BSISD trustees will hold a pair of meetings today to allow for staff and citizen input into the superintendent search process.

   Both meetings will be held at the Big Spring High School library.

   The first meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in the high school library, at which time BSISD employees will meet with representatives from Arrow Educational Services, the firm hired by the school board to conduct a search for a new superintendent.

Jim Dunlap, lead consultant for AES, will be on hand to explain the search procedure.

   “What Jim's going to do is talk about the process and answer any questions people may have,” said Dr. Russell Marshall, director of AES. “Basically, we want to know the quality, qualifications and characteristics people want in their new superintendent ... because every school district and community is different. What people want in Big Spring may be very different from what people want in Brownwood or some other community. Every place is a different fit.”

BSISD School Board President Irene Galan said staff members may submit questions or comments in person or in writing and that their input will remain confidential if they so desire.

“We really need their input,” she said. “They are the ones who are going to be working most closely with the new superintendent.”

Following that meeting, school board members will reconvene in the library at 7 p.m. to hear input from community members, Galan said.

“We definitely want the community's input, also,” she said. “When we start narrowing down the list of candidates, we're going to closely follow what the community wants in a new superintendent.

“We've done superintendent searches before and it's not that we're doing things very differently this time,” Galan added. “We just think that it's very important for the staff and community members to give us their input.”

The search firm will use information gathered from Tuesday's meetings as guidelines as they screen applications for the position, Galan said.

If everything goes according to schedule, trustees should have a “short list” of candidates to consider by late October or early November, she added.

   As far as what she wants from a new chief executive, Galan was direct in her answer.

“I want a superintendent who puts our children first,” she said. “Everything else ... including a bond election ... comes after that. Anyone we find who is dedicated to that is someone who we'll look at very closely.”

The BSISD superintendent position became vacant late June, following the resignation of Michael Downes, who quit after five years on the job. Downes, who has been a target of a Texas Education Agency inquiry into allegations of inappropriate contact with students at a previous stop in his career, resigned citing distractions from the ongoing investigation.

Michael Stevens, former superintendent at Hereford ISD, is currently serving as interim superintendent.

Contact Staff Writer Steve Reagan at 263-7331 ext. 234 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it