Stout named to lead district
SOUTH COVENTRY >> The Owen J. Roberts School Board will formally vote Monday on the hiring of a new superintendent.
Thursday afternoon, the district announced that Wilbur Stout has been chosen as the new schools’ chief, replacing Susan Lloyd, who will retire in June.
Stout is currently the assistant superintendent of State College Area School District in State College and will officially begin his new job on July 1.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome a Superintendent with
“His extensive experience in school districts will serve him well here at Owen J. He brings building level, central office and assistant superintendent experience with him. In addition, his time as a guidance counselor will be a benefit to our students as we all recover from the pandemic.”
— Leslie Proffitt, president of the Owen J. Roberts School Board
Dr. Stout’s diverse experience and background,” Leslie Proffitt, president of the Owen J. Roberts School Board, said in a press release issued by the district.
“His extensive experience in school districts will serve him well here at Owen J. He brings building level, central office and assistant superintendent experience with him. In addition, his time as a guidance counselor will be a benefit to our students as we all recover from the pandemic.”
In addition to his current post, which he assumed in 2017, Stout served as the director of secondary education at the CornwallLebanon School District in Lebanon County; high school principal at Hempfield
Area High School in Westmoreland County; assistant principal at Centerville Middle School in Lancaster County, and a middle school guidance counselor in the Hempfield Area School District.
The board will vote to approve a contract with Stout at its regularly scheduled voting meeting which will be held virtually on Monday, March 15, at 7 p.m.
Stout’s appointment concludes a three-month process headed by the Chester County Intermediate Unit that began in December 2020.
The search efforts yielded a diverse pool of 25 applicants, consisting of superintendents, assistant superintendents, central office and building administrators, according to the district release.
Throughout the winter, the board completed the screening of applicants, three rounds of rigorous interviews to determine the degree of fit between the stakeholders’ criteria, the district’s needs and the candidate’s professional experiences.
Of the 25 applicants, the board selected nine applicants for first-round screening interviews. At the conclusion of firstround interviews, the board selected three candidates to advance to second-round interviews.
From those three the board selected Stout for a third, and final, round of interviews.
Stout is the second new area school district leader to be announced this winter.
In January, the Boyertown Area School Board promoted Marybeth Torchia from assistant superintendent to the district’s top role.
In July, former superintendent Dana Bedden took the top post at the Centennial School District in Bucks County after only two years in Boyertown.
The process for replacing not only the superintendent, but the entire executive team at Pottsgrove School District, is still underway.
In December, Superintendent William Shirk was joined in announcing his pending retirement by Assistant Superintendent Robert Harney and longtime Business Manager David Nester, all three of whom will retire in June.