District 113 is asking for community input on the search for a superintendent to replace George Fornero, who’s retiring at the end of the school year.
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The hope is to identify the new superintendent by January, according to a district news release.
Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the search firm hired by the district last month, will hold two community forums — 7 p.m. Oct. 14 at Deerfield High School and 7 p.m. Oct. 15 at Highland Park High School, the release said.
The search firm will also be collecting feedback on the search for three other administrative positions: a director of student services and a new principal for each high school.
District 113 has also posted an online survey at dist113.org that allows participants to select characteristics they would like to see in the next superintendent. The survey also has space for write-in recommendations of specific potential candidates. The survey will be open through Oct. 26, according to the release.
Last month, the District 113 school board voted to pay Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates $57,200 plus reimbursable expenses to conduct the search for the four administrators.
After the forum and online survey will come focus groups, the release said, and later the search firm will convene a “stakeholder committee” of students, staff, parents and community members to interview semi-finalists.
Fornero’s retirement in June will come two years before the end of his contract.
Beginning last spring, the superintendent and school board faced community outrage following the controversial departure of former Highland Park High School Principal Brad Swanson and proposed staffing cuts.
There also have been signs of a strained relationship between Fornero and district teachers.
Almost 80 percent of 181 certified staff members indicated in a survey administered by the District 113 Education Association last spring that they did not feel a “shared vision” with district leadership.
Following Swanson’s departure, Tom Koulentes was promoted to interim principal at Highland Park High for the 2014-15 school year. As the search firm looks for a more long-term replacement, district officials have said Koulentes could be considered a candidate.
Deerfield High School Principal Audris Griffith is also retiring at the end of the school year. And the search firm will recruit a replacement for Andrea Gratz, director of student services, who is also retiring next summer.
All new administrators should be identified by mid-March and will begin work no later than July 1, the release said.