BENTONVILLE — The Bentonville School District will look for key criteria to use in the search for its next superintendent during two public forums Monday night.
BWP & Associates, an educational leadership search consultant company, will lead the forums. The Illinois-based company has been contracted by the district to conduct the search.
AT A GLANCE
Schedule Of Superintendent Search
Week of Nov. 1: BWP & Associates will meet with focus groups, community and Bentonville School Board to develop superintendent criteria.
Oct. 13 to Nov. 19: National advertisements will run.
First week of December: BWP & Associates will narrow the applicant field down to six candidates.
Dec. 7- 9: The Bentonville School Board will narrow the six candidates down to three through first interviews.
Week of Dec. 13: The three remaining candidates will tour the district and participate in a public forum.
Last two weeks of December: Members of the school board will visit top candidate’s school district and make a final decision
Source: BWP & Associates
Superintendent Gary Compton announced his retirement earlier this year.
The firm also will compile results from a survey on the district’s website. Saturday is the last day to complete the survey. A link to the survey is at http://bentonvillek12.org/web/
Jennifer Wheeless, mother of a first-grader at R. E. Baker Elementary School, has started filling out the survey and plans to attend one of the forums.
“I think whoever it is needs to be more concerned about finances instead of building these architectural castles,” Wheeless said. “They need to quit focusing on athletics and football fields.”
The next superintendent should be from Arkansas and understand the issues the region faces, Wheeless said.
“I want someone that is familiar with how there is a fine line between rich and poverty here,” Wheeless said.
BWP & Associates hopes community members will be willing to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the district during the forums, said Ronald Barnes, a director on the company’s board.
“We want this (the search) to be a process that the community feels comfortable with,” Barnes said. “We want to be more familiar with the community so we can try to represent it.”
The company also will meet with nearly 20 focus groups Monday. The groups will consist of district administrators, faculty and members of community organizations.
“We want to get everyone’s viewpoint,” said Steve Potts, the school district’s Human Resource director. “Everyone has something dear to their heart.”
The company plans to use community responses to develop 10 to 12 key criteria that will be used when selecting candidates.
The Forums
The two public forums will be held at 7 p.m. Monday. One meeting will be in the boardroom at the Bentonville School District Administration Building, 500 Tiger Blvd. The other will be in the lecture hall of Bentonville High School’s North Building, 1801 S.E. J St.
Source: Bentonville School District