PRINEVILLE, OR -- Crook County’s School Board is looking for community input on the type of person the district should hire for its next Superintendent. "We’ve opened up an online community survey that’s available to our district staff, our families and then all general community members who live in Crook County," says the district's Jason Carr. The survey is available HERE through January fifth. 

Carr tells KBND News the results will be released to the public, "They’ll be presented to the board, and then made available on the superintendent search webpage that we’ve created. So, there’ll be some transparency around what people are looking for." But, he says, the school board has a general idea of the desired characteristics, "We’re certainly in an era, especially after COVID, where families and people are just more interested in what’s happening with public schools. And so, the next Superintendent I think really needs to be an advocate, somebody who listens well, communicates well, and just has a lot of passion and energy around wanting to interact with our staff and community." That means, the district wants, "Somebody who is relational, who can build really good partnerships and relationships with the community, the school board, our administration, teachers." 

Applications for Superintendent candidates will be accepted through January 20th. "Once that is complete, then we’ll have an initial screening committee that will pare down the applications." Carr says that screening committee is not yet finalized. "And then from there, there will be interviews with the board directly, and also an opportunity for meet-and-greet with community members with the finalists." The first round of interviews is scheduled for early February, with final interviews and community meeting s planned for early March.

Crook County Schools hopes to announce its new superintendent by March 11th, to start work on July first.