The Highland Park School Board President Adam Sherman, conscientious about fulfilling the board’s promise to keep the community informed about the new superintendent selection process, issued another letter to the community last week that indicated the search was narrowed down to two candidates. The final selection, initially scheduled to occur the week of July 13, now probably will occur by the end of July, according to what Mr. Sherman implied to the Highland Park Planet.
In the most recent update letter dated July 16, Mr. Sherman said that both candidates would make “excellent superintendents if selected. As recently as this week, the Board was still collecting feedback on these candidates from a diverse group of community members and staff as well as our administration.”
Community members and staff included: leaders and members of the PTOs, HP Parents of Students of Color, HP Special Education Parents Advisory Committee, Highland Park Education Foundation, high school students, staff members representing all school buildings, and parents from each school building. It was a comprehensive group, selected to give the School Board a variety of perspectives. Feedback was given to the board via the survey, email and in person conversations. Board members reviewed the comments from the hundreds of community members who took the time to fill out the candidate profile survey and/or to make their comments at the Community meetings.
Mr. Sherman praised the search process as being the most transparent and inclusive school superintendent search in which he has ever participated – and in spite of his youth, he has participated in many searches both as a school board member and as a citizen.
The board received 21 applications for the position. The professions represented in the final pool of candidates were: superintendents, assistant superintendents, supervisor, directors, and principals.