Sorting out beliefs in a job search: search consultants try to keep school boards upfront about their desired values when seeking a new chief.

The superintendent search consultant plays a major role in ensuring a close fit between leading candidates for a superintendency and the underlying views of governing board members on various matters, including religion and church/state issues.

At the same time, the candidate and the governing board have a role in ensuring the candidate's views on the role of religion and religious liberty in the public schools align with those of the school board.

This issue is of particular importance in the search process today as religion and church/state issues are addressed in the media more regularly than ever before. Public schools have become a mecca of various cultures leading to sensitive issues such as the celebration of holidays and religious traditions and practices. Some communities are striving to maintain the religious traditions that have been practiced in their schools--largely unnoticed by the outside world--for decades.

School board members are elected to ensure these long-time traditions continue, sometimes against efforts by activist groups or editorial page writers to raise questions of legality and multicultural sensitivity. Therefore, the board must employ a superintendent who shares in the belief in maintaining religious traditions in the schools.

On several occasions during my initial meeting with the board to begin a superintendent search, board members have directed that any candidate they consider must have strong secular beliefs that are aligned to the school district.

For example, one school district was being challenged by an activist group from outside the community over the celebration of traditional holiday programs in the schools. The board informed me they would not hire any superintendent who would not actively and publicly support the holiday traditions. This later became an issue during the public interviews when the candidates were questioned on their support of the traditional holiday observances. The board and candidate finalists handled the matter professionally and positively.

Consultant's Role

Upon accepting an appointment to serve as a search consultant for a board of education, the consultant must set forth the parameters of the search process with the board. The parameters include the basic guidelines such as the timeline of the search, base salary, length of contract and educational requirements, among other terms.

However, for a superintendent search to end satisfactorily for all parties, a search consultant will require more than the basics. As part of the agreement, the consultant must have board permission to gather specific information upon which to build the profile, or needs, for the position.

To gain this pertinent information, the consultant must have school board approval to establish and publish scheduled meetings with specific employee groups, students, parent associations, community groups, business groups and so forth. An invitation letter from the board president should establish the purpose of the meetings is to gather opinions about the desired characteristics, leadership skills and personal traits, including statements of faith, they might want to see in the new superintendent. Those interested people who are unable to attend a meeting should be allowed to communicate their feelings in writing directly to the consultant.

These meetings are voluntary and considered private. No specific comments are identified with specific individuals or groups. The only exception to this is the scheduled public meetings, which are open to all persons, including the press.

The consultant must set guidelines at the beginning of each meeting. These include allotting maximum time for each group and warning that inappropriate and non-professional comments won't be permitted. The consultant should record each comment on an easel for all participants to view the consultant's interpretation of what is being said. (This lends credence to the input process and establishes a trust that the board will see what is being said.) The consultant also should collect impromptu comments from persons encountered on the street or in local businesses.

The board also has a specific time to give its input to the consultant, either in private or public session, depending on state law. The input from the board as a total group allows all board members to hear what each other has to say. (Sometimes a board member may indicate his or her preference for certain religious beliefs and it is recorded as one person's desire of a certain characteristic in the superintendent.) The board's comments are recorded in the same way as other groups and added to all other comments received by the consultant.

The consultant then composes the profile based on gathered information. All comments (not identified as to origin), the frequency list and the proposed profile are sent to the individual board members for their individual review prior to meeting with the consultant to approve the profile for the next superintendent. Anytime a religious or personal belief is strong in the characteristics desired, it is addressed in the profile. In my experience, it is addressed in 40 to 50 percent of all superintendent searches.

Once the profile is approved by the board and becomes published, the consultant uses it as a guideline to share the specific needs of the school district with the candidates. While the profile is shared in written form, the consultant is able to provide additional information to prospective candidates about the feel of the district and its needs, priorities and specific desires. After spending significant time listening to constituents and gathering information throughout the input process, the consultant ought to be able to share this with candidates before or after they apply--but certainly before the board determines which candidates it will invite for an interview.

In one search process I guided, the community made it clear at the outset it only wanted to hear from candidates with a conservative philosophy who had strong Christian, family-oriented beliefs, who abstained from all alcoholic beverages and who would refrain from doing yard work or car washing on Sundays. We used the following wording in the superintendent profile: The successful candidate "understands, values and appreciates the uniqueness of our community--its conservative beliefs and attitudes, will actively support our longstanding school/community traditions, understands the importance of family, has high moral and ethical standards, will make a commitment to our schools and community, wants to live here and become an active and established member of our community."

It is not a common practice for school boards to be upfront about their religious preference out of fear of discriminating against some candidates. However, the consultant has a duty to insist the board be honest in stating its most desirable characteristics. Board members must be reminded they represent the community and have a responsibility to the community.

Unwanted attention from news media and social activist groups have led some boards to become quite guarded on this issue, which arises at least 50 percent of the time in the superintendent searches I've conducted over the past 10 years. The consultant must ensure it's addressed in a professional manner.

Candidate's Role

Candidates should always do their research before applying for any superintendent position--after all, someone may get a job offer he or she concludes isn't desirable after all.

Candidates should determine whether they would be a good fit for the position and should always realize that the candidate must fit the community and can never expect the community to fit the candidate. The community with its long-established beliefs and traditions will not change for the sake of a new superintendent.

A superintendent candidate can learn about the values of a community and its citizens by doing research of this nature:

* Read past newspapers, especially local papers;

* Read at least one year of past board minutes;

* Visit the area by having a meal at a local restaurant and ask the wait person, 'Tin thinking about moving here so what can you tell me about the schools?" Do the same at a real estate office and a service station.

* Call professional education associations to ask about specific needs of a community and its schools;

* Talk with neighboring districts' superintendents about the nature of the governing board;

* Attend a school function as a possible new resident;

* Review websites of the district, as well as the state education agency, for information about the community, diversity, housing, income rates, etc.

* Call the search consultant with specific questions that go beyond the printed profile.

One candidate in a search I was conducting, after visiting a community, noticed there were no churches of his particular belief within 20 miles of the district, but there were several others, all of the same secular belief. He called to ask me whether I thought it could be a problem with the community if he left town every Sunday to attend a church of his faith several miles away in another community.

After I shared my observation this was a fairly small town where churchgoing was a high priority, he felt he might not be a good fit for this community and decided not to apply for the position.

The Board's Role

School board members must be frank with the search consultant about their desires and beliefs. If a board majority feels strongly about a certain belief, whether educational, political or religious, it has the moral and ethical responsibility to share that information with the consultant.

Sometimes a school board may be split on a sensitive or controversial matter or may not want to openly discuss a sensitive issue. Yet it is the duty of the search consultant to pull this information from the board members before they launch their search for a new superintendent. Any board willing to hire a candidate with far different views than the board or community is not only setting up the candidate for failure but also putting the school district in a less than favorable position.

If a majority of the school board seeks a school leader with particular views on church/state issues, that information must be shared with the searcher if the board is to carry out its responsibility to the community by hiring the best-fitting superintendent. A school board that remains mute on a sensitive issue is acting irresponsibly and handcuffing the consultant in his or her search work. Board members must be honest and upfront without adopting a discriminatory stance.

Long-Term Aim

It takes a team effort and an ample dose of common sense among the consultant, school board members and candidates to conduct a superintendent search that leads to a great fit with an educational leader who will commit to the long term.

In the final analysis, of course, it is only the board and the candidate, through the interview process, who will determine whether the fit is there. When the best fit is established for a successful, long-term board/superintendent relationship, the consultant then, and only then, can take pride in a job well done.

Terre Davis, a former superintendent, is president of TD & Associates, 681 County Road 66, Westcliffe, CO 81152. E-mail: [e-mail]