Turnout was light during an open meeting  to discuss needs and wants of the new Douglas Unified School District superintendent during part of an all-day fact-finding trip by Search Solutions.

The group was employed by the district to help find the next superintendent. The group  is headed by Joann Mortensen and Joanne Hilde, who is heading up the Douglas search.

During the meeting and later at the board meeting,  Search Solutions discussed pay range, and the board approved a hike to $105,000 to $115,000.

During  the all-day session, Search Solutions maintenance, transportation, food service, administration, the Early Learning Center along with spending an hour at each district school.

Only six showed up for the open meeting, but Search Solutions said that the light turnout was not that unusual. They had very few show up for a similar meeting in Willcox the night before.

In taking information from the various individuals from the district, Search Solutions is looking for those areas or traits that overlap among the interviews with different sectors of the school.

During the one-hour meeting with the public, five audience members had a current or previous connection with the school district, and stressed the need for:

• Good communication with the public.

• Teaching experience, preferably at least five years plus some administrative experience.

• Respecting and honoring the commitment of the staff at DUSD.

• Strong people skills

• Addressing the needs of staff morale

Some of the comments focused on having the new superintendent be culturally competent, understanding the students and families they deal with.

Another part of the discussion swung to the public wanting to play a stronger role in the decision making process.

Hilde said that while they will be searching for a community committee to help go through and narrow the applications given to the board. The board is the final decision, it is ultimately their choice.

Search Solutions hopes to have 30 applicants for the position, even though there is a lot of competition already for the position in other school districts throughout the county. A total of four districts in the county already will be looking for new superintendents.

The group hopes to present a final list of applicants to the board as early as late February.

Following the meeting, Search Solutions met with the school board to go over their findings.

In other action, the board:

• Approved a donation of $1,500 for Douglas High School from the Class of 1957 for scholarships.

• Approved the hiring of DHS Security Monitors Katie Clemente and Livia Lopez, at a rate of $8.70 per hour.

• Approved our-of-state travel for administrators from four underperforming schools to attend Technology, Reading and Learning Diversity Conference in San Francisco; and Rob Doctor to attend the DECA 2007 Western Region Leadership Conference in Seattle.