A clearer picture is forming of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s next superintendent.

The school board is interviewing candidates to succeed Outgoing Superintendent Jim Chadwellwhose last day is Jan. 31, 2025. Trustees plan to have a single finalist for the position starting in November and no later than January, school board President Marilyn Tolbert said during an Oct. 28 meeting.

The search has intensified in recent weeks. In October, administrators met seven times for special meetings about the superintendent search.

The school board is looking for a candidate who meets the needs of the community as described in a survey. Trustee Third Party Search FirmThompson & Horton, conducted the online survey in early October.

Residents said key priorities for the next leader of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD include:

• Ability to manage a high growth school district.
• Student-centered and advocate for teachers and public education.
• Someone who will communicate and interact with the community by being transparent, visible and accessible.
• Experience in education, including as a teacher and administrator.
• Have a sense of fiscal responsibility, know how to manage a budget and understand school finances.
• Set high expectations through accountability while doing so with integrity, fairness, inclusion and compassion.

Mike Moses, the former Texas commissioner of education and former Dallas ISD superintendent who is leading the district’s search, detailed to members in early October the district’s challenges and strengths gleaned through several focus group interviews.

Residents appointed to focus groups by the school board told Thompson & Horton that student discipline, attacks on teachers and public education, and static funding of state schools are among Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s challenges, Moses said.

Another challenge that community members highlighted to Moses for the next superintendent is the need to balance the construction of new buildings and the maintenance of existing ones between the east and west sides of the school district.

“They appreciated the bond issues, they appreciated the efforts, but still some people perceive some challenges there,” Moses said.

David Thompson, a partner at Thompson & Horton who is also leading the superintendent search, said residents were concerned about potential growth disparities between the north and south sides of the district, which extends from parts of northwest Fort Worth and includes Saginaw, Blue Mound and swaths of unincorporated Tarrant County.

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD cannot sustain its growth on its own and needs to work with several cities and Tarrant County government to ensure infrastructure is in place to support growing schools, Thompson said.

“That was recognized as a challenge that a new superintendent will have to come prepared and then work with many other local organizations to address,” he said.

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is working on the final projects of its 2017 $524.7 million bond and the first parts of its $561.1 million bonus starting in 2023.

Residents cited Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s small community feel along with its growth potential as a strength, Thompson said.

“People extended that to say that it means people still know each other. There are still those interpersonal connections that give it a smaller community feel even when you’ve dealt with the growth,” Thompson said.

Residents also saw the district’s strong, good governance, from the school board and superintendent to teachers, as a major strength, the attorney said.

“The reason I want to bring attention to this is because we don’t always hear that,” Thompson said.

Jacob Sánchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected] either @_jacob_sanchez. At Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and our financial sponsors. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared in Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.