Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs School District officials will likely begin interviewing interim superintendent candidates next week in hopes of having someone in place by mid-September.

Denise Connelly, president of the Steamboat Springs School Board, said Thursday that the board has received 13 applications for the position, including several from out of state.

"I think they look very promising," she said.

The School Board voted 4-0 on Aug. 10 to buy out the remaining two years of former superintendent Donna Howell's contract, paying Howell $270,000 in exchange for her immediate resignation.

The board is forming a committee of community members to help find an interim superintendent, who will lead the district until a permanent hire is made, possibly in spring 2008.

"I have a tentative committee list that I have sent to our human resources director, Anne Muhme, and we'll try to get a representative and well-rounded committee that represents different facets of our stakeholders," Connelly said.

Principals and assistant principals, school district directors, teachers, support staff, parents and other members of the community have been invited to join the 10-person committee.

"I think the (School Board) is going to get interviews scheduled, and then work backwards and get the committee fully formed," Muhme said.

Board member Jeff Troeger served on the 2003 committee that helped find Howell. Troeger said the new committee will not have a vote in the hiring of an interim superintendent.

"What we are going to do with the community people is ask for pros and cons for each candidate," he said Thursday. "I'm not sure we are going to ask them to rank (candidates) or anything else. We are going to ask for strengths and weaknesses."

Troeger said the committee will interview each candidate independently of the board in a parallel interview process, but the board will not ask for any recommendations.

"When you form committees, you don't ask for recommendations because when you ask for recommendations, people get really upset when you don't honor them," he said. "It's important to remember that the board is the one that hires."