The Cambridge School Committee is gone six months with no plans to hire a permanent superintendent — but a commitment to officially launch the much-anticipated search next week and a new tentative timeline aimed at changing that.

According to the timeline presented at a Tuesday meeting, the process will extend into next school year: The committee intends to make an offer to a future superintendent by Oct. 15, 2025, and it will take the bar by the following July.

The committee had already considered timelines in which superintendents would be hired by the end of this academic year. But — with most superintendent offers made in December, according to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees — the committee dragged his feet in discussionswe are running out of time to recruit a new recruit by the summer.

The new schedule responds to calls from educators and parents to allow ample time for community engagement. The first test of seeking input from stakeholders in Cambridge will take place at the next school committee meeting on November 19.

Still, the schedule has gaps, such as dates for administering community surveys, forming focus groups or making an offer to a research company.

To iron out some of these details, committee members will sit in three “working groups,” each focusing on a different area: describing community engagement, compiling a profile of the school district to send to research firms, and developing a leadership profile. – essentially, a job description.

The committee said it would finalize the task force’s tasks by next week, with three or fewer members serving on each. By keeping the number of members to less than four — which would constitute a quorum for the entire body — the working groups could likely meet in private under Massachusetts’ open meetings law.

With opportunities for public comment at the next meeting, members are preparing for more changes to the tentative schedule.

Once committee members are chosen and a schedule is finalized, people “will actually have something to say,” said committee member Richard Harding, Jr..

Committee member Elizabeth CP Hudson stressed the importance of presenting an outline of the research to facilitate initial discussions at the next committee meeting.

“People will say, ‘Here are 12 ideas I have,’” Hudson said. “First, they don’t feel heard if we don’t respond. Second, they will likely highlight things we haven’t thought of.

Harding said the committee must prepare for “significant changes” in the search process, given the weight of selecting a new leader.

“This is the most important thing we will do next year,” Harding said. “And I think people are paying attention to that.”

—Editor Darcy G Lin can be reached at [email protected].

—Editor Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at [email protected].