What do Oak Park teachers and parents want from School District 97’s new superintendent?
The ability to foster a positive professional environment, represent the concerns of stakeholders and lead in an encouraging, team-based manner.
Those are the results of several weeks of stakeholder focus groups that included input from about 400 district staff, parents and members of the community. Information was collected in face-to-face meetings with 80 people and through an online survey that received 328 responses, including 226 from parents.
“It says strong collaboration. An autocratic person need not apply,” Alan Leis, senior vice president for Hazard Young Attea and Associates, reported Feb. 24 as he delivered the superintendent candidate profile to the District 97 School Board.
Even so, Leis added, those participating in the meetings and survey would like someone who is decisive.
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“People don’t just want to collaborate and not make a decision,” he said.
Hazard Young Attea is the search firm charged with helping the district find and narrow down a field of quality candidates to replace Albert Roberts, who announced in January that he’s resigning at the end of the school year. This is Hazard Young Attea’s fifth superintendent search for District 97.
About 20 candidates have started filling in the applications, and Hazard Young Attea will continue to recruit through March, Leis said. Hazard Young Attea will narrow the field to about five candidates to present to the District 97 Board for consideration.
District 97 officials hope to have a new superintendent in place by early May.
“Hopefully people will see their comments were incorporated, the themes of their comments were incorporated,” Leis said.
The purpose of the profile is to help potential candidates to understand the priorities of the district and its stakeholders. It has been used to develop a list of desired characteristics in the areas of vision and values, instructional leadership, community engagement, communication and collaboration, management, and education and experience.
“Hopefully, this will help the superintendent and the board that’s sitting this summer,” Leis said.
Leis said one advantage of using Hazard Young Attea is District 97’s survey results can be compared against the 30,000 results the company has gathered as it conducted searches throughout the United States.
For instance, the desire to find a superintendent who “fosters a positive professional climate of mutual trust and respect among faculty, staff and administrators” was named the top priority by 60 percent of Oak Park participants. That compares to 40 percent nationally.
Finding someone who “Listens to and effectively represents the interests and concerns of students, staff, parents, and community members” received the second-highest score of 59 percent. That compares to 38 percent nationally.
Unique to Oak Park, District 97 is seeking candidates who understand and appreciate the community’s commitment to diversity, Leis said. It was a priority for 39 percent of Oak Parkers, compared to 23 percent nationally.
“It would behoove them [candidates] to pick that up,” said District 97 Board Vice President Jim Gates.
The profile is available to the public on District 97’s website http://www.op97.org/suptsearch/documents/LeadershipProfile.pdf.
Rebecca R. Bibbs is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.