Six Candidates to be Considered for FPS Superintendent Position
(Crystal A. Proxmire, June 6, 2014)
The process for hiring a new Superintendent for Ferndale Schools is moving along steadily as the Board of Education has sorted through 45 applications and narrowed the field down to six.
The six will now be doing public interviews with the Board. “This superintendent search and subsequent hiring decision is one of the most important functions of our school board, and it’s important to us that the community can see what happens in the interviews,” said School Board President Jim O’Donnell.
Candidates are:
Rick Arnett, Deputy Superintendent for the West Bloomfield Public Schools in West
Bloomfield, Michigan;
Jennifer Martin-Green, Executive Director of Innovation and Instruction for the Westwood Community School District located in Dearborn Heights, Michigan;
Edward Okuniewski, Deputy Superintendent of the L’Anse Creuse Public Schools in Clinton Township, Michigan;
Blake Prewitt, Curriculum Director for the Armada Area Schools in Armada, Michigan;
Dr. Josha Talison, Superintendent of the Beecher Community School District in Flint, Michigan;
Dr. Daniel Woestman, Assistant Superintendent of Accountability for the Rockford Public School District in Rockford, Illinois.
O’Donnell was pleased with the selection of candidates, stating that the applicant pool included 11 applicants with previous experience as Superintendent of Schools; six applicants currently serving in the role of Deputy or Assistant Superintendent; and 16 applicants currently serving as building administrators. The pool included eight experienced administrators from other states – Illinois (3), Indiana, Ohio, Texas (2) and Virginia. Fourteen of the applicants hold Doctorate degrees. There were no internal applicants for the position.
Interviews for the six selected candidates will take place at the Harding Center on Saturday, June 7; Monday, June 9; and Tuesday, June 10, 2014. The interview schedule is as follows:
Saturday, June 7, 2014
9:00 a.m. Edward Okuniewski
10:45 a.m. Rick Arnett
12:30 p.m. Dr. Josha Talison
Monday, June 9, 2014
6:00 p.m. Jennifer Martin-Green
7:45 p.m. Blake Prewitt
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
6:00 p.m. Dr. Daniel Woestman
Consistent with the Open Meetings Act, all interviews will take place in a public setting. Members of the public and district employees are welcome and encouraged to attend the interviews. Attendees will have an opportunity to submit written questions for the candidates during the interview.
At the conclusion of the interview scheduled for Tuesday, June 10, the Board will deliberate and select final candidates to spend a day in Ferndale on Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13.
A second interview with the Board of Education for the final candidates will take place at the end of each final candidate’s day in the district.
“The school board feels the search is going very well,” said O’Donnell. “Our search consultant, Mike Wilmot from Michigan Leadership Institute, has done an outstanding job in designing a process to find the best candidates who want to be superintendent here in Ferndale. The board was pleased to see the quality and number of candidates who applied for the position. All the stakeholders of Ferndale Public Schools know how critical is to find an experienced, collaborative leader, who is fully dedicated to our district and all of our students.”
For more information on the search process go to http://www.ferndaleschools.org/boardofeducation/superintendent_search.html.