And then there were four — finalists, that is, for the Florida Keys’ top education job.
School board members on April 22 narrowed the list of candidates from 11 semifinalists to four finalists — two Monroe County School District employees and two deputy superintendents from other Florida counties.
The four finalists, in alphabetical order, are:
Amber Archer Acevedo: current Monroe County School District deputy superintendent; former principal at Key West High School and Poinciana Elementary.
Darren Burkett: current deputy superintendent of Collier County public schools.
Laura Lietaert: current principal of Coral Shores High School; former teacher, assistant principal and principal at Key Largo School.
Edward Tierney: current deputy superintendent & chief of schools for Palm Beach County; former teacher of exception students; former high school principal; retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
In a ranking exercise at their April 22 meeting, all five school board members included Burkett and Tierney in their list of desired finalists. Acevedo and Lietaert each received support from three of the five board members.
Acevedo got the finalist nod from John Dick, Sue Woltanski and Yvette Mira-Talbott, but not Mindy Conn or Darren Horan.
Lietaert received support from Talbott, Horan and Conn, but not Dick or Woltanski.
All candidate applications are available at keysschools.com, under the “Superintendent Search” link at the top of the home page.
The school board members and district officials have been working with consultants from the Florida School Boards Association, who have guided the application and ongoing interview process, which continues next week with public interviews, one-on-one interviews with individual board members and public meet-and-greet receptions in each region of the county.
Individual school board members will conduct 90-minute interviews with each of the four finalists on Friday, May 2 starting at 9 a.m. in Marathon.
Community receptions to meet the finalists:
Upper Keys: Wednesday, April 30 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Murray Nelson Government Center.
Middle Keys: Thursday, May 1 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.at Marathon High School.
Key West: Friday, May 2 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Beachside Resort.
The final selection of the next superintendent is scheduled for the May 6 board meeting. Contract negotiations will follow. The job posting outlines a salary range of $175,000 to $225,000, plus benefits, “along with a relocation stipend and other negotiated incentives,” the job posting states. The current superintendent’s salary is $175,000.
The new schools chief will start work July 1, allowing a month-long overlap before the July 31 retirement of Theresa Axford.
