The Weehawken Board of Education - Update on Search for Superintendent

Weehawken Parents - We would like your opinion. Please let us know your views on the Discussion Board.

Update on Search for Superintendent Message from the Weehawken Board of Education The Weehawken Board of Education would like to update our district on the groundwork we’re laying for its search for superintendent. The board has determined that to optimize our search for a superintendent, we must first set clear goals for a strategic education plan for our district. We will then use that plan as a basis for interviewing and selecting the best candidate for superintendent. Toward that end, the board, along with Interim Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons, has prepared a set of multi-year goals with a projected maximum of five-years, predicated on feedback from all the critical stakeholders in the community. Now that we have received feedback from the parents, Dr. Fitzsimons will finalize his draft of multi-year goals to present to the board at its April meeting, with the board making its own additional recommendations and revisions. These goals will serve to anchor the school system and provide a direction for the district over the next five years. After those goals are incorporated into a job description, we will then begin our search of candidate for superintendent, with the aid of a search professional, to lead us in our chosen direction. Input for our multi-year district goals has been obtained from administrators, board-members, and teachers, both via survey and face-to-face meetings. Input has also been sought from parents using both an online survey and handouts, followed by a face-to-face between Interim Supt. Dr. Fitzsimons and parent-teacher organizations of all three schools for additional feedback. Both Dr. Fitzsimons and the board are synthesizing this information, which includes our district's academic, financial and capital improvement goals, and analysing it in the light of our actual financial resources. The board’s search committee will then use our finalized set of multi-year goals to interview applicants, obtained with the aid of a search professional, for school superintendent. We require a superintendent who has the experience, enthusiasm and know-how to implement those goals, as well as the leadership ability to galvanize the stakeholders behind him or her. Searching for our next superintendent is something we will do step-by-step, using the best judgment of board members, administrators, while keeping in mind the views and values of our teachers and parents. Thank you for your input thus far, and we will continue to keep you apprised. The Weehawken Board of Education