TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The search for the next leader of Brevard Public Schools involves being out in the community and reaching residents where they live. To that end, the district is in the midst of hosting four community forums.

​These forums are led by consultants with the Florida School Boards Association who the BPS school board contracted to assist with the search.

Part of that plan involves getting out to multiple parts of the community and hearing from different stakeholders.

The four meeting sites are:

• Bayside High – Monday, Feb. 6
• Satellite High – Tuesday, Feb. 7
• Titusville High – Wednesday, Feb. 8
• Rockledge High – Monday, Feb. 13

School officials said the forums have increased in attendance with each successive meeting. Wednesday’s meeting at Titusville High School saw about 20 community members attend, including Titusville Mayor Dan Diesel, who was also an educator.

Some of the areas discussed were the strengths of the school district, some of the challenges it faces and the qualities they want the board to consider for prospective candidates. Some of those qualities included having been a recent classroom educator, having a track record of fiscal responsibility, having their family move to the county with them and staying above politics.

Prior to the meeting, retired BPS teacher Liz Mikitarian said it’s important that those who can attend meetings like this should try to offer their input.

“The superintendent search is an offered opportunity for us to be engaged in the process,” Mikitarian said. “f we don’t take every opportunity to be engaged, then when we come forward with something that’s maybe more negative, and something that we’re fighting against, I think it will be better received if we’re also helping with the good stuff.”

Each meeting is set for an hour starting at 6 pm. The meetings come as the district is also in the midst of collecting information from the public about what they want from the next superintendent via an online survey that went live on Jan. 30.

The survey will be active through Feb. 17. The school board will then discuss the findings of the survey as well as the community forums during its Feb. 21 meeting. Once they have a better understanding of what the public wants from its next school district leader, the job will be advertised starting on Feb. 24.

Dr. Bill Vogel, a consultant with FSBA and a former superintendent in St. Loucie County, said more than 3,000 people had already responded to the survey.

“It’s a solid number already. And that shows that people in Brevard County think that it’s very important and it’s a priority to get an outstanding superintendent to lead this district,” Vogel said.

In addition to the public forums and the community-facing survey, there will also be a staff forum on Feb. 16 and an online survey sent to students.

Once that input is gathered, it will be presented to the school board and discussed during their Feb. 21 meeting before the job description is crafted and published online and sent to candidate portals, like the American Association of School Administrators, the National Alliance of Black School Educators and the Association of Latinos Administrators and Superintendents.

“We’ll have a profile of what the qualifications are and also, what the qualities are that the board might look for in the next superintendent,” Vogel said. “We’ve already had a session with the board, which was very productive. We call it a “pre-search interview,” where we spent a couple hours with them and we’ve got their input also.”

Vogel said he’s optimistic that they’ll find a quality pool of candidates for the school board to consider. Mikitarian said she was also glad to see the thoughtful process unfold that included going to multiple parts of the 72-mile-long county so that the different areas can voice their concerns and preferences.

She said the suggestions for qualifications and requirements of a prospective superintendent were good, including the recommendation that the board reach a unanimous conclusion on their final pick.

“I think that would do a lot for the trust level in the county, not only amongst staff and employees, but amongst the community members, parents, that all five members were willing to work together to come up with a candidate,” she said. “I think that would be a stellar direction for them to go in.”