- November 7, 2024
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The Flagler County School Board plans to hire a new superintendent to replace outgoing superintendent Jacob Oliva by May 2.
The board in a special meeting Feb. 10 voted 3-2 to hold a nationwide search, and 4-1 to approve a $25,000 contract with the Florida School Board Association, which will aid in the search.
Oliva is stepping down as the district's superintendent to take an administrative position with the Florida Department of Education this coming summer.
He served as superintendent for three years and was himself hired into the position after a politically divisive hiring process: Oliva had been the district's assistant superintendent and then interim superintendent after his predecessor, Janet Valentine, stepped down due to health problems. The board had hoped to appoint him to the job without a nationwide search upon the resignation of his predecessor, but local opposition to that process led to the creation of a citizen search committee and a national search. Olivia was ultimately selected from among the applicants.
At the meeting Feb. 10, the board faced the a dilemma similar to the one it faced last time: hire from within, or conduct a costly nationwide search?
Former School Board member John Fischer — who, as board member in 2013-2014, had pushed hard to select Oliva as superintendent without a nationwide search — returned to the board chambers Feb. 10 to again urge the district to select one of its own for its top position.
"We have quality people in the district already," he said. "We have mirrored them; they're ready to go. ... I truly believe we have quality people in the district who could in fact be superintendent. So I respectfully request that ... the national search is not needed."
School Board member Andy Dance agreed with Fischer. Dance and School Board member Trevor Tucker both voted against holding a nationwide search, and Dance was the sole School Board member to vote against hiring the Florida School Board Association to aid in the search.
"I don't believe we need to be spending the money that could be put to better use," Dance said.
Andrea Messina, representing the Florida School Board Association during the meeting, told board members that the association would be able to help keep district staff from being overburdened with the responsibilities of the hiring process in addition to their regular duties.
"It's adding to the already full workload of your staff," Messina said. "Especially heading into some testing season and looking at a very aggressive strategic plan that you already have in this district, doesn't really accommodate your staff members being diverted off of their main job focus. And so for that reason, we recommend that you work with an outside group. ... Your staff, even with an outside group, is going to have increased work."
School Board member Janet McDonald said that hiring the Florida School Board Association and holding a broad search doesn't mean that the district might not ultimately end up hiring one of its own staff members.
"We do have wonderful people in our district; that's not the question," School Board member Janet McDonald said. "Unless you do have some kind of reference, you don't know if you do have the best candidate, and it's actually a benefit to elevate the people from within against some counterpoint."
