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Duval Superintendent Semi-Finalists To Be Identified This Month

Lindsey Kilbride
/
WJCT News
Tucker Hall's John Finotti, presents school board members with the feedback from community meetings.

After hearing from the public, the Duval County School Board will be sharing the input with a search firm helping find a new superintendent.  

The Tucker Hall PR firm ran the public meetings. One of its vice presidents, John Finotti, presented board members this week with the feedback, which will be used to create a superintendent profile.

Overall, the community wants a former educator who’s student-minded in the district’s top role. For leadership style, people said they wanted a proactive visionary.  And the superintendent’s management approach should include trustworthiness and good communication skills.

The firm held meetings for the general public, staff, students, faith leaders, the philanthropic community and the business community. Not all subgroups have the same priorities.

For example, most attendees at the Legends Center wanted a person who’s local to Jacksonville, but the businesses community said it’s more important for the person have a business background.

The next step? The information will be sent to district superintendent search firm, which is set to identify around six semi-finalists by April 23. Those candidates will be narrowed down in mid-May.

Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.

Lindsey Kilbride was WJCT's special projects producer until Aug. 28, 2020. She reported, hosted and produced podcasts like Odd Ball, for which she was honored with a statewide award from the Associated Press, as well as What It's Like. She also produced VOIDCAST, hosted by Void magazine's Matt Shaw, and the ADAPT podcast, hosted by WJCT's Brendan Rivers.