Marquette Schools Superintendent Search

The Marquette Area Public Schools are moving ahead in their superintendent search.

David Blomquist and Richard Allen are both retired former school superintendents in Dickinson County — Kingsford and Iron Mountain, respectively.

Now they’re consultants with an Iron Mountain company called NorthStar Staffing.

Last week, the district hired NorthStar to help with the search.

And they say they did not come into the process with any pre–conceived notions of what qualities the board should be looking for.

Blomquist and Allen are gathering that information from a wide range of people.

At last night’s Marquette school board meeting, they spelled out the timeline for the job search.

They’re conducting interviews the first week of may.

And they intend to have a new superintendent on the job on July 1st.

Blomquist and Allen also had the board members tell them what qualities they’d like the new superintendent to have.

They held another public meeting tonight at Superior Hills School for the same purpose.

And residents who showed up at that one were very eager to describe the sort of person that they think the Marquette schools need.

Allen and Blomquist also held meetings during the day today.

They’re told the new superintendent should have strong public relations skills and should be able to relate to many different kinds of people.

Prioritizing expenditures is coming to light as especially important.

Allen says that last item may be the most important quality because Michigan schools are expected to be strapped for cash for years to come.

He says those qualities, which residents suggested tonight, echoed what the board members suggested last night.

All the meetings about the superintendent search are public.

Tomorrow, they’re meeting with principals, central office staff, high school faculty and Cherry Creek School employees.

Blomquist says after meeting with those groups, the two of them will have a complete picture which they’ll present to the school board next Monday night.

They think a meeting they’ll have in Marquette on May 2nd, narrowing down the applicant pool to determine who should be interviewed, should be especially interesting.