Members of the Palo Alto High School Parent Teacher Student Association will have the opportunity to add input to the selection process to replace outgoing Principal Jacqueline McEvoy at tonight’s general meeting.

Scott Bowers, the Palo Alto Unified School District assistant superintendent for human resouces, will preside over the meeting and seek to gain insight from parents as to their ideal qualities in a new principal.

“I will share the input developed in the 2007 search [to replace former Paly Principal Scott Laurence] and then ask parents to add to that list,” Bowers said. “We’ll also talk about the process and review the role of the interview committee.”

The interview committee, composed of Site Council members, Associated Student Body representatives and staff members, will review and consider the input generated by the PTSA at tonight’s meeting as it reviews candidates.

Bowers will use three guiding questions to facilitate discussion at tonight’s meeting. The questions, published in the Paly Link, are:

1. What are the things you value most about Palo Alto High School?

2. What are the challenges facing the school in the next few years?

3. What are the qualities that you feel are most important for the school’s principal to have?

According to Bowers, meetings so far with the Associated Student Body and various other groups have yielded similar results in terms of what community members value in a principal.

“There is a lot of commonality between what staff, students and parents look for,” Bowers said, “but each group does bring a unique perspective.”

The advertisement on for the principal position on EdJoin.org has so far attracted 10 applicants, but the number changes frequently, according to Bowers. The application deadline is March 19.

The PTSA general meeting regarding the principal selection process will take place at 7 p.m. tonight in the English Resource Center. According to Bowers, the meeting should not last more than an hour.