Mid-Prairie starts superintendent search

WELLMAN — The Mid-Prairie school board met on shorter notice than usual Thursday night to hash out plans to replace outgoing Superintendent Mark Schneider, who announced his coming retirement last week.

“Mark Schneider has decided to exercise his well-earned right to retire at the end of June, and we appreciate the years of service,” School board President Jeremy Pickard said. “With that, though, comes the timeliness of being able to move and open the decision, and that’s why we’re doing this here today. Our next board meeting was March 21, and I felt like that was a little too long to wait.”

The board’s agenda for the night included picking a salary range and a hiring consultant, the first steps in seeking a replacement.

“I was suggesting a salary range between 150 and 185 (thousand,)” said Business Manager Jeff Swartzentruber. “That appeared to be a decent range and it also is above the highest paid principal that we have in the district at this time.”

The board has agreed to hire Grundmeyer Leader Search as a consultant in the candidate selection process, a company that has recently conducted searches in West Liberty, Burlington and Newton school districts. The contract will run the schools around $15,000.

“We felt it was important to secure and hire a search firm to be able to help us with that process,” Pickard said. “Not only to get the word out but to … help us with the amount of work that it takes in order to pull off one of these processes.”

A rough timeline provided by the search firm lays out the process for the new hire. With applications opening last weekend and closing just before the April 3 board meeting and strings of interviews next month, that schedule puts a formal announcement of next year’s superintendent by the week of April 25.

While the schedule is only tentative, board members have their work cut out for them in that time. Pickard said part of the process would involve consulting members of the district.

“In our community, they’re used to having say in these processes,” Pickard said. “They’re used to having the ability to make their opinions known, which I think is one of our strengths here. So having the ability to survey folks and hear their input is important as well, and they’re willing to help us out with that.”

Pickard added that he was encouraged by the contract’s emphasis on local control.

“One of the things I actually sometimes have hesitations on, bringing in an outside vendor, is that they drive the process a lot,” he said. “In here, I just didn’t get that feeling at all. They were more than willing to work with us. You saw in here on a regular basis, ‘It’s the board’s decision.’”

To meet the timeline without breaking public record laws, Pickard suggested the district form a hiring committee comprised of himself, Vice President Marianne Schlabach, and a yet undetermined third board members to conduct the interviews.

“For the initial review process when we get them on site, you just can’t have more than three board members together at a time,” Pickard said. “We can have that conversation on the 21st I think, in my opinion tonight is more about trying to determine if we’re OK with this, OK with moving forward with the contract.”

Board members said Schneider’s timing put them slightly behind the ball in the replacement search, but school officials said they felt confident about finding a replacement that met their standards.

“I think the timing is just a touch late, I think it would have been significantly later had we waited until our March 21 meeting,” Pickard said. “In talks with Grundmeyer, they still feel like it is very doable … I do think Mid-Prairie is a destination site, I do think there is interest in working here and applying here.”

If the district doesn’t find a replacement up to its standards, Pickard said they would explore other options.

“At the end of the day, if we don’t find a candidate that we feel great about or comfortable with, we always have the decision that the search didn’t meet our demands,” he said. “We can go another route, maybe having an interim for a year or something like that. I don’t think those options are off the table.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com