The Portage School Board is weighing its next move after the sole finalist for superintendent took his name out of consideration on Monday.
Greg Gray chose to remain Superintendent of the Brighton Area Schools, he was scheduled to come back for an interview later this week. The Portage School Board posteda message on its website, saying a meeting will be scheduled soon to determine the next steps in its search process.
MLive Kalamazoo education reporter Julie Mack told WMUK's Gordon Evans that Gray's decision to drop out of the search was surprising. She says school board members believed they had their candidate for superintendent.
Rob Olson is currently the interim superintendent, his contract runs out June 30th. Mack says it appears that Olson is willing to stay on the job beyond the end of June, if he is asked.
Gray was recruited for the job of Portage Superintendent because school board members were not satisfied with the 23 applicants in the pool. Mack says the board may do a targeted search for a candidate from Michigan. She says they will likely look for a Superintendent at a school district that is similar in size and demographics to Portage.
Mack says the timing for a superintendent search is not good. She says the pool of qualified candidates dried up a few years ago when early retirement incentives were offered to many school administrators. Mack says it's also late in hiring season for school superintendents.
