{"id":2453033,"date":"2020-01-08T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318897"},"modified":"2020-01-09T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T16:10:34","slug":"superintendent-search-for-aspen-school-district-picks-up-the-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/superintendent-search-for-aspen-school-district-picks-up-the-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"Superintendent search for Aspen School District picks up the pace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plenty of buzzwords have been used to describe the qualities of what Aspen School District staff, faculty, parents, residents and students want in the next superintendent.<\/p>\n

Transparent, trustworthy, engaging, approachable, communicative and collaborative were some used during a portion of this week\u2019s Board of Education meeting, its first one of the new decade, concerning the next leader of the 1,200-student district.<\/p>\n

In October, the board hired Chicago-based search firm <\/a>Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to spearhead the effort to find a new superintendent. In early December, the firm began digging into the qualities district stakeholders<\/a> want in its next leader by holding focus group meetings both in person and online, interviewing individuals and groups, and conducting an online survey that generated 88 responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the community knows that we don\u2019t select people; your school board selects the people,\u201d Dallas Strawn of HYA said at Monday\u2019s meeting. \u201cBut we do a lot of screening so they have time to do their regular work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board is scheduled to begin its first round of interviews the week of Feb. 3; it will determine finalists Feb. 21-22, with final interviews scheduled March 2. The board plans to announce the new superintendent hire between March 15 and April 6. The new superintendent\u2019s first day of work is scheduled for July 1.<\/p>\n

The application process and HYA\u2019s recruitment efforts are scheduled to close Jan. 18. Strawn, who said he had no knowledge of any internal ASD applications for the job, said the finalist will undergo an extensive background check, which takes about a week to complete, before a job offer is extended.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes through finances, past jobs, where they were really born, have they been arrested,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, HYA had collected nine completed applications from candidates for the job, with another four or five expected to come in this week, Strawn said.<\/p>\n

Heald, the district\u2019s interim superintendent for the 2019-20 academic year, said he has not decided whether he will apply. He is one of four finalists for the Archuleta School District superintendent job. He is scheduled to be interviewed for that opening next week.<\/p>\n

Part of HYA\u2019s job was to craft a leadership profile of ASD\u2019s next superintendent based on the information it collected last month. It presented those findings at Monday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestoring a culture of mutual trust, sincere respect and authentic compassion will require a commitment to communication and collaboration,\u201d said HYA\u2019s leadership profile report. \u201cIt will require an individual who is approachable, self-confident and humble. The leader must be immersed in the schools and community and come to Aspen with a love of the outdoors and mountain culture. Restoring trust is not only about being trustworthy but also about being trusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

While HYA is conducting a national search, some in the audience said that institutional knowledge about the district, as well as an appreciation and understanding of Aspen culture, cannot be disregarded in hiring the next superintendent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any magic wand, there isn\u2019t any one person who is going to meet all of our expectations and all of our desires as a district,\u201d Anita Moose, a school district educator who works in technology integration, said at the meeting. \u201cSo I would like us to remain realistic and select a leader who understands our community and our values, and not somebody who is going to come in and expect our strong-willed town to adopt their values. We have our values \u2014 Aspen or any other district works that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katherine Sand, who runs Aspen Family Connections at the campus but said she was speaking in her capacity as a parent, said the ideal superintendent will be collaborative and understand that Aspen is not a homogeneous community but one with \u201cpeople of vastly different cultural backgrounds, and we must be excellent on behalf of all of those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust be bloody realistic, be realistic about what we can achieve in terms of who we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Board President Susan Marolt said an advisory group is being formed as part of the selection process. The advisory group <\/a>will not recommend a candidate or participate in the board\u2019s decision, but it would be involved in asking superintendent prospects questions and possibly participate in their job interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a very special place here and you know that,\u201d Strawn said, \u201cand the sky\u2019s the limit on what you can do there. You\u2019ve got resources, you\u2019ve got caring parents, you\u2019ve got highly intelligent people, you have great teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Maloy retired from the district as superintendent June 30 following the board\u2019s decision in October 2018 to not renew his contract. Maloy\u2019s three-year rolling contract dated back to June 7, 2010.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plenty of buzzwords have been used to describe the qualities of what Aspen School District staff, faculty, parents, residents and students want in the next superintendent. Transparent, trustworthy, engaging, approachable, communicative and collaborative were some used during a portion of this week\u2019s Board of Education meeting, its first one of the new decade, concerning the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 21:48:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453048,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453033\/revisions\/2453048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}