Published on April 11, 2025 at 11:14 am
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The St. Johns County School District, searching for a new superintendent, has selected 10 semifinalists from a pool of 26 applicants.
Speaking to the St. Johns County School Board on Thursday evening, Florida School Board Association CEO Andrea Messina said the group was “quite a pool of applicants.”
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Sixteen of the applicants have doctorate degrees; four are currently working as superintendents; and three previously worked as superintendents.
The semifinalists
These are the 10 semifinalists:
Brennan Asplen: Asplen currently serves as St. Johns County Public Schools’ deputy superintendent. He previously worked as a deputy superintendent in St. Johns County from 2015-2020 before moving south to work as the Sarasota County School District’s superintendent for three years. After the district chose to find a new superintendent in 2022, Asplen returned to the St. Johns County School District.
Clay Carmichael: Carmichael is a visiting education professor at the University of North Florida. Before that, he spent 15 years as the principal at Pedro Menendez High School in St. Augustine. After retiring from Pedro Menendez in 2023, Carmichael taught for roughly one year at Veritas Classical School in St. Augustine.
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Kyle Dresback: Dresback is St. Johns County’s regional superintendent for secondary and alternative schools. Before taking a job in the district office, Dresback worked as Nease High School’s principal for seven years and Switzerland Point Middle School in Jacksonville’s principal for two years before that. In total, Dresback has worked with the St. Johns County School District since 1996.
Sherri Forrest: Forrest works as the chief academic officer and executive director to the superintendent in the Atlanta Public Schools system. Forrest also has worked in the George Department of Education and held other positions in Atlanta Public Schools. Before moving to Georgia, Forrest worked various jobs in the greater Tampa area.
Randy Mahlerwein: Mahlerwein is assistant superintendent of secondary schools for Mesa Public Schools in Mesa, Arizona. Mahlerwein has worked in other administrative roles in other Arizona school districts and as a principal and dean in the Cartwright School District in Phoenix going back to 2005.
Jessica Richardson: Richardson is currently employed as St. Johns County Public Schools’ senior director for Exceptional Student Education. She has served in that role since 2023, but Richardson has worked in the St. Johns County Schools system since 1999, including nearly 10 years as principal of Palm Valley Academy in Nocatee.
Scott Schneider: Schneider is Duval County Public Schools’ chief of schools. He has served in that capacity since 2021. Before that, Schneider spent two years as a region superintendent and eight years as the principal of Riverside (formerly Robert E. Lee) and Terry Parker high schools. Schneider was among the top 10 finalists to be Duval’s superintendent after Superintendent Diana Greene stepped down in 2023.
Marianne Simon: Simon is a region superintendent for Duval County Public Schools. She has worked as a principal at various schools around Jacksonville, including Waterleaf Elementary, where she was the school’s inaugural principal. Simon was also a top-10 finalist during Duval County’s previous search for a new superintendent.
Luis Solano: Solano currently works as the deputy superintendent for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Before coming to that post in 2019, and that district in 2017, Solano worked in Collier County, Florida, for five years and spent 15 years in Miami-Dade Public Schools as a principal and teacher. Solano was a semifinalist in both Duval County’s recent superintendent search, as well as Broward County’s.
Corey Wright: Wright is Duval County Public Schools’ chief of accountability and assessment. He previously worked as an assistant principal and then principal at Englewood High School in Jacksonville.
Next steps
With the pool of applicants narrowed to 10, the St. Johns County School Board agreed Thursday evening to send notices as well as a handful of questions to the 10 semifinalists.
Some of the questions will require written responses, while others will require recorded video answers. All of the responses will be made available to the public on the St. Johns County School District’s website.
Once the responses come in, the School Board will decide who will move on to the finalist stage at a meeting scheduled for April 25. Those finalists will be interviewed for the position in May.
The district’s top choice is expected to receive a three-year contract with a salary range between $170,000 and $230,000.
The person the district selects is expected to begin work by July 1.
