Community meets first Charleston Co. School District superintendent finalist

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Charleston County School District Board of Trustees has narrowed their pool of superintendent candidates down to three finalists.

Their next step is allowing the community to meet and ask questions with each finalist. At the first of three meet and greets Thursday night, the community got the opportunity to meet Dr. Eric Gallien, a superintendent from Racine, Wisconsin.

The Chairwoman of the Charleston County School District’s Board of Trustees, Pam McKinney, said community input has guided their superintendent search from the start.

“It is the community that a superintendent will work for. It is the community of children that we’re here to educate,” McKinney said.

She said the district took community and board input and created the profile of an ideal superintendent candidate for the district. Now, the district is inviting the final three candidates for “A Day in the District.”

McKinney said the day includes the candidate speaking to the board, touring schools, and answering questions from a focus group.

The almost two-hour focus group was made up of people selected from each of the district’s board members, McKinney said.

From there, the community is invited to meet and ask questions to each candidate.

Nathalie Bennett, the district’s 2022 teacher of the year, said although their conversation was brief, the superintendent candidate shared interesting ideas about using networking to hear all the teacher’s voices.

“I really hope that whatever superintendent we bring in understands that teachers have to be prioritized and listen to what our teachers need throughout the district,” Bennett said.

Another community member, Arthur Lawrence, said he asked Gallien what he would do in his first 100 days as superintendent.

“His first thing he would do, he’s going to have public input to find out exactly what’s going on in the district, then he’ll go from there,” Lawrence said.

This is the first of three ‘meet and Greets’ the district is hosting. The community will get the chance to meet Dr. Charles McNulty on Wednesday. The district said they’re still in the process of confirming a visit for the third finalist.

More information on the visits can be found here.

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