IASB: Geneva D-304 superintendent contract expiration should trigger spring search

GENEVA – If Geneva District 304 Superintendent Kent Mutchler chooses to resign by the time his contract ends on June 30, 2023, the school board should begin a search next spring, according to the Illinois Association of School Boards Executive Search Department.

Board President Taylor Egan stated in an email that the board could not comment about an executive search at this time. Muchler has been superintendent since July 1, 2006 and has not commented on whether he has plans for retirement.

Tom Leahy, director of the Executive Search Department at the Illinois Association of School Boards, said Geneva school board members should start looking next spring.

“The sooner the better, but now is too soon for July 1 of 2023,” Leahy said. “A better plan would be to start in the spring of 2022 and then to have a posting of vacancy the summer of 2022 – by July or August.”

The board would need to advertise and take in applications, he said.

Leahy said if they engage with a search firm, the board could have a candidate chosen by the end of December 2022 or January 2023, for starting by July 1, 2023.

“We do the bulk in most searches of districts that employ firms, but there are three or four other private firms that do it as well,” Leahy said.

The previous school board began looking for a new superintendent as soon as former superintendent Michael Jacoby announced in January 2006 that he was leaving at the end of the school year.

The last time the board approved a five-year contract for Mutchler was Dec. 18, 2018, which ends June 30, 2023. The school board did not extend Mutchler’s current contract when it was amended in October 2019, leaving it as a four-year contract with the same expiration date.

The contract contains an extension clause, stating it “may be extended for one additional year at the end of any year” if all parties agree.

To date, the board has taken no action to extend Mutchler’s contract.