During its monthly meeting Aug. 10, the board of education for Warren County R-III School District voted to hire MSBA consultant Brent Underwood to spearhead the search for a new superintendent.“We really don’t feel like we have the expertise in knowing what to look for,” said Board President John Clinger. “He’s got a 99 percent success rate for districts that have used him, since he does such a thorough job.”With the late nature of Dr. Jim Chandler’s departure at the end of last school year, the board decided not to hire a head superintendent for the 2017-18 school year, instead designating Assistant Superintendents Dr. Aaron Jones and Dr. Jill Schowe as co-interims.This move provided the board more time to devote to the search for the right candidate to lead the district.The vacant position was posted several weeks ago and the application deadline will close on Sept. 1.“Underwood will use his expertise to screen those applicants and bring the candidates that meet all of our qualifications,” said Clinger. “He will then bring to us as much information about each candidate as possible, so we can decide on which ones to interview.”The district is hopeful to name a new superintendent by the beginning of the second semester.“We have set our time line of when we want things to be accomplished, and we’ve also set dates for our community focus groups,” said Clinger.The next step for the board is to collect community feedback through an online survey on the district’s website. Clinger encourages anyone in the district to provide their input on what qualities they would like to see in the next superintendent.“Our enrollment is 3,600, and we’d like to see as many parents fill it out as possible, but it’s for the whole community,” he said.The survey can be accessed by going to warrencor3.org and following the links.The board plans to continue holding work sessions to discuss the process, as well as take into consideration the feedback from the community.School