Spring-Ford relaunching superintendent search

The search for a successor to Dr. Marsha Hurda, superintendent of the Spring-Ford Area School District, is back to square one.

The Spring-Ford school board has been unable to reach an agreement with Dr. Joseph Padasak or any of the other putative candidates to succeed Hurda, the board announced at this evening's meeting.

“The board was not able to come to any consensus or agreement with any of the candidates,” said board president Joseph Ciresi. The board will continue to use Ray and Associates, the Iowa-based consultancy that is currently contracted to help with the process. Ray and Associates was originally contracted for $19,000, and up to this point the district has paid $17,710.50 of that amount. Ciresi said that while there would not be additional costs on the contract itself, there would be additional expenses incurred including advertising expenses and travel costs for any new interviewees.

The board has specific criteria gathered from interviewing district staff as well as district residents. Ciresi said that the list will be reposted on the district website for the public to see as soon as possible.

Upper Providence resident Kathleen Bryant asked during public comment if the position would be actively advertised beyond Pennsylvania as well as in-state. Ciresi said that the position had been advertised in several national publications and they had previously considered candidates from Arizona, Michigan, Kansas and New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania. Bryant also said that she would like to see someone from a similar background or demographics as Spring-Ford, referring to her run by Padasak

Questioned about a new timetable for the search, Ciresi said the board’s hope is to name a new superintendent before Dr. Hurda’s retirement on July 15. “That doesn’t mean they’ll be seated,” Ciresi said, “because they have to give 60 days’ [notice] from wherever they’re coming from.”

If the board hasn’t found a replacement by that date, the board would have to name an interim superintendent.  That person would be a retired superintendent who would be hired “on a per diem basis, to keep the district running at an even level,” Ciresi said.

Ciresi said that the interim superintendent, if needed, would not be Hurda.

Ciresi said that the board hopes to get the process done quickly. “I don’t want anyone to think we’re just going to push this through, we’re not doing that,” he said.

“We have a great district, and we have to have a great leader. We’ve had a great leader [in Dr. Hurda], and we need to continue,” Ciresi said.