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LOCK HAVEN -- The Keystone Central School District's Board of Directors, with assistance from DiRocco Education Consulting, LLC, is looking for the public's input regarding its search for the district's next superintendent.
Community members are encouraged to take the survey by visiting the district's website -- www.kcsd.us -- and scrolling to the subhead that reads "Superintendent Search Survey."
The survey consists of five questions, with three open-ended questions that include identifying the district's strengths and major needs, your expectations of a future superintendent and identifying three characteristics that are most important for someone in the role.
"What we're trying to do right now is gather input from the staff and the community as to what they are looking for in their next superintendent," Mark DiRocco, of DiRocco Education, said. "We're going to build something called a District and Leadership Profile."
DiRocco said the survey should take about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how much an individual would like to write in the open-ended questions.
The public survey will be open until Oct. 9.
DiRocco said this is the first step in the consulting firm and the board's mission to find the district's next superintendent.
The firm was hired after current superintendent, Dr. Jacquelyn Martin, announced her retirement at the end of her five-year contract. Martin's last day will be Jan. 31, 2024.
DiRocco said the survey went live on Monday and the district sent a link to parents. So far, about 200 individuals have taken the survey.
"We've had a pretty good response so far. We've had over 90 parents and a few community members and we've had nearly 80 staff members - and it's only been online since Monday," DiRocco said. "We tried to keep this survey brief enough that people will take the time to answer, but rich enough that it's going to give us some really good data."
Once the survey is closed, DiRocco said his firm will compile the data and meet with the school board the week of Oct. 16.
DiRocco said the board requested his firm operate on an "expedited timeline" to try and have a superintendent in place before Martin's last day in January.
"We're hoping to have someone identified and at least hired by the board by Thanksgiving. Hopefully we can get through the entire process," he said.
If someone were to not be hired in that timeframe, or the individual who is taking the role must start after Martin's departure, DiRocco said his firm would assist in finding an interim superintendent.
"We can help them secure an acting superintendent. We have lots of names we can refer to," he said. "I know that they've (the board) had people come in the past prior to Martin. So we can reach out to some of those people... unless they have someone in mind."
As for more public involvement in the search, DiRocco said next steps will be determined once the survey is completed and data discussed with the board.
"Once we receive all the feedback from the survey we will meet with the board again and then they can make a decision there if they want to go further than the surveys for input - for things like focus groups," he said. "That remains to be seen at this point."
DiRocco said the application process for those interested in the position is open until Oct. 25. So far, his firm has received some inquiries and one application.
"That's pretty normal at this point in the process," he said. "People just want to find out more details about the district or the job. Usually it takes a couple of weeks to really see the applications start coming in."
The inquiries so far have come from individuals within Pennsylvania, another common occurrence, DiRocco said.
"One of the reasons for that is that Pennsylvania has a pretty robust certification process," he said. "Not everyone who is certified out of state had a reciprocal agreement with Pennsylvania."
"Sometimes they'll apply from out of state and contact our department only to find out they're missing their credential or some criteria to be qualified to be a superintendent in Pennsylvania," he continued.
The District and Superintendent Leadership Profile and Application for the position are accessible via https://www.diroccoedconsulting.com/superintendent-search-service.
To stay up-to-date on the process, DiRocco encouraged residents to follow the district's website.