School board chair Cameron Nuessle took time Friday morning to speak to media about the Aiken County Public School District’s (ACPSD) ongoing search for a new superintendent.
Current superintendent King Laurence announced at the beginning of the school year that he would be retiring from his position at the end of June this year.
In October of last year, the district consulted a search firm to conduct a nationwide survey for candidates to replace Laurence.
“There were 18 qualified applicants that came out of that search, which is a good number for our school district,” Nuessle said. “After that, the board was able to evaluate those application packets. We chose to interview six of those 18 to narrow down the pool to the qualifiers.”
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Two of the three remaining qualifiers are among the district’s current administration — Chief Instruction Officer Amy Edwards and Chief Officer of Operations and Student Services Corey Murphy. The third selected applicant, Chan Anderson, is the school superintendent of Chesterfield County, S.C.
The search also entailed an online survey and several public meetings, to garner input from community members on their preferred qualities in a potential leading school administrator.
“You ask several thousand people what they want, you’re going to get a broad spectrum of feedback,” Nuessle said, noting that reviewing all the responses broadened the school board’s perspective.
As widely varied as the local opinions proved to be, Nuessle observed some consistent themes, including teacher recruitment and retention, and their connection to student behavior in the classroom.
“I think in general, some of the things that you could take out of the survey results is that the majority of folks saw the need not for, revolution, but some evolution of the school district as far as the next step, and making some changes, as well,” he said.
While credentials and experience are important, Nuessle emphasized, discerning a candidate who suits the present needs of the school district — “the challenges that lay in front of it right now” — was paramount to the board’s selection.
The board will summon the last three applicants for a final round of interviews on Feb. 1, 5 and 6. The district will host a community reception in Aiken High School’s new auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 1 p.m., in which the public will have the opportunity to meet all three finalists.
“We’ve got a new set of challenges… I look forward to eventually finding the right person and working with them on progressing our strategic plan as a district,” Nuessle said, lauding the ACPSD administration’s handling of recent challenges, particularly the COVID pandemic. “I look forward to building upon our success.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
