CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced Friday that it's going with Illinois-based search firm BWP & Associates to lead its search for the district’s next superintendent.
It’s been 10 months since CMS fired previous superintendent Earnest Winston and the district has seen two interim superintendents hold the top leadership position.
At an emergency board meeting held Friday morning, the board unanimously approved a $48,500 contract with BWP. This is higher than what CMS paid for its last national search in 2016.
The last national search cost CMS at least $34,000, according to the national firm's quoted proposal in 2016. An article by the American School Superintendents Association listed search firm costs between $2,000 and $100,000.
CMS is hitting all its major timeline goals to get a new superintendent hired by this spring.
"A lot of the timeline up until now was to hold us to do the work, right?," CMS search committee chair Summer Nunn said at a meeting Wednesday. "It's very important that we find the next superintendent and we also get a firm in place that's going to help guide us the board, as well as the community."
Nunn said that based on the committee's review of other firms BWP was a clear choice.
"The caliber of the firm the history kind of their successes, included in those successes were their past history of working with firms similar or size of ours," Nunn said. "And not only that, like how long their superintendents were actually staying in those roles."
According to BWP’s website, it has four other superintendent searches in progress, although none of those districts are as large as CMS. The company does, however, have experience working for districts that size, including Baltimore County Public Schools and Dallas Independent School District.
These districts serve between 111,000 and 154,000 students. CMS has just over 142,000 students this school year.
BWP has its work cut out as there is now steep competition for a superintendent search in the state. The superintendent for Wake County Schools, the largest district in the state, just announced her retirement yesterday.
CMS has previously said they hope to have their next superintendent by April.
About 25% of superintendents have left their jobs in the past year compared to a typical turnover rate of 14 to 16%, according to the American School Superintendent Association.
The contract with BWP outlines a five-phase approach it will use to find the next leader of CMS.
The managing director of BWP and associates is Debra Hill and according to her bio, she's served as a school administrator for over four decades. She’s also been at the company for 12 years as a partner with six of those years as managing director and has participated in conducting searches at the local and national levels.
She is one of three people at the company helping CMS find a superintendent. The other is Kevin Castner, a former superintendent who has conducted or assisted with more than 15 superintendent searches in Virginia.
Also joining the team is Percy Mack who is also a former superintendent and currently the director of the educational leadership program at South Carolina State University.
CMS’ search committee timeline shows a public working session with the firm is possible as soon as Monday.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Wake Up Charlotte To Go is a daily news and weather podcast you can listen to so you can start your day with the team at Wake Up Charlotte.
SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts || Spotify || Stitcher || TuneIn || Google Podcasts
All of WCNC Charlotte's podcasts are free and available for both streaming and download. You can listen now on Android, iPhone, Amazon, and other internet-connected devices. Join us from North Carolina, South Carolina, or on the go anywhere.