DOWAGIAC — Despite a disappointing turnout at a community meeting Wednesday evening, Dowagiac Union Schools is still seeking community input on what they would like to see in a new superintendent.

Wednesday evening, the Michigan Association of School Boards, the firm performing the candidate search for the district’s new superintendent following the announcement of current superintendent Paul Hartsig’s resignation, hosted a community meeting at Dowagiac Middle School. The purpose of the meeting was to collect input from community members and parents of students about the qualities they would like to see in a potential superintendent.

Jay Bennett, assistant director of executive search services for MASB, led the meeting, but did not meet with any community members as none attended, likely due to favorable weather and busy schedules, he said. Though he said that he was not discouraged by the lack of attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, Bennett did say he would ask Dowagiac residents to share their opinions about the superintendent search at the next community meeting at 6 p.m. May 2 at Dowagiac Middle School or online via the survey available at dowagiacschools.org.

“The online survey is out there, and we are doing the community meetings as well,” Bennett said. “What we are doing is collecting [community members’] thoughts about what they want in a superintendent.”

Bennett said that the information collected would be presented to the board of education to create selection criteria for potential candidates.

“That criteria says to candidates applying to the job, ‘this is what the board, the community is looking for in the next superintendent,’” he said.

Having worked on many superintendent searches in the past, Bennett said the amount of community input in the process from any given school district varies but that he would encourage community members to make their voices heard. He said that the more input a school board has during the process, the better chance they have of finding a candidate that will best fit the needs of the community.

“The more information the board has, the easier it is for them to make a decision,” Bennett said. “Every little piece helps.”