Search for New Suffield Schools Superintendent Begins

The Suffield Board of Education Superintendent Search Committee has begun its search for a new school superintendent.

The search, to be facilitated by a consultant from Cooperative Educational Services (C.E.S.) Executive Search Services, is expected to conclude in the spring of 2015 with the selection and appointment of a new district leader. The new superintendent is expected to assume leadership of the Suffield Public Schools on or about July 1, 2015.

Superintendent Dr. Karen Baldwin has been hired as the school superintendent of the Ridgefield Public School system in Fairfield County. Retired Suffield school principal Dr. Mel Chafetz is serving as interim school superintendent while a permanent replacement is found.

The Board of Education, in their role as the Superintendent Search Committee, will seek input from the school and the community with an online survey and a series of focus group meetings, designed to help the Board of Education formulate a profile of the leadership attributes and personal characteristics desired in the new superintendent.

The first meeting is Thursday, Feb. 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the Suffield High School Media Center. Dr. H. Kaye Griffin, C.E.S. Executive Search Consultant, will give a presentation outlining the steps in the search process, including community research her firm will conduct, the recruitment and selection process, and the transition to a new superintendent.

The school staff and community members are encouraged to attend one of the focus group meetings and to complete the online survey which will be accessed through the school district’s website in February.

“Gaining a clear understanding of the Suffield’s community’s expectations for leadership attributes and personal characteristics of its next superintendent is critically important to the success of the superintendent search and to the future success of our school district,” Jeanne Gee, Board of Education Chairman, said in a statement. “The data collected through the online survey and the focus group meetings will provide the Search Committee guidance throughout the search and the selection of a new superintendent.”

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The online survey will be accessible via a special link on the district’s website homepage in February. Completing the online survey will provide constituents the opportunity to comment on the leadership attributes and personal characteristics desired in the new superintendent as well as to help identify current issues facing the school district. All responses will be anonymous and compiled by the search consultant and staff at C.E.S. All staff, students, parents, and community members are encouraged to participate in the online survey.

Also, the C.E.S. search consultant will collect data from district and school employees, parents, and students and interested persons in the extended community through a series of focus group meetings. The focus group meetings, which occur in the school community, are designed to provide individuals an opportunity to engage in in-depth discussion with the consultant about the leadership attributes and personal characteristics desired in a new superintendent. A schedule for the series of focus group meetings will be posted on the district website (www.ces.k12.ct.us/Suffield) in mid-February. The search consultant will hold the focus group meetings during the first week of March and all comments will be identified as group responses.

Data collected in focus group meetings, along with the online survey data, will be compiled and organized by the C.E.S. search consultant and then published in a comprehensive report that includes a leadership profile for the new superintendent. The report will be posted on the district website. The search committee will use the leadership profile as a framework for reviewing candidate applications and structuring interview questions and search activities.

The Board of Education is expected to offer the new superintendent a three-year contract with a competitive salary.