SUPERINTENDENT APPLICATION DUE BY APRIL 1; SEMI-FINALISTS SELECTED APRIL 8
The county school district is accepting applications for the Florida Keys’ next superintendent of schools until Tuesday, April 1, and as of March 18 had posted three completed applications on the district website.
Those three applicants — Antoine Reed, PhD; Adam Taylor and Claude Tiller, PhD — are not current Monroe County School District employees, although at least three, and perhaps as many as six current in-county educators are expected to apply, including current and former principals and district administrators.
None of the three current applicants have worked in education in Florida, although Taylor has previously submitted his resume for the superintendent positions in St. Johns, Duval and Brevard counties. He is currently a freelance educational consultant, according to his LinkedIn profile. Tiller and Reed are both currently adjunct education professors. Tiller lives in Georgia, but teaches remotely at Grand Canyon University. Reed lives in Munderlein, Illinois and teaches remotely at Central State University in Ohio.
School Board member Sue Woltanski told the Keys Weekly on March 18 that the applications posted to the school district’s website reflect only those that have completed the entire application process, meaning their work histories and references have been checked by consultants from the Florida School Boards Association. The school board hired consultants from the statewide association to guide the national search. Additional candidates have likely submitted resumes, cover letters and letters of reference, but are still being processed, Woltanski said.
The school district has established a “Superintendent Search” link on its keysschools.com home page, which outlines the job description and requirements, preferred qualities, hiring timeline and shows completed applications, resumes, cover letters and letters of recommendation.
Minimum qualifications for the job are:
- Master’s Degree from an accredited institution
- Eight years of education administrative leadership
- Experience in serving diverse populations
Preferred qualifications include:
- Earned doctorate from an accredited institution
- Three or more years administrative/leadership at the district/cabinet level
- Former classroom teacher
- School principal or district-level experience
- Understanding of Florida education laws and processes
The job posting also includes a list of “preferred qualities” in a candidate that were collected through online surveys and community forums and student focus groups. Some of those qualities include:
- Maintains an apolitical mindset in that he/she respects diverse cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs
- Improves student performance identifying achievement gaps and developing programs to address them
- Supports and enhances career and technical programs and arts programs
- Demonstrates knowledge and experience with disaster preparedness and response
- Understands the challenges of the district’s geography and the diversity of cultures among the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys
- Implements recruitment and retention strategies for employees
- Builds partnerships to support needs outside of the classroom, including the lack of housing for employees
The county’s five elected school board members will narrow the pool of applicants at their April 8 meeting in Key West. Depending on the number of potential candidates, they may draft questions for semi-finalists to answer by April 14.
The school board at their April 21 board meeting will select three to five finalists who will be invited to the Keys the week of April 28 for in-person interviews and public receptions, where they can interact with community members, teachers, principals, parents and students.
The final selection is expected at the May 6 board meeting in Marathon. Contract negotiations will follow. The job posting outlines a salary range of $175,000 to $225,000, plus benefits, “along with a relocation stipend and other negotiated incentives,” the job posting states. The current superintendent’s salary is $175,000.
The new schools chief will start work July 1, allowing a month-long overlap before the July 31 retirement of Superintendent Theresa Axford.
