Minneapolis school board Chair Sharon El-Amin said a vote on a contract extension for interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox will likely come in March. (Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Weeks after the Minneapolis school board effectively paused the search for a permanent superintendent, some members are still pushing back — asking to see a candidate pool before moving to extend the contract for interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox.

Board Chair Sharon El-Amin said the vote on the contract extension will likely come at the board's March meeting.

The new leader will be tasked with navigating difficult decisions while working to rebuild trust and draw families back to the city's schools. The last few years have been tumultuous for Minneapolis Public Schools, marked by the pandemic, a teacher strike, declining enrollment and financial difficulties. Barring significant cuts or bumps in revenue, district finances are on track to dip into the red in 2025, according to staff projections.

Cox has said she would stay in her role for another year and wrote in a statement to the Star Tribune: "I am ready and willing to serve in whichever capacity I am needed — as interim superintendent, in my former position, or in any other way. As the school board continues its search process for a permanent leader, I remain focused on my goals of listening, learning, honoring commitments, rebuilding trust, and creating the conditions to set up the next superintendent for success."

The school board appointed Cox, an associate superintendent, to the interim role in May, following the departure of Superintendent Ed Graff. At the time, the board outlined a plan to gather community input and hire a permanent replacement by July 1.

But a majority of the board turned over in the November election, and sessions to gather community input didn't start until January.

Though a superintendent search process and timeline looks different for each district, Shari Becker, chair of the National Affiliation of Superintendent Searchers, said starting a search process this late into the school year may limit the candidate pool.

"As it gets later for that application deadline, you're going to have fewer people apply for a position because they've already committed to their district," Becker said.

Still, board members Lori Norvell, Collin Beachy and Fathia Feerayarre said they'd like to know who is interested in the role now.

"I don't know how we extend that contract not knowing what that landscape looks like of potential candidates," Norvell said. Both Norvell and Beachy said they don't oppose Cox's leadership, but they want to follow the process and timeline outlined by the previous board.

"If we give another year to the current [interim] superintendent, we probably miss a lot of great leaders," Feerayarre said. "I can't do that because I want to see change now."

Greta Callahan, teacher chapter president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said she enjoys working with Cox, but she's frustrated by the board's new superintendent search timeline.

"They were aware of that when they ran," she said. "We need someone in this district to jump in now, someone who is looking at the long-term."

Board Member Ira Jourdain said at a previous board meeting that it might be difficult to find a permanent superintendent willing to come in and immediately make difficult decisions like closing schools.

But keeping Cox in the role to "be the face of shutting down schools," Callahan said, "isn't in the best interest of the community."

El-Amin and Board Member Sonya Emerick said the board needs to agree on priorities for the new leader before beginning a search — and it hasn't had much time to discuss that since five of the nine members started their roles in January.

"Before we bring anyone in, we want to make sure we can find some alignment to say what it is we are looking for and to show community that we heard from them," El-Amin said. "[Hiring a superintendent] is our main job and we don't get to screw it up."

Tuesday's meeting also included a presentation about the findings from community input sessions and a survey that asked parents, staff and residents what they want to be the focus of the next superintendent. Less than 5% of families in the district completed the survey, which garnered about 2,800 responses.

El-Amin called the numbers "very alarming," saying they suggest the board needs to agree on how best to hear from the community and how to find a superintendent the community can support. Emerick and several other board members agreed, saying they need to define what effective community input looks like before outsourcing that task.

A successful superintendent search includes efforts to hear from as many community groups as possible, said Becker of the national superintendent searchers group.

"Robust community engagement does take time," she said. "So if [board members] have a good working relationship with someone already, it's not always a bad thing to keep that in place rather than rushing it."