TPS board tightens timeline to replace McAran

The timeline and procedure for finding a replacement for retiring Superintendent of Schools Mike McAran occupied much of the discussion at Monday night’s regular meeting of the Tecumseh School Board.Board President Ed Tritt said that the position will be posted by August 1 and added that the general outline for some of the interview strategies remain from the last superintendent search that procured Todd Bingaman, McAran’s predecessor, who died part way into his contract. Tritt was on the board when that search was conducted. “We are the ones responsible for hiring a superintendent, but we also want to have input from the community,” Tritt said. He also invited Lori Spotts, the teachers’ union president, who was in attendance at the meeting, to consult in the search.“We paid a heck of a lot of money for the last search,” said Tritt, “and we don’t need to do that again.” Preliminary inducements for the future superintendent include salary commensurate with other superintendents and a three-year contract.Trustee Kim Amstutz-Wild is one of the board members who have been exploring the process of recruiting qualified candidates for the board to consider. She said that she has a check list and other pertinent information that covers many of the requirements that all candidates should meet before being considered for an interview. “Until we get to the interview stage, we don’t really need to include salary in the discussion,” she said.Tritt noted that superintendent salary information is readily available because they are public employees and are included on all public school district websites. McAran’s salary is about $111,000, plus benefits.Trustee Jim Rice told his colleagues that he had been in contact with a consultant at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) “who would make his services available for a very nominal fee.” The board agreed that a facilitator for further discussion of the superintendent search at the next meeting would be prudent.“We could get quite a bit of stuff done with a facilitator who could keep things moving,” said trustee Matt Oren.Trustee Karen Januszek questioned why the regular fourth-Monday meeting of the board had been canceled for July. “I think that the superintendent search itself is important enough to keep that meeting,” she said.After further discussion, Rice said that he would contact the EMU facilitator to see if he would be available for the regular meeting Monday, July 23, or if more convenient, Monday, July 30.“We need to get our ducks in a row first,” said Oren. “Then we can hold a community meeting for input.”“We have two months to work on community involvement before we start looking at resumes on October first,” Tritt said.Formerly, the first meeting of the fiscal year, which was Monday night, would have been an organizational meeting in which new board members are seated and the year’s officers are elected, but under Michigan’s new uniform election cycle, two board members will be elected Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, for six-year terms. Board members Januszek’s and Kevin Packard’s terms will expire Dec. 31 of this year. Neither has stated whether they plan to seek re-election.Deputy Lenawee County Clerk Phyllis Ahleman said that information was not available about whether anyone was circulating a nominating petition for Tecumseh School Board, but she said that anyone who is interested may obtain a petition from the county clerk’s office, 425 N. Main St., in Adrian or Tecumseh City Clerk, 309 E. Chicago Blvd. Petitions must be signed by no less than 40 nor more than 100 registered voters and must be filed by Tuesday, Aug. 14. Candidates may also pay a $100 nonrefundable fee to be on the ballot in lieu of collecting signatures.In other board action, the trustees unanimously approved:• the 2012-2013 handbooks for Tecumseh High and Middle schools• ratification of a tentative agreement with Tecumseh Administrators Association (TAA) regarding insurance• a resolution to participate in the school loan revolving fund• a resolution to amend and extend the food service agreement with ARAMARK through June 30, 2013.