Vermilion Parish School Superintendent plans to retire in 2013; search about to begin

The news did not surprise Vermilion Parish School Board members when they saw Randy Schexnayder’s name on the personnel list under retirement at Monday’s meeting.

The scheduled retirement time for Schexnayder, who is from Kaplan, is in the summer of 2013.

Schexnayder, who is 55 years old, will have 36 years in education in Vermilion Parish in 2013.

“I am announcing early so I can give the board time to find my replacement,” Schexnayder

He has been the superintendent for the last six years. Prior to that, he was the assistant superintendent for four.

With more than a year before he retires, the school board is not waiting long to find his replacement. Tentatively, next month, the school board will begin advertising in the Abbeville Meridional and in the Lafayette Advertiser Newspaper over a four-week period.

After a four-week search, the school board members will look over the applications and narrow the list down to the top five or six.

School Board President Charles Campbell is no stranger when it comes to searching for a superintendent as a board member. “We will look at all of the applications and narrow them down by seeing who is qualified and who is not,” said Campbell, who had no solid date as to when the superintendent in training will be hired. The new superintendent will be hired in March or April and the newly hired superintendent will train under Schexnayder through 2012.

Schexnayder said by training under the present superintendent, it makes the transition easier when it comes to taking over full-time. He said this process was done when Joey Hebert took over for Dan Dartez. Schexnayder did not have the luxury of being trained under the present superintendent because he was the assistant superintendent for four years, which he said, made the transition easier.

This time around, neither of the two assistant superintendents is expected to apply for the position.