As expected, Juneau School District Superintendent Bridgette Weiss presented her formal letter of retirement from her position at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, prompting the members to give the OK to start the process of finding someone to fill the position come July 1, 2023.
“It has been an absolute privilege to serve in this role and I certainly wish there were things we didn’t have to go through — like a pandemic — but there isn’t anywhere where I would have chosen to be during these times,” Weiss told the Empire. “I’m really appreciative of my time here and I look forward to whatever I end up doing next, but Juneau will remain my home and community.”
The first step made by the board was to authorize a request for proposals by the district to elicit a response for potential outside vendors to bid on taking the reins to search to find potential candidates for the superintendent position. According to Cassee Olin, the district’s director of administrative services, the request will be sent out to the public on Thursday morning, and from then vendors will have 28 days to respond (not including holidays) before the search closes on Dec. 9.
Olin said the cost to contract a vendor for the search will be determined by the board and could range anywhere from $25,000 to more than $100,000 depending on the scope of the search chosen.
Once closed, a formal review of the vendors who applied will be conducted and in mid-December, the board will decide which one will be contracted, and the search for candidates is expected to begin shortly after in early January, according to Olin.
Olin said it’s too early to outline the next steps after the search begins, but said she urges residents to keep an eye out come January for announcements about the future pool of candidates and get involved with the opportunities for community input.
Deedie Sorensen, Juneau School board president, echoed Olin’s words and encouraged the public to join in on the conversation and with the process as it evolves throughout the first half of 2023.
“People need to participate,” she said. “When there are community opportunities for input, it’s important to do that.”
Sorensen said she personally would like to see the next superintendent show commitment to the community and the children, and said she doesn’t have a preference on who the candidate is or where the person comes from.
Emil Mackey, Juneau School board vice president, said he personally would like to see the next superintendent have skills to address the financial concerns of the district and the learning needs of its students, but said he isn’t leaning in any direction of where he’d like to see the person come from.
“There are going to be pros and cons to anybody that we look at, but I’m not sold we need somebody from Alaska, and I’m not sold we need somebody from outside Alaska,” he said.
• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter at @clariselarson.
