Board of Education is committed to a search process that is transparent and collaborative with input from all school district stakeholders.
Superintendent Profile
The search firm hosted open forums for parents, community members and students to provide feedback to help develop a profile of what is most important in the next superintendent. Focus group participants included the school board, district administrators, teachers, staff from across the district, parents, students, elected officials and community members. A total of 143 stakeholders participated in one of 20 focus groups/open forums. All participants were asked to express their views regarding the strengths of the district, challenges facing the district, first-year priorities for the superintendent and the specific characteristics, skills and attributes to be sought in the next superintendent.
The district also sought input from stakeholders via an online survey. There were 804 respondents who answered questions about perceived educational and managerial strengths and challenges the new superintendent will face. Respondents also identified priorities for the new superintendent to address and characteristics they associate with a successful superintendent in District 207.
The results of all the feedback were utilized to create a Superintendent Profile that will be used to find strong candidates and match the needs of the district. It is important to note the items are not in priority order.
Timeline
A timeline of key events has been created by the search firm.