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District learns about applicants for new school chief

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Twenty-six people have applied to be the new Charles City superintendent of schools.

The Charles City Community School District Board of Education learned about the pool of applicants at a special meeting on Monday.

Superintendent Dan Cox recently announced his resignation in order to accept a new position as chief administrator of the Northwest Area Education Agency, based in Sioux City.

In April, the school board agreed to establish and publish a salary range for the new superintendent,  which will be listed at $150,000 to $170,000. The district took applications for a new superintendent until April 29. The prospective hiring date for the new superintendent is Monday, May 21.

Of the 26 applicants, three are female. Two of the applicants identified their ethnicity as Hispanic, one as Asian/Pacific Islander and 23 as white, and 13-15 applicants had three or more years of related or comparable experience.

“That’s pretty unique to your pool,” said Trent Grundmeyer of Grundmeyer Leader Search, who presented the report to the school board. “Normally we don’t see that much experience.”

Grundmeyer also said that seven of the candidates have doctorate degrees, and although that isn’t the “end-all, be-all” criteria, it does show that the qualifications of the talent pool for Charles City are pretty high.

The board also discussed the stakeholder survey report, which was conducted in April to obtain feedback from the public on the desired qualifications in a new superintendent. The board then went into closed session to decide on semifinalists to interview.

A closed session is allowed under Iowa law to keep the names of the applicants secret, if the applicants request that their names not be revealed.

According to the survey report, 308 people responded to the online survey. More than 30 percent identified themselves as parents, 27 percent were teachers, 22 percent were members of the community, and 15 percent were students.

The top two professional skills the respondents were looking for in a new superintendent were “builds school and community relations” and “effectively manages district revenues.”

The most important personal trait a superintendent should have, according to the majority of respondents, was that the new superintendent should be “approachable and open-minded.”

The top strengths and “points of pride” for the Charles City School District that the respondents listed included a caring and dedicated staff, innovative and progressive thinking and quality facilities — specifically, Charles City Middle School.

Among the top challenges and “areas for improvement” for the district were improvements to the high school, communication between schools and parents and addressing poverty and embracing diversity.

On Thursday, the school board will go into closed session to interview superintendent applicants via online conversations after hearing public comment.

Thursday’s meeting will be in room 106 of the Charles City NIACC Center. The time of the meeting has been moved to 12:45 p.m. so that the board may accept two recent resignations.

The board will also have two regular meetings this month, on Monday, May 14, and on Tuesday, May 29.

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