Search For a New Superintendent Starts With Lofty Goals, But Few Surprises

Matthew Hersh

The community knows what it wants in a superintendent, but can a search spearheaded by two established educators deliver the goods? The quest for a new superintendent is on, but the process, which officially began in the public capacity last Wednesday, may prove to be more difficult than some had initially thought.

Despite sending notices to the homes of all parents with children in the Princeton Regional School District, only about 20 parents and two representatives of the School Board were in attendance at the public forum at John Witherspoon Middle School. There, they met with Drs. Mark Smith and Carol Conger of the educational search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the Glenville, Ill. firm that was contracted by the District last month to conduct a systematic search for a replacement for Dr. Claire Sheff Kohn. Dr. Kohn will leave her post on July 31 to become superintendent in the Masconomet School District in Massachusetts.

Additionally, the two representatives from the firm met all day Thursday with Princeton Young Achievers, the Westminster Choir College, and the Princeton Alcohol and Drug Alliance.

Out-going superintendent Dr. Kohn's four-year tenure represented a stability within the District not seen in years. After then-superintendent Marcia Bossart's contract was bought out in 1998, the District went through three interim superintendents before landing Dr. Kohn in 2000.

Interim Superintendent Richard Marasco will fill the District's executive spot on August 2, but the move should not reflect the administrative instability that dogged the District before contracting Dr. Kohn, School Board member Alan Hegedus said, adding that he does not want the District to revisit this "checkered past."

"[The Board] is taking this search very seriously and we're sensitive to the history of the process," Mr. Hegedus said, adding that the search to replace Dr. Bossart "was a debacle."

The School Board has requested an informal list of eight candidates by September 1, and a formal profile is scheduled to be submitted to the School Board by October 1 with the hopes that a new, permanent superintendent can be installed by January.

However, that goal is far off, Hazard's Dr. Conger said, and much work needs to be done before they can narrow the playing field and introduce three final candidates this fall. The search process will not be public until those candidates have signed on for consideration.

Until then, Dr. Conger, who is herself a former superintendent of Ramsey, Chatham, and Harding school districts, said her firm will meet with focus groups to determine what the community is looking for in a superintendent.

"Basically, we will address the issues that are out there," she said.

Those issues, as expressed at the meeting, include supervising the District's construction projects over the next three years, overseeing relations between the teachers and the teachers' union, improving the public schools' academic competitiveness with the areas six private institutions, closing the achievement gap for minorities, and finding a superintendent who is politically sensitive to budgetary and other municipal issues.

Next, Dr. Conger said, the firm will create a leadership profile representing the School Board, community, and student concept of an ideal superintendent.

One of the firm's major goals, Dr. Conger said, is to find someone who can understand the Princeton community, adding that while not essential, it may be preferable to choose someone from a similar community.

That concern seemed more important to parents at the meeting at John Witherspoon than to Drs. Conger and Smith, who maintained that all qualified candidates will receive equal consideration.

However, Ms. Conger said that based on the feedback received, parents have been largely satisfied with the District's direction under Dr. Kohn's watch. The evening at the Middle School inadvertently turned into a forum highlighting the successes of the departing superintendent's tenure.

"In terms of skills," Dr. Conger said, "what many people said they wanted was a clone of Claire."