The Olathe Public School District was forced to find a new superintendent after the previous one, Marlin Berry, resigned last spring to accept a position in Arkansas.

It was announced Dec. 14 that the finalist John Allison has been selected for the job. Allison is currently the superintendent for Wichita schools.

The national organization Ray and Associates, Inc. was chosen to help find someone for the job as they are responsible for searching for people in educational leadership.

According to Amy Martin, Board of Education member, Ray and Associates helped with a lot of the process of finding a new superintendent.

In order to help the search process, Ray and Associates asked students, staff, parents, and the community as a whole about their preferences in qualities of a good superintendent.

An online survey was conducted to collect the people’s opinions on what leadership qualities the new superintendent should have.

The top qualities in a leader that people wanted, as found by the survey, included qualities such as high confidence, high standards of integrity, good people skills, the ability to inspire trust, high optimism, and being strong communicator.

“They also reached out to their network of superintendents across the country to make sure that we are reaching as many qualified candidates as possible,” Martin said.

Rick Schier, Board of Education president, said that “[they] had many candidates apply for the position across from the United States.”

The nationwide search for this new superintendent has been completed within one year of the previous superintendent’s resignation.

After Berry resigned, Patricia All, Olathe’s former superintendent before Berry, was hired as a placeholder for one year.