Hiring a state superintendent of Hawaii’s public schools is taking about two months longer than originally planned. Board of Education Chairwoman Catherine Payne says the extra time is necessary to work with a search firm that will advertise nationally for the job and to minimize disruption to the schools.

Instead of having a superintendent hired by March, the deadline set by the board in 2021, the new deadline is May, Payne wrote in an update to the BOE.

Keith Hayashi, former Waipahu High School principal, has been acting as interim superintendent since Aug. 1. The Department of Education has been without a permanent superintendent since the July resignation of Christina Kishimoto, who was hired in August 2017 with an annual salary of $240,000.

The statewide public school system has 171,600 students and 40,000 full- and part-time employees on 257 campuses.

Some educators have said they’re concerned the lack of a permanent leader for what will be nearly a year is hobbling the public schools as they deal with unprecedented challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused student learning loss and widespread absences of teachers and students, and the Red Hill water contamination crisis.

The updated timeline for hiring the next superintendent provided in Payne’s report aims to publish a job announcement in March after candidate qualifications and “desired outcomes” for the state education system and the superintendent are established.

Candidates would be interviewed in April, with a new superintendent selected in May.

Payne is chairwoman of the superintendent search committee, which includes BOE members Kaimana Barcarse, Lynn Fallin and Kili Namau‘u.

In a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Payne said the search “is taking the time we planned with both awareness of procurement and contracting with respect to acquiring a search firm, and with the intention of causing the least middle-of-the-year disruption to a system already pretty frayed.”

She added that it takes time for every step of the search process to move as required through a permitted interaction group before it is approved by the full board within its existing meeting schedule. Adding special BOE meetings is rare because it’s difficult to get a quorum when most members of the volunteer school board have full-time jobs, she said.

An advisory group of 14 community members is working with the search committee. The stakeholders represent parents and educators; nonprofit groups; Hawaiian, charter, early, adult and higher education; special education; English learners; military; nonprofits; and business.

The school board has accepted $150,000 in grant funds from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and The Learning Coalition to use for services from the National Association of State Boards of Education, including help with the search and selection of a new superintendent.

Payne said the association will contract a local firm to help with publicizing and vetting in a national search.

The search committee will provide a recommended job description at the BOE’s Feb. 17 meeting. That would put into motion a vote at its March 3 meeting. Once the job description is approved, the position will be advertised.