The new superintendent will not be announced until May.

A community forum for the new superintendent to replace Jack Dale will be held at AHS on Dec. 6. The event will take place at 7 p.m. and is being organized by educational consultant firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA).

“I hope as many parents, teachers, students and others take advantage of the opportunities to give their views, as the choice of our new superintendent is the most important decision the Board will make,” Mason District member Sandy Evans said.

Dale announced his retirement in September 2011. His retirement will  be effective in June of 2013.

“As I spoke to Dr. Dale, he said that after devoting 42 years of his life to education, he would like to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren,”Dale’s chief of staff Christine Donohue said.  “He has a host of outside interests including golfing, flying, skiing and reading that he would like to enjoy. His parents and three grandkids live on the west coast and he would like to spend more time with them.”

AHS is among several other schools where forums are set to be held, including South County HS, Langley HS and Robinson Secondary School.

Although there will be community forums open to the public, details concerning candidates for the search will be kept within the search committee. At the Nov. 19 School Board work session, the issue of confidentiality was discussed. A benefit of confidentiality was the fact that candidates would be more likely to apply. A detriment of the issue was the fact that the community would have less of a say in  the decision.

“I supported allowing the public to see who the finalists are, so we could benefit from the views of parents, teachers, students and others on the specific candidates,”Evans said. “A majority of the Board did not support this approach, however. While I had hoped for the more open approach, I look forward to getting important feedback from the groups who are able to meet and assess our finalists.”

The search firm has created a survey for the public to take part in and describe what type of individual they want as a superintendent. This survey is available on the FCPS website.

In addition to the community forums, HYA will also hold smaller meetings with various groups.   The search firm will use this information to develop a leadership profile to describe the characteristics wanted in a superintendent. HYA will use this profile to recruit qualified candidates to bring to the School Board for consideration. The School Board will review this profile at the Dec. 20 meeting, and it will be finalized in January after receiving more feedback. The school board will then narrow the list of candidates to finalists and interview them in an extensive process after reviewing their qualifications and backgrounds. The  Board expects to make a decision in April and announce the new superintendent in May.

Evans notes that she looks for a leader that will take the district to the next level of accomplishment while focusing on each child’s needs and individual achievement.

“We will look for someone who can work well with all stakeholders and who is forward-thinkings,” Evans said. “As we develop the Leadership Profile, more specifics will come into focus, and that’s why I urge everyone, including students, to participate as fully as possible in its creation.”