Byron schools aim to have superintendent hired early May

If all goes according to plan, Byron Public Schools could have a new superintendent hired by May 3.

School board members met Monday night with Barbara Dorn of the Minnesota School Board Association’s search unit to work out a schedule for the search. The board is seeking a replacement for Dr. Joey Page who will become superintendent of the Austin Public Schools in July.

Under the plan agreed to by the board, the position opening announcement will be posted this week as will a stakeholder survey for district residents to fill out.

Dorn told board members that the time for the district to find a new superintendent is a “little short, but not super short.” Under the plan she proposed the process will take two to two-and-a-half months.

At the beginning of the meeting Dorn said that Monday’s first planning session was important and would require several decisions. After that meeting, she said, there will be a lull for board members until the application process closed.

Candidates, the board decided, will be able to apply for the position until April 12. District residents will have until March 26 to respond to a survey seeking to find what stakeholders are looking for in a superintendent.

Once the application time has closed, MSBA staff will go over all the applications. They will make six or eight recommendations to the board on April 14 but board members will see all the information submitted by all who apply.

Board members will have until April 20 to review the applicant information before meeting to select who will be called for the first round of interviews that are scheduled for April 26 and 28.

The second round of interviews for the finalists is scheduled for April 30. It is expected the board will make an offer to a candidate at the conclusion of the April 30 meeting. Contract negotiations will then begin. If those negotiations are successful, the board will approve the contract at a special meeting on May 3.

Between now and the closing of the application process the board and MSBA staff will meet for a training session that will detail the interview process and also prepare a first draft of the questions that will be asked at the first interviews.

Once applications are received and made available to the board, Dorn said, the information will be available to board members only electronically. The names of the applicants cannot be made public, she said, due to data privacy laws. Names of only the finalists are public information, she stressed.

There are also certain questions that the board cannot legally ask the candidates, Dorn said, specifically mentioning asking whether a candidate would move into the district. Dorn said she mentioned that question because that is one that often is asked by district residents.

A school district cannot legally require a superintendent to live in the district and so the question cannot be asked because it could imply a preference as to who is selected. Likewise, she said, questions about religion are also among those off-limits.

Regarding public input, Dorn said, that since the COVID-19 pandemic has limited public in-person focus group meetings, the MSBA has moved towards stakeholder surveys. She said this has actually resulted in more participation than focus sessions because many are more likely to respond when their comments will be anonymous.

The survey, she said, will be available online and printed copies will also be available at the school district office.

Throughout Monday’s meeting Dorn stressed that the board is the final decision-maker in the process even as they ask for guidance from the MSBA and input from the public.

Expected start date for the new superintendent will be July 1.