Wood County BOE accepts Hosaflook’s resignation
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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to accept Superintendent Will Hosaflook's resignation during a special meeting Friday.
But there's a process the board is going to make that will allow for more public input in the hiring process.
And there were questions raised by two members of the public for why the process is going so fast.
The school board also extended the application process for one more week, to March 18.
Hosaflook was not present at the meeting.
According to a press release from Wood County Schools, there will be two opportunities for the public to meet the candidates. The first will be 6 p.m. March 22 at Jefferson Elementary Center to allow community members to address the board and voice the qualities they would like to see in a new superintendent. The school board will then meet in executive session to determine which candidates will move on to interview with the board.
And then, those interviews will be conducted by the board at 6 p.m. March 25. At the end of those interviews, the board will announce its top three candidates in a public press release.
A second public forum will be held at 6 p.m. March 28 at the Wood County Technical Center for members of the public to meet the top candidates.
And finally, the school board will meet in regular session at 6 p.m. March 29 to vote on its choice for the new superintendent.
The speed at which this process is taking place has some people worried that the process is going too fast.
Virginia Haywood, the president for the Wood County Chapter – West Virginia Professional Educators, said, "We would like to see everyone have a chance to meet candidates and to discuss strengths and weaknesses and in the past, as we done it, when Hosaflook was hired, there was a forum where the public could go to submit questions and they were asked and candidates answered.
"We just think there needs to be a little bit of time so we can do that," Haywood said.
"The other thing is, as far as the length of time between when we found out that Superintendent Hosaflook was leaving and when we came down here was pretty quick," Haywood said. "And we're pretty concerned that maybe some people didn't know that the job was even posted."
She also expressed concerns about dealing with a new superintendent that the public would like to address.
Chad Conley, who is running for a seat on the school board, said, "Like I said in my address to the board, it's an important position, whose salary is paid by the taxpayers, and it's a very high salary, a generous salary, and I think the taxpayers paying his salary should be involved in a little transparency in how the selection goes."
More details on the hiring process and how to participate will be released in the coming weeks.
PDF: Hosaflook’s Resignation Letter
PDF: Superintendent Job Posting
Larry Launstein Jr. may be reached at llaunstein@newsandsentinel.com.