Based on the school board’s first interview to fill the system’s open superintendent job, it seems as though the board is structuring the interview sessions in the right manner. The first candidate, Mike Looney, spent the entire day in Butler County touring schools, meeting central office personnel and meeting members of the community at a public reception just prior to his two-hour interview with board members.

While we still feel as though the board should have employed an outside consulting firm to aid in the search for a new superintendent, the agenda and interview questions posed to Looney by the board were thorough, detailed and covered all the topics, in our opinion, that should have been covered in such an interview. While we will reserve our opinion on candidates until each one has been interviewed, based on Thursday’s interview and the credentials of the remaining candidates to be interviewed, it’s clear the system has drawn interest from some highly qualified educators, at least on paper.

We feel that whomever is appointed by the board to serve the parents and children of the Butler County School System the person, almost more than anything, needs to be highly visible in the system. It's been a long time since that has been the case and we feel that has caused a certain disconnect between the central office and the schools that it serves.

What our school system needs is a team builder who has good fiscal responsibility and the capacity to understand the importance of having a physical presence in the schools - all the schools - throughout the system on a regular basis. We hope the board will make that a priority with whomever they choose to hire.