Dorchester BOE narrows down superintendent search to two candidates

CAMBRIDGE — The Dorchester County Board of Education has narrowed down its superintendent search to two candidates. An announcement of an offer is expected as soon as this week.

In a June 3 press release, the Board of Education said it had received 37 qualified applications through its partnership with Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the group selected to support and guide the search. The largest number of applications came from Maryland, but applications were submitted from applicants across the country.

On Feb. 21, the Board of Education announced former Dorchester County Public Schools Superintendent David Bromwell would be stepping down from his position, effective March 1. The board said the decision was “mutually decided” by Bromwell and the board. Jymil Thompson is currently serving the final months of Bromwell’s term, which ends June 30.

The board plans to make an offer to its top superintendent candidate once reaching a final decision, and hopes to announce the district's new superintendent in early June. If the candidate accepts, they would begin July 1.

Although the search has been a confidential one, the board said it has used "the voice of the community" while embarking on the search.

A leadership profile, constructed using comments from an online survey and three community visioning meetings, was used by HYA to narrow the search down to the top 10 candidates. Between the survey and visioning meetings, the board received feedback from over 900 county residents.

From those 10 candidates, the board said it narrowed the list down to four candidates. Following in-depth interviews with each of those candidates, the board narrowed it down to its top two candidates.

"The board wants to express our appreciation again to the community for their engagement and voice in this process," the press release said. "The criteria that we have used through this entire process has come directly from that voice of the community. We look forward to our final selection to represent the entire community and lead DCPS into the future that our students, parents, educators and community deserve."