By Alex Malm
The School Board got an update from John Feeman and Susan Bradley, who are senior consultants with the Bryan Group during their April 5 meeting.
The Bryan Group was hired by the School Board to help with the search for their next superintendent. Current Superintendent Scott Laliberte is retiring on July 1.
“This is a very challenging time to be looking for a superintendent of schools,” said Freeman.
Freeman said that the current market is tough as the number of people looking for superintendent positions is “very low.” He said that over the course of his career the number of applications for leadership positions specifically in NH has steadily declined.
The process started in December with conversations between Bradley and Human Resource Director Heather Meninger Freeman said. In January the search committee was formed and they immediately got to work.
Freeman said that as part of the process they posted the position to School Spring. He said that most individuals looking for jobs in schools from teachers to top positions look for jobs there. It also allows people who use their services to get a notice when a job in their interest area becomes available.
Freeman said that the search committee is ready to move forward to the long interview process.
“Our committee is ready to move forward with our long interviews and continuing our screening process,” said Freeman.
He said that after their short interviews it was determined that there was only one candidate that the search committee thought was a viable candidate to move forward to the long interview process. On March 22 the School Board voted to require that two candidates would be needed to be sent to the School Board for long interviews. They also agreed to reopen the job posting.
School Board Vice Chair Sara Loughlin asked how they can broaden their search for candidates in New England and outside of New England.
“How do we get it out there more,” said Loughlin.
Another question that was asked by Loughlin is whether or not they have received more applications since they reposted the job.
“We have,” said Freeman.
It was also asked during the meeting if they did any proactive recruitment or outreach for different candidates.
“Our committee decided that we didn’t want to take that approach,” said Freeman.
It was asked by School Board Chair Amy Finamore if they can schedule a long interview for the one candidate that they have so far.
School Board member Bob Slater said that they already agreed as a Board to bring more candidates to the Board and that they wouldn’t bring less than two candidates to them for their consideration.
“Let’s see what we get,” said Slater.
Finamore said that they already have dates in place for the long interviews and said that they would simply just be giving the candidate first choice for what date they want to do the long interview on.
Slater said as it is known that it may not go any further he was okay with it.