Dr. Karen Couch to Serve as Next Superintendent of Kent County Public Schools

The Board of Education of Kent County, Maryland is pleased to announce that the next superintendent of Kent County Public Schools (KCPS) will be Dr. Karen A. Couch. Dr. Couch, currently completing her 12th year as superintendent of the Edgewood-Moriarty School District in New Mexico, has received numerous educational leadership awards throughout her career, including New Mexico Superintendent of the Year for 2010, and New Mexico Personnel Administrator of the Year. During her tenure as an elementary principal in Alamogordo, her school received a New Mexico Blue Ribbon School Award. This year, her 3,200-student Edgewood-Moriarty School District is ranked fourth among New Mexico’s large school districts by Albuquerque Business First, New Mexico’s business newspaper.

 Dr. Couch will assume her new position as KCPS superintendent on July 1, 2013. She will serve a four- year, renewable term. Her selection caps a months- long search that began in December 2012, when Dr. A. Barbara Wheeler, who is in the final year of her four-year term as KCPS Superintendent after serving as interim superintendent for a year, decided not to seek another term. The KCPS Board of Education turned for assistance with the search to the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE), and designated Board member Jeff Reed as the primary search liaison for the Board.

Working with Mr. Reed and the other Board members, MABE’s consultants designed a process that began with five community forums in January to get input from students, parents, teachers and other school system employees, business leaders, and other community members about the fundamental characteristics sought in a superintendent, and the critical challenges and opportunities facing Kent County and its school system. Feedback from these community forums guided the Board in developing a job description and position announcement. The search resulted in 19 candidates. A review by the five Board of Education members reduced this to seven quarterfinalists. Face-to-face interviews in April resulted in the list being winnowed to five semifinalists; another round of interviews yielded three finalists.

In mid-May each finalist visited Kent County for a daylong series of meetings with focus groups representing a broad range of stakeholders. The Board considered feedback from all the focus groups in making its decision. “We greatly appreciate the time and dedication of so many people in our community,” said A. Bryan Williams, president of the Kent County Board of Education, “who came together to participate in this process. As a board it was important to all five of us to listen carefully to what the members of our community wanted to say, what they believe about the future of our school system, and what they think it takes to lead our schools.” At the end of the process, Dr. Couch emerged as the Board’s consensus choice.