Charles City School District begins vetting process for two new principals

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City School District is in the process of seeking out two new principals for the next school year.

Following the departure of High School Principal Bryan Jurrens at the end of the school year and the announcement that Lincoln Elementary Principal Marcia DeVore has taken on a position in Oskaloosa, the district has been seeking applications to fill those administrative positions.

With 16 applicants for the Lincoln Elementary position, phase one of the screening process will begin this week as the district’s leadership committee looks over resumes, using a rubric (a set of criteria and guidelines) to weigh the qualifications of each candidate, said Evan Marten, who serves as the district’s director of human resources and developed the hiring process.

The committee members will narrow their choices to five candidates before moving on to the next phase of the process – a phone interview where they will ask a series of questions about the candidate’s experience, teaching philosophy, personal drive and more.

“We’re going to be screening these applications for about 30 to 45 minutes each,” Marten said. “We’ll try to narrow it down to two finalists.”

Once narrowed down, the final two applicants will come to campus for an in-person interview with a selection of people from both the hiring committee and the building’s staff. Candidates will make a presentation about themselves and their vision for the school, followed by a question and answer session.

“The teacher feedback, we really take value in that,” said Marten.

After everybody’s opinions on each candidate have been consolidated and scored, the hiring committee will select one to be recommended to the Board of Education for approval.

Marten expects to have a recommendation for the Lincoln Elementary position for the next board meeting on March 27.

Then the process will repeat itself with a search for the new high school principal.

Seeking out two administrative positions in one year is uncommon, but Marten said that the differences between high school and elementary education are pronounced enough that the search to fill one position doesn’t have much of an impact on the search for the other.

“It’s a different kind of candidate pool,” said Marten.

So far the district has nine applications for the high school principal position, but Marten expects more will be coming in as spring break starts. The initial screening phase is scheduled to begin on March 21 with plans to bring a recommendation to the school board in April.

One matter for consideration will be the school district’s budget. Earlier this year the board approved a budget reduction plan that called for the reduction of an administrative position if necessary to meet the district’s budget goals. Two new administrators, depending on their salaries, has the potential to change that calculation.

“It could or it couldn’t,” said Marten.