Students from Sylvanie Williams College Prep marching band perform in the 2016 Martin Luther King Day parade. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
New Orleans College Prep is pressing forward quickly in its search to identify a new CEO by spring, identifying and even initiating phone interviews with a number of early applicants for the position.
The board’s CEO search committee and consultant Bebe Ryan have identified 22 possible candidates so far and begun speaking to them while they continue to search for more, said committee chair Julia Walker on Monday evening. Eight candidates have already applied, and of those, five meet the criteria posted for the job, Walker said.
“We don’t feel the pool is complete yet,” Walker said. “There are still some very strong candidates who are considering whether to apply or not.”
The applicants so far come from a diverse range of backgrounds, Walker said. The pool includes both men and women who are both white and black, and some are local while others are from around the country, Walker said.
The committee has not set an end-date for accepting applications, but committee members Stephen Boyard and Barbara MacPhee have already begun contacting applicants by phone for preliminary interviews, Walker said. The committee members expect to bring one or two candidates for site visits in December and one or two more in January, and they will then introduce one or more candidate to the full board.
“My best guess is that end of January or February is when we will be bringing a finalist to the board, or more than one finalist,” Walker said.
The goal for the committee remains to be done with the search by March, Walker said.
The College Prep board also met for an hour behind closed doors for ongoing evaluations of interim CEO Natalie Kaharick’s performance, inviting her in for part of the discussion.
To read our live coverage of the meeting, see below:
