The York County School Division has completed the screening of applicants for its superintendent position, according to a news release Wednesday.
The school division has been working with the Virginia School Boards Association to help conduct a national search to replace former superintendent Dr. Eric Williams, who left York County on June 30 to become superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools. Dr. Carl L. James, the chief operating officer who has been with the division in some capacity for 41 years, is the interim superintendent.
“We absolutely will not stand in the way of anyone moving on upward in their career, and obviously [Williams’ resignation] was a case like that,” YCSD school board chairman Mark Medford said. “We hated to see that [relationship] end, but we have to move forward and we wish him well.”
According to the release, the school division identified 34 potential candidates for the superintendent position, of which 24 submitted a formal application. Of the 24 official applicants, eight are current or former superintendents, 12 are assistant or deputy superintendents, two have central office experience, and two have other experience. Eight of the applicants are women and 11 are Virginia residents.
YCSD partnered with VSBA, a voluntary, nonpartisan organization of the state’s school boards, in April to assist in the superintendent search. The organization offers a Superintendent Search Assistance Program, which includes advertising, screening and consulting, and lists Virginia superintendent vacancies, along with application information, on its website.
Medford said the school division had used VBSA in its previous superintendent search in 2008, which led to Williams’s hiring. In April, Medford estimated the total cost of the search would be less than $13,000.
The school board will conduct interviews for the position between July 21 and Aug. 4 at an undisclosed location. Virginia law requires school boards to publicly announce the time and location of meetings in which three or more board members will be present, but makes an exception for meetings held solely to interview candidates for chief administrative officer positions. In these instances, the board must open session to formally enter closed session for the 15-day window for interviews.
All five school board members will be present for the interviews, Medford said.
In May, Medford said the board hoped to announce the hiring of the new superintendent in September or October. According to the information packet given to prospective candidates, the new superintendent must relocate to York County, and the salary will be “commensurate with experience and qualifications.”
Of the current school board members, only Cindy Kirschke did not participate in the 2008 search. Kirschke was elected to the board in 2011.
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