Georgetown County School District releases timeline for superintendent search (2024)

GEORGETOWN— The plan for choosing Georgetown County School District’s next superintendent just became much clearer.

The board released a timeline for its superintendent search on May 21. District officials expect to hire the new superintendent by early October.

GCSD will be replacing Superintendent Keith Price, who is leaving to become superintendent-elect of Lexington One, Lexington County’s largest school district, beginning July 1. Price, who has led the Georgetown County district since 2020, will succeed Lexington One Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait.

Effective July 1, Deputy Superintendent Bethany Giles will begin serving as interim superintendent for GCSD. Giles, who was appointed to the post May 7, has 23 years of experience in public education, all with GCSD.

GCSD chose the South Carolina School Boards Association as its superintendent search firm on May 7. The district’s search for a superintendent will begin on June 1, which is also when an online survey will open on the district’s website for the public to share its thoughts on the district's next leader. The survey will be open until June 30.

The public can also attend meetings led by members of the SCSBA. During each hour-long meeting, the SCSBA will provide a brief overview of the search process and gather input on what characteristics, experiences and professional attributes the school board should look for in the recruitment, screening and selection of the district’s next superintendent.

The meetings with the SCSBA will be June 11 at Georgetown and Andrews high schools and June 12 at Carvers Bay and Waccamaw high schools. Meetings will begin at 6 p.m. in each school’s auditorium.

The SCSBA will compile the information received from the online survey and focus groups and report the results to the school board.

“I hope that with these input sessions that people come out and people share,” GCSD Board Vice Chair Lynne Ford said. “At other districts, we’ve heard that you could have, especially with the community focus groups, they’ve had as little as five people, and then other places they’ve had up to 40. I hope that in Georgetown County that we have a lot of interest in the superintendent search. This is your opportunity to come and share your qualification for what you would like to see in the school superintendent, so I think people should take full advantage of it.”

June 30 is the last day the district will be accepting applications for the vacancy. On July 11, the focus group and survey summary reports will be presented to the board, along with a presentation of the candidate pool from which the board will select semifinalists.

Semifinalist interviews will be held from Aug. 12-14, with the board hoping to have a pool of seven to nine candidates, and the finalists will be announced on Aug. 20.

Final interviews will be conducted Sept. 16-18.

“We’re inviting them to the district,” GCSD Board Chairman Bill Gaskins said. “We’ll invite them [and] give them a tour of the district. We will have a meet and greet that evening [Sept. 17] followed by a special-called board meeting."

This will be followed by the announcement of the new superintendent on either Oct. 1 or Oct. 8. The start date of the new superintendent is still to be determined.

With Giles serving as both interim superintendent and deputy superintendent, Gaskins said he will make a recommendation at the board’s June 4 meeting that she be able to hire a retired administrator part time to take on some of her responsibilities.