Following seven video interviews with semifinalist candidates for their shared superintendent position that is open, the Nodaway Valley and CAM Community School District boards announced through Grundmeyer Leader Services last Friday their three finalists for the job: Brian Wall, Paul Croghan and Brad Anderson. In the beginning, the boards received almost 20 applicants to choose from that Grundmeyer found.
Now, almost 70 school representatives and community members from the two school districts will assist the boards in the process as three interview teams. They will gather questions for the three candidates. Those questions will then be reviewed and the three interview teams will meet with each of the the candidates the afternoon of Thursday, June 6, at Nodaway Valley High School.
The interview teams, according to NV School Board President Melissa Larson, are not only made up of community members from all three towns in NV's district, plus some from CAM, but also teachers, school support staff and five high school students.
Speaking for herself as the board president and not on behalf of NV's board or CAM's, Larsen reported Friday she's very pleased with how the process has gone thus far.
"We went through and had a really great discussion on what we felt from the interviews and all of that," Larson said. "Now, our three candidates are announced and on Thursday, all afternoon, each of the three candidates will tour CAM and will tour Nodaway Valley. We have three interview teams that are mixed teams. Our interview teams are about 22 people [each], half from Nodaway Valley and half from CAM.
"We made it a point on the Nodaway Valley side that we balanced [people] among our communities. We have teachers from all three buildings and administrators from all three buildings. We have high school students, which is what we settled on," Larson continued. "The teachers we have, most all of them volunteered. All five of our students came to the office and volunteered to do it, they didn't have to be harangued. It's nice to have kids who wanted to be involved in the process, it's really encouraging."
Interviews are open to the public, though Larson stressed that anyone who observes are strictly observers of the interviews being conducted and will not have an opportunity to speak. Interviews will take place in the high school library, the Family and Consumer Sciences Room (Room 152) and the Science Room (Room 122).
"Each interview team will rate the candidates on different qualifications and give feedback in a Google document that is brought together for us to analyze at our meeting that night after," Larson said. "The candidates will interview with each of the teams and the boards. They'll do four interviews and two district tours, then at 7 p.m. both boards will meet, we'll go into closed session and we'll decide."
Larson said she's excited about all three candidates and the unique qualifications and experiences they bring to the table.
Interviews Thursday will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Wall's interviews will occur at 1:30, 2:30 and 2:30. Croghan will be interviewed at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30. Anderson will be interviewed at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30.
