The Westside School district is on the hunt for a new superintendent. The current Superintendent, Dr. Blane McCann, has held the position for six years and will be retiring in July of 2019.

According to Megan Dunlap, Westside’s teacher for the visually impaired and a special education teacher at Loveland Elementary, she will miss Dr. McCann because he made regular appearances in all of the schools and always made an effort to talk to students.

“One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Blane McCann is that he had a presence within our school, so you would see him in our elementary schools and the middle school and the high school,” Dunlap said. “I have worked in another [school] district and that wasn’t something where you would see the superintendent out in the schools.”

As the board continues with their search, they said they are hoping to find someone who is the best fit for Westside.

“We are looking for somebody who is a strong supporter of education, who is innovative, who understands the tradition of Westside, but isn’t afraid to progress Westside or help us move into the future,” Dana Blakely, president of the Westside school board, said.

Aside from all of the great things happening in Westside, there are also many challenges that our superintendent will have to face.

“Clearly we have ongoing issues and budget challenges, how to work on increasing our revenue and reducing our expenses, and also how to maintain and improve the great things we have about Westside; like our commitment to technology and the modular scheduling, while embracing the changing student body,” Blakely said.

Some ways the community can get involved with the search is by filling out a survey that was sent out last Wednesday, September 5th, to help the board determine the qualities the community of Westside wants the future superintendent to have. The board will also be forming committees to help interview the superintendent and work with the superintendent search firm.

“We’ll be looking for input from various people in the community,” Blakely said.  “Teachers, students, administration, parents, and community stakeholders to help us to interview and give us input on our potential candidates.”