Seattle Schools' Superintendent Search, March 228, 2025

 A story in the Seattle Times this morning seems to say the Board should be considering an interim superintendent and not a permanent superintendent. There are many good reasons for this:

Seattle is already entering the superintendent search market late in the game. Districts advertise vacancies in the fall, from around November to January, and start screening, interviewing and hosting community engagement sessions in February, with an eye toward a July 1 start date for their new leaders, said Julia Rafal-Baer, the CEO of the ILO Group, a firm that tracks superintendent turnover and women in district leadership.

With a smaller pool of qualified candidates to draw from, a tight timeline and the possibility of significant changes on the School Board in the fall — four of the seven seats will be on the ballot in November — Rafal-Baer said the board might want to consider an interim superintendent. 

Rafal-Baer cautioned that a compressed timeline could compromise the thoroughness of the candidate recruitment process. She stressed that it might lead to reduced community involvement, rushed candidate assessments and the risk of overlooking crucial compatibility concerns.

The district will also have less time to sell itself to prospective candidates. Then there’s the chance that a new School Board majority could come in the fall and fire a new superintendent they had no role in selecting, she said.

Okay, so I don't think the new Board would fire a new superintendent. But that point about the district selling ITSELF to candidates is quite valid. 

One other key issue that no one has mentioned - the new Strategic Plan. While the Draft Statement of Work for Executive Search Firm does mention "highly qualified candidates who are committed to SPS' values as articulated" in various Board policies, it says nothing about the strategic plan. 

I bring this up as I saw where one community group is already meeting with Superintendent Jones to talk about the Plan. 

It would seem like that might be something to consider if you are trying to attract strong candidates. Is this person a caretaker to a teachers contract negotiated right before they get there? Is this person a caretaker to a Strategic Plan that they had no input on?

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