Interim superintendent search could stretch into September
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs School District officials will likely not hire an interim superintendent for at least the next two weeks.
Denise Connelly, president of the Steamboat Springs School Board, said Monday that six people have "expressed interest" in the interim superintendent position, but the first interview may not occur until Friday, and the hiring process will extend well into next week, if not beyond. An interim superintendent will lead the school district until a permanent superintendent is hired, after a nationwide search process that could last much of the upcoming school year.
On Aug. 10, the School Board voted to buy out the remaining two years of former superintendent Donna Howell's contract, paying Howell $270,000 in exchange for her resignation, which was effective immediately.
During a School Board meeting Monday night at Steamboat Springs High School, board members discussed criteria they are looking for in interim candidates.
School Board member John DeVincentis said he wants somebody who has a "crisis management background" and can help mend the school district, which has been torn by recent events including Howell's resignation and an unsuccessful effort to recall DeVincentis from the School Board.
"To me, it's very important that we bring everybody back together again," DeVincentis said. "There's been a lot of friction, but I hope it's repairable."
Other School Board members cited a need for building expertise, given the several construction projects the School District is undertaking.
Tim Bishop, Steamboat Springs Middle School principal, told the School Board that taking a little extra time to find the right interim candidate would prove invaluable in the upcoming school year, especially given the expertise and professionalism of the school district's administrators.
"We are all very focused on our buildings right now," Bishop said of school staff. "We can move and go on our own. We don't need someone there right now - we need the right person, in however many days it takes."
Connelly said she heard a strong direction from school staff to consider candidates carefully.
"I think what we heard tonight is that maybe we don't want to rush it," Connelly said of the interim superintendent search.
Also Monday, the School Board finalized plans to postpone construction of renovations to the middle school, choosing instead to focus on building the new Soda Creek Elementary School and expanding Strawberry Park Elementary School.
The Steamboat Springs Education Fund Board, which administers the city's half-cent sales tax for education, gave the school district $1.25 million to help fund a 5,000-square-foot middle school addition. The project would expand the school's entrance and move administrative offices for security and safety reasons.
But Todd Ficken, the district's owner's representative for its four construction projects, told board members the cost of the middle school project has more than doubled - from $1.25 million to $2.6 million - in the two years since it was first budgeted by contractor Haselden Construction.
The School Board voted unanimously to postpone the middle school project indefinitely while searching for other funding sources and possible temporary security measures.
The project has been planned and partially worked on since at least 2005.
"My frustration is that two-plus years later, we are still sitting here having these conversations," Bishop said. "My hope is that we can find the money somewhere else. : I received some hope tonight."
Bishop said staff and students at the middle school are accustomed to the challenges of conducting education amidst an ongoing construction project.
"We lived through last winter with our doors like this," he said. "And the winter before that."
- To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203
or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com
Comments
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Sara- How nice of you to actually engage a conversation instead of one word semi-responses. Ready to discuss the ethics of your father since you kept him on that pedestal?
Let's start back where we left off: his statement when he outted himself as to giving the emails. His statement said he had "access" at that time. You came back and said he didn't have them and ran away. So...when did he get those emails, since he refused to cooperate with the investigation?
He reaaaaaaalllly carefully worded it to make it sound like he had them way back then, but Howell never mentioned his involvement...just Stephensons. So...did Stephenson conspire with your father for 2 years in order to pursue a (your word) vendetta against Dr. D?
Don't stop talkin' now! You're on a roll. Let's see if you can play hardball, though!
and where is "radar" on this thread? Are you still imbibing at Sunpies while typing??
bikegirl 5 years, 9 months ago
All these personal attacks do not change the facts.Our school district is in a shambles right now.Our staff is left without leadership.We have huge construction projects to be dealing with,our board is not listening to the people it serves ,we begin welcoming our students in less than 2 weeks.Think long and hard about a new board in November,also some of you should consider running for the BOE.Let the current board hear your outrage at their conduct,attend meetings,BE proactive.Take responsibility and let's create positive change.
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Bikegirl- Maybe there are more than 2300 people (less 400-ish who couldn't fill out their info properly or various other reasons) who think the positive change may have occured already. Have you thought about that? 2300 people in a town of at least 10000 doesn't constitute a majority in any sense of the word. Your opinion is valid, but the numbers are not on your side from the look. We'll see in November.
steamboatsconscience 5 years, 9 months ago
kiel Forgot the LOL at the end of my post. sbvor gave me some heat about my "nom de plume" so turnabout is fair play. Someone who has over 700 posts here either needs some Lunesta or a life! LOL
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Yep- SBvor is like that. Gave me guff for quoting Wikipedia links a couple years ago, saying "any idiot can amend Wiki sites." Now, Wiki is SBvor's favorite site to quote...after far right sites like Town Hall, National Review, etc.
Sunnydays 5 years, 9 months ago
I hope this board has enough sense NOT to enter a four year contract with the next superintendent. I also hope it finds a superintendent who can apply site based management and is secure enough in his or herself to let go of her management team and let them be the incredible professionals they are. Our past two superintendents, while good people, were control freaks that had to be involved in every decision. For site based management to work, we need a superintendent that trusts his people and can let go to focus her energies on other issues such as building schools in a hyper-inflated construction market.
forthekids 5 years, 9 months ago
I was not able to attend the meeting. Was a hiring committee discussed? It would be nice to have parents, staff and communittee members involved in the hiring process, especially considering the majority of the board will not be there after the November election.
2007 5 years, 9 months ago
From what appears to have happened to the two most recent superintendents, any professional with good sense should not consider accepting a job in Steamboat without a long term contract that will pay if dismissed without cause. It's unfortunate that Steamboat will pay twice in the next two years; to pay off the current contract as well as to pay the person who will actually do the job for the next two years. Moreover, it seems that the current School Board is not acting in the best interests of the town. It appears there is a lot of petty behavior on the part of the current board. I think Steamboat will have trouble finding qualified people who would be willing to trust working for a board like the current one. If I were a potential superintendent, I would steer clear of Steamboat.
WZ4EVER 5 years, 9 months ago
If they appoint DeVincentis to that interim position, there should be an armed revolt, people taking to the streets and torchlight mobs storming the admin building.
forthekids 5 years, 9 months ago
That would be one way to get him off of the board!
another_local 5 years, 9 months ago
My hope is that the board hires an interim super, perhaps a retired person with solid experience, to hold the position for a year or so. That way three things can happen:
Postpone the hiring of a long term candidate until the new board is seated so that the board that will work with the candidate is the one that hires him or her.
Allow for a good thorough search.
Put some distance in the form of time between the B.S. we have all been watching for the last year and the situation that the new candidate comes in to deal with.
SteamboatJoe 5 years, 9 months ago
another local - right on.
Carrie Requist 5 years, 9 months ago
There is a lot of talk on these posts about the panacea of a new board. My question - who is running for this new board? In the years that I have been here, most school board seats have only a single candidate running for them. It is a 5-year, unpaid position and it will be under more scrutiny now than ever. I sure hope some great candidates step up to run, although I believe it is very difficult to evaluate who is a great school board candidate before s/he has served.
We also have a problem is that we have director districts that cut our small district into even smaller parts. Because of this, we can't pick the best candidates, only the best from each director district. It is in our power to eliminate the director districts - see Colorado Revised Statues 22-31-105 section 6.
If we eliminated the director districts, then we could elect the 5 best people running out of the total number of people running instead of the situation we had a few years ago where one district had 3 people running and the others all ran unopposed.
sarakg 5 years, 9 months ago
cyborg....
"you lose! again!" Along with this, the pattern of grammatical preferences, and the consistant use of linguistic markers, these posts remind me of another set of bile-filled, petty, irresponsible, unprofessional, disgusting and vindictive emails. Not to mention the personal vendettas (oops, there's those two words again) you have against Stanford, the now ex-super, my dad, Jim Gill, and the formerly high cost of copying public records. Now, I know a lot of things that go on in this town, and there's only one person who would be so cocky, hatred filled, and self-righteous toward these people and this issue, who also recently paid quite a bit to get copies of quite a few pages of public records, even when the recall failed. Wonder what the next set of emails will look like in print?
PS-Unfortunately for you, the voters will be voting on you as a responsible leader, not on your physique. Wish you'd done more mental (or at least moral and ethical) pushups? I know that the district will when they lose all the opportunities they've had due to your unfit leadership.
CoJustice 5 years, 9 months ago
Margarita, margari*ta. Just incase anyone one was curious.
WZ4EVER 5 years, 9 months ago
My apologies to anyone who mistook my sarcasm for violence. These posts get nasty enough without that--- my comment wasn't intended that way.
CoJustice 5 years, 9 months ago
I did not perceive your post as a threat. I was more consumed with Cyborgs post; I'm not as computer savoir-faire as some of you:I had to bust out my urban-dictionary and decoder-ring to get through it.
sarakg 5 years, 9 months ago
Uhh...yeah. Actually, radar, i've already mentioned my name before. Super sleuthing and dandy deducting! I did study forensics. I guess I'll have to figure out how to change my settings...it's a little hard for some people to follow along without having something right in front of them. Then again, it's hard for some people to catch on even when the reality of the situation jumps off the (front) page at them, especially if they're persuing something personal, eh rascal?
Although my knowledge on forensics probably doesn't rival DeVincentis'....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1BKVO3EUX6VD5/ref=cm_cr_auth/102-4042705-9668957
Interesting to note that his list includes "The Ultimate Rascals" right alongside education books, Jesus Christ Superstar, and, perhaps most interestingly, a book about Edward Gein (the inspiration for Hitchcock's Psycho, for those non-forensics types). Tell me, do you have a list of usernames posted next to your computer to be used based upon how nasty you feel at any given moment?
mom 5 years, 9 months ago
more power to the current BOE and the haters need to move on.
bikegirl 5 years, 9 months ago
sarakg-Rock on girl!
sarakg 5 years, 9 months ago
Dude, I've already said that my name is Sara Gleason. My radar tells me that yes, I have been to Sunpies. Yes, I have been drunk at Sunpies (gasp...a 23 year old drunk at the bar in Steamboat? Whatever is this town coming to?), but not when I posted that (and yes, I stand by every word of it. Except the use of the middle initial. That was sorta pretentious). However, I have not been to the pool since about eighth grade. That's my little sister. Time to recalibrate that radar, you rascal you.
steamboatsconscience 5 years, 9 months ago
Looks like the new editor is even worse than the previous at censorship. One of my posts was deleted and I didnt even use profanity, just expressing my opinion First Amendment? Never heard of it. Next question.
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Stmbtconscience- Usually, deleted posts still remain, but have the "Removed" blurb in place of the actual text. I don't see that on this thread. Since there are multiple threads that all address the exact same issue, maybe it was on another thread?
steamboatsconscience 5 years, 9 months ago
kiel looks like all of radarrascal's posts on all threads have been deleted without the removed blurb. My post does have the removed blurb, it was on another thread. radar must have been very very bad! Now if we could only get rid of that neocon, cut and paster, loves to hear himself talk ( to himself most of the time it seems) sbvor "Steamboats Voice of Reason" (how pretentious, LOL) then Ill vote to repeal the First Amendment.
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Conscience- If SBvor goes, though, all the laughs I get pointing out the "Voice of Reason's" (you'll notice that it's "sbvor" with no capitals. Freudian slip showing sbvor doesn't quite believe it's own hype) hypocrisy will diminish. Everyone needs a laugh!
radarrascal's posts have been a bit...harsh, in some aspects, but such is life. Thalgard is another one who I've personally hit the "Suggest Removal" on a few times. Did it just earlier on the Wall thread about "Dwight's Iraqi Torture Farm" or some nonsense. I have no problem with people speaking their mind, but I have no problem trying to get rid of lewd/more-than-crude remarks.
bikegirl 5 years, 9 months ago
Hmmmmm,Oh where can that rascal be hiding?
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