Process of search for new ORHS principal continues

Process of search for new ORHS principal continues

By RONI REINO
rreino@fosters.com


Wednesday, May 18, 2011


DURHAM — A hiring consultant has told the district a low salary and a one-year contract would make it difficult to bring in high school principal candidates for the new search, while selected School Board members for the search committee argued which community members would be placed on the search committee.

At a meeting Tuesday at the Oyster River Cooperative School District Central Office, School Board members Henry Brackett, Ann Wright and Ann Lane, with Superintendent Howard Colter, met to discuss the next steps in the candidate search. The four are part of a core search committee selected by the School Board at the last meeting.

About 10 community members and School Board member Jocelyn O'Quinn sat in on Tuesday's meeting.

NESDEC consultant Art Betancourt spoke with the committee and said advertising could get under way as early as next week. To get a good pool of candidates, advertisements for the position should be out in the public for at least four weeks, but he suggested six.

"Any less than four weeks of float time makes it very difficult for you to get a full range of candidates," he said

Colter said the high school principal advertisement that was posted earlier this year for the first search was publicized for about a month.

Advertisements are expected to be posted online once the committee provides a candidate profile to NESDEC, the hiring consultant firm the district has decided to work with in the coming months. Final applications are expected to be accepted until mid-June, members said.

In February, the district received 44 applications for the position, but Betancourt said he wouldn't expect much more than 20 because it was almost summer.

As discussion of salary ensued, Colter said it was not publicized during the last search how much the district was willing to pay. However, Colter said since retiring high school principal Laura Rogers would have been making about $101,000 if she stayed next year, the district is expecting to offer a salary of about $95,000 to $101,000, depending on experience.

Betancourt said the salary seemed low for a New Hampshire high school principal, but after discussion, committee members agreed raising the salary would cause discussion for what other Oyster River Cooperative School District staff are being paid.

"It's a much larger discussion than what do other principals make," Colter said. "It would be a domino effect."

The district has also said it would be offering a one-year contract. Betancourt said it would be difficult to get "high quality" candidates without a longer contract.

Members also discussed concerns about who would be running the search. Previous discussions have been unclear who is in charge of the search.

Board Chair Henry Brackett said he would like to follow regulation GCCR, which states the board will determine its level of involvement with the hiring process before it commences.

"It says the board should be involved," he said of the policy at the last School Board meeting. "But it's out there for determination."

Wright brought up School Board policy BDD, which states the School Board as a whole, and individual members, will "act upon matters of employment or dismissal of school personnel only on the recommendation of the superintendent." She said the superintendent should be choosing the candidates to bring forward for interviews.

The current search process, as described by Brackett, will begin by the core search committee — Brackett, Wright, Lane and Colter — narrowing down the applications to an undetermined number. Those will then be passed along to each the community, leadership and building committees for review.

Those groups will then provide their recommendations back to the superintendent and one school board member — which has yet to be determined — for final review.

"The School Board would interview the final candidates," Brackett said. "There is an expectation there will be two different candidates."

Since the announcement the board would be asking community members to participate in the search, there have been numerous requests.

"I think we are fortunate so many people want to be on the committee," Wright said. "We have a nice representation of people."

The community group is expected to be made up of 10 community members and two students, all of which Brackett said he would like to be 18 years of age or older so they may sign confidentiality forms. Colter said he has never had search committee members sign a confidentiality form in the past.

At Tuesday's meeting, Brackett, Wright and Lane chose the members for the community committee. Members of the building committee, will be made up of teachers and the leadership team will be made up of administrators.

Thomas Newkirk, Martie Gooze, Lorna Jacobsen, Seth Fiermonti, Julie Reece, Marjorie Wolfson, Lisa Roeder, Ruth Wharton-McDonald, Jen Sayre-McKiernan and Luci Gardner were selected for the community group. Ute Luxem will be submitted as an alternative.

Each committee is expected to meet at least twice. The first time to discuss how members will evaluate candidates and a second to go through resumes.

The recommendation of the community members will be brought for approval to the School Board at the Wednesday, May 25.