‘Struggling with the applicant pool,’ Duval School Board halts search for superintendent
Florida Times-Union | By Steve Patterson | August 18, 2023
Duval County’s School Board halted its search for a new superintendent Wednesday, saying it would look again next year in hopes of finding more top-shelf candidates.
“We were struggling with the applicant pool,” School Board Chair Kelly Coker said after a meeting where search advisers said several of the 10 people who applied didn’t meet minimum qualifications.
Superintendent Dana Kriznar, whom board members tapped this year to hold the job until December, agreed Wednesday to remain in the post through June 30, a school district spokesman said.
The board, which had been scheduled to select semifinalists Wednesday, seemed likely to resume the superintendent search in the spring and fill the job by summer. But members also mentioned the possibility of filling the job in 2025 and didn’t adopt a firm schedule.
“This job is too important to let a calendar force our decision,” Coker said in explaining the unanimous vote to stop the job hunt that began in July.
Florida School Boards Association CEO Andrea Messina (right) outlines options for a superintendent search during a June 14 Duval County School Board workshop. Steve Patterson/Florida Times-Union
The board had aimed to select the new superintendent Nov. 21, but had second thoughts when the 20 to 30 applications that were once expected didn’t materialize.
“I was really taken aback that we only got 10,” member Warren Jones said, contrasting that to the dozens of applications the school district received in the months before former Superintendent Diana Greene was hired in 2018.
Twenty to 30 people have applied in similar situations elsewhere, Coker said, but the group contracted to help the board said the search’s scheduling discouraged some good candidates.
Some sitting superintendents “felt that Duval County was a very desirable district but, really, the timing was a concern,” said Florida School Boards Association CEO Andrea Messina. She told the board that superintendents holding jobs now felt often pledged to their districts for this school year but would think differently about chasing a job that started the following year.
Upcoming School Board elections could also be keeping interest down, she said.
Elections for some of the seven seats happen every two years. But it’s possible as many as six seats might be on the ballot in November 2024, depending on a judge’s decision about a request by civil rights lawyers to have new elections for School Board seats, which cover the area of two council districts, go through new elections.
Messina told the board that one superintendent she talked to balked after learning about the chance for board turnover, saying “you want me to take a career risk [by moving to a new district] and there could potentially be six new board members” who might disagree with the new superintendent’s plans.
The people who did apply included Duval Chief of Schools Scott Schneider and the district’s elementary region superintendent, Marianne Simon, but board member Lori Hershey said she had hoped for a more experienced pool of candidates.
“I think there were some applicants who would have been great to come to this district and serve in some capacity, but not as superintendent,” she said.
Candidates can reapply, but board members said the ones who really aren’t qualified should be told before the job is advertised again.
