Students, faculty, and community members turned out at the Lone Tree school library for an input meeting as part of the district’s superintendent search on March 8.

Split into five groups, they provided McPherson & Jacobson LLC. valuable information about their desired superintendent. There were lots of similarities between the groups. 

They gave tons of positive feedback, like how the school is a hub of the community with great staff and students. Other positive things mentioned were the Wellness Center, PTO, staff training, and the preschool-12 format, to list a few. 

The negatives were limited, like a concern for the roof and boiler systems, the budget, and some pushback against the school board who some perceived as “micromanaging” and needing “some direction” with a new superintendent.

People generally want a financially literate superintendent who is visible and calm. They don’t want someone who plans on making big changes right away. Some felt growth would be a challenge anyway.

After the input meetings, the board met with McPherson & Jacobson LLC. to help finalize many details about the superintendent search. The search party has confirmed that everything is perfectly on track.

The application for superintendent will close Mar. 21. The board will choose the semi-finalists on Mar. 29, holding semi-final interviews on Apr. 1 and final interviews on Apr. 5. 

They used the start of this meeting to go over the input meeting results. Here, some important things were ironed out.

Some at the input meeting felt current superintendent, Kurt DeVore, does not attend enough school events. However, the board had pushback, confirming that DeVore is at every school event and is extremely visible, an aspect that will be hard to replace.   

The school board will meet again on Mar. 22 at 6:30 p.m. for a regularly scheduled meeting in the school library, not pertaining to their superintendent search.