The Bainbridge Island School District has selected a Chicago-based consultant firm to lead the search for a new superintendent of Bainbridge public schools, district officials announced late Tuesday.
The district said it had selected Atlantic Research Partners to lead the headhunting effort to find a replacement for Superintendent Faith Chapel, who announced late last year that she would retire on June 30, at the end of the current school year.
Officials said the lead consultants for the search effort will be Jim Hager, a former Kent superintendent, and Jim Huge, a former superintendent in the Cherry Creek, Colorado and Casper, Wyoming school districts who has led more than 230 searches for school superintendents over the past 25 years.
Islanders will get a chance to meet the consultants at two meetings next week, and residents will also be able to offer input on the characteristics they would like to see in a new superintendent.
The sessions are 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13 in the district board room and 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13 in the Bainbridge High School Library.
The consultants will also lead a board study session at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, before the start of the regularly scheduled school board meeting.
Bainbridge officials stressed the “deep roots” that both consultants have in the Puget Sound.
Hager once served as principal of Juanita High School and was director of secondary education and deputy superintendent in the Lake Washington School District. He also holds an appointment to the graduate faculty at the University of Washington and teaches graduate classes at UW Tacoma.
Huge has family members who have graduated from Bainbridge schools, officials said, and he has also been an adviser to senior executives in Fortune 100 companies including Costco, Walt Disney and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
District officials did not immediately say when the decision was made to hire the consultants, though a special meeting was held by the school board on Dec. 17 to conduct interviews of four potential search firms.
The four firms under consideration were Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Atlantic Research Partners; Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates of Schaumburg, Illinois; and McPherson & Jacobson of Omaha, Nebraska.
The cost of the search assistance from Atlantic Research Partners is $15,000, with approximately $3,000 in reimbursable expenses, according to district officials. The agreement comes with a guarantee. If the new superintendent appointed by the Bainbridge Island School District Board resigns or is dismissed for cause within 24 months of starting in the job, the consulting firm will conduct a new search at no additional cost except for expenses incurred.
