The Fort Worth, Texas, school board’s superintendent search has stalled after the lone finalist for the job withdrew his candidacy.
Joel Boyd informed the board that he intends to remain superintendent of the Santa Fe, N.M., school district, a job he has held since summer 2012.
“While it was an honor to be named as the lone finalist for superintendent of one of the nation’s largest school systems, our community helped me to realize that we have a lot of work that remains unfinished here and that the timing was not right. My wife and I owe the entire Santa Fe community a big ‘thank you’ for remaining beside us and allowing us the time for personal reflection and consideration of what was best for our family,” Boyd wrote in an essay published in the Santa Fe New Mexican and the district website.
The Fort Worth school board voted to hire Boyd in February. But he had not been officially offered the position because Texas law requires a three-week vetting period before the district can offer a candidate a formal contract to a candidate. Boyd’s decision to stay in Santa Fe came near the end of the waiting period.
The school board has not taken any action since Boyd withdrew his candidacy.
“The board has decided they have some issues they need to work through before resuming the search,” Fort Worth schools spokesman Clint Bond said.
Hiring a superintendent is “the most important duty we have and we are committed to working together to ensure we bring the best possible person to Fort Worth to lead us,” school board President Norma Robbins said in a statement released this month.
Interim Superintendent Patricia Linares will continue to lead the 86,000-student district until the board hires a permanent replacement for Walter Dansby, who left in June.
Fort Worth isn’t the only large urban district searching for a school leader.
School systems in Hillsborough County, Fla., Montgomery County, Md., Minneapolis, and Palm Beach, Fla., are among the school systems also searching for leaders.
The Boston school board recently hired Tommy Chang to lead the 57,000-student district.