By this time next week, the Warren County R-III School District expects to have named its next superintendent, following an extensive search. The board met on Nov. 21 for final interviews and deliberations and anticipates introducing its new leader on Dec. 6.

During the search process, the board wanted to make certain it was transparent and included input from community members. Feedback from citizens, teachers and students was used along the way to narrow the field of candidates.

The process began with the hiring of Missouri School Board Association Representative Brent Underwood to lead the search, after the board determined it might not have enough insight to undergo the search alone. Part of Underwood’s responsibilities was to engage the community in the search and decision making.

“The board desired to find out what traits the district and the greater Warrenton community thought we should seek in our next superintendent,” said school board Vice President Laurie Wenzel.

Four focus groups were held, including board members, administration teams, faculty and staff as well as community members. The intent was to gather feedback regarding what areas were most important in selecting a leader for the district.

The board also reached out through an online survey, which yielded 600 responses in just over two weeks.

“As a board, we were impressed and pleased with that much participation on the community’s behalf,” said Wenzel.

The survey asked citizens to voice what they felt is the greatest concern facing the district. The greatest response referred to teacher turnover, retaining and maintaining staff. The second-most mentioned area was related to poor curriculum and low academic standards. The third-most mentioned area was the quality of the administration.

When asked to address strengths of the district, the community responded most with “positive and caring teachers,” with compliments about facilities and the elementary schools being next.

“We saw the superintendent search process as an opportunity to begin demonstrating transparency and gaining trust in our community,” said Wenzel. “We wanted to hear the truth from our community and have an opportunity to use that information to make us better.”

The board plans to share this information with the new superintendent and use it as a baseline with which to develop goals for growth for the district.