Wilmington, DE: Red Clay has scheduled a series of public meetings and created an online survey in the hopes that many parents, teachers, students, staff, and community members provide input as the district begins the process of replacing outgoing Superintendent Merv Daugherty, who is leaving the district Nov. 1, 2018.
In addition to helping board members guide their ultimate selection, community input is vital to formulating a portrait of the skills and qualities the next superintendent should possess, as well as prepare the job vacancy posting. Public meetings and survey results will also provide the Board and district leaders with valuable feedback regarding current district strengths and recommendations for improvement.
“The board is trying to create an open and transparent process with lots of opportunity for community input,” said Catherine Thompson, president of the Red Clay Board of Education. “We view that input as critical to hiring a superintendent who can best continue Red Clay’s preeminent position in the state.”
To assist in the process, the Red Clay Board hired the Institute for Public Administration (IPA) from the University of Delaware’s School of Public Policy & Administration. Founded in 1973, the IPA is a research center that has assisted in numerous superintendent searches in Delaware and conducted research on public policy issues.
Representatives from IPA outlined their plan in detail at a workshop of the board on Aug. 28, 2018 and again at the September school board meeting, where board members voted to accept the plan. Steps in the plan include compiling input from community meetings and a survey prior to developing the job posting. Once posted, the board anticipates interviewing candidates and scheduling finalist presentations for the community prior to the anticipated board selection on February 13, 2019.
Red Clay has scheduled five focus group meetings to foster a conversation among its community on the qualities best needed to run Red Clay schools in the future. After a brief introduction and explanation of the process, attendees will be split into groups to discuss a series of questions covering district strengths and areas of opportunity as well as desirable qualifications for the position. One spokesperson from the group will be asked to report out on the opinions of those present. Translation services will be available at the meetings.
Meetings have been scheduled as follows:
· Monday, October 1 at 4:30 p.m., Stanton Middle School, 1800 Limestone Road
· Wednesday, October 3 at 7 p.m., Cab Calloway School of the Arts, 100 N. DuPont Road
· Thursday, October 4 at 3 p.m., Distance Learning labs at McKean, A.I. and Conrad high schools
· Tuesday, October 9 at 7 p.m., John Dickinson High School, 1801 Milltown Road
· Wednesday, October 10 at 7 p.m., Warner Elementary School, 801 W. 18th Street
The Red Clay Board of Education encourages all members of the community including parents/guardians, students, teachers, building administrators, staff, businesses, and residents within the school district to participate in this on-line survey as part of our superintendent search process. Your comments will be critical in informing revisions to the superintendent position description as well as the position vacancy announcement. The survey, which consists of seven items and should take less than 10 minutes to complete, is open on the Red Clay Consolidated School District website until October 10, 2018.
All responses are confidential and will remain anonymous; some comments may be consolidated to clarify common themes. Thank you for your time and interest. Your participation is important to the success of our Superintendent search efforts!
· Find the survey here in English:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/rcsuper
and in Spanish here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/rcsuper_span
