RIH Board Will Conduct Its Own Superintendent Search

For its first attempt at finding a permanent Superintendent, the Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education decided with a 6-3 vote Monday night not to hire a search firm.

Finding a new superintendent as a Board, “is something we can definitely do ourselves,” Board member Jane Castor said.

Castor, who said she sat on the board both when the district hired its last full-time Superintendent Lauren Schoen, and its current interim Ernie Palestis, suggested holding off on hiring a search firm until the board gave searching a go on its own.

“We have the luxury of time,” she said.

“We could go out once on our own, and if it doesn’t work, then we hire a search firm.”

Board member Sadie Quinlan, who also sat on the Board for the last two searches, agreed.

When hiring Schoen, Quinlan said the Board hired the New Jersey School Boards to help find the right candidate.

“They placed ads for us based on our criteria two times,” she said. The third time, when Schoen was hired, “we realized we could do it ourselves.”

Board members also said they recently went through the process of hiring Palestis without the help of an outside firm.

Several board members expressed hesitation at the decision.

Though she eventually voted in favor of the board conducting its own search, Elizabeth Pierce said she would be interested to hear presentations from the search firms before making a decision on how best to hire.

“We can use the search firm presentations to see what they do and how they do it, and to help us decide what we can do,” she said.

“Right now we are in the education process.”

Board President Lynn Budd, who voted against conducting a Board search first, said she was concerned about the time a search will potentially take.

“We do have scheduling issues,” she said. “If we could offload some of that time, that would be very helpful.”

Board members said they only made the decision to conduct their own search with the understanding that if they are unimpressed with the candidates or the process, they can hire a search firm the second time around.

Palestis is carrying out a one-year term as head of the district, but could legally serve two years as an interim before the district would be required to hire a permanent Superintendent.