NEWS RELEASE- The Eau Claire Area School District is pleased to announce the two finalist candidates that the School Board will be considering for the position of Superintendent of the Eau Claire Area School District. The finalist candidates are Dr. Mary Ann Hardebeck and Dr. Mark Mitrovich.

Dr. Mary Ann Hardebeck

Dr. Mary Ann Hardebeck is an Assistant Superintendent in the Loudoun County Schools in Leesburg, VA, a district of 66,000 students. In her present position she is responsible for personnel for 12,000 employees and is a member of the Superintendent’s senior staff. Previously as Director of High School Education, she had responsibility for ten high schools.

Dr. Hardebeck also served as the Principal of Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC, and began her career as a reading and English teacher. Dr. Hardebeck has a BS degree in Education from Marshall University in WVA, a master’s in reading from Syracruse University and a doctorate from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Mark Mitrovich

Dr. Mark Mitrovitch has served the past three years as the Superintendent in Naperville, IL, which has a student population of 17,800 students.

Dr. Mitrovich has worked to develop and implement an actionable 5-year strategic plan in Naperville and undertook the redistricting of all the schools in the district. He helped create a new teacher compensation plan focused away from traditional models and moving toward a career ladder approach.

Mark has served as the Chief Academic Officer of the San Diego School District, was founder and CEO of EdGate.com and previously served as a Superintendent in the state of Washington.

Mark has a BA degree in Speech and English from the University of Washington and a doctorate from the University of Santa Barbara.

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The Eau Claire Area School District retained the services of School Exec Connect, a Midwest regional education executive search group, to assist with the Superintendent search. Lead consultants are Dr. Phil Sobocinski and Dr. Charles Kyte. The search began in late April as multiple focus groups of Eau Claire citizens and school employees met to identify the future goals, strengths and challenges of the district. An on-line survey was also conducted with over 500 citizens providing feedback.

From the focus groups a profile was developed of what the district most desired as traits of a future superintendent. 37 candidates applied for the position with candidates applying from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, Washington DC and Texas.

Six candidates were invited in for initial interviews by the School Board this past week. The two finalists will meet with community and staff members in full day interviews on Monday and Tuesday, July 9 and 10. On each day there will be an open community forum from 7:00-8:30 at Memorial High School in the Little Theater.

Community citizens are encouraged to attend the open forums and then provide the Board with their feedback on what they thought of each candidate. This will be important information for the Board as they meet on July 11th to make a final decision about offering a contract to one of the candidates.

It is expected that the new Superintendent will assume duties late this summer. In the interim, Dr. Terry Sheridan, former ECASD Assistant Superintendent, is serving as Interim Superintendent.

For more information, citizens are encouraged to contact the Superintendent’s Office of the Eau Claire Area School District.

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EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - The Eau Claire Area School District is nearing the next step in its search for a new superintendent.

The district says it's interviewing candidates Thursday and expects to have narrowed the field down to two finalists by Friday. It's searching for the replacement of Dr. Ron Heilmann who retired this year after 4 years as superintendent.

Dr. Terry Sheridan is serving as interim superintendent until a replacement is found.