The board of education in Frederick County, Maryland, is set to appoint a new school system superintendent next week.
An agenda for the upcoming April 26 meeting says the board will make their selection and ratify the new superintendent’s contract in two votes scheduled for 3 p.m.
The Frederick News Post first reported the board’s upcoming action.
The new superintendent will start July 1 and will serve a four-year term.
The announcement Tuesday will cap a months-long search for a new superintendent after the previous superintendent, who had led the school system for more than a decade, left late last year following a federal investigation into the school system’s use of seclusion and restraint practices.
The board spent $35,000 with education search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to help with the search, which included several virtual meeting with board members, community members, FCPS employees and students. An online survey was conducted as well as a “leadership profile” listing the desired characteristics of a new superintendent.
The board was presented with another slate of 18 candidates and conducted interviews with five of them, according to board documents.
The board deliberated behind closed doors April 14 and agreed on the pick. The final decision also requires approval from the state superintendent of education.
The new superintendent will oversee a school system of more than 45,000 students and 6,200 employees and an annual operating budget of more than $637 million.
The school system’s former longtime superintendent, Terry Alban, left her post late last year following the announcement of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the school system’s seclusion and restraint practices.
Frederick County Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Mike Markoe has been serving as interim superintendent in the meantime.
A number of school systems in the D.C. area have named new superintendents in recent months — or are in the search process.
Last week, officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, announced the hiring of Michelle Reid to be the school system’s superintendent.
In February, board members in Montgomery County, Maryland, announced they were sticking with interim school Monifa McKnight after a national search by HYA & Associates.
Board of education officials in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, are also looking to hire a new superintendent by July 1 and have hired HYA to help with the search.
