By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education met virtually for a special meeting April 20 to discuss the reopening of their superintendent search.

Current Superintendent Marion Ginopolis announced her departure in August of last year. Ginopolis’ contract is expected to expire on June 30.

Originally, the new district superintendent was expected to be selected on May 11, however, in light of recent events, the superintendent search was put on pause.

During the April 20 meeting, the board met with their search consultant, John Silveri from Michigan Leadership Institute, to go over their options moving forward.

The two most favorable options appeared to be proceeding from where the board had left off and continuing forward virtually, and delaying the search until social distancing and shut downs are lifted.

The board had previously put a lot of merit on site visits, noting it was one of the things that originally had made MLI stand out.

Concerns about continuing virtually stemmed mostly from the board’s desire to hold site visits. Moving forward virtually would mean that site visits would likely be off the table.

However, one concern with delaying the selection process is due to the nature of this being an election year.

With four seats up for grabs this election cycle, it’s quite possible that if the current board does not make the selection before the election in November, the task of selecting a new superintendent could be passed over to a board with four brand new members.

Board President Jim Weidman expressed his hope that they continue virtually in hopes that the board could have a new superintendent selected by Nov. 1.

“I think it’s very very important that this board make the selection of the next superintendent. That being said, there’s a high likelihood that all of us sitting here today may not be here when this superintendent concludes their stint at Lake Orion,” Weidman said. “I think it’s important this group make the selection, but I also think it’s quite important that we have the opportunity for those interactions (site visits, face-to-face interviews, etc.). They can be really very telling beyond just the words that are spoken in an interview.”

Treasurer Jake Singer echoed Weidman but went a step further suggesting that the board put together a timeline that would allow them to have a new superintendent selected before the start of the new school year.

The board met again on May 11 to discuss timeline changes to the superintendent search.

Silveri indicated that he had had several prospective candidates contact him under the assumption that the position would be reposted for a period of time after the search was reopened.

To ensure that LOCS isn’t missing out on any possible candidates, the board decided to extend the application period until 4 p.m. on June 1.

On June 8, the board will be presented with the applicants and they will determine the candidates to interview.

First round interviews will be held July 15-17 and possibly on July 18, depending on the number of candidates being interviewed with finalist interviews taking place on June 22.

Virtual stakeholder meetings will take place June 23-24 and that same week, on June 24-25, virtual site visits will also take place.

The board will make their selection of the new superintendent on June 29 and make a motion to hire on July 6.

The new superintendent of LOCS is expected to begin on July 20.

Because this timeline puts the board past Ginopolis’ expected last day on June 30, the majority of the board expressed interest in keeping her on a “per diem basis” for that short period of time.