Schools

Cuyahoga Falls School Board Starts Superintendent Search

With proposal to share superintendent with Woodridge schools off the table, Falls school board starts looking under a tight deadline.

The Cuyahoga Falls school board is now looking for a superintendent after a plan to share the post with Woodridge schools fell through Monday.

Cuyahoga Falls school board President Therese Dunphy told the school board at its meeting Monday night, that Woodridge Superintendent Walter Davis called her Monday afternoon to remove his name for consideration.

“I hope that as we move forward, we look for other opportunities and other ways to share services, to increase buying power, to look at running things more efficiently,” she said.

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 last week brought to light a number of ways the two districts could share services and some of those suggestions could still come true.

“One of the good things that came out of our conversation is that all of the parties were discussing ways that we could look to share services and we’ve begun a good dialogue where savings can be had,” Dunphy said.

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While the move by Davis put an end to talks of sharing a superintendent, Dave Rump, school board vice president, echoed Dunphy’s vision to collaborate.

“There’s all kinds of possibilities, being as close as we are, that we can share those resources and those efforts and in turn, save us both a lot of money,” Rump said. “So the superintendent might not work out, but that isn’t the end of it. I think it’s opened up a desire to share a lot of things.”

The timeline is tight for the district to hire a replacement for departing Superintendent Ed Holland. Dunphy said the board will use the Finding Leaders search firm to round up candidates for the job.

Board members were asked to share qualities they’d like to see in a potential candidate for superintendent.

Among the suggestions:

  • An understanding of the new rules and regulations coming out of the state government.
  • A visionary approach to leading the district.
  • Knowledge of how to execute managerial duties in day-to-day operations.
  • Knowledge of how to handle finances, which has helped the district pull itself out of tough times.

"Paul Pendleton, from Finding Leaders, will conduct discussion sessions with various interested groups (administrators, staff, parents, community leaders) and report back to the board at our next regular meeting on May 9," Dunphy said.

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