Cheryl Logan, the Omaha Public School superintendent, speaks after announcing her resignation at Buena Vista High School in Omaha on Tuesday, December 13, 2022.
The Omaha Public Schools board approved a new timeline for its superintendent search after a lengthy and tense debate Monday.
Four board members — Margo Juarez, Jane Erdenberger, Nick Thielen and Bri Full — voted against the timeline while the five other board members supported it.
The timeline, which spans roughly nine months, begins with public input through an online survey in mid-May and ends with finalist interviews and superintendent selection in mid-February.
Full and Erdenberger both said they were against the timeline because it lacked early input from the entire board and didn’t include enough time for stakeholder input.
According to the approved timeline, the public will be able to give input through an online survey in both May and September. Board members won’t be officially interviewed until September, with stakeholder meetings taking place Oct. 3-5.
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Full said waiting until September to gather feedback from the entire board is too late. Erdenberger said she couldn’t trust that the accountability committee, the group managing the search process, would collect informal feedback from board members earlier than this fall because of the lack of progress last month.
Erdenberger and Thielen both resigned from the accountability committee after the group was appearing to lack progress.
Erdenberger said the committee went seven weeks without meeting, despite several emails that went ignored by board member Ricky Smith, committee chairman. Tracy Casady and Shavonna Holman were appointed in place of Thielen and Erdenberger after their resignations.
“I need to see some formal provision for input from the board members because informal input is not happening — is being disregarded and ignored, and that’s not acceptable,” Erdenberger said. “We have been elected because we represent our districts, and therefore our opinion in what we are looking for in our superintendent should be relevant in the front end of this process.”
Erdenberger said another large concern is the small window for stakeholder feedback, which is Oct. 3-5.
“We had 70 meetings to determine how to spend our ESSER money,” she said. “There’s no way we are going to get 70 meetings during this three-day period of time.”
Smith said that the timeline is simply a draft and that if the board wants to have more input, it can be changed.
The rest of the timeline explains that Matt Ray, interim superintendent, will lead the district for the entire 2023-24 school year, with the next superintendent starting in the 2024-25 school year.
Following public feedback, the superintendent job application period will open Oct. 17 and will close Jan. 16.
GR Recruiting, the district’s search firm, will then vet the candidates and recommend semifinalists by Jan. 31.
The school board will review semifinalists the first week of February, and finalists will be selected by Feb. 5. Public interviews of finalists will take place Feb. 12-16 before the next superintendent is selected.
“If anyone has any ideas, feedback or suggestions, they are welcome to do (give them) at any point in time,” said Spencer Head, board president.
The timeline was established “to be transparent about the process we propose to undertake,” according to the district. “The timeline is fluid and may change throughout the process as other circumstances dictate.”
Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of April 2023
City Council President Pete Festersen stands next to the empty seat belonging to Councilman Vinny Palermo at City Hall on Tuesday.
Former Nebraska head football coach Frank Solich visits Memorial Stadium in Lincoln on Friday.
The main room in a mid-century architecture time capsule home that is being sold, along with its furnishings in an estate sale in Bellevue.
Riley McCauley visits the Genoa Indian Industrial School Museum in Genoa, Neb., with his class from Omaha Nation High School, in Macy, Neb., visit , on Tuesday. Most of the students have family members who attended the federal boarding school for Native children, which closed in 1934.
Students from Omaha Nation High School, in Macy, Neb., look at a model of the campus while visiting the Genoa Indian Industrial School Museum in Genoa, Neb., on Tuesday. Most of the students have family members who attended the federal boarding school for Native children, which closed in 1934.
Millard West's Korey Cozad tags out Millard South's Cam Kozeal at home to end the top half of the fifth inning during the Metro conference final on Wednesday.
Millard South's Cam Kozeal fields a high throw as Millard West's Ben Sterbens steals second base in the fourth inning during the Metro conference final on Wednesday.
The sun rises over Heartland of America Park, still under construction, on the RiverFront in downtown Omaha on Thursday.
A truck and a bald eagle head away from a wildfire near N.P. Dodge Park on Thursday.
Flames can be seen at a wildfire near the marina at N.P. Dodge Park on Thursday.
A National Guard Blackhawk helicopter drops water on a wildfire south of Lake Waconda, near Union, Nebraska on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Cullen Ritz, 7, watches a National Guard helicopter scoops up water from Lake Waconda to fight a wildfire near Union, Nebraska on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Ashland firefighter Adam Peterson throws a smoldering chunk of wood onto a pile while performing "mop-up duty" just south of Lake Waconda on Monday. The wildfire, which started Saturday in Iowa, jumped the Missouri River and started Nebraska on fire.
Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule answers a question for the media on Tuesday.
Nebraska's Joshua Fleeks talks to the media after practice on Tuesday.
A cyclist crosses north across Dodge Street on the Dodge Street pedestrian bridge early on Friday.
The Great Hall of the Durham Museum is full of scaffolding as workers work to restore the ceiling on Thursday.
The Great Hall of the Durham Museum is full of scaffolding as workers work to restore the ceiling on Thursday.
One of the sculptures in the Durham Museum is covered with plastic during renovations on Thursday. Many of them had already been moved to accommodate work in the Great Hall.
Sunlight filters through storm clouds onto a wind turbine south of Stuart, Iowa, as severe weather rolls through the midwest on Tuesday, April 04, 2023.
Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda (82) catches the ball in a Nebraska football spring practice in Lincoln on Tuesday.
Cam Do–a-Mu–oz, a freshman, and hundreds of other students walk out of school on Transgender Day of Visibility outside Omaha Central High School on Friday. Students are protesting LB574 and LB575 in the Nebraska Legislature, which would ban certain gender-affirming care for youth and would prevent trans youth from competing in girls sports, respectively. "Equality before the law" is the Nebraska state motto.
