The Hartselle Board of Education is making plans to seek the opinions of both school employees and the general public, as they work to find a new superintendent.

Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, who will be leading the search for B.P.W. and Associates to seek out candidates for the job, encouraged the board to move forward with the gathering of community input. The board has chosen to gather public comments in two ways, public forums and an online survey. The board will be seeking input as to what skills and experiences the next superintendent should have as well as note the challenges that will be facing the chosen person. The first meeting will be held for school employees Thursday, March 21, 2013, in the conference room of the central office at 3:30 p.m. A second meeting will be held for the public at 5:30 p.m. on the same date and location. Additional meetings will be held Tuesday, April 2, 2013 with the school system employees held at 3:30 p.m. and another for the public at large at 5:30 p.m. De-Graffenreid and Jim Jefferson of the same firm will facilitate all four meetings.

An online survey will also be available beginning Wednesday, March 20 to also gather comments on the new superintendent. There will be a link posted on the schools website, hartselletigers.org that will take interested parties to the survey. A link also will be posted on the Hartselle Enquirer’s website, hartselleenquirer.com that will take you directly to the school system site as well.

De-Graffenreid will take the information gathered from all four meetings as well as the online survey, and compile the information and present it to the board. The school board members will then be able to use this public input as they look for the best person to fill the position for the school system.