The East Williston School District has begun a search process to select a new Assistant Superintendent for Business and a new Curriculum Associate for Foreign Language. Our goal is to select the best candidates possible to replace Mr. Richard Daddio and Ms. Jeri Cowen, who recently retired from the district.

Our staff selection process reflects the fundamental values that we as a school community have long cherished. Over time, it has been shown that it best assures the choice of the highest quality candidate and that candidate's ultimate success as a member of our professional staff.

We are a community whose past and present distinguished achievement has been firmly rooted in an ethos of collaborative sharing and inclusiveness. Thus, we involve as collegial partners in choosing our new staff a broad-based representation of groups of parents, other community members, teachers, administrators, and support staff members. This sharing of the selection process not only gives a voice to each constituency, it also guarantees that each candidate interviewed is assessed from a variety of perspectives. Though final hiring decisions rest with the superintendent and the board of education, the recommendations of our selection committees are deeply respected and given serious consideration.

In our selection process, we not only our commitment to collegiality and inclusion in decision-making, we also - as the Corporation Rand pointed out in its report written nearly two decades ago - assure practical success in adding new staff. Examined from different points of view a candidate's strengths and weaknesses are best discovered. In addition, the "fit" of each candidate within our school community is best predicted when those with whom the candidate must be compatible are parties to his or her evaluation. Finally, new staff members enter service in our district with their colleagues and community members already involved and invested in them and their success.

We have, as a school district, a well-established staff selection process, which benefits our children by providing them with excellent staff members. We pledge to continue this tradition of excellence for our school district.

East Williston Board of Education