Here's what Chesterfield County would like to see in its next superintendent

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va.-- Chesterfield Public Schools has officially started the search for the district's next superintendent.

Earlier this year, the school division's current leader, Mervin Daugherty, announced he will be retiring from the position at the end of this month.

Tuesday morning, the school board held a work session and discussed the results of a survey of Chesterfield School staff and families.

That survey helped identify three key traits the district would like to see in its next superintendent: an experienced leader, a relationship builder and a transparent communicator.

School board members noted it is very important to them that the next superintendent has proven success in working in a diverse and multicultural educational environment.

And they also want the next leader to have experience in implementing a whole child approach to support social and emotional learning.

Right now, Chesterfield is one of the school districts in the state that’s seeing exponential growth, so School Board Chair Dot Heffron says that’s another area where they would like to see the district’s future leader succeed.

"We’re seeing more and more students come online, and we're projected to have some really tremendous growth in our student body," Heffron explained. "So we do need our next leader to understand how to manage that kind of growth and how to prioritize teaching and learning, as well as balancing that with facility needs."

Several candidates have already applied for the job, and the district hopes to have a candidate identified by September 1st.

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