Iowa City school board promises public involvement in superintendent search

The public will have its say at the start and the end of the Iowa City school district's search for a new superintendent.

That will include a community meeting early next month to help create a candidate profile and a meet-and-greet with finalists for the job, the school board decided Friday.

“That will be an important piece for us,” school board President Patti Fields said of receiving public input.

The board met with Ted Blaesing of Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the Glenview, Ill.-based firm hired to aid in the search.

Superintendent Lane Plugge is leaving the district at the end of the school year for a job in western Iowa. The board's goal is to have someone hired by July 1.

Small groups will meet with Blaesing the first week of March to help put together a profile that will be used to develop a list of characteristics the community wants the next superintendent to have. There will be about 30 groups, made up of invited representatives from the school district, parent groups, local governments, the University of Iowa, the business community and the greater community in general.

There also will be an open meeting for people not part of the small groups.

Blaesing said he expects to present five to six candidates to the board for interviews. That would then be whittled down to about three finalists, he said.

Each finalist will come to Iowa City for interviews and a tour of the district. There also will be an open event for the public that could include a question-and-answer session, Blaesing said.

Phil Hemingway of Iowa City, a father of a City High student, was the lone member of the public at Friday's meeting. He criticized the board for keeping Plugge after Plugge interviewed for another job a couple of years ago and said it needs to hire someone who plans to stay in Iowa City and offer that person a contract that gives more leverage to the board than he believes Plugge's does.

“This is the most important thing you're doing right now,” he said.