Morrisville Hiring New Schools Superintendent

MORRISVILLE, PA —The Morrisville School District has named a new school superintendent.

The school board is expected to formalize an employment agreement with Andrew J. Doster to serve as the Morrisville School District's next superintendent at its April 24 meeting.

Since 2007, Doster has served as a public school administrator, most recently as the director of elementary education for the Easton Area School District in Northampton County.

As director, he supervised the district's seven elementary schools in all key aspects of the student experience and day-to-day operations.

Doster also served in multiple other capacities at Easton including, but not limited to supervision of administration, professional development design and implementation, curriculum revision, and program selection.

Before joining Easton, Doster served as a Junior/Senior High School Principal (grades 7-12), an Intermediate Principal (grades 3-6), Middle School Principal (grades 6-8), and Elementary School Principal (grades K-5), in three other Pennsylvania school districts.

The administrative experiences were in a combination of rural and suburban geographic areas.

Previous to his administrative career, Doster was a sixth-grade teacher for all content areas
and an eighth-grade reading teacher.

Morrisville School Board President Damon Miller said offered that Dr. Doster’s understanding of the elementary, middle, high school, and central office environment “strengthens his ability to understand effective learning environments, as well as the unique needs of the Morrisville School District from a K-12 perspective.”

"He is a leader that fits the needs of the Morrisville community putting students first while engaging the community as a whole,” Miller said.

"I am honored and excited to become a part of the School District of Borough of Morrisville as
their next Superintendent of Schools," Doster said. "I have always been committed to creating safe, dynamic learning environments where everyone may be successful. I am looking forward to bringing that mindset to the role of lead learner, as I look to support our students, families, faculty, staff, and administration in continuing to create great experiences at Morrisville.”

The school district and school board will host a community forum at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 29, for the public to meet Doster.

The forum will be held in the Middle/High School auditorium, located at 550 W. Palmer Ave. Student performances will kick off the event.

“People and relationships come first," Doster said. "Therefore, I am looking forward to meeting and connecting with everyone as I begin our time together."

The forum will be recorded and made available online. The link to view the event will be made available through the school district's website.

In addition to introductory remarks from Doster, the forum will feature a Question-and-Answer period facilitated by Mark Hoffman, executive director of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit.

The board welcomes input from the public on which themes should be covered in the questions presented to Doster. Community members are invited to submit up to two questions for consideration through the following survey.

Questions may be submitted up until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 25.

Submitted questions will be consolidated by common themes to allow Doster to address
the maximum number of topics possible during the forum.

The format for the evening does not provide an opportunity for questions or comments from the audience during the forum itself.

Doster will receive a copy of all submitted questions. The board has chosen the format to ensure that the maximum number of questions can be asked by the moderator in the time allotted.

Superintendent Search Process

The Board began its search process in January, engaging with the Bucks IU to serve as its search consultant. Bucks IU conducted a community survey from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4 to identify the community’s opinions and priorities.

Nearly 140 parents, guardians, taxpayers, students, staff, and other community members responded to the survey, offering feedback on the ideal characteristics and attributes of the future superintendent. The survey also captured what the community believes to be the district’s priorities for the immediate and long-term future. The survey results were shared with the community on the district website and through district communication channels.

As the search consultant, the Bucks IU facilitated a comprehensive search process, actively recruiting qualified candidates and advertising the position in local, regional, state, and national publications.

The position was advertised from Feb. 7 through March 3.

Twenty candidates applied for the position. The board thoroughly reviewed all 20 applications and selected nine applicants to move forward to a first round of interviews.

Eight candidates were from Pennsylvania, and one was from New Jersey.

Following the initial interviews, the board invited five applicants back for a second round of interviews. The board then invited three applicants to return for a third round of interviews, which required the candidates to complete writing exercises and prepare presentations relevant to district priorities, in addition to answering some additional final questions.