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Board not ready to name interim superintendent

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XENIA — The Xenia Community School District Board of Education has turned its focus to outside candidates in an effort to find an interim superintendent.

The board was only accepting internal candidates to fill in for Denny Morrison, who is retiring July 31. But board members felt they needed to expand the search in order to find the best candidate.

“We didn’t have the volume that we had expected,” President Pam Callahan said. “We wanted to make sure we were exploring all the options as opposed to just looking at internal.”

She confirmed they did receive multiple internal candidates, but not enough to make a decision.

“We felt like we couldn’t say ‘hey, yeah, we picked the best person’ when we had nothing to compare it to,” Callahan said.

Callahan, who did not release the names of any internal or external applicants, said they aren’t looking for a “magic number” of outside candidates. The board is accepting applications until July 27 and Callahan said they still hope to have an interim in place by the beginning of August.

The Ohio School Boards Association is helping with the search for the permanent superintendent, but that process is still in its infancy. Callahan said board members need to meet with community stakeholders to get a feeling of their expectations for the next leader.

Callahan said the interim will be a person capable of running the district permanently and would welcome that person to apply for the full-time position.

The board hopes to have a permanent superintendent in place by the start of the 2018 school year.

By Scott Halasz

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Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.