The Riverside Brookfield High School Township District 208 Board of Education is expected to determine whether they will continue a superintendent search or focus on finding a new principal this week.

The board will hold a planning meeting with its consulting firm Hazzard Young and Attea and Associates Ltd. Thursday, Oct. 29.

At a meeting Oct. 13, the firm recommended the School Board hire a new principal this year and begin the superintendent search next year. HYA also recommended that when hired, the superintendent function as a part-time position.

“I think it can be done (part time),” said Dave Bonnette, the current interim superintendent at RB.

“We would need to very clearly delineate the role and responsibilities of this office versus other administrators in the district.”

School Board President James Marciniak said having a part-time superintendent is something the board has discussed before.

“It’s something we’re still considering, and it has to do with the scope of duties of a superintendent of a one-building school district and controlling costs for our administrative team,” Marciniak said.

Bonnette said he would be willing to stay on another year.

“I told them at the outset that if the superintendent search didn’t result in a superintendent that the board was fully behind, I’d extend my time here, but it wasn’t something I was exactly lobbying for,” Bonnette said.

A representative from HYA deferred comment to the District 208 School Board.

Marciniak said Oct. 21 that while no definite decision has been made, the School Board is generally in favor of the recommendations.

“Where we have a leadership void right now is in the principal position,” Marciniak said. “When Jack Baldermann was here, he was considered more of a principal than a superintendent. Jack’s forte was leadership in the building and the instructional aspect of what was going on at RB — that was where his passion seemed to lay. He was a skillful principal figure but not so much as a superintendent.”

In the HYA report, parents and students both mentioned the problems with having a dual superintendent and principal figure, instead of one person filling each role.

Marciniak said the current principal, Tim Scanlon, is doing a fine job, but that, too, is an interim position.

“We need to establish a principal leader,” Marciniak said. “We are a much more attractive situation for a principal than a superintendent right now. We are trying to rebuild our processes and procedures at an effective level and come together as a board.

“We have some work to do at the district level before we are an attractive target for a superintendent, but we’re attractive for a principal because we have great things going on at the school right now.”

Marciniak said the district needs to establish sound procedures for what goes on in the district office for parents, community and students.

“We as a board also need to demonstrate that we have a common vision and goals,” he said.