001I'm not married to it, but if everyone kind of takes a minute and thinks through mostly in kind of the broad strokes who all you talk to and and then I'd like you to make a pitch for any of them that you think we should consider. And it's possible whoever you talk to, you're like, "Nah, I'm good. Um, and I guess what I would generally like to say is if you if you were to rate these folks from like one star to five stars, one star being the least, five star being the most, anybody that you would give a three or above and you're ready to make a pitch. If you talk to two people and they were both one stars or two stars, I don't actually think we need to spend time talking about
002right. Um, I will be totally honest that I did not completely write at my notes. I did a a combination of typing them and handwriting them and then I brought the wrong notebook and so that's where you find me. I've had I already had it's been a week last Yes, it's been a week. Um does that seem reasonable for people to kind of this year's Yeah, that sounds make a pitch. Yes, I think so. Tell you if if there's someone where you're like, I think we should work with firm X and here's why. And it would be great if it wasn't just a vibe check. No. You know, if there was some real reasons why you think these are folks or a single person who's really going to come through for us. One thing I
003want to mention because this seems to be, you know, is we do need to figure out is a firm's capacity to help us find an interim a mustave or a nice to have? because um I for one talked to you know a really exciting firm. This isn't someone I'm actually going to pitch today because their cost is too prohibitive. But let's say I love them and their cost was half. They cannot find us an interim. But if I was like, "No, these are the people like if we're going to spend the next x number of months with these people, these are the people I'm excited to build something with." And they but they cannot find that's not what they do. They're not going to get us an interview there. There is I I have a
004conversation coming up on Friday with the head of PSD. Um he might have some ideas for us. Um I have spoken uh kind of theoretically about the pros and cons of identifying someone like from within our district who could step into that. I think right now if we are looking at creating we're going to have some instability right because we're having a major leadership change at the top. I do not think creating instability anywhere else at this time serves us at all. I think it would be a terrible idea regardless of any given person's talents or potential. I just don't think at this time that in any any more instability in a building or in any other role is something I'm I'm willing to be to consider other positions. I'm very unlikely to change my
005mind. Um very um I was recommended also that was that may have a pool of interests and that may be no at no cost. Did you call did they say that? No. Uh the Hank mentioned that before we reached it. I called Wazda at the very beginning. Uhhuh. And uh what they said was Northwest leadership. They did not say they had a stables. They didn't say anything like that. Yeah, I called them right at the get-go. And maybe I talked to the wrong person, but that was the information. The other recommendation from a community member was our last superintendent who is retired who lives on Russian who may not come for a year. He's not interested. Good to know. That's already been asked and answered. Oh, okay. I just want to put like kind of
006three things on the table. I do um someone who is position to help us with an interim is a value to me um in the sense that this interim individual will be critical in creating a strong bridge for us um from one leadership and to another strong leadership aspect. I'm not saying it's the sole piece, but the other I just, you know, when I'm looking at the range of costs that are at least here in the notes, it's a pretty substantial range. So, I wanted that. But the other is things that stuck out to me. And I guess I just want to hear what are kind of top thoughts driving people recommending something, which is um one for me is reading through and noting the firms that addressed outreach in ways where they're talking about
007equity and inclusion. Whether that was about um an understanding of how these recruitment processes can can work in terms of perpetuating kind of someone in a more privileged position. Um and that there are different factors in navigating. There's also at this high level there are different different factors of outreach. So that I want I want to know that we're the firm that is going to have a value in terms of bringing us a strong pool but also a diverse pool. Yep. I I agree with that on all fronts. There is you know there is a a you know a limiting factor of how many people are out there you know that at any given time in the job market. Um but I absolutely hold that top of mind. Um, you know, there's also the reality
008of who Vashon is. You know, even if there were some amazing candidates, are we right for them? Like, in terms of, um, you know, we're obviously not all white, but we present as largely white. I think one thing one thing I brought up with one of the firms is, you know, I do feel like our kids of color also deserve to have someone who looks like them, you know, leading in a in a powerful leadership role. Does every community want that these days? Mostly, not every, but I'm assuming most communities also want that. So I would imagine you know at some point I asked Slade when we were looking at hiring for the we had two different principal roles open. You know the statistic he shared with me around educational leaders of color coming out
009of various higher ed institutions is incredibly low and there's obviously many historical reasons for that. Um they have the numbers game is it's just not great. I realize that at the same time um I don't want to predetermine whether or not and I know you're not saying this predetermine whether or not someone would want to work with us and I also know in terms of um I will just I'm going to use example in terms of different departments and academia there were departments that were incredibly successful in expanding the diversity of pool and hiring and there were others that did not that rested on the kind of sense of statistics and yet there are really strong qualified applicants out there and part of it is what kind of recruitment process is there that that says
010to someone okay these people are knowledgeable about this they are understanding they're also understanding of some of the hurdles and so yes this is a place I would have a conversation and so um revamping the recruitment process had profound had a profound impact and I I want you know there are challenges and yes there are challenges in terms of this is you know in terms of demographics of this community I just want to know as a search firm that's going to go out where that is a priority it's not the determining but it is a priority that being said does anyone want to is there anything else we want to discuss before we get into making our pitches Yes, I would like to make my pitch. Okay. Because my pitch is one that um has
011some caveats to it, not for the firm. This is um Haya Hazard Young Atia Associates. Um, and the reason I am so excited about this firm is not only was I incredibly in impressed with Christine McDuffy, who would be the, you know, is the main point person in in uh Seattle or Yeah, I think it's Seattle, but or it's a 360 craft. So, it's not Seattle. It may be Tacoma, but they're in Northwest. They are in the northwest. They are in uh um other places as well. But a couple of things I had a long long talk with the chairman of South WBY of the school board and he walked me through and I think I and I put this all in our notes what it was like to work with this firm. Uh your
012Are you is this all are all of the notes in Where should we be looking? Well, if you want to look at the notes, as I said in here, I put the notes um because I did not ask for a proposal because at the time I thought we were only going to be working with firms that could do interim and permanent. So, I'm going to say right off the bat, the the notes that I have about this firm are in in the um section on notes. It's not it's actually on the spreadsheet. Spreadsheet. It's under notes, but I can just summarize. Okay. You can go back to the notes. hazard at the associates. One of the things that really impressed me about them was that they seemed very uh fresh, very new, very much akin
013to what you're looking for, River, and what I'm looking for. Um, and I'm sure we all are. And one of the things that they that uh South Whitby said they did most marvelously was searches throughout the country. They presented the personnel um when South Whidby um was employing them first their ballpark figure. The guy couldn't give me exactly the figure of how much they charged but they're around new leadership around 20,000. Okay. They they had started out with 19 candidates, narrowed it to seven, and then narrowed it to three, but they did it in a gender and racial line so that the board did not see the initial candidates in any way that would bias you to or against that candidate. And I think that's marvelous. If you truly want equity and you truly want
014a nonp prejuditial for any reason at all, I mean, I just thought that was splendid and so did the guy at South WH. Their final candidate pool ended up with three men, three women, one of one person of color, two people of color were in the 19 mix. as it had turned out um three uh superintendent previous superintendents in other districts and three that were assistants or or you know executive directors that were close to it. So it was a wide range. It was uh they flew in one person from Ohio that ended up at the sort of the beginning of the final cut. And the thing that really really um impressed South Whidby when the guy was talking about South Whidby, it sounded like he was talking about Bashon. He was talking about Iowa
015culture. He was talking about all the things that the sort of dynamics of a small community which surprised me because I don't think of would be being you know but but it was almost as if he was speaking about our and he said the thing that impressed him most about this group and why they picked him picked this group was how engaged they were with the community, how much outreach they did and uh that they listened to every concern the board had. They listened very deeply to the stakeholders and they did a marvelous job. He said at the end everybody in the community had felt heard which is another thing that we're looking for. So if I if they were looking if they they cannot be part of our interim search not because they don't
016do it but because our timeline overlaps all the jobs they've got right now and they have four people working in this in this area and all of them are working during um this time frame. So I had originally sort of discounted them and then I called them back um and asked them could would you be willing or able to be part of the permanent search if we went for a different firm and then picked you guys up and they said yes. So all right that's my pitch. Should people want to ask questions at this time or should we move on and make other pitches and pause our questions about this one? Do we have any idea what cost is around 20,000 and that was for one search? So, does it go up if you add
017some services more? No, he I asked him that. I said was it a sort of package deal? And he said yes. Now, of course, 20 to 20,000 is about what small districts that's in the ballpark of what small districts usually pay. That's what um and both told me and that's what new leadership charges just about the these these people are competitive with new leadership. Of course, I'm sure it'll go up a little bit because we're in a era of inflation, but it didn't like um from what the South Whippy people said they were very competitive with the other firms they looked at. Any other questions? And I'll see that this may go on the back burner simply because they don't have an interum. Yeah, I stumbled into an inadvertent uh reference for Haya which I
018not gone searching for. If someone wants to hear that at this time or I can uh speak to it later. I It was Is it something? Yes. Um, we Martha and I got an email from someone wanting somebody from this board to join the small schools something something at Wazda. And I wrote back and I said, "We're so busy. Like I don't we're in the middle of a search. I don't think anybody has bandwidth for this right now." And he wrote back and said, "Oh, well, we just finished that process. I I feel you." And I said, "Well, would you like to tell me anything about your process?" any any wisdom? And he said he said, "I got so much help from other districts. I'd be happy to pay it forward. Do you want to
019hop on a call?" So, we got on the phone and this guy hired Haya. Um they are Wala Wallala much much bigger district um around I it's in my paper now, so I'm going to try do my best. uh 5 to 6,000 students, three elementaryaries, you know, a much a much bigger district. Um he could not give me a quote all in because he did say he didn't track every single little like they paid extra to get on some job boards, you know, sort of a pay-to-play job board, but he felt it was worth it because they got to some candidates they wouldn't have heard Otherwise, um he felt echoed a lot of what Martha is saying in terms of deep engagement. One thing he also said that I really appreciated is basically he really
020um the the firm did all their work to sort of understand the board and they did a lot of sort of board management not not micromanagement but understanding what and then they owned it. Yeah. which maybe is what everybody does, but that he preemptively brought that up. Um I think they had one out of similarly I think they had one outofstate candidate and two other folks who were more local. I um I can't remember from whence they hired eventually. But he had they had talked to a couple other firms. One of them just wasn't available. Another one um was only was kind of in their backyard. I forget which one. I think it was maybe Northwest. So they felt and a lot of people who used to work for Walaw Wala School District now work
021for Northwest. It felt all a little too on top of each other and a little too chummy. Not that there's anything, you know, actually wrong with that, but they just felt like they needed a little more distance and some fresh eyes on their district. Um, yeah. I don't know that I have anything else to add, but really was downright gushy about about having worked with them and what they did and how they Yeah. And uh um South WHY is one of the portions of the island and they have a little bit higher enrollment than we do, but they have the same configuration of three schools. Yep. So, um, and yeah, look at the notes if you want more detail later. This is not listed on the spreadsheet. It is it's on line 14. Oh, so
022you were the one that was okay. Yeah, I you said you were mentioning the person and ha and I was like who is I didn't know if that was the Okay, so it's just the abbreviation for the idea. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um who else would like to make a pitch? Who else would like to tell? Um I'd like and I mean I also like the other one. Um, and Hank was who which is from let me go in Capital Enterprise. Okay, that was the other one that was mentioned by Wazda when I I I called them. We got this morning, right? that yeah that's the he work in similar uh districts the Belleview uh where progressive people the community very involved 400 he thinks that 400 is kind of similar to our community again progressive
023and very involved also they do for a swim it's like some like campus like everybody together in one campus so um and he's familiar with the area. He it is a national search but still he understands what this area kind of looks like looking um for uh let me think 20k is the basic and then um community engagement community group board uh interview with the board two rounds of interview with the board uh planning meetings and depending on what is the interaction with or the the planning that we want from the from them with the community the community engagement it the cost starts going up um the advertisement you pay maybe 250 and he goes into the national Latino national groups or you pay 500 he may go to the but that's more advertising like
024okay fashion is looking for so So you like 500 bucks or 250 like it starts going a little bit complicated what will they come in person and do the a community engagement the panel with the interviews the they can help us with the with the interim for uh 5700 to 6 I Let me see. Recruit, visit those, interview the candidates, community engagement and um meetings with the union reps also mutually in mind. Um and then I mean forum and then the basic for the for the long term superintendent. Uh let me see what else I like. Um for the for the [Music] um and if the candidate is not a good fit, he will start again and it's part of the guarantee for two years. If our superintendent leaves before two years, then the I
025like I mean I liked in their proposal that really in terms of you know people who know how to recruit to get a diverse pool that they talked about equity. They talked about um they talked about systems of recruitment that this this is not their perpetuate is not their language but the perpetuate privilege. So they talked about recruiting intentionally, they talked about bilingual and but the other thing I also liked in what they talked about was um a really intensive highle reference vetting um because I can think of um searches that um that don't do as much of a deep dive that more take here are the here are the five references I'm given. um versus committing to a more intense reference check. I like that and they will do as deep as they we
026would like them to go. For example, they could go they could talk to the last three candidates. They will call the board members for example, but they will recommend us to also call the board members. They will give us questions for us to call them. Uh or we they will do it if we prefer. One thing you said, I just want some point of clarification. You said that it is not included in their pricing to do community engagement and community outreach. Depending on how much we want that to happen or how many community, you know, maybe we want two meetings as a forum with the whole community. Feel like we're going to want or you want one meeting with everybody or it's depending on how What is the what is that we are looking for?
027Yeah, they will I did just for hya I did not get into that uh granular um stuff because I originally thought they were out of the picture because they couldn't help us. I so I cannot answer it, you know, the fees going up. Um, I suspect from what um the people at WASA um and Bosda told me that that uh human resources, new leadership and high are pretty close in in um their billing. I mean, they said that those were the ones that they would have would have recommended to look at for small districts. So which one is that? The this one. This one. The one that that I call leadership. And though not because of any particular thing except that he they he the guy I spoke to said these are the ones that
028um small districts usually end up with for parking costwise. This one does say let's see the one that you just did. I mean it does in the proposal say community engagement is a hallmark of our work. So I think the part you're getting as kind of a tiered approach. So what is what does that mean in terms of what community engagement is is in their foundational price and then what does it mean to go to another tier because I do see a commitment. I don't know exactly the what price that will be um depend on expenses who's coming hours a whole day for meetings and interviews two days. It's interesting. It says most of it would be through surveys and electronically. They do a little an extra 10 grand if we wanted to come here,
029which we would want anybody to come here first before agreeing to a job here because it is a very different place to be. Wait, where do you see that? At the page uh 11 at the very end. This is option C includes everything in option A with final facilitated by our consultant in person. We'd also take a travel cost as well as consult. I mean that's an extra 10 grand. Yeah. All right. Um any other questions from Lucia about uh Hank and the capital? Did you talk to any districts that had hired these folks? No. Okay. Yeah. Um, I I'm going to say very briefly that the firm I would have been most excited about was so cost prohibitive it almost made my eyeballs pop. What does that mean? What was it? 32% of a
030year's salary of a superintendent salary. So that was in the 55 to60,000 range. I do believe and I think she even said to me, you get what you pay for. I believe some of the things they talked about about having very um specific um almost kind of like it was a cross between like and I forget the exact term like rules of engagement slash rubrics for different kinds of constituent groups so that they were really differentiating when they talk to union leadership versus when they talk to commuter parents or when they talk to and that board members would be welcome at none of because people are generally not going to speak as freely if they think they're being watched or if it's people that they know which I really appreciated who is a all women
031of color led firm you know if money was no object I also of the mind especially in light current climate that also you move money to move power and to support a women of color owned business would be very exciting to me. I really find the price point to be beyond anything we can manage. We do not we simply do not have that money. No. Um the other firm the other firm I I talked to I would give them three stars. I can talk more but I don't know that I necessarily need to. They would absolutely get the job done and they were a screaming that much I would say. like I think it was under $10,000. That may also be a you get what you pay for, but I don't know. Maybe they're amazing.
032They were happy to give me plenty of references. I did not check that. I think they were uh they were one of the firms that Wala considered and I forget if it was that they were not available or they just weren't the right fit for Wal that name came up. super nice guy, super confident, did not make my heart sing, which maybe is not the way that we run this, but I'm happy to defer. Um, do you have River one question to finish this one up? the human capital one because you the additional costs are all listed as interim search not that is also and the document is called document's interim interim so I I have a feeling there's something missing there because that's what I wanted to know because I know you said 10,000
033but that's for expedited interim search I think where are you getting this this is the proposal that they sent And and is that an email or is it It's an email. Oh, and I will now add it to the drive. Okay. Thank you. I can get it. And so I would like to go back and kind of get Oh, I see it with them of um what inerson not for the interim search, but what inerson work are they doing for a full search? because I do feel like that's critical. So, here's here's what I'm thinking here, too. Um, these two people I mean, these two seem to be more or less in the same um economic group. Um, I wouldn't I and if they charge there is no sort of cost cost benefit for coupling
034the interim with a particular group. What we might consider is hiring for in interim and then dealing with the proposals for permanent one step at a time. Well, I would like to throw a curveball into this. My fiscally conservative self is going to throw a curveball on this thing because I do firmly believe that you get what you pay for. Um, I talked to a tradition search something or another. Um, they were actually a prior school board member that went through this entire process and found a niche within it. They just did Mercer's hiring process and they are very much they realize that the problem with a lot of these hiring firms is they're not involving the community. This is a huge opportunity to outreach to a community that is may not have the most
035favorable opinion of us or our prior superintendent or the school as a whole right now and they focus on incorporating community in a way that actually makes it a community outreach type of situation and involving them in it. Um they also pointed out that if we are only going to search for an interim, we may be limiting our pool. we do guarantee their work for two years. So that's an option. Um that perhaps we open it abroad and see what happens and what the best result of that is. They do a tiered scare scale though where you pay like 10 grand four months in a row ends up being about $4,500 with travel expenses included. But if we're looking at spending 10 now and 20 later, that doesn't really make a huge difference, especially if
036they guarantee their work and we're looking at paying as we go. Um, and the reason they do that is because they want to make sure that we're as happy with their work as they are with our as they are with working with our community, too. So, they want to make sure it's a good fit and nobody's remorse at the end. They do tend to work more with private high-end schools. Um, right there is a No, but they are looking very intentionally. I also have gotten a I also had gotten a recommendation that how they ended up on my list. Anyhow, because I know someone on the restaurant board. Yeah, the HA I got to say I was super impressed with what they did for community outreach. Sorry. Is there anything else you want to say
037because I feel like I want to get continue to make your pitch. Please feel free to continue to make my pitch. But um they they wrote a book on it quite literally. Um it is a female owned operation. It is just her. She does have time to do this. She only takes on two schools at a time, so we would be her second. Um and I kind of like that it's a little more boutique for what we are as a board and what this community is because we are very different as a board than many boards out there, but we're also really different as a community. finding that right in the mix. It may take a little more than you. People often do say that people in this community, parents in this community want a
038private school education at a public school cost. You can decide how that lends with you or not, but that there are what what CPAC has come to call the bashon factor. It is. Yeah. You know, high high expectations and also the proximity and access can be very challenging for people who work for this district. You know, whether you see someone at Thriftway or your kids are on the same little league team, the same thing is generally not going to happen in Seattle, right? And this is why I like so well because they work with small districts and and the South Whippy people felt that they intentionally understood that um and they made sure they did labor unions. We haven't heard from River so I'm going to ask you to not make any just put your
039thumb on the scale anymore for Haya at this time. Do you feel we heard what we needed to hear from you about um tradition? Any questions? Um yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Um, well, I think one I mean one of my concerns was reading the proposal is that head of school for a private school is radically different than a superintendent, right? That a superintendent is bound by state, federal, all of these parameters and their budget is a radically different process as well. Um, and so that I would be curious because so much of this was written with head of school and I that was kind of a concern. And then the second one I had which curious is that reading in terms of their outreach. I I didn't read anything that signaled to
040me that looking at equity or looking at bringing us a diverse pool of candidates was a priority. And I don't know, that's just from their proposals. That's a question. I don't think they limit that pool of people. I It didn't sound like in any way that they would limit that based on where you are, what you're doing, your color, your gender, your race. is very upfront in acknowledging that we are a very different board than most school boards are. Um they they go out to people who currently have positions. They have a given pool as well that they can go into if needed for for the position here. And yeah, I think it's interesting because I saw this on on the letter. Some of the best people are not looking for jobs, which is true.
041And we don't want to be poachers. And also Yeah. I mean, in a lot of ways, we want one who's not looking for a dog, right? We want somebody good that's where they are because they're good. So, what are some of the districts they they have worked for? Mercer was the recent one here. Okay. And that's all I have right now. Okay. Because my piece is not about that they would limit the pool, but are they poised um to be to know how to um know how to expand that pool, right? that where we where one does recruitment and how one does recruitment signals to candidates already just in that process and also where you're doing your outreach um that this that this community is tuned into certain things that they need to think about
042in terms of diversity. So when candidates are evaluating us they're also looking at where have they posted these jobs right where have they done their outreach who are they talking to within that. So I'm you think candidates are looking at that? Absolutely without question. If you are if you're a female candidate, a queer candidate, a person of color, and you're looking, it very much signals that the school knows what um what outlets to post these jobs in. That's a huge piece. Um do you think that's true for public or absolutely they do and because move and Yeah. moving to because yeah moving to and investing in a community um that and have we done enough work to do that as an initial step right which is even just kind of opening the door um and
043that there are lots of candidates that are going to look at what that recruitment process is and they're going to take a signal see I would say and I don't know that we want to go rabbit hole in this necessarily but I I would say in the long run, maybe it's both and a candidate is going to in the long term be more concerned about who we actually are as a community. Are we a place that actually is welcoming and affirming and safe for people of a marginalized or racialized background? And you know, it's lore. I don't know if it's true. I wasn't there, but I remember hearing in the I hope this doesn't come around and bite me in the butt. You know that we had a candidate of color previously in a previous
044search and that person's partner came here and looked around and was like, "No." Um, and not just because the at the like surface value. I think there's a longer conversation about the truth of who Bashon is and the stories we tell about ourselves. Not that this isn't a we're all choosing to live here. We're all choosing to make a life here. And also there is an underbelly here. The way people struggle here that most people are blind to. And so including people of color, including poor people, I would say first and foremost those two categories um is very very difficult. And people say it looks like that. It is that way in America 100%. And also because of the limitations of the fairies and the lack of actual all those things, those are also part
045of the story of who we are. So if we if if all the attention that we spend is on attracting great candidates, I also want to be clear about who we actually are. Well, absolutely. That's not a it's not a I mean it's not an eitheror. It's you know it is a both. And so I mean I was the last place I was for 16 years was a predominantly white institution right very privileged. So yes on the ground when people arrive but it also that awareness and intention needs to seat out to all levels. So in terms of recruitment or staying in the pool but then yes someone is going to come and they are going to evaluate and and actually should right their whole life is going to be here and so that's heavy
046that's you know where work is that we need to do. I just also want to know that a firm is poised and thinking about and holding that. Um because a firm if they are also doing that work then there also might be ways that talk to us about okay and when these candidates come here are things here are questions that are come up going to come up here are some things you need to be thinking about. I think that's a really good question to ask in a virtual proposal. That's not something I'm going to have the answers to after one phone call but it is certainly something that we can ask them. I think I'm going to circle everybody back around because it's already been a really long day on my end and point out
047that we are trying to get down to three options and people who can help us right now. Yes, right now. Right now. Well, we can talk about that later. We got to do this right now and we're down to 45 minutes to do it. So, River, did you have any fruitful conversations? You don't want to make a pitch for anyone that you talked to? The first place that I talked to um solid, but you know, that's not um I think it means I mean we could we could say ha human capital and tradition can't. Okay, I have another one. Uh Dr. Hill Deborah Hill, these are this is BWP Associates in Illinois. Um You had to call them at least three times to get a hold of them though, right? Uh I called her and
048and then she called me and yeah, like it took me to Oh, but it wasn't that your calls were unanswered. So she did return she return my call later, maybe after 24, 48 hours, something like that. Uh let's see. She doesn't they don't have a pool right now, but they have a network that they use. So they can easily go into their network and look for a interim um national search a basic consultation is 15,600 plus 5k for paperwork for work. So it's around 20 to 21K plus 2,000 per in. So 2,00 2,000 a week they us um they let me see they do enrichment activities. They they interview the board. Uh they survey online the students and they create a profile um a leadership profile that we are looking as a community and from
049that profile they will start their search in the their um search quest right so they they develop interviews they uh they meet with administration principles parents organizations students around 20 to 30 groups of people want depending depending on how many groups are here interested to meet with them with the firm. So they create the leadership profile right. So from the leadership profile uh they can do minimum of two or two or three trips. They have Spanish speaker people who can the Spanish speaking community with the community again full a full day or two days of just interviews to create this leadership profile after the profile they publish it to find the longterm also um I'm sorry yeah for the long-term candy and they review the the application with her and her team, not just her.
050This lady is a superintendent herself. She have been in many positions in school uh school districts. She has been a mutant. She's she has been a long time superintendent. she has been uh teaching and learning um director or um yeah or co-directing that position. So I like her experience you know into the district working with these positions. Um then they find they find a pool of 10 to 12 candidates. From there they select eight that we interview. It can be over Zoom. Um and then when we find our three or two last candidates, they will also develop a questioner for us to ask questions. They will train us if we need training for the board to talk to the candidate. [Music] Um and then after they find the candidate, the candidate in house working for
051district 18 months I think. So we'll see a question. Um so Dr. Deborah Hill they're out of Libertyville, Illinois. Um would their um representative of the firm be coming to see us in person if we want to? Yes. Okay. For cost or cost or anything? I can't imagine that he may be an additional so and they be coming from trips. Yeah, I think that's when when we are doing the final um interviews for the candidates, they do the trips but everything uh because internationals are here. I liked the conversation with her. She is pretty knowledgeable. I She seems a lot experience. Um, but I just She doesn't have an experience with Washington State. Well, that's interesting because I'm on their website and there's a list of eight school districts. Well, seven plusda listed there. But
052this list is massive and it I'm a little confused about it. There seems to only be one person in their firm. Maybe she she's just the lead and this list of searches they've done is hundreds across the country. So it's I'm a little confused. Um I do want to just say one thing. This is not specific to that. If I may be alone in feeling like I actually feel like we can find our own interim and I'd be alone in this. I do feel like if we are going to hire someone like um person Lydia the likelihood of them finding an interim that is already in Washington. We need an interim who knows Washington. We need someone that we don't have to pay to relocate. Right. So I'm very concerned about paying an out of
053someone who doesn't have deep roots in Washington to help us with an interim. Right? They may be available, but the runway to getting familiar with the landscape of who's available in Washington or ready or was had been in Washington and would come back. But we can't pay to relocate somebody. No, we can't. You know, Slade, I just saw it in his contract. It's publicly available. He was paid $10,000. is being paid $10,000 by Breton to relocate. All right. Yeah. And so we can't relocate two people, right? We can't we need to have an interim who is either Washington based or is willing to come here on their own time. Um, so I do I do have that concern about but I it's it's the kind of thing do we lower our standards or our enthusiasm
054to some extent to work with a firm who can absolutely who's got Washington covered who knows us knows basically the the landscape or do we work with someone we're really excited about and either come up with the money to do a separate arch or do it ourselves. I am I am medium confident that my conversation with PSESD might yield something because ideally I think what we want is to find a retired soup who comes back off the bench who's like willing got another 12 to 15 months of like enthusiastic leadership in in them who knows how to do this knows Washington and can hold steady they don't even have to be a remarkable leader they need to be a steady force and know how to do two handoffs, right? One on either end, right? So,
055um, so now Lydia is from Seattle just for there. They're not currently here, but that's where they Who who's the tradition? Yeah. Um, and rave reviews from from Mercer Island. I mean, wow. Rave reviews. So, I I wanted to ask you, Lucia, we look between human capital and uh the WP Mhm. Which felt like a better fit for you? I like um human capital better because the knowledge of the area, the knowledge of the mentality of the people, the knowledge of even the island, we are different islands. He has been here. He gave you know already placed superintendent in Belleview 4,000 spring they already have some um experience I like I like it better I think so the people who can do an interim right now is human capital and tradition right that we're looking
056at and tradition includes the yeah but they were really clear that 120 days is the normal search me for a super and we kind of have to be open the fact that we could just find what we're looking for in round one and done. One thing, um, this is not a but, this is an and. Dennis or Jerick or whoever I spoke to from Walaw Wala cautioned against hiring an interim with the intention of them only being an interim and then falling in love with them two months later because we're in the honeymoon period and they have had no opportunity to disappoint us. He was very clear, if you're going to hire an interim, hire an interim. If you're going to hire a permit, hire a permit. I agree. And I and I also because
057I in terms of an interim I'll go back to a comment you made which is very true in the nonprofit world, right? People who kind of come in um and know what that is because you're talking about two handoffs, right? so that there are people that also have have been superintendent and that had that experience of the interim and they're able to provide that continuity, that stability um and some of that kind of structural strength. I I listening to the conversation, my my inclination because we're talking about a lot of different ways to kind of come at the interim is to choose the best firm for our long term. And I think that is the most critical decision we can make and then look at that within the cost. Maybe that best firm includes the
058interim, maybe it doesn't. If it doesn't, you proposed some other pathways um through PCS, you know, PS sorry. Um, but I'm I stop and we have three. We do have three. We have human capitals in high. Yeah. And is our hope that they can do a live over video Yep. pitch to us that would be obviously made available to the community if people choose to come in person or I don't know how that works. Hey Lilith, good question. Can you hear me? Do you know how it works if we have someone on video here? Would you just be filming the screen or can we tap in? I don't know what the technology words are where the the live feed would go to directly to YouTube as oppo as opposed to you filming the screen. I'm
059pretty sure you can do that. Yeah. Okay. That's sort of what I thought also just in terms of like quality of of experience that would make the most and then we I think our agreement was that we have some kind of Google Doc prepared and out there for the community to give us feedback on those presentations. And what was the date that we wanted the presentation? May I think May 1st or May? May 1st. Um we'll present this week and all research firms on Thursday. May 1. Okay. So May 1st and are you looking at So for instance, I I think do you want them all video or do you want the people who can come in person to come? We're not paying for anyone to come here. Crap. Right. So if someone wants to
060come on their own dive and talk to us in person, Sure. Right. Or or actually that doesn't level the playing field. No, I'm just saying if we all do a virtual video, if we all video, it levels the playing field. Okay. If I guess that's our next question. Are these three folks or some representative from their firms available to do a May 1st pitch? This is a quick tight turnar around nine days from now. Then yeah, he can they're available. They can jump on Zoom. They can even call. I do think it would be good because I've heard a direct recommendation on traditions work from Mercer. Did you talk to Mercer yourself or you only through Oh, I only heard through. You and I have now heard two recommendations for Haya. I feel like someone
061should call one of the reference points on human capital. I mean, we're still going to hear from them, but I think and also he gave us like a video link of someone. I watched that the lady speak about I Yeah. Yeah. So, I Chris got back to me immediately um when I called her today to see if they were interested in being considered for the permanent. And uh she said, "When do you need the proposal?" I said, "I don't know. I have to talk with my board members." So, they may or may not be first. So, I mean, it's the rest of these proposals are clearly boilerplate with a couple of little things. I think these plug and play the word bash on into various spots. They probably have one ready to go. It's are
062they can they give us something in real time, a real time pitch. I think a thing to pay attention to is like for example last election cycle I went to an event with Terresa Moscada and the woman who was running against her for King County Council. The woman who was running against her, Sophia Aragon, in my opinion, clearly had never been to Bashon, made several comments that indicated to me she knew nothing about this, like like glaringly knew nothing about. She talked about our local government, and I was like, "Oh, there is no local government here." So, we want to we want that's a thing we want to pay attention to. Does it seem like these people are going to give us a boilerplate pitch or have they have they spent a couple hours to
063Google us, right? What do you what can you tell us? And we're not going to ask them to do that. We're going to see who does that because I think that's a piece of the of the story is if someone comes here and and wants our business, it is our business to give away our numbers. Are they paying attention to who we actually are? I think that's a valid piece of art. I think and I think we do by then we should have a rubric for grading not just you know the vibe check like this person whatever this firm can do this on a scale of one to five this firm satisfies I think we all need to submit like our top five requirements for a superintendent um to one person and then we no
064but if we each come up with our top five things that we're looking for in super. We I can compile all that and create a rubric for us. Okay. Deadline. What's today? Tuesday. Monday morning. Sunday night. And is available for very responsive, might I add. I also like hands responsive response respons I mean again is that important to you while we're doing this right there and waiting for any questions and email all those very I don't know like an arrow wasting time and you did send usine and see if she Can you tell us five things that we five things that we want out of a search firm to find us for superintendent? So whether it be Wait, so five things we want a superintendent or five things we want to search for? It's got
065to be what we want to search for because that's what we're narrowing down right now. Five things we want from a search to help us find a superintendent to help us with in this process. followup questions that I would love for these folks that I think I think I've heard from here. So, not these are not relevant to each of the three that we've listed because some some of the three that we've listed have answered some of these. Um but I I am curious to hear how much in person is included in the costs, right? How many visits in terms of and at what point in terms of meeting with community members um stakeholders uh to come up with um to come up with a vision prior to their outreach or during the process. Um,
066some people it sounded like it was included, some people sounded it was like it was an additional cost, etc. Um, I'm I'm great when surveys are effective and efficient, but I also do want to know some in in person. So, part of that is kind of the bottom line costs, but what are the things that add to additional costs? I yall may all have clarity here. Some of them I have what would it are they invested in are open to helping us with an interim I think I heard a no they don't do that of 5700 6,000 I think and then one I wasn't sure but I just those are pieces I would want to know and I I also know I want to know how is it that they create a diverse pool of
067candidates that's not my criteria but these were some of the questions no that's great questions to have and I think that that's kind The point of the pitches is so that we can ask them all those deep pressing questions that I could not even possibly answer for someone I thought to for 20 minutes. It was 30, but still and it it is very wise to ask the same questions for each. Um I here's the thing I can commit to. I think it was Whidby has a publicly available the Google form they used to survey the community about the search terms. I will find it and share it with folks and I would love feedback on is this sufficient or do we have other questions we would like to ask the community when we are saying
068what's your impression of these firms? So I can I can go in that piece because I saw it and I can get it get it again. internet. So I'm wondering what one thing with regard to timing just in terms of in tandem since we have search firms on here, some who would help us with it in our own candidate and some who might not. Um, and I I do think it's choose the firm that's going to help us in the long run. But right now, we have on May 8th, um, that we build on a search firm and then May 15th, we interview interim candidates. That that seems very tight. Um, And so I'm curious as whether or not there's anything you want to put in motion to further put in motion to generate an
069interim pool in case that is something that we are does anyone have the availability and this is it's a set thing. I'm sorry that I'm not willing to consider moving yet. Um, can someone join me Friday either in person or on Zoom at 2 o'clock to talk with John from SCSD? Can you Friday at 2? Okay. Um, here is my suggestion. If and this might make sense, we probably should just consider the firms that that have an interim available and drop the idea of hire. They don't she doesn't have them available, does she? She has a pool that we could pull from. Yeah. But that might not be the best fit for us either. I mean this person is do you think she has a pool of people qualified to work in Washington? That's what
070she made it sound like. Yes, but not from Washington. That would make me more cautious. Well, she's from Seattle. She lives in Texas now and she has a pool all over the country and she's she's pretty clear about that. Um, and I think it's worth figuring her out and asking the 100 question, but I just don't have answers to. So, I mean, I'm just thinking I I would like to hear from her. And also, I mean, I think we shouldn't dismiss someone and rise a different firm. I'm not suggesting that. Yeah. No, I'm I'm suggesting that we take HA off the table. I'm not Okay. Because they don't have an because they don't they can't deal with finding an intern with interim for us. I think that if worse comes to worse, we can find
071an interim. Okay. Not how I feel. I don't know if I'm being overly optimistic naive. I feel like it might take some begging, pleading, and borrowing, but we can make it happen. When I talked to K, he also mentioned that um um Oh my goodness. That uh for the interim we may want to have less community engagement, but we have to. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. We don't we because I I'm hearing here. Uh we are not paying for nor do we have the time and bandwidth to do the kind of robust. We're not going to Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's why he also like the community trust you and they will be okay with any that you decide. Yeah. This is a hold steady not if they turn out to be amazing that's a
072bonus but like we want we don't need a transformational interim right we just want community engagement for the long term okay because there's also such a thing as like engagement fatigue like you don't want to keep going back to people right now tell us again what tell us again what you want it's an important conversation that's going on everywhere though and I think our big thing is that by doing it this way we want to make sure We're also not purging anywhere else. So, we have to be kind of cautious of the temperament of everyone else in this process. You just say that again. We don't want to purge anybody else by flipping our superintendent and not going about it in the right way. So, by making the community involvement, we're also making appeasing it
073so that they don't feel like we're dictating or they're not happy with how it turns out. and they got to work with this person, that kind of thing. We just don't want to lose any more staff. Oh, no, no, no, no. We certainly don't want we don't want that either. I feel like if we don't involve them because they're vested so hardly that that you mean an interim search? Well, just in general. I mean, I guess they have to work for I guess I was thinking we would, you know, again, do kind of a Google form on that one and do a public interview and not much else. We the time, the expense, the bandwidth. I just don't that's like a full-blown. As long as we do a Google form for them, at least they're
074hard. Oh, absolutely. Planning to do that. Yeah. Well, there's a difference to make for the interim for coal community outreach, which isn't feasible in this kind of time frame. But I do want to think carefully about how we involve district leadership and building leadership in the process because they are the people who most work most directly with the interim superintendent. So, how is it that they would want to be involved? Um, what's feasible? Um, and what's too much also? So, finding that right balance. Yeah, I think we just need to talk to River, I just invited you uh and it'll be we get to talk to leadership. Well, we've always been able to talk to leadership. Not always, but we have a tentative agreement on record that they can reach out to us, but we
075can't reach out to them. And I would like to keep that state that way. If they if they want to talk to us, they're most zero repercussions. I think as we do the Google forms and that kind of thing and we spark the search, it might be important to get that word back into the community again. That that is the the policy currently. It isn't an official, it's a tenative agreement. into agreement because it is very muddy water. You know, it is in a video so people can go and watch it. Nobody's gonna do that. So, yeah, but it is we know we know it exists. We just got to throw it back out there so that they know they I at some point should go and find it and time stamp it and have
076it at the ready shows. I'll tell you exactly right now. Um yeah. Um did we do the work we needed to do here tonight? Um, and we can't and we can't talk about anything else because that's not what we Yeah. But let's reiterate will you reiterate what we have what I think we agree to is for now the firms that we have selected as our top three are Haya human capital and tradition search partners. We hope slash expect they can all make a uh real time video pitch to us on May 1st which we will live stream either because we are able to patch it in or whatever the words are directly to YouTube or it just gets filmed and obviously people can come in person as well. By that time, thanks to Jess, we
077will have come up with a list because we're all going to send her our top five desired qualities of the search firm. Correct. By Sunday night, um we will send out to the public, I don't know if we have a date for this, a Google search, a Google form. You need to have it live no later than May 1st. Okay. Okay. So, it would need to be sooner than that to prep people. Um Um Let's see. I'm going to just put in a a nonsense date for now because I think it needs to be soon. Um because it'll need to go out to all parties. So, they're they have it in hand if they want it. Um and on the matter of interim, we would love to prioritize a firm, you know, in terms of
078our point scale. Maybe that is worth some points in the way that we rate candidates, but we are not at this time eliminating candidates, search firm candidates. you cannot do that for us because we have a variety of feelings on the likelihood that we can find our own interim. To me, it's not a deal breakaker that a firm can't do that for us at this time. Um, but it sure would be nice. I don't know also who else to ask. We've asked Wasa, we've asked Wazda, we've asked PSD. I don't know who else you ask. I I that isn't a search firm. I have um I have asked everyone that I've contacted who recommended me to contact someone else. Yeah. How long would we like the pitches to be and what time do we want
079to start at so we can time slot them? Great. Um our meeting we also have a stop gap for questions and that kind of thing. Maybe like 2010 or Let's also make sure I did not have this I have not put this one on my calendar. So, let's also make sure and I think it will be called a special meeting. It's not a regular board meeting. Um well, I know that Lydia is in Texas. That's two hours ahead. Where is Hank? California. California is here. Okay. So maybe they should go maybe. Yeah, maybe try and get the tradition to go first. What do you think we give everybody to 20 minutes? 20 minutes and then 10 minutes for questions. Does that feel appropriate? Can we that gives us an hour and a half total a
08010 minute question session? Is that realistic? I think it has to because we will have predetermined the questions. Good. So then then no no video for pitch but an interview with us directly or you want both? Well, they're going to pitch. They will be here. They'll be pitching live like like FaceTime kind of. Okay. But I'm sorry I got confused when you said video pitch like do I have do they have to record to the meeting? Oh like they're zooming in and we're we're doing on May 1st at what time? That's good. We're doing three firms at 20 and 10. That's an hour and a half. What's the early show start? 6:30. I think 6 is a good time. Are you okay with that? I'm okay. I think it'll give us a need us a
081few minutes to settle. What if our first person goes at 6:15? Okay. That's just the reality of how things go, right? We want to make sure Lilith has what she needs and if and that we're all present here. People are settling. gives us a little buffer, too. Yeah. So, we do six to eight. That's two hours. And then next one starts at seven. Like, are we giving ourselves a buffer or are we doing I I don't feel like their pitches will be 20 minutes long. That feels like a long pitch to me. I I mean I I think we could ask them to do a 15minute pitch. We make it around 30 minutes. 30 minutes is great. You You've had a lot of experience hiring people. What What does it take? I mean, I think
08220 minutes is nice. It gives them some buffer. Worst case scenario, it gives us more time to ask questions and it gives buffer in case the tech stuff screws. So, 65's not going to do it. Tech's got it, right? Tech's got it. Yeah, I'm thinking we settle at We arrive at 6. First one 6:15, 6:45, 7:15, meeting ends at 8. I think we should maybe have a five minute buffer after the second morning because lunch wasn't late. Don't we have to just Didn't we decide that we would decide that night? Wasn't that on our timeline? Yeah, we have to. Yeah. All right, then. We have to have time to talk about it. Then we need to go until 8:15 or 8:30. And are you sure we don't have to go till 9 being realistic? If
083you budget, if you give us till 9 and we don't last that long, I mean that's fine, right? The thing is is that once we alert the community to the meeting, we can't go past the time. So maybe we do say six to nine. I think the thing is that three right now we have three I think strong firms. I I feel like from these three strong firms we we've already done a lot of thinking. We're going to be doing more thinking and conversation. I'd rather budget more time than we need than last time so that we stay compliant. That's my only thing about Okay, here's what I've got so far. 6:00 we convene 6:15 first pitch, 6:45 second pitch, 7:15 3rd decision and discussion for discussion and decision 8 to 8:30 and the meeting
084ends at 9:00. So we have and if we get out of here sooner, we get out of here sooner. Okay. So it's a 20 minutes. So each of them has 20 minutes to present in a 10 minute. Yeah. And they don't they should we should make it clear they need not fill 20 minutes. I don't want to hear listen to someone vamp. Yeah. You don't have to keep talking just because you have 20 minutes. We want to hear what you have to say. We want to give you the time to hear it. We're allotting 20 minutes for it. Whatever that means to you. I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions to fill in the rest of the time for you. Did someone ask do you write something that we can send to the three candidates
085the same? Um want me to do that? Yeah. Do you first? So these other two firms have given us a written something. If KA can get us a written something that sure would help everybody ask her if if they can send a proposal because she wanted to know today. Yeah. And then she said I I couldn't give her a date. Yeah. And then um yeah, Martha, if you can or do you want to do it the people who have the relationship? I think my whole I think you write something. You want me to write something up and say this is this is this is the language to use and I would tell them who they're going like who the other candidates are. This is their timeline. This is what we want to know in that
086timeline and just include it all. Give them give them fulling. We don't no surprises. No, no need to be secretive. There will be members of the public watching online and in person. We will not be fielding questions in real time just like we do at any board meeting. Not going to do that. I have one last piece because actually on our agenda are two things A and B. Um leadership transition and then search for review findings. And we don't need to go into leadership transition, but I do think that we need to talk about it because there there are ways um Slate's articulated stepping back sounds like in some ways fine and great. I had a few calls in to WASDA that keep me to Christine Gary and I have not heard back. Okay. I
087was like um to ask um a couple of things um about um about the board during this transition. So one um I can talk about later but the other in terms of thinking about this that there is communication there communication protocols in place. They're in place for a reason. We have a superintendent who's leaving. We don't necessarily The interim is not necessarily going to step in on day one. Hopefully, they will be poised to do that, but it is potent, there's a potential we could end up negotiating something with the interim. I do want us to talk about some kind of substantive elements in terms of that leadership transition and what the board's role is in supporting that smooth handoff, what it's not. And I don't want us to talk about it tonight. I'm not
088talking about that. I'm I'm a little confused myself on how we're supposed to help hand off a job that we have. I don't think we have a choice anymore. I think there's been a mic drop in a walk and we have to acknowledge that and also acknowledge that that might be the best thing that happens to us moving forward is that there's very little directive moving forward and whoever comes on knows what they're doing. That's essentially I don't think we have a choice in any of this anymore. I think we have been blatantly told we will have no choice. My reason for calling was it was you asking. Yeah, that's why I called them to ask them a very specific question. Great. But the other part is if we are in a gap where the
089interim is not fully on board, the other is there and there's a question that rises to that level. We can't have a gap. We can't we can't we can't we can't have we can't we have to have a good step in at least the we can have an interim that's only there for a few months. That is an option. Yeah. I don't I don't need a very tiny gap. I'm talking about two weeks like that we make sure that wait that it happens already when slave takes a vacation he has to appoint someone as second in command. I am I am just saying the way communication is right now. I would want to know where calls go that are supposed to go to the superintendent. If we have an incredible interim candidate and it there
090there will always be gaps. There will always be vacations. Then maybe my question Who is that person right now? If if Slate is on vacation, who are calls to Greg and Stephanie? Depending on depending on what the thing is. But those people have not they've been given a runway and prepped so that they it's like if you're going on vacation, you put the dog feed on I don't sorry I don't have another analogy, right? But Greg and Stephanie, to my knowledge, have not had to drop their jobs in order to to I'm talking about a minor little we can literally we I don't even think by law we can do this. So what happens if an interim interim? Then we would have to pull someone internally. I think it would have to be an internal
091interim. Like even if it's only for a couple of months or a couple weeks, there has to be someone in in to sign paychecks. Yeah. Literally, people's pay payroll cannot happen without someone officially holding the mantle in that role. And if that means we had to move juggle some somebody from internally, which is not a good idea. I'm not disagreeing with any of that. I am simply saying that sometimes there's a moving or sometimes someone has to go. I am just saying who is that second person. You're saying it's Stephanie Greg in those cases. I'm not saying that we don't have an interim who has started. They're actually I mean we were looking for black crossover right instead. I hear that. I'll go back. I think it's just going to be really tense and awkward
092as we for a little while. But no, it's sad. It's just not how it should be. And I was hopeful when I took this position that we would get just a little bit more Any other questions about the intern or about the hiring stuff? All right, it is 7:57 and I turned this meeting. Thanks everybody. Wow. Thank you. Hey, just just to make sure that's No, no, you