AUGUSTA — The state association that has hired Superintendent Cornelia Brown away from the city’s schools to become its next leader probably will help local officials find Brown’s replacement.

The Maine School Management Association is scheduled to make a presentation Wednesday to the Augusta Board of Education on how the association can help the school system search for its next superintendent.

The meeting starts with a closed-door session to discuss labor relations at 6 p.m. It is scheduled to return to open public session at 7 p.m., in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

The school system needs to find a new superintendent because Brown is leaving, effective Dec. 31, to become executive director of the Maine School Management Association.

Located in Augusta, the association is a statewide nonprofit federation that advocates for and supports local school boards and superintendents through the Maine School Boards Association and the Maine School Superintendents Association.

One of the association’s services is to help school boards search for superintendents. The association provides each member board a no-cost workshop on how to conduct a superintendent search.

It also offers, for a fee, various levels of other assistance in searching for a new superintendent, including help developing a search process, advertising and recruiting candidates, obtaining input from the staff and the community, and receiving applications and arranging interviews, according to the association’s website. Fees vary according to the level of services used.

Brown said she wasn’t sure whether Augusta had used the service before, but added that Augusta did not use the Maine School Management Association’s assistance when she was hired in 1999.

She noted that while the city’s schools had a personnel department then, now they use the city’s personnel department.

Sandra MacArthur, deputy executive director of Maine School Management Association, is expected to make the presentation to the Augusta Board of Education at their meeting Wednesday, according to Brown.

It will be the first public meeting of the full board since Brown announced her resignation, and first chance for board members to discuss how they will fill her position when she leaves.

Board member Deborah Towle said she thinks the board, before choosing Augusta’s next superintendent, should have a discussion with others such as administrators and staff to get their input.

Board members Jane Dennison and Larry Ringrose said board members also need to discuss what to do about the departure of Tina Meserve, curriculum coordinator, who also has announced she is leaving Augusta for a job elsewhere.

Board members Wednesday also are scheduled to consider several policy revisions, staff additions, resignations and retirements, and a request to allow Spanish students at Cony High School to travel to Puerto Rico in February 2013.

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