Hiring highly qualified K-12 school administrators is one of the chief duties of the board of education and school boards throughout the USA. In most cases, it is a task for which they are highly qualified as long as they partner with a K-12 executive search firm that both knows education and has invested in developing their network of school administrators.

School superintendents provide leadership and direction for the school system. They help to review and overcome elements such as high school drop out, lowered enrollment, poor test scores or poor student achievement. Finding the right candidate for the school superintendent position is imperative and a wrong hire can be devastating to students, families, teachers, and workforce development in the community.

Here are several reasons to partner with a K-12 executive search firm for your next school superintendent search:

1. Good just is not good enough!! You require a school superintendent who is truly great!
If hiring only top-performing school administrators is important to your school district, a K-12 executive search firm can help you do the rigorous work required for game-changing hires.

2. The search is incredibly important at the school district level.  
Searches for assistant superintendents, associate superintendents and superintendent positions that report into the board of education or school boards usually are too important not to go out to an executive search firm. School Administrators at this level can make or break a district. A K-12 executive search firm can mitigate the risk.

3. You are seeking a school superintendent with a rare mix of skills. 
If you have an important search in which you are seeking an accomplished education innovator and leader, a K-12 search firm can help you with a successful outcome.  Better executive search firms will deliver a shortlist of candidates with the right mix of knowledge, education, and abilities along with the requisite cultural fit.

4. You have a search for a school superintendent position that you just created.
When a unique search that falls outside your board’s area of expertise, a K-12 executive search firm can plug the knowledge gap with their education leadership recruiting know-how.

5. You have to replace an under-performing school administrator while he/she is still in the role. 
For schools that need to line up a replacement while the school administrator is still in the role, search firms offer the ability to conduct a confidential search on your behalf.

6. Your school district team lacks diversity.
Because not all backgrounds of candidates are well-represented at the superintendent levels, search firms can help add to the traditional candidate applicant pool by conducting strategic research to ensure equal opportunity for all candidates. Many districts seek outside-of-the-district candidates to add diversity to the existing leadership team.

7. You lack internal bench strength and have few successors for your school superintendent’s upcoming retirement.
If your superintendent will be retiring in a couple of years a K-12 executive search firm can help develop a succession bench to prepare for a smooth school superintendent transition in advance of the need.

8. You do not have the time or resources to take on a school superintendent search.
If you already have too much to do and too little time, taking on an important school superintendent search can quickly become its own full-time job. That is when a K-12 executive search firms can offer tremendous value.

9. You have exhausted your professional networks for school superintendent candidate referrals.
If you have exhausted your K-12 network of connections for possible referrals, it is time to access another network. A K-12 executive search firm will have a network of candidates and a search strategy to produce a successful search.

10. You have an important school superintendent search that is taking too long.
Whenever a search takes too long, it is time to call in a search team that specializes in K-12 school administrator searches. A search firm will be able to speed time-to-hire for challenging searches and those with compressed timelines.

11. You want to give your school district a strategic advantage through better hires.
Retained search firms are in the business of delivering top-performers — So rather than waiting on candidates to find your job post online, partner with a K-12 executive search firm to get access to the top 25% of candidates.

 When you hire a K-12 executive search firm, you know you are paying for the years of experience developing their school administrator network and search strategy.  A K-12 search firm will offer you highly-optimized search techniques and tactics to provide you a successful superintendent search.

Article provided by Advocate Staffing – 1500+ successful K-12 and Higher Education executive searches completed.  Ranked #1 Education Executive Search Firm (2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019)

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