Superintendent Interviews Could Come in January

The Millburn Board of Education could begin interviewing superintendent candidates in January, but it wouldn't be until after the April election when someone would be hired.

Representatives from Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the firm assisting in searching for a new superintendent, were at the board's meeting Monday night to outline the general process for the search to replace schools Supt. Richard Brodow. Brodow will retire at the end of the 2009-10 school year.

School officials have yet to release the cost of the contract to work with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates because they are still negotiating the final details, said board member Sam Levy, search committee chairman. The negotiations include a strategic plan, he said, but the figure should be released at the next school board meeting on Sept. 8.

Judith Ferguson and Jamie Savedoff of Hazard, Young, who are both retired New Jersey school executives, said their next step is to have a long meeting with the search committee to determine the scope and timeline for the search.

The duo will then meet with a variety of groups to be determined by the search committee to discuss the qualities they want to see in the next superintendent, Ferguson said. They'll spend two days meeting with people, she said, and the meetings would include two open forums. One would be in the evening for the community, she said, and the second would be after school for the faculty.

The consultants would then compile the criteria and present it to the board in public, Ferguson said, and then hammer out the final criteria before advertising for the position.

They would use their network in order to recruit candidates, which would include people who may not know there's a vacancy or aren't actively searching for a position, she said.

If the district receives 25-30 applications, it is a good pool in today's market, Ferguson said, but it's not the number of applications that matter. It's the quality.

"It's a matter of getting people excited to apply," she said.

Convincing someone to apply from another state can be difficult because of New Jersey's reputation for "over regulations," she said, but coming to a district like Millburn will offset that. Some may want to apply because they want to move back to New Jersey, she said.

Lise Chapman, a board member, questioned what would happen if Livingston hires the firm for the school superintendent search there. Ferguson said the group has submitted a proposal to the Livingston district.

The team won't do more than two searches at any one time, she said, and having a second search would help Millburn in its search. The result of two searches at once is more applications, she said.

They would hope to bring some candidates in January for the board to interview, Ferguson said, and begin the narrowing-down process to one or two finalists. The board would then decide if they would bring those candidates for the public to meet, she said.

The board, however, cannot appoint a new superintendent until it is reconstituted after the April school board elections because the district has a sitting superintendent, Ferguson said.