The East Baton Rouge school system is continuing its search for the next superintendent with a series of planned public meetings early next month.
After the School Board voted unanimously last month to hire JG Consulting to lead the search, the firm’s President & CEO James Guerra says he hopes to present a draft job profile and application at the Dec. 12 meeting.
“We’re still in the beginning stage of the executive search process,” Guerra says.
The board is looking to replace outgoing Superintendent Warren Drake, who is scheduled to retire in June after five years at the helm.
To create the job profile, JG plans to hold a series of public input meetings in early December—likely Dec. 2, 3 and 4—although exact details are still to be determined.
The firm will also meet with internal stakeholders, including staff, students and administrative personnel to gather input.
“Everyone will have an opportunity to provide input and feedback to the team,” Guerra says.
The job profile presented on Dec. 12 will be a summary of all the input gathered so far, including that from an online survey now posted to the district’s website for the public to fill out.
Survey questions include asking participants to rate the importance of experiences in areas like finance, facilities management, Louisiana public education teaching, campus administration, student academic achievement records and meeting the needs of high-achieving students.
The anonymous four-question survey also asks users to describe the personal and professional traits they’d like to see in the district’s next leader and opens the floor to any other input.
The survey and input meetings will play a “significant role” in creating the job profile, Guerra says.
JG is working quickly to push the report out before the busy holiday season, with a target posting date in early January.
The board hasn’t specified a timeframe by which it would like to hire a new superintendent, but Guerra says he’s hoping to have a finalist named by early to late spring.
Superintendent searches typically take four to six months, he says, giving the district “ample time.”
The firm plans to cast a national recruiting net that could gather more than 50 applicants.
Due to the size, complexity, national attention, and academic success of the district, Guerra is anticipating high-interest in the job.
