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THOMAS C. TOBINNational recruiting company will charge about $50,000 to gather top-notch candidates for Pinellas schools.
LARGO - The man or woman who will lead Pinellas schools for the next few years probably isn't looking for a job, will have to be pried away with a higher salary and won't want any publicity until it's absolutely necessary.
Those were the market conditions described by a handful of national recruiters who vied Wednesday for the job of helping the School Board choose a successor to retiring superintendent Howard Hinesley.
After a day of interviews, the board informally selected the Chicago-based recruiting firm of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates Ltd. A formal decision is expected at Tuesday's regular meeting.
The company's managing principal, William J. Attea, promised a process that would end with a first-rate superintendent who might serve for seven to 15 years.
The finalists, he said, will have been heavily screened by Attea and his partners, whose methods include bouncing candidates' names off of three people with knowledge of the market.
A candidate of that caliber could command as much as $300,000 in salary and benefits, Attea said, depending on what the board wants. A lesser-known candidate might cost about $250,000, and a "beginner" with little or no superintendent experience may want about $200,000, he said.
Hinesley, who retires in November 2004, earns about $170,000 a year plus a benefits package that puts his total compensation at about $207,000.
Attea said one of the cornerstones of his service will be preserving the confidentiality of applicants while also complying with Florida's liberal open records law.
One way to do that, he said, is to refrain from taking notes that could be requested by news organizations. Most top candidates won't want their names revealed more than 72 hours before they are brought to the board, he said.
"We know that the best candidates aren't going to want to be revealed," he said. "To get the best people, we have to play footsy."
Most board members said they liked Attea's candor. But board member Mary Russell was troubled by the secrecy.
"That whole stealth, cloak and darkness thing I'm not crazy about," she said.
The firm will tap into its database of potential candidates and use 80 "associates" to scour the country for school executives who fit the School Board's profile. The profile would be developed by the School Board after consultations with local groups, including teachers, business leaders and civic organizations.
The firm will charge about $50,000 and will aggressively recruit women and minorities.