ADA, MI – The Forest Hills school board is moving forward with a national search for a new superintendent to replace the retiring Dan Behm.
At its Monday, April 17 meeting, the Forest Hills Board of Education unanimously voted to put out a targeted Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking bids from search firms to help lead the superintendent search. The RFP will likely be posted by the end of the week, board president Kristen Fauson told MLive after the meeting.
“This is something we take very, very seriously, and we want the community and all the stakeholders to be very involved and take it seriously as well, because it does have lasting impact,” Fauson said Monday.
“The person that we hire could have a very, very long-term effect on the district. So we are very cognizant of wanting to make sure that we put out an appropriate search to get the best talent out there and find the right person to shepherd Forest Hills through the next however many years they happen to be here.”
Behm will retire effective this summer. He is stepping down after 17 years serving Forest Hills Public Schools, which is one of the largest school districts in West Michigan with over 9,000 students.
RELATED: Forest Hills Superintendent Dan Behm announces retirement after 17 years
During Monday’s meeting, the board settled on doing a targeted RFP process, which means the board will send out RFPs to a specific number of search firms that have experience working with similar districts to Forest Hills.
The board unanimously agreed that a targeted RFP process would be more efficient than conducting a standard RFP process, where the district would seek bids from any and all search firms and wait to see which firms respond.
Trustee CJ Michaud said it makes more sense to go directly to the search firms that have experience working with school districts for superintendent searches, rather than waiting for them to respond to a general RFP.
“There are some groups in the state of Michigan who search for dozens and dozens and dozens of superintendents every calendar year, so they know a lot of people in this state and a lot of administrators and leaders, and outside our state as well,” Michaud said during the board’s discussion.
“So I think the targeted approach does make sense. I think we have a good idea of people we would ask, who we know are very good at helping districts do this. And it’s the right mix, in my mind, of doing it quickly and efficiently, but not trimming and not missing opportunity elsewhere.”
Fauson said the board has not yet chosen which specific firms it will seek bids from, but that the board will likely send out the targeted RFPs by the end of this week. It’s still too early to say how much the superintendent search will cost the district, she told MLive.
The board also discussed the possibility of appointing an interim superintendent to lead the district if the superintendent search lasts longer than this summer, when Behm will step down. Fauson said trustees want to give the community plenty of time to give input on what they want to see in the next superintendent.
“We’re coming up on the end of the school year and into summer vacation, and not everybody’s around all the time,” she said. “We don’t want to rush through something and not get enough input on what it is that the community is looking for. So if it takes a little bit longer to make sure we get the right person, we’re willing to do that and have an interim come in, to tend to the books in the mean time.”
The board unanimously approved a motion to create a three-member subcommittee that will help with the superintendent search process. The subcommittee will not make any decisions in the process, but rather present information to the full board about the organization and logistics of the process.
Before Monday’s meeting, the board received training on how to conduct a superintendent search from Jay Bennett, assistant director of executive search services for the Michigan Association of School Boards.
Behm is leaving the district as one of the longest-serving superintendents in West Michigan, having devoted the majority of his career to Forest Hills Public Schools. He has dedicated more than 30 years to serving Michigan public schools, including 22 years as a superintendent.
He joins many longtime superintendents and school administrators who have decided to retire in the last three years. Michigan was hit by a wave of superintendent retirements over the two years, particularly in West Michigan.
Throughout Behm’s tenure, the superintendent led the district through the passage of three bond proposals, launched the district’s K-12 Mandarin Chinese immersion program, increased graduation rates, increased the percentage of high school students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses, and helped lead the district through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before coming to Forest Hills, Behm previously served as the superintendent of Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools in Flint. He graduated from the University of Michigan.
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