The USD 250 school district has kicked off its search for a candidate to replace head principal Phil Bressler, who resigned in early January to seek a superintendent position.

The hiring process will be led by superintendent Rich Proffitt and assistant superintendent Dr. Brad Hanson.

The district’s original timeline, which was released on Jan. 23, said a candidate would be brought to the board on Feb. 25, but the timeline has since been extended and has not been redefined.

“We’re not going to move too fast or too slow,” Proffitt said. “We’re going to move at the pace that we need to to find the right person. If we don’t feel confident about the quality of candidates or quantity of candidates, we will extend it to make sure we are getting the people that we need because this is a really extremely critical position.”

Proffitt and Hanson will narrow down the applicant pool to three to four candidates to interview for the position. The job-posting flyer says the position will offer a salary of $95,000-$110,000.

No Skype interviews will be conducted. Instead, the candidates will be interviewed by a community, staff and administrative panel.

Proffitt and Hanson will select around five to six people per panel. The community panel will be led by a school board member, and will be comprised of “community leaders who are also parents of students in the district.” The staff panel will consist of regular education teachers, as well as one classified staff member and one special education member, while the administrative panel will consist of the district administration and high school assistant principals.

According to district director of public information Zach Fletcher, the panelists’ names will not be disclosed.

“The names of people on these panels will not be made public, which will help ensure the integrity of the interview process,” Fletcher said in an email to The Booster Redux.

Proffitt said his selection of the panelists will be based on a variety of factors, including leadership and outspokenness.

“The selection of the group is going to be based on high school staff who are leaders in the building,” Proffitt said. “Not only do they not have any problem with voicing their opinion, but have the ear of the rest of the staff and have shown leadership abilities amongst the staff.”

The panelists will use a Google Form to share their opinions with the superintendents. In addition to the formal interviews, the candidates will participate in non-formal interviews.

“The non-formal interview [is] getting them in front of the staff and seeing how they react,” Proffitt said. “This is more of you’re out in the hallways, you’re doing different things and seeing how you act and react to staff, students, environment and so on.”

The superintendents, as well as a group of building level administrators and selected high school teachers will screen all of the candidates. According to the district’s timeline, all finalists will have to send in their transcripts prior to any interviews.

Proffitt hopes to finish all of the interviews in a day.

“I know it may be a little bit difficult, but we’re just asking people to trust the process,” Proffitt said. “[We hope they trust that] we’re going to find the person and that they’ll answer the questions that are important to our district in a way that shows us they are the quality of leader that we need.”