The school superintendent plays a major role in how our schools are run and manages over 3,000 school district workers. The Board of Education is working on hiring a new superintendent.  The current superintendent, Steven Schultz, is retiring after eight years.

One of the biggest things the school board and Superintendent Schultz have worked on, and hope the next superintendent continues to improve, is Performance Based Learning.

“We’re looking for someone who is committed to Performance Based Learning which we’ve initiated over the last two years in the district. That’s extremely important to this board.” John Williams, board of education president, said.

“We’ve got seven demonstration schools that are immersed in it and twelve other schools and teachers are coming along, we hope it will be district wide over time,” Williams said.

Performance Based Learning involves a growth mindset and has a basic goal of breaking subjects into steps, and having students master one step before moving on to the next. This allows students to learn at their own speed and have more control over their education.

In addition to initiating programs like Performance Based Learning, the superintendent must fulfill many roles, one of the biggest being trying to provide resources to schools under a budget.

“In this day and age, it’s really important for the superintendent to try and do everything they can to support students and teachers in the classroom, and the principals that help them in terms of trying to get the resources they need,” Schultz said.

“These days that’s very difficult given the challenges the state is facing with its budget.” Budgeting is a very important skill for the next superintendent to have,” Schultz said.

“We’re looking for a person who will manage costs and expenses and finances well and also communicate that well to the public.” Williams said.

The Board of Education is currently receiving applicants and will start narrowing down candidates around late February. The school board will go through many evaluation stages and announce the next superintendent the week of May 1^st.

“The role of superintendent is pretty broad,” Schtulz said. “The superintendent is charged with managing and guiding all of the other employees in the district and our district has over 3,000 employees.”

This includes making sure school board policies and statutes are followed, attending community meetings, working with the community to accomplish school board goals, and dealing with budget.

“I might be one minute talking with a community leader and the next minute be involved in the selection of a contractor to repair a water pipe in the boiler at Grand Junction High School when the water line breaks.” Schultz said.

The next superintendent has big shoes to fill and the Board of Education a hard job in choosing them.