JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools will have a new superintendent by Jan. 1, the school board announced Wednesday.Between now and then, leaders will hold community meetings to get input on the search, and start advertising nationwide for the position.
The board was joined by members from the Florida School Boards Association to start the second stage of the superintendent process.
A draft timeline was approved by board members. From August through September, the board will release an online public survey and hold four in-person and two online community meetings to get input on the search. The board will also continue to hold workshops related to the search and determine the qualifications and contract term for the new superintendent.
Then from September to October, advertisements will be posted, and the applications will go live. Candidates will start to be reviewed by the board, with onsite interview planned for finalists.
School board chair Dr. Kelly Coker says that applications will be open for 30 days and DCPS hopes to find a finalist by the end of November.
“If we get in the middle of it and need to extend it we might, we are hopeful that we won’t have to we are the 20th largest district in the country a lot of people already know that we’re open and we're excited about finding our new leader so I’m hopefully will do it for 30 days, and we’ll get to move through this process real quickly," Coker said.
December will be a "transition period," and the superintendent should begin serving on the first of the year.
In the meantime, board members say Dr. Dana Kriznar, who is serving as superintendent on an interim basis, is ready for the upcoming school year.
“She’s done a great job getting started and making sure we’re doing what we need for children as we open school for this year," Coker said.