CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools took the first steps to replace former superintendent Earnest Winston, who was fired in April. It’s been about ten months since CMS employed a permanent superintendent to lead the district.
Since then, one person has been the acting superintendent and two people have filled in as interim.
A new, but temporary, CMS search committee consisting of four members of the school board said Friday they want someone to be hired by April.
Newly elected CMS Board Member Summer Nunn will lead the search as committee chair.
"My experience being a corporate executive translates very much into CMS just being such a large school system," Nunn said. "And as we approach the search, we are also hiring an executive."
The first step to getting someone hired is to ask for proposals from the search committee. The process is called sending out a request for proposals, or RFP.
"It's just a way of very publicly stating... to all the search firms locally and across the nation, 'We're about to do a search. If you would like to conduct the search, please apply," Elyse Dashew, CMS Board Chair, said.
The board is going on a national search this time around and the last time this happened was in 2016.
"There are little things here and there that I observed from that search that we're doing differently this time," Dasshew said. "Even the fact that we've got a search committee is different."
"You've got to remember, you get what you pay for," Dashew said.
The search committee is focused on hiring a competitive search committee to deal with the complex challenges and rewards of leading CMS.
Nunn said the district's RFP will communicate these unique needs.
"I don't think we've done a good job of marketing Charlotte and Mecklenburg County," Nunn said. "And we're a tremendous opportunity for a great superintendent to come to."
The search committee can’t make any final decisions. Those must come from the full Board of Education.
The school board will vote officially to start getting proposals from search committees, and the official timeline for hiring a superintendent next Tuesday.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.