Superintendent Searches

The Powell Law Firm has served the legal needs of Texas school districts since 1996.

Based on our long experience of working with school districts on issues connected with the employment of a superintendent it has become clear that schools would be better served if we became engaged in the hiring process from the beginning.

As a result, we are now offering our services to assist school districts directly with superintendent searches.

To that end, the firm will utilize the services of consultants who have collectively performed more than 50 successful searches in all parts of the State. Our executive search team will include an attorney experienced in employment and local government issues as well as consultants experienced in working with school boards on executive searches and other major issues.

Our Consultants

Our consultants have been involved with the public school community in Texas for over 30 years. They have served as school teachers, principals, superintendents, education service center directors, association executive directors and are connected with all levels of the public school establishment. Our connections give us a rare insight into the capabilities of applicants. This experience gives us the capability of identifying prospects who are well-suited for your executive vacancy.

Dr. Danny Lovett recently retired as Executive Director of the Region 5 Education Service Center. He has 41 years in education, serving as a teacher, coach, curriculum director, and superintendent in Texas school districts. Danny has delivered over 800 Board and Administrative Team trainings in the last 19 years. Additionally, he has conducted 29 superintendent/executive searches in multiple school districts. He is a certified Myers-Briggs trainer and is also an authorized provider for TEA’s Evaluating and Improving Student Outcomes (EISO) workshop.

Danny works extensively with school boards on topics such as goal setting, superintendent evaluation, team building, leading change, and many other topics. As Executive Director at Region 5, he worked closely with the Texas Commissioner of Education, TEA, TASA, and TASB. He is a past chair of the Commissioner’s Cabinet of Region Services. Danny is a longtime member of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), a former Board member of the Texas Rural Education Association (TREA), and a member of both the Texas Association of Community Schools (TACS) and the Texas Association of Mid-Size Schools (TAMS). Most recently, he was appointed to serve on the Texas Commission for Virtual Education by the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Speaker Dade Phelan.

Dr. Shaun Barnett joined the Powell Law Group team in 2019 after retiring from a career in public education. He began this career as a teacher/coach and transitioned through the ranks up to the superintendency. Shaun served as superintendent for over 10 years at three different school districts and was recognized as the Region 14 Superintendent of the Year in 2016. During his career, Shaun served on multiple state-level committees including president of the Texas Rural Education Association, executive committees of both TASA and Texas Association of Community Schools, Superintendent Advisory Council for Friends of Texas Public Schools (FOTPS), chairman of the TREA Risk Management Cooperative, and executive director of RMC of Texas.

He was also selected to sit on the interview committee responsible for choosing the executive director of TASA. Shaun now travels the State providing school board training for the Powell Law Group covering topics such as governance, Evaluating and Improving Student Outcomes (EISO), goal setting, and tax value limitation. Shaun is an instrumental member of the Center for School Governance (CSG) and leads the Institute for District Leaders, which is presented by CSG.

Dr. Don Rogers has had a long and distinguished career involved with Texas public schools. He has been a teacher, coach, Principal, Superintendent and has led two education associations. In addition, he has worked with two search firms and personally performed over 25 searches for Class A through 6A school districts. Don has extensive experience working with legislators both at the state and national levels. As a result, he has developed a large number of state and national-level contacts. After teaching in Clarkwood, and serving Killeen ISD in multiple administrative roles, Don served Eanes ISD as its superintendent for 17 years. He subsequently served as school executive director for the Texas Association for Community Schools for 11 years. On his retirement from the Texas Rural Education Association in 2019 he joined the Powell Law Group as a consultant.

Our Process

• Each search is custom-made to meet the desires of the school board.
• We will assist you by suggesting a step-by-step process towards employing a suitable applicant.
• Our fee is competitive and includes a 3-hour school board training credit.
• If the employed superintendent fails to stay with the district for more than 2 years, we will perform the next search for no fee (expenses only).

Why Select Us?

The district will avoid any future legal issues, as a result of overlooking some employment matters during the search and employment process.

Our experiences in Texas give us a long-standing connection with the public school community and access to information as to the unique capabilities that potential candidates possess.

More than 90% of the applicants placed by our consultants have remained with the school district for over three years.