HOLLAND TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The field of hopefuls for guiding the Lakeshore’s largest school district by student enrollment has been narrowed to six.
On Tuesday, West Ottawa Public Schools announced the finalists for the superintendent’s position that will be vacated by Tom Martin upon his retirement, effective at the end of December, 2020. Martin, who came to West Ottawa from Kenowa Hills in 2011, announced his decision in late August as the Academic 2021 year began, ending a career in education that spanned four decades.
With the help of the Michigan Association of School Boards, the district’s board decided to bring the following in for a minimum of two rounds of public interviews, along with thorough background and reference checks:
Efe Adbamu, assistant superintendent at St. Paul Public Schools in the Minnesota state capitol; Anne Armstrong, assistant superintendent of human resources in Hudsonville Public Schools; Timothy Bearden, the chief academic officer at Detroit County Day School in the Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills, Steven Disney, the superintendent of the River Forest Community School Corporation in suburban Gary, Indiana; Peter Licata, the regional superintendent of Palm Beach County schools in Florida; and Cedar Springs superintendent Scott Smith.
In a statement, West Ottawa officials say that 28 candidates had applied for the position that had been posted through December 4th, with “many of the applicants in this pool (had) met the criteria established by the board.”
The first video interviews of the finalists will be conducted in virtual public meetings, accessible through the West Ottawa district website, on January 11th and 12th, beginning at 5:30 PM on both evenings.
The district said at the time of Martin’s retirement announcement that he was planning to stay at the superintendent’s post until a successor was named.
When the first of two state-mandated student counts was conducted in October, West Ottawa Schools announced that enrollment stood at 6,506.
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