Butler Tech Treasurer Ed Pokora will begin the search for a new superintendent and CEO this week by sending out requests for proposals to national recruiting firms.

Pokora said he will send the requests to eight firms that have some experience in searches for education executives.

“The board has expressed an interest in seeing what kinds of proposals are out there,” he said. “Whether or not all eight firms will submit proposals depends on whether they are interested or how much they already have to do.”

Pokora said he will ask for two proposals from interested firms, one technical and one financial.

The technical proposal would include a work plan describing how the firm would identify prospective candidates and how the firm would provide a meaningful way to generate and receive public input in the evaluation of final candidates.

The financial proposal would name a maximum fixed price and payment terms.

“We don’t always want the cheapest,” Pokora said. “We want the best. Cost is a consideration, but not the only consideration.

“The proposal must include a warranty that should the new superintendent resign or be released for cause within the first 12 months, we get a do-over,” Pokora said.

Board President Gregory Tyus, who represents the Middletown City School District on the Board, said he has been through searches with a similar warranty and the search firms have all agreed to it.

Tyus will lead a committee to evaluate the proposals. The committee also includes: Ray Murray of Lakota Local Schools; Sue Price of New Miami Local Schools; and Jim Detzel of Northwest Local Schools.

Butler Tech’s previous superintendent, Bret Smith, resigned for personal reasons at the end of 2012, a little more than a week after the board voted 6-5 to renew his contract through July, 2015. That vote reversed a previous decision made in August, two months after an employee survey revealed a “crisis of confidence” in leadership, in which the board voted against renewing Smith’s contract for three years.

Smith had served as superintendent of the career-technical school district since July 1, 2010. His ending salary was $126,250.

The board named Bill Smith, assistant director of curriculum, to be interim superintendent until it finds a replacement.