Schools

Board Prepares to Review Superintendent Search Consultants

Nine-member group will review bids from search firms next month

The Fairfax County School Board named nine members to a committee tasked with reviewing bids from superintendent search firms on Thursday night, putting the board on track to hire a consultant to lead the selection process by October.

The board unanimously appointed members Sandy Evans (Mason), Pat Hynes (Hunter Mill), Megan McLaughlin (Braddock), Ilryong Moon (At-large), Elizabeth Schultz (Springfield), Kathy Smith (Sully), Dan Storck (Mt. Vernon), Janie Strauss (Dranesville, and Ted Velkoff (At-large) to the Division Superintendent Search RFP Selection Advisory Committee (SAC).

Pat Hynes, the board's , was appointed as chairman of the committee.

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Schultz was absent from Thursday night's vote.

Superintendent Jack Dale, who was hired in 2004, .

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The board said last month it wanted to have a consultant to lead the search for his successor in place by October.

Fairfax County Public Schools issued a request for proposal July 3 during which six to 10 or more proposals could be received.

The RFP closes Aug. 7, according to school board documents. It is not clear how many bids the system has recieved or if a proposal from Hazard, Young and Attea Associates — the firm that found both Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr in 2011 and Dale in 2004 — is among them.

Board members said at a work session in June they felt the larger pool will help "cast the net wider" to ensure it finds the right consultants to guide the system through a process it has been through once in the past decade.

Earlier this year, Fairfax board members  for guidance, gaining insight into the eight-month search that 

MCPS spent about three months selecting a search firm; two months collecting input for a "leadership profile" for the firm to use to pool a slate of candidates; and six weeks for the selection process, from first interview to final appointment.

Several board members said they preferred that process to the one used to hire Dale about eight years ago.

The search will be the first for eight of the board's 12 members.

All four members who hired Dale to replace former Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech — Strauss, Moon, Smith and Storck — are also on the SAC; Strauss and Moon were also on the board that hired the superintendent before him.

More on the superintendent search:


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