DISD School Board To Get Superintendent Finalists List

The Dallas School Board gets its first list of superintendent hopefuls from its search firm tomorrow. KERA’s Bill Zeeble reports trustees could name a new leader in a month.

Dallas School Board President Lew Blackburn says PROACT Search will deliver at least nine candidate names tomorrow in a closed board meeting. He says he is excited by the prospects, based on a recent conversation he had with the firm.

Blackburn: …and they’re telling us that there are so many great candidates that they’re even having a hard time getting it down below fifteen.

Blackburn expects board members will narrow the nine or so down to four or five, then interview them. He says throughout the process, finalist names will remain confidential.

Blackburn: We will not reveal the names of any of the candidates until we get to the loan finalist. I think it’ll be about the middle of April.

Blackburn says DISD holds a strong appeal for leaders driven to improve students’ lives. He says academics have been getting better, and district graduation numbers are the highest in decades. But challenges of a large urban district, like dropouts, remain.

Blackburn says he wants the next superintendent to be an excellent and outgoing communicator, educator, and business manager.