By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — District 7 administrators will host a forum for community input into their search for a new superintendent.
The forum will be held in the media center at Polk Elementary School, 4651 Polk Street, at 6 p.m. Thursday.
Metropolitan Detroit Bureau of School Studies, the firm hired by the D7 Board of Education to help in the search, will lead the forum and will present an overview of the search process. They also will answer any questions from participants about the search.
D7 Board President Lori Fujita said the forum will be used to get input from the community for the district’s search to replace Supt. Jeffrey Bartold, who announced earlier this year that he plans to retire at the end of July.
“The idea is to take the input from the District 7 community, and use it when compiling the profile of an ideal superintendent the school district,” Fujita said.
Bartold has been the superintendent at D7 since 2006 and prior to that served as the district’s business manager, a role he has occupied the last two years as the district has worked to cut operational costs and lift itself out of a $1.4 million deficit.
Fujita said the board is working hard and taking everything into consideration in the decision-making process.
“This is the most important decision this school board will have to make, and the more input from the community, the better,” Fujita said.
Fujita said the board hopes to have a new superintendent hired by the beginning of June and in place by the beginning of July in time for the 2014-15 fiscal and academic year.
Community members who are unable to attend the meeting are asked to go to the district’s website, www.district7.net, and fill out a survey to submit their input there.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected])