By Maddi Hebebrand | Cleveland 19 News
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cleveland Board of Education announced Tuesday night they will invite the community to serve on interview panels and submit questions for their final CEO candidates.
The board said the finalist interviews are expected to take place in late April.
“Community input played a vital role in finalizing the job profile we are using to recruit and screen candidates for the CEO position,” Board Chair Anne Bingham said. “Hearing the voices of students, families, educators, neighbors, and partners will be just as important when our interviews with candidates begin this spring. We felt it was important to take a slightly different approach in this interview process to ensure that all members of our community get a chance to weigh in on who will be our next CEO.”
The board said over 5,000 members of the CMSD community participated in meetings, surveys and focus groups starting in January, when they announced plans to engage the community in a search for a CEO to replace Eric Gordon, who will step down at the end of June.
They reported key themes from the feedback showing that the community’s expectations are high for the next school leader.
Monica Santana Rosen, CEO of Alma Advisory Group, said the community input represents a wide and racially diverse demographic of the CMSD community.
“We have been pleased to see not only students, staff and parents weigh in, but also residents from every Ward in the city and from communities outside of Cleveland that are part of the school district,” she said. “The Board is looking forward to re-engaging community members in the finalist interview phase of our search.”
Multiple interview panels will include students, parents and caregivers, teachers, principals, union leadership and community partners selected through a lottery process.