OYSTER RIVER COOPERATIVE SCHOOL BOARD
Policy Code: GCC-R
Date of Adoption: April 14, 1981 Dates of Revision: October 16, 1996; April 7, 1999
PERSONNEL -- RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
Building Principals
The board will determine its level of involvement prior to the beginning of a search. The following are procedures for the recruitment and election of principals in the Oyster River Cooperative School District.
1. The assistant superintendent will advertise available position(s) with state employment offices, selected colleges and universities, the district office and local school buildings, and in selected national, state and regional print and/or electronic media, when appropriate, within two weeks of a verified vacancy.
2. The superintendent, assistant superintendent, and representative(s) of the board will screen applications, advise those from whom references and placement papers are requested, and identify candidates to be invited for interviews.
3. Interviews will be scheduled as follows:*
a. Building committee
b. Parent/community committee (including student representative(s) for high
school principal recruitment only)
c. Leadership Team of central office administration/district principals (less superintendent)
d. Superintendent, with a representative of the board
4. An on-site visitation committee will observe final candidates in their school community, whenever practicable. Composition of a site visitation committee will be determined by the superintendent or his/her designee, in consultation with the board.
* Candidates interviewed at levels 3a-c above will not necessarily be referred to levels 3d.
5. The school board will:
Interview the finalist candidates. It is expected that there will be at least two finalists unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Receive verbal report(s) of the administrative committee, building committee, parent/community committee and student committee, as appropriate.
Deliberate the report(s) with the superintendent.
6. The superintendent of schools will nominate a candidate for and will provide the board with backup rationale supporting the nomination. Such information will be provided prior to the meeting.
7. The school board will elect or reject the nominated candidate.
From this post it appears to me that the established process was not followed. Instead a "nomination committee" consisting of a mix of teachers and community members was apparently convened by Superintendent Coulter. While he may have had the best intentions, this was NOT the prescribed process.
ReplyDeleteThe SB erred by allowing this process to begin and by allowing it to continue for so long. However, any Principal who was hired by the process used would have been highly vulnerable because they were not hired according to established procedure. It would have made the principle vulnerable and would have done her/him a great injustice.
While it is regrettable that the HS may not have a "permanent" principle for a while, it is better engage in this process properly than it is to simply hire someone to fill the position. I say this in respect to the process used, and not the candidates put forward by the committee.
Brett,
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that there were 4 (yes, four) school board members involved in this committee along the way. There has always been 2 board members on the committee at all times.
By the board assigning board members to be on the committee, they sanctioned such a committee.
Seeing that this is how all principal hiring committees in the district have gone for many years (at least the last 10) than there is lots of precedent to keep doing what has been done in the past.
John,
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from, but this decision would have put the District in legal jeopardy regardless of what may have been done in the past.
The Board has an established procedure to use when hiring a Principal. If they do not use this procedure, they make the District vulnerable to a lawsuit about favoritism in hiring. That is a legal reality.
I cannot comment on whether or not the board "assigned" members to be on the committee, or whether those members joined that committee as community members. However, even if they did join as representatives of the SB, that in now way increases the legal legitimacy of this ad hoc committee in the face of an established procedure.
The SB is legally the only body that has the authority to hire a Principal. They have an established procedure that allows for input from a variety of constituent groups, but still leaves the SB very firmly as the decision makers. This is the way it should be, as the SB is the legally elected representatives of the voters within the community (not just those who are asked or have the time to serve on a committee).
The mistake the SB made was in letting this process begin. However, given their legal responsibilities, they had no alternative to their decision the other night.
Thanks for sharing valuable post.
ReplyDeletePlacement Papers