Traverse City News and Events

TCAPS Sets Schedule, Process For Hiring New Superintendent

By Beth Milligan | Feb. 27, 2019

The Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) board plans to choose a new superintendent by the end of May – using the help of a consultant to find a leader they hope will maintain TCAPS’ current strategic course instead of bringing radical change to the district.

The board voted Monday to approve a schedule for the superintendent search, a process that will find a successor to Superintendent Paul Soma, who announced his resignation in December. Soma has served with the district for 17 years – including as superintendent since 2015 – and will end his tenure after the school year ends.

The hiring schedule approved by trustees outlines a tight timeline requiring multiple special board meetings between now and May in order for trustees to stay on track to find a candidate before Soma’s departure. Trustees will approve a job description and selection criteria for the superintendent position on March 11, then sign off on posting and application documents on March 18 before the position goes live March 19. Candidates will have until April 30 to apply for the job – “a little better than five weeks,” Board President Sue Kelly noted.

The field of candidates will be narrowed through a series of virtual screenings and technical interviews in early May, followed by two days of final interviews and district tours with finalists May 29 and 30. Candidates will be meeting with teachers and administrators during that process, Kelly said, as well as members of the public. Trustees are expected to choose a superintendent on May 30 – a deadline that will likely be followed by contract negotiations and a formal job offer, with the district’s new leader officially taking the helm August 1.

Trustees expressed wariness at the compressed timeline for the search process – particularly during the month of May, when TCAPS has two honors convocations and numerous end-of-year events planned – but agreed the schedule was necessary. “This is an aggressive timeline, but we really don’t have any choice in the matter, because we have to get this done and move it forward,” said Treasurer Matt Anderson. “If we don’t get it done within this timeframe, you’re looking at making a different decision at a different later date, which is going to go into the next year.”

Vice President Doris Ellery also noted superintendent candidates are at a career level that requires ample notification to their existing districts to allow those school systems to find their own replacements. “School systems need to make decisions, and they find the ideal time is this time of year,” Ellery said. “That’s been the history of selecting superintendents for a long time. This is the ideal time. If we don’t keep it in this schedule, it’s going to disrupt a lot of people making decisions at the end of school years.”

The number of applicants that apply for the position could also affect the schedule. When TCAPS last went through a superintendent hiring process in 2015, the district received 28 applicants from six states. The board used an outside consulting firm called the Michigan Leadership Institute and chose to interview five finalists – including two internal candidates – before eventually voting to promote Soma to superintendent.

This time around, trustees are using the help of Grant Chandler, executive director of the MI Excel Statewide Field Team. Chandler has already been working with TCAPS to help the district implement a new strategic plan called the Blueprint, a multi-year “system reconfiguration” of the district. The plan is designed to accelerate student and teacher performance in a short period of time and promotes equitable allocation of district and building-level resources based on student need. Chandler will advise trustees on finding a candidate who can help TCAPS implement the Blueprint – and will do so at no additional cost through his existing MI Excel contract. Trustees paid Michigan Leadership Institute $7,500 for help with the 2015 superintendent search.

Trustees emphasized they are looking for a new superintendent who will have the skills and commitment to follow the Blueprint, maintaining the district restructuring process that started in 2018 and is expected to last until June 2022. Kelly said applicants who weren’t familiar with the Blueprint system would be directed to an instructional series called “Diving Deeper” that will familiarize them with the program. “Our strategic plan is very clear about utilizing the Blueprint as our path and direction,” she said. “We need superintendent applicants to have time to go through the Diving Deeper series as necessary, because some of the questions during the interview process (are) going to be about that path and direction regarding the strategic plan for the district.”

In an earlier board meeting this month, Secretary Pam Forton said she didn’t want to hire a superintendent who would come in and try to take the district in a radically different direction. “I’ve been here for five different superintendents….typically when a superintendent comes in, they tend to want to do things the way that they’ve always done things,” Forton said. “Because the Blueprint is such a big part of what we are doing…I think it’s vitally important that whomever we bring in, they’ve got to be on board with that. The last thing we want to see is someone who wants to come in and do things their way.”

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