The school board’s search for the next superintendent continued on April 8, when the five board members narrowed the field from 32 total applicants to 11 semi-finalists.
The 11 semifinalists include four current employees of the Monroe County School District — Amber Acevedo, Christina McPherson, Laura Lietaert and Melissa Alsobrooks — and one former employee, Melanie Stefanowicz, who worked for the district from 2005 to 2016. From 2012 to 2016, she was the district’s director of adult, alternative and career and technical education and is currently the CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, living in Cape Coral.
Acevedo is deputy superintendent and a former principal at Key West High School and Poinciana Elementary. McPherson is also a former KWHS principal and is now the executive director of student services at the district headquarters. Lietaert is principal of Coral Shores High School and Alsobrooks is principal of Gerald Adams Elementary School.
The applicants included people from 11 states. Seventeen of the applicants hold academic doctoral degrees. Four are currently serving as superintendents and three have held the position.
The other six semi-finalists are:
Edward Tierney: deputy superintendent/chief of schools in Palm Beach County school district
Michael George: principal of Atlantic Coast High School in Jacksonville, and Florida’s 2024 principal of the year.
Darren Burkett: deputy superintendent of Collier County public schools.
John Millay: former superintendent of Martin County schools in Florida and former senior vice president of Boys & Girls Club in Martin County.
James Tager: former superintendent in Flagler County, and in Vermont and Maine.
Gillian Gregory: Former assistant superintendent in Leon County, and currently a program director at Florida State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Services.
All applications are available at keysschools.com, under the “Superintendent Search” link at the top of the home page.
Working with search consultants from the Florida School Boards Association, the five school board members have drafted five questions for the 11 semifinalists. Some replies will be written and some will be recorded via video.
Once the responses are processed and available, interested members of the public will find a QR code giving them the ability comment. Those comments will be collected by the School Board Association’s staff and delivered to the board members.
The school board at its April 21 board meeting will select three to five finalists who will be invited to the Keys the week of April 28 for in-person interviews and public receptions, where they can meet community members, teachers, principals, parents and students. Public interviews will be conducted on Thursday, May 1 at 9 a.m.
The final selection is expected at the May 6 board meeting in Marathon. 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.
— Frank Derfler contributed to this report.
