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Applications for KSBA executive director to be accepted starting Dec. 1; screening panel gets input from K-12 stakeholders, association staff

The screening committee of the KSBA Board of Directors will begin receiving applications on Dec. 1 from candidates interested in becoming the association’s next top administrator.

At its Nov. 3 meeting, the panel adopted a timetable that calls for applications for the job of KSBA executive director to be accepted through Jan. 11. A first round of interviews will take place in February and early March, with interviews of all finalists slated for late March. The plan calls for the full board of directors to act on a selection before the end of that month. The new hire, who will be the association’s fifth executive director in its 77-year history, would begin work on or before July 1.

The screening committee will use the services of KSBA’s superintendent search service manager, Mike Oder, to facilitate the process.

In its first meeting on Oct. 15, the panel directed that a list of questions be sent to a variety of the association’s education partners. Among those responding were Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, state Board of Education Chairman David Karem, the executives of the school administrators and superintendents associations and several regional education cooperatives.  The same set of questions, seeking input on “attributes and competencies” of potential candidates, was also distributed to all KSBA staff for responses. The replies of all respondents were collected and provided verbatim to the committee, which spent considerable time in reviewing them at its most recent meeting.

As a result, the screening committee developed a job description that will be posted on the association’s website and in personnel ads starting Dec. 1. After the Jan. 11 deadline, the panel will meet to begin the review process.  The committee’s timetable calls for first round interviews to start the second week of February, followed by a second round of semi-finalist candidates. The committee will recommend one or more finalists to the full board of directors, which will conduct its own interviews, before making a hiring decision.

The process adopted by the committee is similar to those used by 12 other state school boards associations that responded to a KSBA survey on recent executive director searches.

Current KSBA Executive Director Bill Scott announced in September his plans to retire as of June 20, 2013 after nine years as the association’s chief executive.