Board narrows superintendent search to three

Angelo Alvarado, Louise Simson, and Patrick Peters were ranked as the top three superintendent candidates during the Douglas County School Board meeting Tuesday.

The board plans to interview the three candidates during the June 11 school board meeting with a meet and greet scheduled for June 10.

During Tuesday’s meeting the board presented their individual screening of the six candidates who applied for the superintendent position. In order to maintain transparency for the parents and staff in attendance they shared what they did and did not like about each applicant and narrowed it down to three.

Alvarado ranked the highest at a total of 91 percent for his superintendent experience. According to the district's web site it has 6,000 students.

Simson ranked second place with a score of 82 percent who also has superintendent experience in a small district, and they admired her for her attention to the media about Douglas County, but they wondered if she would be able to handle a budget for a larger school district.

With a score of 70 percent, Peters' master’s degree in education, 30 years of experience, 22 of which were in a leadership role, appealed to the board. However, he lacks superintendent experience.

When discussing how to move forward and when to schedule the interviews of the three candidates, trustee Linda Gilkerson urged the other board members to be mindful and honest with themselves in their decisions. 

“I do agree that we need to move forward with the top three candidates,” said Gilkerson. “I don’t want us to feel like we are desperate to hire someone, yes, we need someone, but I don’t want us to just accept. I want us to be truly honest with ourselves.”

President David Burns said he agreed and would not vote for someone he did not feel was a good fit for the school district.

“The interview process changed my mind on a lot of things,” said Burns. “The interviews are going to tell us a lot, and if I am not satisfied with any of them, I won’t vote for any of them.”