BOE hears results of superintendent search surveys, community discussion

When Alabama Association of School Boards consultant Terry Jenkins set an online survey in motion to assist in gathering feedback for Vestavia Hills City Schools' superintendent search, he had no idea the kind of response he would receive.

Normally, he said to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education at a work session Monday, his team will get 300 to 400 responses.

But Vestavia turned out, and the survey received 1,063 responses in just 10 days. Of those who responded, 75.3 percent were parents, another significant departure from what Jenkins said he normally sees.

And the 66 stakeholders who came to the in-person meetings were no different.

“We have some people we encountered who have very strong feelings,” Jenkins said. “They didn’t hesitate to write them down and express them.”

Jenkins went through his gatherings from the in-person meetings first, and listed the items that were recurring themes in the discussion.

Of the characteristics those at the meetings deemed important were a person with strong character, strong communication skills and someone with academic leadership skills stood out, Jenkins said.

Those at the meetings, whether they were parents, elected officials, teachers or administrative staff, had commonality in that they desired someone with experience, preferably academic, and who will focus on communicating with those throughout the school system.

Jenkins said he observed that those at the meetings said they would prefer someone with a doctorate degree, but that it wasn't a deal-breaker if the candidate only had a master's.

Those who took the online survey were by and large in agreement with those who came to the meeting, Jenkins said.

When asked what they thought was the most important thing for a candidate to have successful experience in, respondents listed "recruiting and leading a staff that can effectively serve all students," as the top priority, closely followed by "communicating effectively with system employees," "ensuring student safety and discipline," and "communicating effectively with parents and other stakeholders."

When broken into demographic groups, those who self-identified as parents generally followed the same trend, while school employees were more concerned with the candidate creating a positive work environment.

The students who took the survey were most concerned with how the candidate would handle a multi-million dollar budget, an amusing departure from the norm, Jenkins said.

As far as education, the overall results showed relative neutrality as far as the candidate having a doctorate, but overwhelmingly showed respondents would expect a master's degree — which Jenkins noted is the minimum the state requires anyway.

Respondents were more committed to their belief that an ideal candidate should have education administration and teaching experience, with 90 percent saying the candidate should have administrative experience and 87 percent believing the candidate that should have classroom experience. Only 51 percent said they thought the ideal candidate should have experience as a superintendent.

After hearing the results, Jenkins took questions and the board discussed the next steps.

The major item of discussion was what to list as the base salary for the position, a detail Jenkins said he needed to formally post the job.

The board discussed the salaries of neighboring systems' superintendents, and settled on a listed salary of $190,000, with possible negotiation commensurate to applicable credentials and successful experience.

[For more on the superintendent search, see our additional coverage here.]