New search for next Duval schools superintendent starts March 15; final choice by May 23
Florida Times-Union | By Steve Patterson | February 13, 2024
Duval County’s School Board will start advertising for a new superintendent next month and choose the school district’s next leader May 23, members agreed during a workshop Tuesday.
The national search will be the second try at identifying a long-term leader for the country’s 20th-largest school district, with ads announcing the opening from March 15 to April 15 and the Florida School Boards Association handling the search work often done by executive headhunters.
The board tried that approach last summer, but shelved the search in October after receiving only 10 applications, several from people who didn’t meet minimum job qualifications.
Board members will continue to work with the school boards association for the new phase of the hunt, in which board members agreed that by April 23 they would identify semifinalists to question further, then choose finalists May 7. The finalists will have face-to-face interviews in Jacksonville on May 13 and 14.
Association CEO Andrea Messina said last fall that some superintendents from other districts might have wanted the job but “the timing was a concern” because taking the job would have meant leaving another district in the lurch midway through the school year.
The new search is timed to have the School Board’s pick working in Jacksonville by July, before classes start for the 2024-25 year.
The district has been run since last summer by Dana Kriznar, a longtime adminsitrator who had been deputy superintendent under Diana Greene, who retired following a run of conflicts with state education administrators.
