FREDERICKTOWN – Community members met the two finalists Tuesday night for Fredericktown Local Schools’ next superintendent — Gary Chapman and Jonathan Muro.
Chapman is the superintendent of Jonathan Alder Local School District in Plain City, and Muro is the middle school principal in Madison Local School District in Mansfield.
Ohio School Boards Association staff ran the event at the Fredericktown schools administrative building. OSBA staff asked each candidate the same list of questions, which were selected by the Fredericktown school board from a pool of questions submitted earlier this month.
Each candidate answered these questions in front of community members within separate 30-minute time blocks.
Anyone from the community could attend, and roughly 30 people attended the community meeting. Attendees were asked to complete a hand-out with feedback on each candidate to be submitted to the school board to consider in its deliberations.
A staff-specific meeting was also held in a separate room.
The first question asked of the candidates in the community meeting: Why Fredericktown?
Chapman said the district’s reputation preceded it in the local area, and he hopes to make its reputation known statewide.
Muro said he was drawn to the district because its small size enables one-on-one connection, which he sees as key to building trust.
Other questions tasked the candidates to think ahead, including to define their top three goals for their first 90 days as superintendent, if selected.
For Chapman, first he would sit down with the school board to define a shared vision; next he would meet with administrators, staff and students to find ways to build on existing culture; and third he would speak with the larger community.
For Muro, first he would focus on building communication; second he would develop trust to improve efficiency and decrease emotional stress; and third he would work for greater transparency so he is recognizable and approachable.
Other questions ranged from how the candidates would strengthen the middle school concept in the district, to what experience the candidates have beyond education positions.
Community members who attended the meeting said they appreciated the board and district allowing anyone from the community to attend, and not limiting the sessions to a select group of people, including parent and local business owner Kristine Lindeman.
Lindeman also said she was glad the board released the names of the two finalists before Tuesday’s event, so that she and others had time to look up information about them prior to attending.
Fredericktown parent Thomas Groshong and grandparent Kimberly Groshong echoed Lindeman in saying they both appreciated the school board provided the opportunity for the community to hear from the finalists and provide feedback before the final decision.
However, Thomas and Kimberly Groshong said they think the community sessions could have been improved if attendees were allowed to ask questions on-the-spot.
“It was a very safe and controlled interview process that lends itself to be very superficial,” Thomas Groshong said. “We can hope for the best, but it’s hard to feel confident about anything when we really didn’t get to go deeper, which I would have appreciated.”
Kimberly Groshong said she thought some of the questions asked were vague and did not lend themselves to reveal how the candidates would work toward solutions.
“Given that there have been some emotionally charged (board) meetings, you kind of need to know how your superintendent is going to respond when you have impassioned community members,” Kimberly Groshong said.
The board met in executive session both before and after the community meetings for a second round of interviews with the two finalists, as well as decision deliberations.
The board does not yet have a set date regarding when it will make its final superintendent decision.
