Gladewater ISD Super search underway

“The first thing that you guys do, it’s your job to hire a superintendent.”
Mike Morrison once again finds himself shepherding a school board in their search for a long-term leader. The veteran administrator has been on both sides of the equation, and he walked the latest set of Gladewater ISD trustees through a quick primer last week before narrowing down the parameters of their headhunting.
Following Dr. Sedric Clark’s resignation in July, the GISD School Board brought Morrison back to the district’s central seat to steer the ship on an interim basis. If all goes as planned, that journey will last just through the end of the calendar year.
“You know I’m the interim,” Morrison said, simply – his second time shepherding a superintendent search here in less than a decade. “I’m to be replaced.”
Hiring from within the district is an option, he reminded the trustees Aug. 19, and it would consequently shorten the search process.
Setting the search beyond the district, “You open it for a longer period of time so people have a longer period to apply,” he noted. “After you close, you guys have to come back together to take all the applicants, screen them, then determine who you want to interview, how many you want to interview.”
The school’s elected officials went with the further-reaching plan, board president Christ Thompson confirmed. It enables the district to draw from a wider pool in addition to any local candidates who want to apply.
“We’re not using a firm, we’re going to do it ourselves… We posted the job as of Aug. 20,” he noted, listing the post on the Texas Association of School Administrators Career Center. Applications are due back to GISD no later than Sept. 24. “As a board we’ll sit down and go through those, weed it down to a certain number,” likely six.
“We’ll interview those, and it gets cut down from there. However many we feel comfortable with – two or three.”
Anticipating multiple rounds of interviews will last several weeks, Thompson expects a ‘Lone Finalist’ will emerge by mid- to late-November.
Once the district makes an official offer, there’s a standard 21-day waiting period before a new school administrator’s contract is signed.
“Our realistic goal is by the second semester we’ll have our new superintendent,” he said. “That’s what we’re shooting for.”
There’s no particular philosophy or theme to the school board’s search.
According to the TASA listing, “This position represents an extraordinary opportunity to propel forward the district’s commitment to academic distinction, community partnership, and holistic development of our students.”
As Thompson puts it, “We’re just looking for the best candidate.”