Which school board should get to replace Devono?

We’re not sure how to correctly gauge the significance of Frank Devono’s retirement, yet.
Devono, Monongalia County Schools superintendent, recently announced that June 30 will be his last day at his desk.
Clearly, there is no confusion here about how important his role is in our school district as well as in our community.
Nor are there any doubts about what his leadership has meant to the success of our schools and our children since 2005.
What we are uncertain of, though, is the apparent intent of our Board of Education (BOE) to find and appoint his replacement by June 1.
The reason we question that resolve at all is that two of the five current board members will also be retiring June 30.
And still another could potentially no longer be a member of the board then.
Two BOE members, Barbara Parsons and Clarence Harvey, are not seeking re-election in the May 8 primary.
And Mike Kelly, an incumbent, is seeking another term on the board on a crowded ballot.
At its March 20 meeting, the school board appeared undecided on whether to launch a regional or a national search for Devono’s replacement.
However, none of its members questioned if it might not be better to leave the actual choice of a new superintendent up to the new BOE.
On the one hand, the timing of Devono’s announcement makes it a good idea to wait for the new school board to be seated.
That doesn’t mean the current board should not initiate a search or even narrow the list of candidates to a certain count.
But it is the new board that will be working hand in hand with the new superintendent well into the future.
On the other hand, maybe it’s better to encourage these five veteran school board members to make this decision.
After all, their experience and knowledge in what to look for in a new superintendent might make all the difference.
They are a known quantity from their work on the board, in the school district and in the community for decades.
We welcome our readers’ opinion about this matter in short letters to the editor.
In the coming months, our newspaper will certainly have more to say about Devono.
But for now, who should determine his replacement before the start of a new school year puzzles us.
Unlike the squabble over who got to replace a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 2016, politics has no place here.
Perhaps when one puts principles before politics, a lot of decisions are not that tough to make.