Do-over of Duval schools' superintendent search draws 21 applicants; cuts start next week
Editor's note: A previous version of this story reflected fewer applicants. The school district released the names of additional applicants for the superintendent position midday Tuesday.
The do-over search for candidates to be the Duval County school system’s next superintendent netted 21 would-be successors with experience ranging from big-district operations to big-money investing.
How much any of them match what School Board members are looking for will become clearer next week, when they're scheduled to meet to trim the herd into a list of semifinalists.
The applications far outnumbered the 10 logged in a canceled first run of the superintendent search in October, drawing job bids from veteran administrators s well as upstarts with lofty hopes.
“Jacksonville is my city, and my heart’s desire is for every student to succeed,” wrote Michelle Nixon, a charter school teacher who tossed her name into the hat despite little experience in the administrative work needed to run the country’s 20th-largest school system.
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Board members have repeatedly praised the work Superintendent Dana Kriznar has done since stepping into the job on a temporary basis when Diana Greene retired last summer.
But Kriznar, a Jacksonville-area teacher and administrator since 1986, is herself approaching retirement age and the board wanted to find a new superintendent from a pool of deep qualifications.
Who applied to be superintendent?
One candidate this year, Sito Narcisse, was a semifinalist for the superintendent’s job in 2018, when the board picked Greene instead.
He was second in charge of the 88,000-student Metro Nashville school system at that time, and in the ensuing years became superintendent of the 41,000-student school system in East Baton Rouge, La., a job he left in January. A Haitian immigrant who grew up in the New York area, he has also held important roles for school systems in places including Washington, D.C. and several Maryland suburbs.
Last big change: Duval school board hires new superintendent
Christopher Bernier, who applied this month days before resigning as superintendent of the Lee County school system around Fort Myers, was chief of staff for the Clark County, Nevada, district in Las Vegas before then and until 2019 was associate superintendent for Orange County schools around Orlando.
“I recommend Dr. Bernier as a candidate for superintendent without reservation,” former Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins wrote in a reference letter praising his “passion for student success, combined with his intellect and work ethic.”
His resume lists state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz under “personal references.” Whether he'll still be looking for a job isn't clear, thogh, because this week the Washoe County, Nevada, school district named him a finalist to run schools around Reno.
Other candidates with experience in big districts include include the deputy superintendent for Portland Ore., Cheryl Proctor, and Broward County's deputy superintendent for teaching, Howard Hepburn. Hepburn applied for the job the day before he was chosen to be Broward County's superintendent, and by Thursday, a list of applicants on the school district's website had been updated to say he had withdrawn.
Others are less obvious contenders but lifelong educators or small-town superintendents exploring the path to big school districts.
One, Corwin Robinson, is a former Louisiana school principal who was previously administrator for an 80,000-student Nashville district and past superintendent for a small district in Lake County, Tenn. Robinson applied in October and again when the call for candidates went out a second time last month.
His background “was somewhat of a question mark but we felt that we could stretch that and say the individual did meet the qualifications because in Nashville, that district has 80,000 students and he was the discipline coordinator there,” Bill Vogel, a retired Florida superintendent who has worked on the Duval County candidate search for the Florida School Boards Association, told the board in October.
Ponte Vedra Beach resident Andrew Stenwall has never taught or run a school, but proposed using his background in investing and management to "create an environemnt of continuous improvement."
Among other candidates for the superintendent’s post were:
∎Ronnie Dotson, an 11-year superintendent of the few-thousand student district in Carter County, Kentucky. His application says the district scored in the fifth percentile of Kentucky schools when he took the job, and topped the 95th percentile when he left in 2022.
∎Carlos Perez Jr., a former schools administrator in Sotuh Florida and New York running an education reform nonprofit in Miami Beach;
∎Sylvia Mitchell, a Texas schools administrator who previously oversaw charter schools in the IDEA charter network and was a charter school principal at locations including Arlington.
The School Board has scheduled interviews with finalists May 13-14 and a meeting to choose the next superintendent May 23. That person is expected to start working around July 1.
Because of a reporter's error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly described Sito Narcisse as a finalist for the Duval County superintendent's job in 2018.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: After slow start, Duval schools superintendent search gets 21 applicants
