Final days: Prince William starts search for new county schools superintendent

After 15 years, Dr. Steven L. Walts’ time as Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent is drawing to a close. That’s more evident now more than ever as the county School Board tonight will hold its first meeting to discuss replacing Walts, who plans to leave July 1, 2021.

At the moment, Walts is working out the details of sending students back to in-person learning in school buildings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. After pressure from the School Board, kindergarten students will return to in-person learning in a hybrid model on November 10, with half of the school division’s kindergartners coming on alternating days. Second and third-grade students will return to school buildings in January, and the remainder of the students phased back in early February.

It’s been a tough year for Walts when in May he suspended his Twitter account after former School Board Chairman At-large Ryan Sawyers, and county resident Guy Morgan alleged the superintendent was using his social media account to exchange private, inappropriate comminution with students via Twitter’s private direct message feature.

Following a lawsuit filed by Sawyers demanding those private messages be made public, Prince William Circuit Judge Kimberly A. Irving on October 2 ruled that the private messages were “clearly exempted” from mandatory disclosure under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act because they were communications of the chief executive officer of the School Board, said school division spokeswoman Diana Gulotta.

Over time, Walts has become the highest-paid public school superintendent in Virginia and one of the most highly-paid in the U.S. with a salary of $430,752 salary with benefits.

The full press release from the school division about the search for Walls replacement is below.

In anticipation of the July 1, 2021, retirement of Superintendent Steven Walts, the Prince William County School Board will formally initiate its search for a new superintendent by receiving a presentation from Dr. Kevin Castner and Dr. E. Wayne Harris of BWP and Associates (www.BWPassociates.com), a national search firm which specializes in assisting boards that are seeking superintendents. BPW will outline the search process and anticipated timeline, including multiple opportunities for community involvement in that process, during a work session of the School Board to be held at the Kelly Leadership Center at 6 p.m. on October 28.

“Community engagement is a very important part of this process,” said Dr. Babur Lateef, School Board Chairman at Large.

According to BWP, a critical first step is to identify the characteristics the Board will be looking for in a new superintendent. The objectives of the public engagement process are three-fold:

• To learn the strengths, needs, and issues of our school system so we can better recruit a slate of candidates to meet our needs,
• To be able to describe the Division’s strengths, needs and issues to the recruited candidates, and
• To engage in the process in such a way that will build community understanding and support for the search.

“There is no more important decision we will make than selecting the right superintendent for our school district,” continued Dr. Lateef. “We are requesting assistance by inviting members of both the Prince William County school community and members of the broader Prince William community to participate in stakeholder meetings and open community forums in an organized series of meetings.”

There will be community forums and interviews with school system staff and community members during the upcoming weeks. Details and specific dates will follow.

Additionally, a community survey, Finding a Leader for Our Future, has been created and will be available at all meetings and in the schools. This survey will also be available on the school system web site at www.pwcs.edu in the near future.

Results of the information received from the Community Engagement process will be presented to the Board and the public, along with a draft profile of the leadership characteristics for the next superintendent, by BWP at an upcoming meeting of the Board.

Patrons may watch the School Board meeting at pwcstv.com and clicking on the “Watch Live” link, or by watching Comcast Channel 18 or Verizon FIOS Channel 36.