Broward school board members name 7 semi-finalists in search for next superintendent
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The Broward County School Board on Monday whittled down its list of choices for the next superintendent to seven semi-finalists, one of whom could be the next top administrator for the public school system.
Going into a work session meeting, school board members had nine names of candidates who were under consideration before the panel selected the semi-finalists.
They were identified as:
- Dr. Peter Licata, an assistant superintendent in Palm Beach County.
- Dr. Sito Narcisse, a school official from Baton Rouge.
- Dr. Jason Nault, an associate superintendent in a Chicago-area school district.
- Wanda Paul, current chief operating officer for the Houston public schools.
- Dr. Rituparna, "Rita" Raichoudhuri of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
- Luis Solano, deputy superintendent of schools in Detroit.
- Dr. Valerie Wanza, current acting chief of staff for Broward public schools.
The school board voted in February to retain McPherson & Jacobson, L.L.C , an executive recruitment firm, to find and vet applicants after the panel opted to immediately part ways with controversial former schools chief Dr. Vicky Cartwright.
Earlier this month, the recruitment firm presented a pool of 26 applicants to school board members, but none of those candidates apparently generated robust interest from the board.
That led to the board adopting a revised timeline that calls for selecting a new schools chief by June 15.
The new timeline was adopted to allow for additional time to search for new applicants after the first batch did not generate sizable interest among the board.
The board said in a written statement that each of the seven semi-finalists will be required to submit video responses to three questions by noon on Thursday.
The school board members will review the answers and then select the top finalists at a special call school board meeting on Tuesday, May 30.
