Trustees discuss superintendent search options
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POLSON — The search for a new superintendent was first on the agenda at a special school board meeting on March 20. While Superintendent David Whitesell’s resignation leaves the district in interim superintendent Bill Appleton’s hands, now is the time of year administrators are searching for jobs.
The Montana School Board Association and McPherson and Jacobson, L.L.C., from Omaha, Neb., both do searches and submitted proposals to the board.
The MTSBA charges $5,500 to seek potential superintendents, more if it’s a national search, and can increase by $1,000 per day; and McPherson and Jacobson charges $7,500 for a national search.
“I frankly think we need to get started asap, and I think it needs to be a national search,” Chair Caryl Cox stated.
“I have a problem with jumping right into a search without looking within,” Trustee Bob Ricketts said, noting that hiring from within the district increases staff loyalty.
Trustee Brian Havlovick said he liked phase 5 of the McPherson and Jacobson proposal, which included developing a job description, establishing performance goals and evaluation.
Trustees will compare the proposals and reconvene to vote on the issue.
District Clerk Pam Owen presented a preliminary budget based on the information available. The base budget for the elementary district without a general fund levy would be $7,434,350.01 and the high school district would be $3,814,937.35.
(For more information, go to the Montana Office of Public Instruction’s website at www.opi.mt.gov under “understanding school finance.” The base budget is the minimum budget that a district must adopt for its general fund.)
After discussion about the high school roof, which is leaking with the warm weather and melting snow, and a raise for school district staff, the board chair suggested all trustees “do some number crunching and some thinking” and reconvene at a special meeting on March 27 to vote on whether or not to run a general fund levy.
For the remainder of the meeting, the board went into executive session, meeting for 15 minutes with each administrator from the Polson schools and the special education director. The administrators’ names were removed before the personnel report was approved at the March 12 meeting so trustees could go over their evaluations.
