Rockford — The Rockford Public Schools Board of Education has selected four candidates to interview for the district’s open superintendent position.
Working with the Michigan Leadership Institute, the board initially received applications from 18 educators across the country, including Michigan, Florida, Alaska and Colorado. The new superintendent will replace longtime leader Michael Shibler, who retired at the end of December.
This first round of interviews will take place at the Rockford Freshman Center at 4500 Kroes St. They will be open to the public and live-streamed on Rockford’s website. The district said it will also post the recordings on its site at the conclusion of all four interviews.
The interview schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, March 15
4 p.m. — Scot Prebles, superintendent of Forest Hills School District in Cincinnati, Ohio
Friday, March 18
4 p.m. — Shawn Wightman, superintendent of Marysville Public Schools in Marysville, Michigan
5:30 p.m. — Steve Matthews, superintendent of Novi Community School District in Novi, Michigan
Monday, March 21
4 p.m. — Korie Wilson-Crawford, interim superintendent of Rockford Public Schools
“The BOE was able to come to a strong consensus on four candidates out of a national pool of extremely qualified educational leaders,” board President Nick Reichenbach said in a statement. “The stakeholders did a fantastic job in identifying the profile characteristics of our next superintendent which guided the Board of Education in narrowing down the pool of candidates.”
During the first set of interviews, the public will have an opportunity to submit follow-up questions for the board to consider for the second round of interviews. That next round will take place during the week of March 21. The board hopes to have a candidate selected by April 1. More information and updates on the superintendent search can be found on the district’s website.
