Schools

112 Board Hopes To Hire Superintendent by January

Wide ranging input sought for replacement for current North Shore District 112 superintendent by search firm headed by former Township High School District 113 Superintendent.

Community input will be part of a potential four-month process for selecting a successor to retiring North Shore School District 112 Superintendent David Behlow with the help of a search firm headed by a former Township High School District 113 superintendent.

Linda Hanson, founder of the School Exec Connect search firm and a one-time superintendent of District 113, told a meeting of the District 112 Board of Education today what her company planned to do to bring a new leader to Highland Park’s elementary and middle schools.

“We will conduct focus groups to form a consensus profile of what you believe and your community believes is what your superintendent (should) be,” Hanson said. In addition to the Board, Hanson hopes to have input from teachers, parents, administrators and other members of the 112 community. “We hope groups like the PTO will pick their own representative.”

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Advertisements have already been placed and Hanson hopes to spend at least two hours with the Board this month for detailed planning. She will spend October building the profile and interviewing candidates with the hope of bringing five or six contenders to the Board for interviews.

“The Board will interview six and cull to three,” Hanson said. Those three will go through extensive interviews with the Board and two other committees including parents, teachers and support staff.

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There will be formal and informal gatherings with the Board before a final candidate is chosen—hopefully in December—and a contract approved. It is anticipated it will be finalized in December or January with the new superintendent taking charge July 1.

School Board President Bruce Hyman told the Board and others in attendance he was happy with the work Hanson has done for the District in the past, particularly her ability to protect candidates’ confidentiality. “She has conducted (searches) without the knowledge of the district or the board,” he said referring to current employers.

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