Kirby Hired As New OHS Principal
Jeff Kirby (submitted photo)
According to an Oskaloosa School Board Announcement, Mr. Jeff Kirby has been hired as the new OHS Principal.
“The Oskaloosa Community School District is excited to announce that Mr. Jeff Kirby has been hired to serve as the next Oskaloosa High School Principal. Mr. Kirby will begin his duties as OHS principal on July 1, 2021.”
“We had a large pool of high-quality candidates to choose from and Mr. Kirby’s qualifications, experiences, and personality brought him to the top of the selection process. Parents, teachers, students, administrators, and Board members served on the selection committee and were enthusiastic regarding the selection of Mr. Kirby. I am very excited to have Mr. Kirby join as a member of our Osky team! He will bring a variety of skills and experiences to Oskaloosa and help us continue on our journey to excellence.” -Mrs. Wright, OCSD Superintendent.
“I began my career in education in 1995 in Sibley-Ocheyedan, and the next year moved to Sigourney, where I spent the next 15 years working as a teacher and an Elementary and JH/High School principal. In Sigourney, I led the implementation of one of the first one-to-one schools in Iowa. I also implemented a Charter School and a Career Academy to provide additional programming for the Sigourney high school students.”
“In 2012, I moved to Grinnell-Newburg CSD and became the 3rd/4th-grade principal at Davis Elementary and served as the district’s Director of Technology and Special Education. During my time serving as the principal at Davis Elementary, the school received the Iowa Department of Education’s Breaking Barriers Award and the National Blue Ribbon School Award.”
Oskaloosa News asked Wright about the hiring process for a new principal, and the hiring criteria matrix that was developed for the process.
Wright, along with the District’s human resources personnel, came up with the criteria, which included the following;
*Experienced with high school curriculum and instruction
*Experience with PBS or Positive Behavior Intervention
*Solid understanding of best practice in relation to student discipline and social emotional learning in regard to high school students
*Able to lead Professional Learning Communities, multi-tiered systems of support, and standards referenced teaching and learning.
*Wanted a collaborative leadership style with solid communication and interpersonal skills.
*Student, staff, community, parents, and building relationships
Once that matrix was in place, twelve candidates that met, or closely met, those criteria were invited to a prescreening interview.
After that initial round of interviews, the field was narrowed down to four candidates, and then the background checks began.
“With those background checks, I call their references, and then I asked those references a set of questions. One of the questions is, who else should I talk to regarding this candidate,” explained Wright.
“So with each of those four candidates, I called approximately ten different people on each one of them,” Wright explained. “I narrowed it down to two individuals to bring in for the first round of interviews.”
Those two candidates then go through a rigorous process of meetings, beginning with the District Advisory Committee (DAC). That committee involves parents from all age groups, not just the high school. The DAC also includes a couple of Oskaloosa School Board members.
The candidates then do interview sessions with a group of teachers from the high school and a group of students from the high school. Each group had approximately 15 individuals. An interview was then held with the administrative team, and eventually with Wright herself, which included a couple of school board members.
The different interview groups have a team leader, and those leaders consolidate the pros and cons, concerns, and any follow-up that they would want to know about the candidate.
In this case, the groups sent back that there was a top candidate, and it was Mr. Kirby.
“I am 100% confident in Mr. Kirby’s ability to lead our high school to the next level,” says Wright. “I believe that everyone that served on the committee would agree with me that he is an excellent choice for our high school. Oskaloosa is extremely lucky to have him joining our team, joining our facility, join us in Oskaloosa.”
“He’s got some big shoes to fill with Mr. Bandy. We’re definitely going to miss Mr. Bandy, but I believe Mr. Kirby is an excellent choice for us here,” Wright said in closing.
