The various Wake County superintendent feedback meetings could influence whether Donna Hargens applies for the permanent job.

Hargens said she's waiting for the school board to develop the characteristics and profile of the next superintendent before deciding if she'll apply for the job. Hargens, Wake's chief academic officer, has been serving as interim superintendent since March.

You probably won't see many, if any, Wake County school board members at tonight's public meeting on the superintendent search.

Heidrick & Struggles, the search firm hired by the board, is advising board members to stay away from the various public and private input meetings. The same advice was given by board member Debra Goldman, chairwoman of the search committee, at the July 1 meeting.

Goldman said they can't keep board members from coming. But she said "it's in the best interest of getting the stakeholder feedback that we're not all slitting there."

The dates and times have been scheduled for two public meetings in which you can share what traits you want to see in the next Wake County schools superintendent.

The meetings will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday in the school board meeting room, 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. The search firm of Heidrick & Struggles will run the meetings and use the feedback to help develop the criteria that the school board will use for selecting a superintendent.

The hunt for Wake County's next superintendent could be a really secret search.

As noted in today's article, the school board's superintendent search committee agreed Thursday that no names would be publicly released before finalists are identified. But Debra Goldman, the chairwoman of the committee, said there are reasons why they might not want to release the name of anyone other that the person who is hired.

Goldman said a strong candidate might not want to be considered as a finalist if the person knew that his/her identity will be released to the public with the chance of not being hired.

Here's a recap of today's Wake County superintendent search committee meeting.

The committee agreed to keep the list of applicants confidential until they come up with a list of finalists. The committee also allowed the search firm of Heidrick & Struggles to begin advertising for the position with a Sept. 1 application deadline.

The ad, which will have a preliminary job description, will go out before public and private meetings are held with groups about what characteristics are desired in the next superintendent. Among the groups getting a private meeting with Heidrick is the Civitas Institute, the conservative group recently named a provider of board training by the board majority.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE OTHER GROUPS GETTING PRIVATE MEETINGS

UPDATED TO INCLUDE THAT GREAT SCHOOLS IN WAKE IS A 501(C)3 NON-PROFIT

Today marks the official end of the Del Burns era in the Wake County school system.

In announcing his resignation as superintendent on Feb. 16, Burns had set June 30 as his final day. He's been on paid administrative leave since March 9 following his public criticism of the school board majority and their plan to end of the diversity policy.

Aside from a few brief stints in the private sector and in the Pitt County school system, Burns has worked in Wake since 1976. He's been superintendent since July 1, 2006 after being hired by the old board to replace the retiring Bill McNeal.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children is blasting the Wake County school board majority for possibly hiring a non-educator to be the next superintendent.

In a press release Thursday, CCCAAC says the preliminarily approved changes to the qualifications for superintendent is another sign that the board majority "continue to show their efforts to promote racial and economic divide among our community and students."

"Business leaders work to garner yearly profit versus an educator who works for dividends that occur at the end of the education cycle; graduation from high school," according to the press release.

So what will the Wake County school board majority get for paying nearly double the price of the nearest competitor for hiring Heidrick & Struggles to be the superintendent search firm?

As noted in today's article, that extra money means Heidrick will recruit non-educators to be applicants for the position. School board member John Tedesco said they felt that Heidrick would do the best job of the search firms of getting national candidates and people from the non K-12 world.

While not saying that a non-educator would be hired, Tedesco pointed to all the educators who are in senior positions who could assist the new superintendent.

The Wake County school board majority wants more authority over how the superintendent handles filling of administrative positions, including principals.

The school board's policy committee agreed today to recommend changing the policy on the duties of the superintendent. They want the superintendent to get the board's permission before reorganizing Central Office staff and deciding on principals.

Currently, the superintendent makes the final call on transferring principals between schools. As a courtesy, the board is notified about the transfers.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is accusing the Wake County school board majority of putting "special interest politics ahead of the values of the community" with the votes taken at last week's meeting.

In a press release today, GSIW complains about the 5-4 votes on hiring Heidrick & Struggles, eliminating the requirement that the superintendent be an educator and dropping out of the state and national school boards associations.

Yevonne Brannon, GSIW chairwoman, said the board actions taken last week "demonstrates reckless disregard for the community and for our family values.”