Community members will have multiple methods of providing feedback regarding the search for a new superintendent for Riverside School District 96.
This will be current superintendent Dr. Martha Ryan-Toye’s final school year as superintendent, after more than a decade at the helm. The board of education is working with BWP & Associates, Ltd., in Libertyville to identify, interview and hire Ryan-Toye’s replacement, ideally by January 2027.
A community forum is slated for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 8 in the Hauser Junior High School library, which will be in a roundtable format, according to Dave Barsotti, chair of the board of education’s personnel committee. Visitors should enter through Door H in the rear parking lot.
Additionally, community members can provide input through a confidential survey that will open that day and close Sept. 18.
Barsotti said focus groups involving teachers and support staff will be held throughout the day Sept. 8, ahead of the community forum at 6:30 p.m. They will focus on essentially three questions: What is desirable in a new superintendent; what is not; and where the district should be headed.
The goal of the feedback is for BWP to create an ideal superintendent profile, Barsotti said, ideally someone who can execute against the district’s recently approved strategic plan.
“The profile is going to be presented in October and from there, that’s what we’ll use for the initial screen of the first set of candidates,” he said.
BWP will do the initial candidate screening, and the board will interview four to six candidates before reducing that number to two or three.
“We’re looking to have a decision by the December holidays,” Barsotti said, adding a formal announcement will come in January.
Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply by Oct. 10 at https://bwpassociates.com/searches/ where an announcement of superintendent vacancy can be found.
