Illinois company to be paid $23,000.
By: Jeff Milgram
The Princeton Regional Board of Education has hired a firm to conduct a nationwide search to find a successor to Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn.
The board will pay Hazard, Young Attea & Associates Ltd. of Glenview, Ill., $23,000 in fees and expenses, board President Anne Burns said Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening, the board met in closed session to hold hour-long interviews with representatives from Hazard Young Attea and two other search firms or organizations. The board then met in public and voted to hire the firm.
"I think we had three fine presentations last night," Ms. Burns said Wednesday. "I’m very happy."
The contract calls for a fee of $18,500 and $4,500 in travel and secretarial expenses, Ms. Burns said.
The firm has 80 associates and the two representatives who met with the board are former superintendents in New Jersey, Ms. Burns said.
"It’s a pretty significant process," Ms. Burns said of the search.
The firm will meet with different community focus groups and then prepare a "leadership profile report," which will spell out the qualifications the district wants in a superintendent.
Advertisement for the position will be based on the report, Ms. Burns said.
"Then they’ll go out headhunting," she said.
The firm will go through the cover letters and resumes and submit to the board the "eight to 15 candidates that look good on paper," Ms. Burns said.
"It would be great to have eight semifinalists, and to whittle it down to three" finalists, she said.
The board will meet with the search firm to set up a timetable for hiring a new superintendent and to identify the focus groups.
After four years as superintendent, Dr. Kohn will officially retire from Princeton Regional Schools on July 31 to become superintendent of the Masconomet Regional School District, north of Boston.
On Tuesday, the board will meet in closed session to interview two candidates for the position of interim superintendent.
The board will then hold its regular public meeting before going back into closed session to evaluate the candidates. If there is a consensus about an interim superintendent that night, the board will go back into public session and vote, Ms. Burns said.
The last time the board went looking to hire a permanent superintendent, it took two years, three interims and one acting superintendent.
In February 1998, the board, citing "philosophic differences," voted to buy out the contract of Superintendent Marcia Bossart.
The board first appointed Business Administrator Daniel Swirsky as interim superintendent. He applied for the permanent position and was one of three finalists.
Two finalists withdrew and the board decided to begin a new search rather than give the job to Mr. Swirsky. The board also decided to remove him as acting superintendent, naming Richard Marasco, the former superintendent of the Monroe Township School District, as interim superintendent.
The second search was just as futile. By the end of December 1999, Dr. Marasco left after six months, the limit for interim superintendents.
The board then named Jeffrey Graber, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, as acting super-intendent until it could find an interim superintendent .
Weeks later, Austin Gumbs, retired superintendent of the Highland Park School District, was hired as the third interim superintendent.
Three weeks later, the board appointed Dr. Kohn.