January 11, 2024
GRINNELL, IA — The Grinnell-Newburg Community School District Board of Education would like to provide an update on the superintendent hiring process. The board recently met with Grundmeyer Leader Services (GLS) on January 10 to review the candidate pool.
The position was posted and advertised nationally, and resulted in 20 candidates, including five from outside the state of Iowa. The pool included 17 male candidates and three female candidates; 10 of the candidates hold a terminal degree (Ed.D. or Ph.D.).
After meeting with the GLS consultants to review candidates’ application materials, references, licensure verification, and social media in closed session, seven candidates were selected as semifinalists. Semifinalist screening interviews will be conducted digitally by the board in closed session on January 17. The semifinalist screening interviews will allow the board to further evaluate the candidates’ qualifications for the position and select finalists to invite to the district for interviews on January 31. All finalists’ names will be released to the public shortly after the January 17 semifinalist interviews.
The GLS search consultants will set up and facilitate the semifinalist screening interviews based on the identified Desired Qualifications for the new superintendent; these were approved by the board and were based on input from the Stakeholder Survey. Desired Qualifications, presented in alphabetical order, include the following:
- Advocates publicly for school needs at the local and state level.
- Effectively manages district resources.
- Promotes and builds a community of care and support for all students and staff
- Promotes and builds positive community and school relations.
- Recruits, hires, supports, develops, and retains effective staff members and works effectively with administrators.
- Strong instructional leader (curriculum development, assessment, instruction)
- Understands equity and cultural responsiveness.
Finalist interviews on January 31 will be on-campus, and will include interviews with the board and two mixed interview teams consisting of teachers, support staff, administrators, parents, students, and community members. Each candidate will also go on a tour of the community and all school buildings. Members of the mixed interview teams will be invited to serve in the next several days; not everyone who volunteered will be able to be selected due to needing to achieve balance of the various constituency groups represented in the mixed interview teams. Each person involved with the formal interviews on January 31 will provide feedback to the board on each of the finalists. Upon completion of the finalist interviews, the board will meet in closed session to review data and input from all interview team members, and tentatively select the next superintendent for the Grinnell-Newburg Community School District.
The new superintendent will be presented publicly upon acceptance of the offer, usually within a couple of days after the finalist interviews. The new superintendent will officially start on July 1, 2024.
