District 300 seeks feedback on superintendent search

Ultimately, seven people will decide who replaces Ken Arndt as superintendent of Community Unit District 300.

But the teachers, parents and taxpayers who live or work in the district will have their say at a pair of public meetings next week.

The district is hosting two meetings on Wednesday, March 17 to solicit feedback from community members and district staff on what they want in a superintendent. A search firm hired to assist the board, Glenview-based Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, will compile the feedback as well as ask people to identify the district's strengths and challenges.

"We want to hear what people think," board President Joe Stevens said. "We're reaching out to everybody trying to get a good cross-section."

The district used a similar process when it hired Arndt in 2001.

Arndt announced in October 2008 that he will retire at the end of the 2010-11 school year, marking 10 years at the helm of the state's sixth-largest district.

The school board hired Hazard, the firm that previously brought in Arndt, Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Crates and other administrators who work in the district's central office, in late 2009 to help conduct the search, Stevens said.

Next week's feedback meetings, which also will include one-on-one interviews with the seven board members, are the first step of the search process, Stevens said.

The second step, which the board hopes to complete by mid-June, will look at the six or seven internal candidates qualified to serve as superintendent. If the board settles on an internal candidate, it plans to place him or her in the central office to essentially shadow Arndt for a year, Stevens said.

If the board is not satisfied with the internal candidates, the district will have Hazard conduct a national search. An external search would signal that the board has ruled out hiring internally, Stevens said.

The board has not reached consensus on whether to hire internally or externally, Stevens said, adding: "The consensus is that we want the best candidate."

Cost may be a factor in that decision, as Hazard estimates it will cost $9,250 to do an internal search and double that -$18,500 - for a national search.

The forum for residents will be at 7 p.m. at the administration center, 300 Cleveland Ave., Carpentersville. A staff forum will be held at 4 p.m.