Someone who is highly visible and personable. A visionary leader who inspires others and who is a team-builder. An outstanding communicator who is aware of the need for community involvement and seeks to make Princeton a part of their fabric.
Those are some of the characteristics being sought in the Princeton Public Schools’ new superintendent of schools, based on the results of focus groups, informal forums and an online survey administered by a consulting firm hired to help fill the vacancy.
Kevin O’Mara of School Exec Connect discussed some of his findings with the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education at its Oct. 27 meeting. The district is seeking a new superintendent of schools to replace former Superintendent of Schools Steve Cochrane, who retired in June.
The online survey elicited responses from 269 people, while the focus groups and informal forums drew more than 100 participants that included parents, students, staff and community members.
The goal of the survey and focus groups and forums was to develop a sense of the district’s strengths and the areas that need improvement, in addition to teasing out what the community wants in a new school leader.
O’Mara said he received about two dozen emails from people who may not have felt comfortable expressing their views in a group setting. He said he also spoke to about two dozen people who called him to offer input.
When school board member Dafna Kendal expressed surprise at the small number of responses and asked O’Mara “how sure” this is what the community wants, he replied that that he did not think the response was atypical – especially given the concerns about COVID-19.
O’Mara said he conducted a survey in a Michigan school district in March, around the time that COVID-19 broke out, and received a similar response rate. He said he felt confident that the Princeton profile is accurate, based on his experience.
He cautioned the school board that the report should not be perceived to be a scientific survey, because of the sampling methodology. The results and findings are only the perceptions of those who participated in the online surveys, focus groups and community forums, he said.
Nevertheless, the report could be used in different ways, he said. The superintendent’s profile could be used to screen candidates, and it could also be used by the school board to find out more about the district and how it is perceived by the respondents, including how they feel about the job that the school board and the staff are doing.
“We asked questions (in the focus groups and community forums) in four key areas. We asked what are the district’s strengths and attributes. We want to get a good pool of candidates and we want to the position as attractive as possible,” O’Mara said.
O’Mara said that to be fair and transparent, the district has some challenges, such as a school board that does not always appear to work together; overcrowding issues; ongoing equity issues; and a lack of communication, based on information gleaned from input from respondents.
When the respondents were asked what they thought the new superintendent of schools should know about the district before accepting the job, a consistent theme that ran through the responses was that Princeton is a “very, very engaged community,” O’Mara said.
There is strong community spirit and also traditions, O’Mara said. There is a rigorous, challenging curriculum and a strong teaching staff. There is strong fiscal support for the district.
“Princeton is Princeton. It’s a destination community. People want to live there. Primarily, it is a great community and the school district reflects that,” O’Mara said.
But the new superintendent needs to know that on the flip side, “There is a ‘Princeton way.’ It’s a different culture. It’s difficult for an innovative, brand new leader from outside of the system. You have to get to know the community and the people,” he said.
“The nature of the high performance of the Princeton district and community will be a challenge for whoever walks through those doors. That person needs to be ready to take on the challenge,” O’Mara said.
The next step is for O’Mara and School Exec Connect to recruit and conduct interviews of the candidates. A list will be presented to the school board, which will conduct a first set of interviews with semi-finalists and then narrow down the list to the finalists.
The board will hold a second set of interviews and listen to the candidates’ presentations. It will offer the job to the successful candidate and work out the contractual details, with the goal of having a new superintendent in place by July 1, 2021.