AURORA | Six unidentified candidates out of 28 total applicants will be interviewed by the Aurora Public Schools board in its search for a new superintendent.
“I felt like we presented a very strong slate,” said Mike Richie, vice president of HYA, the firm that APS is working with to conduct the search.
The hiring application for the role closed on Friday, and Tuesday evening the board met in closed session to be presented with a list of the six strongest candidates. The board members were also able to view the full list of candidates online through HYA’s hiring portal.
The candidates were grouped into three tiers, Richie said, with the top tier moving forward for consideration. He said the criteria was based off of the candidate profile that HYA presented to the board last week, which was based on feedback gathered from a series of focus groups and interviews the firm conducted with community members in February.
The profile said that people wanted the new superintendent to have a background in public schools, a proven track record with diversity, experience in a large school district, among other traits.
“In Aurora’s situation it was loud and clear, they really wanted an educator,” Richie said. “The theme was they really wanted someone from an educational background.”
Richie said that 30 people in total applied but one person dropped out of the running after accepting another job and one person’s application was not considered because it was submitted after the deadline. He said he could not share any demographic information about the candidates at this time.
The six candidates will be interviewed by the board in closed session March 26 and March 27. The finalists will be publicly announced at a special board meeting on March 28.
In an earlier interview, Richie said HYA aims to have three public finalists but occasionally also has two or four. The firm recently completed a search for a superintendent in Littleton Public Schools that named two finalists.
