Search process underway to find Paine’s replacement

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Board of Education has set an ‘aggressive’ and ‘ambitious’ timeline to hire the next superintendent of schools, according to Board President Dave Perry.

Perry spoke to MetroNews about the process, following Dr. Steve Paine’s announced retirement earlier this month.

He said it’s a very important hire for the school system to be able to continue programs and bring stability.

“I think it’s very critical to the stability, the continuity, and the transition needs to be as smooth as it can be,” Perry said.

State BOE President Dave Perry

A timeline of dates for the search process was laid out at a recent board meeting. Advertising in the national search will last until February 24 when the application period begins. The drop-dead date for applications is March 14 at 4 p.m.

On April 8, the board of education will review applications and determine candidates, followed by a special board meeting on April 23 to interview candidates.

Following the interviews, May 13 is the target date to offer employment to one of the candidates. Perry expects the search process to be very similar to the last one in 2017 that hired Paine.

“We have 12 applicants in 2017 and out of those 12 we interviewed three,” Perry said. “We selected one of those three. I assume we would have the same number or more and hope that we would have more.

“I think it’s very obvious from our hire in 2017, we were able to hire a very able, capable superintendent of schools.”

Gov. Jim Justice had previously said that maybe Paine could take a leave of absence and come back after a year. Paine said in part of his decision that, “a member of my family is facing a health crisis and I want to be fully present for my family.”

Perry told MetroNews that there is no chance that Paine comes back after leaving.

“We’ve learned that we can’t grant a leave of absence,” he said. “Since that time, Dr. Paine has discussed with me that his wife’s condition has worsened. It would be more necessary for him to spend more time with that situation.”

Paine’s last day as superintendent will be June 30.





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