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After meeting with search consultants last week, the CMS board’s superintendent search committee now says it expects to hire a new leader in May, rather than April. That’s to allow time for BWP & Associates to try again to get input from lower-income, mostly minority neighborhoods that were underrepresented in earlier public engagement sessions conducted by a local consulting firm, as well as from CMS students and employees. That feedback will be used to craft a description of what the community wants from its next superintendent.
The search firm has also asked the full school board to do two rounds of interviews with candidates as it narrows the field.
The slight delay comes as no surprise, given how tight the original timeline was. Debra Hill, one of the BWP consultants, told the committee it isn’t likely to put CMS at a disadvantage in the quest to get someone in the office by summer.
“I’ve done a lot of searches in these last 16 years. And I have to tell you I have not had a search where there has been so much preliminary interest before we’ve even been able to post the vacancy and announcement,” she said. “I’ve been on the phone all weekend with people talking about their interest in or recommending people for this position.”
CMS has not had a superintendent reach the three-year mark in the last 12 years. The board fired Earnest Winston in April.
