Sep 24, 2015 By Cara Host 4 min read

As the Bethel Park School Board continues its search for a new superintendent, a small group of parents and residents offered plenty of suggestions at a focus group discussion Sept. 23.

About 15 people shared their opinions with a team of consultants from Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which is helping the district find candidates to replace Superintendent Nancy Aloi Rose, who will retire at the end of the school year.

“Hiring the superintendent, the leader of the school district, is probably the most important thing that your board will do,” said Dr. Michael Brinkos, assistant executive director of human resources, operations and strategic initiatives with AIU.

AIU is guiding the search by advertising the position, vetting candidates and soliciting feedback from teachers, parents and residents through meetings and surveys. Bethel Park will pay up to $2,000 for AIU’s services.

At the focus group meeting, residents expressed wide ranging ideas about the qualities a superintendent should have. However, two skills – leadership and communication – were mentioned most frequently.

“We want a hands-on superintendent. (The superintendent) is the face of our district, so we need them to visit schools and communicate with parents,” said Gail Hoppe.

Other residents noted that a superintendent cannot operate in isolation and expressed a desire to be informed and involved with what is happening at school. The district’s leader will also have to foster relationships with community and business leaders and seek their input on how to deal with problems and to provide the best education for the children of Bethel Park.

A district superintendent is the leader of all facets of the education system, so an effective candidate will have to have broad knowledge of curriculum, budgets, facilities, personnel and many other areas.

“Running a district is a very difficult thing to do. It’s a skill and an art,” said Brinkos, who worked as superintendent at McKeesport before moving to AIU.

Some residents noted the next superintendent will have to have knowledge of the community and an appreciation for the culture of Bethel Park.

Others mentioned a need for balance, particularly in not over emphasizing standardized test scores in the education system, since that can negatively impact academic programs that are not deemed essential to improving scores.

“Once you move to focusing on test scores as the sole metric for determining the best schools, the education suffers,” said Stephen McGough.

McGough and other members of music booster groups said the wrong superintendent may erode the district’s music program in pursuit of high test scores. Other parents representing the gifted program expressed similar concerns and said they hoped the new superintendent would pursue innovative teaching techniques to fulfill the needs of all students.

“No child should be left behind, but right now in this school district, gifted children are being left behind, especially on the elementary level,” said Sharon Janosik.

Bethel Park will continue to accept resumes from superintendent candidates until the end of September. From there, the district will start interviewing qualified applicants. In the meantime, the district is also soliciting feedback from the community through an online survey found at www.aiu3.net/bpsurvey.

Brinkos said he and his team will provide school board members with a summary of the discussion at the focus group meeting as well as individual survey responses. He said the board is interested in finding someone who is the best fit for Bethel Park, as evidenced by the district’s efforts to involve residents.

“They do not have to go through this process. They could just interview the candidates, decide who to hire without reaching out to the community at all,” Brinkos said.