Burton School Board discusses hiring process for new superintendent

On Monday evening Burton School District (BSD) held their bimonthly board meeting where they discussed the new superintendent position available.

During discussion, the board agreed that the recruitment and hiring of a candidate will be done internally, meaning the board will be going through all of the applicants.

The district knows exactly what they are looking for in a new superintendent, but they still need to hold another meeting to further discuss the requirements the applicants must meet.

BSD wants to make sure the person who will be taking the position is familiar with the demographics of the school district, as it is a very specific area.

This is not the first time the district has done their own hiring process as explained by Jay Rice, board member.

“It is a long process, we might have to take a Saturday and go through the applications and then follow up with interviews,” said Rice. “It’s a long process but we will get to see all of the applications by ourselves and pick the most suitable ones for the job.”

Rice mentioned last time the board decided to go through the hiring process themselves they set aside a day to go over all of the applications and went over them and picked out applications and interviewed the candidates.

The board discussed the cost for going about the hiring process in different ways. They concluded to do the hiring process internally and are looking at the cost of sending out mailers, flyers, information, and already have an existing contract with Edjoin, a website used to by job seekers to apply for education jobs. The position will be posted as soon as possible for the public.

“We want to be fair,” said Rice. “So that way anyone who might be interested can apply.”

Board member Obdulia Alvarado said, “We will practice what we preach,” to the board members.

The board moved on to discussing some of the requirements for the superintendent position.

“I know given where we live at, and the pride we have in our bi-literate campuses, I think one of our prerequisites for our superintendent is to be bi-literate,” said Eddie Hernandez president of the BSD board. “I want the superintendent to be able to communicate with the district’s Hispanic community.”

Jay Rice disagreed, and mentioned he wouldn’t really consider “bi-literate” to be a prerequisite, but just for it to be preferred. In the end, the board agreed to make bi-literacy a preferred requirement.

The board also established other desirable qualifications for candidates, like having a Doctorate degree and experience with high school and charter schools.

The board further established they want candidates with five or more years of experience as an administrator (right now for someone to get an administrative credential they have to have at least five years of teaching experience in a classroom). The board mentioned that BSD has nine campuses, almost 5,000 students

and 500 employees, and they need someone with this experience.

“I just want to make sure all of those pieces are identified and looked at during the hiring process,” said Debbie Estrada, executive director of human resources.

As for the contracts, in the past they have been doing year-to-year contracts, but they are going to leave it as a negotiable contract.

The board appointed Hernandez to be in charge of the hiring process, with the assistance of Estrada.

While the district might searches for a new superintendent, David Shimer will continue to lead the district as the interim superintendent. All board members agreed he is more than capable of fulfilling the duties of the position until a new superintendent is found.

“We are in good hands with Shimer,” said Matt Mccracken, BSD board member. “For now, he has it all under control until the position is filled.”