During a school board meeting Jan. 23, Superintendent Rob Metz announced the board hired a contractor, School Exec Connect, to begin the superintendent search process.

“(School Exec Connect is) going to come to St. Louis Park, and the first thing to try to find out is what superintendent St. Louis Park wants,” Metz said.

According to Metz, the executive firm accepts all candidates who wish to apply.

“The way it works is people will apply to (the company), and they will also recruit people who don’t apply to them and try to convince them to apply. They hope to get a pool of 30 or 40, (maybe) 50 possible candidates,” Metz said.

Metz said the consultants interview each candidate who applies.

“(The consultants) do some interviews and end up picking six candidates that match what we want, and then those people come back and interview here,” Metz said. “In the end the school board will make the final decision,”Metz said.

Junior Colin Perkins said he thinks the candidacy process benefits the student body and the district.

“I think it’s not a bad option for students, (and) it’s very fair (because) by selecting a candidate this way, (it) will allow the students and district to be on the same page,” Perkins said.

According to Metz, students from the district will have input on the candidates by providing their opinions throughout the process.

“The first round will be the search room coming in and talking to students and saying what kind of superintendent you need,” Metz said.

Junior Abdirahman Ahmed said students will be more familiar with the new superintendent when they voice their opinions.

“I think the student vote will have more confidence in the superintendent, how they do their job, and the students will be more happy knowing who will be their new superintendent,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed said he thinks a superintendent must strongly believe in the virtue of education.

“I see a superintendent that makes sure he makes decisions about his students — what they want to learn in school and what kind of education fills their needs,” Ahmed said.

Metz said including students in the selection process contributes to success.
“Academically, I want St. Louis Park to be the most demographic, unpredictable school in Minnesota,” Metz said. “I truly believe every student can be successful, and that doesn’t happen everywhere, and I believe we can make that happen here.”