The Wallace Elementary School Board of Education will be launching a superintendent search, with Jim Carlson offering his resignation Wednesday night and the board reluctantly accepting it.

Carlson will begin in July as the assistant regional superintendent of schools at the La Salle County Regional Office of Education.

With two teachers also retiring in the 2007-2008 school year, Carlson presented hiring plans for his position and suggested steps for replacing these teachers. He also noted there could be a possibility of hiring "three teachers to keep class sizes down."

"It's difficult to replace teachers who have been so important to our school," Carlson said. "They have such an impact on our students and on our school."

The district will advertise for the teaching positions in newspapers and on Web sites. Carlson said that getting teaching and office staff involved in the decision process would help ensure that the candidates chosen would be quality people.

School Board President Michael Stone asked Carlson to narrow the field to the best candidates, then the board will interview the final choices.

Carlson said his goal was to be able to hire the teachers by the April board meeting. When several board members wondered about the rush, he told them "the longer you wait, the harder it will be to find qualified, quality people. By the end of the school year, many good teachers will have accepted other offers."

But the hunt for the school district's superintendent job is unique since Wallace shares its superintendent with the Rutland Elementary School District. Rutland and Wallace school principals are not certified for a superintendent position so the replacement search has to begin outside the two schools.

"Rutland has said they would like to continue sharing a superintendent and I'm assuming we want to continue that practice," Carlson said.

Financially, the plan makes sense, said Carlson, but board member Joe Schmitt questioned whether the position's sharing aspect would make it "harder to sell."

Stone agreed with Carlson.

"It will definitely save money so I think we should continue sharing with Rutland."

The position will be advertised in newspapers and with an ad on the Illinois Association of School Administrators Web site.

"Someone who's qualified for the position but not actively looking might see our ad and submit his resume," Carlson said. ... "We want to make sure we advertise in places where qualified people will be looking."

As applications and information comes in, copies will be distributed to both Wallace and Rutland school boards for their review. An interview team will conduct all the initial appraisals and evaluations to narrow the number of qualified candidates.

"This will prevent board members from dealing with a lot of interviews, giving them the time to interview the really qualified candidates," Carlson said.

Another plan is to have the teaching staff choose an interview team representative for both the teaching and superintendent positions.

"With a team, you can conduct multi-level interview sessions; perhaps even go to the applicant's work place for some of them."

A small sample of some of the superintendent's job responsibilities include conducting informational financial aid and administrative information sessions, staff assignments, labor negotiations and contracts, monitoring revenues and expenditures, ensuring compliance with state and federal laws that also include regulations ranging from special education to school lunches, and managing the district's facilities and property.

"The interview process for your next superintendent is very important," Carlson said.