ASHLAND — The Ashland City Schools Board of Education approved a contract at its meeting Monday that allows the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center to find a new superintendent for the district.
This is one of the board’s first steps toward finding a superintendent to replace the outgoing Doug Marrah, who plans to retire later this year after more than a decade with the district.
The Mansfield-based Mid-Ohio Education Service Center provides academic and support services, such as leadership searches, to a number of school districts in north central Ohio, according to its website.
One of Mid-Ohio’s consultants, former Ashland superintendent Ed Swartz, has helped with more than 50 leadership searches, Mid-Ohio superintendent Kevin Kimmel said.Â
The district decided to work with the MOESC because of the board’s inexperience with superintendent searches, board president Zack Truax said.
“We want the community to have a voice. We want the staff to have a voice. How to do that is something we’ve never been a part of,” Truax said.
One of the first steps in Mid-Ohio’s superintendent search will be to survey community members and school staff to find out what kind of superintendent they are looking for.
“We have a strong commitment to getting feedback from your staff, from your parents, from your community, from your students,” Kimmel said.
After the survey, MOESC will craft a job posting for the role and conduct multiple rounds of interviews with prospective candidates.
There is no timeline for the search yet, but the job posting phase of the search will take six to eight weeks, Kimmel said.
Ashland City Schools Schools Business Manager Steve Paramore will serve as interim superintendent from Jan. 1 2023 to July 31, 2023. while a new permanent superintendent is selected.
The district will pay a maximum of $5,000 to MOESC for the superintendent search, according to the board meeting’s agenda.
