The St. Charles District 303 School Board has moved another step closer to hiring a new superintendent.

At Monday’s meeting, School Board President Jillian Barker said the board is in the final stages of the search process and is planning to take action and announce a new superintendent during a special board meeting at 5:30 p.m. April 18.

“We’ve concluded our interviews and so now we’re in that final process,” Barker said after the meeting. “We’re really excited to get to that next step and introduce a new superintendent to the community.”

St. Charles School Board members recently interviewed the two finalists for the position of school superintendent. Superintendent Jason Pearson has announced he will be leaving the district to become the superintendent of Northbrook School District 28 beginning July 1.

Executive search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates recommended six candidates to the board. Barker said the six candidates recommended to the board “were of very high caliber.”

“All of the candidates that applied were of good caliber,” Barker said.

As part of a process to determine what the community wanted to see in a new superintendent, the search firm met with focus groups, collected community survey responses and analyzed them. The firm talked to more than 100 stakeholders in 42 interviews, focus groups and forums.

In addition, 851 people responded to a community survey, including 463 parents and 268 teachers and certified staff members.

Pearson will replace Northbrook Superintendent Larry Hewitt, who has been in the post for the past 15 years and will retire June 30.

Pearson has served as District 303 superintendent since 2017 after joining the administrative team in 2010 as an assistant superintendent and then deputy superintendent in 2016. His contract was renewed in 2019 and runs through June 30.