U-46 down to two search firms

Elgin Area School District U-46 school board members this week narrowed their search for a superintendent search firm down to two finalists.

Board members now are checking the references of Milwaukee-based Proact Search and Highland Park-based School Exec Connect.

Board members could select the firm that will help select the replacement for outgoing Superintendent Connie Neale as early as Tuesday.

Proact stood out for the unique ways it proposed to involve the community in the search, school board President Ken Kaczynski said.

Proact suggested organizing focus groups, so that all segments of the community could meet with the finalists for the job.

Proact also suggested community forums, hosted by a local personality, in which audience members are encouraged to speak up and ask questions of the finalists.

Nancy Noeske of Proact said her firm will try to involve as many segments of the community as possible.

"We go after the groups that don't come to board meetings," Noeske said.

Proact, which bid $30,000 for the project, placed the Illinois state superintendent in 2002.

School Exec Connect of Highland Park primarily employs current and retired administrators in Illinois.

Linda Hanson, the former superintendent of U-46's Streamwood High School, would help direct the search for School Exec Connect.

"One of the attractions is to some extent their connection to the school district," Kaczynski said.

"But there could be a downside to that as well," Kaczynski said, noting that the district has changed significantly since Hanson worked there in the 1980s, and there are some advantages to having a firm that is more removed from the area.

School Exec Connect has said the cost of the search would not exceed $25,900.