RCS Superintendent Search: The Districts and Interview Schedule
The Rochester Community Schools Board of Education has released the names of candidates selected for the superintendent position. They are:
| Candidate | Current District | Current Title |
| Dr. Robert Martin | West Bloomfield | Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction |
| Dr. David Richards | Fraser | Superintendent |
| Dr. Robert Shaner | Warren Consolidated | Executive Director for Instruction and Technology |
| Mrs. Cindy Weber | Durand | Superintendent |
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Finding out a significant amount of information about particular candidates and their views without an interviews is difficult, so I have chosen to compare the school districts they come from. Two of them are superintendents, so their views and success should be reflected in the views and success of their districts. One is an assistant superintendent and one an executive director and while they hold significant importance for each district, they are not the primary decision maker.
As in the previous superintendent search, Rochester SAGE will be sending out questionnaires on gifted education to the candidates for inclusion in future posts. Below I have information on each candidate’s district and the timeline for the interviews.
A few remarks based on the data:
- All candidates come from districts with lower performance than RCS
- No district listed has shown significant improvement in MEAP or ACT readiness over the past few years
- All candidates are from districts with greater numbers of economically disadvantaged students
- Three candidates are from significantly smaller districts
In the previous superintendent search, the candidates were easily divided into assistant superintendents from larger districts with high Great Schools scores and superintendents from smaller districts with lower Great Schools scores. This slate is not as easily categorized and most candidates come from districts with some similarities to Rochester Community Schools.
Resumes and Applications
District Data
Below is some of the data for each district. You can also view data for the districts at the MI School Data Portal. Do you have another favorite measure? Please post it in the comments.
Data continues on the border area due to table width.
| Candidate | School District | Great Schools | 7th Grade MEAP & Trend | MME Proficiency | ACT Readiness | 4 Yr Grad Rate | Economically | ||
| Title | Enrollment | Rating | Math | Reading | Disadvantaged (2008) | ||||
| Dr. Robert Martin | West Bloomfield | 6,823 students | 9 | 57.6% | 70.9% | 28.4% | 29.1% | 89.2% | 16.48% |
| Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction | 11 schools | Slightly Up | Static | Slightly Up | |||||
| Dr. David Richards | Fraser | 4,811 students | 7 | 41.0% | 64.1% | 10.9% | 14.3% | 87.8% | 29.12% |
| Superintendent | 8 schools | Up | Slightly Up | Static | |||||
| Dr. Robert Shaner | Warren Consolidated | 15,537 students | 6 | 33.7% | 56.3% | 12.2% | 12.5% | 79.6% | 36.31% |
| Executive Director for Instruction and Technology | 25 schools | Slightly Up | Static | Slightly Up | |||||
| Mrs. Cindy Weber | Durand | 1,825 students | 5 | 34.2% | 67.3% | 11.1% | 8.9% | 73.8% | 41.84% |
| Superintendent | 6 schools | Slightly Down | Up | Static | |||||
| Reference | Rochester Community Schools | 14,814 students | 10 | 75.8% | 84.50% | 37.0% | 35.9% | 92.5% | 9.36% |
| 21 schools | Slightly Up | Slightly Up | Slightly Up | ||||||
| Reference | State of Michigan | 1,543,588 students | 37.2% | 59.70% | 17.9% | 17.7% | 74.3% | ||
| Static | Slightly Up | Slightly Up | |||||||
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Interview Schedule
The schedule for interviews is:
Monday, January 7, 6:30 PM (Open to public)
- 7:00-8:15 PM – Dr. Martin
- 8:30-9:45 PM – Mrs. Weber
Wednesday, January 9, 7:00 PM (Open to public)
- 7:00-8:15 PM – Dr. Richards
- 8:30-9:45 PM – Dr. Shaner
- Board of Education selects finalists
Week of January 14
- Site visits to finalists’ districts
January 22
- Finalists tour Rochester Community Schools
- Open House for finalists in the Harrison Room of the Administration Building, 7:00 – 8:30 PM (Open to public)
January 23
- Staff, parents, students, and community dialogues with finalists
- Finalist interviews from 5:00 – 6:45 PM and 7:15 – 9:00 PM (Open to public)
January 24
- Board of Education meeting to select superintendent, 7:00 PM (Open to public)
If the process remains similar to last time, the first round of interviews will be questions by the Board of Education trustees only. The interviews of the finalists will have an opportunity for community members to ask questions. After each interview of candidates or finalists, community members may fill out evaluation sheets on the candidates that will be distributed to the Board of Education.
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