001and not. But I have I've been sort of having this like hodgepodge notekeeping collection. Sorry, I'm finding my pen. Um, and I tried to get things kind of organized. I started a drive folder for this purpose that I shared with all of you. And the drive is in uh it is called what? Just so every is called two 2025 superintendent search. Okay. Um and within it I started subfolders, search firms, notes from other districts and interim question mark. Um, so and I made kind of my own version of a punch list of things. So where would the punch? Oh, right down there. Right. Punch list. Go ahead. Um, how obvious. You know, I'm sure there's lots of good templates out there. Timelines. We don't need reinvent the wheel. No, I cannot find your So, just
002type in um one thing I did write and this may be put in the carpet before the horse is the acronym mocha which I find to be quite helpful and I wrote it on board. Um in terms of this process, it's it's an acronym that often gets used in project management. Um manager, owner, consultant, helper, and approver. I just want us to be with the evergreen caveat that everyone's busy. I want us to be thoughtful and aligned about how we go about doing this work. Once we assuming that we decide to hire a consultant, theoretically that person will then guide our process. But until then, right, um I just want to make sure if people are um taking action of any sort, whether that's calling another district or I don't know what, that we're not
003that you and I are not both calling Belle and you two aren't both calling such and such. That we're being thoughtful, right? But but if possible, like the other day, Martha and I were able to be on a call uh with an acquaintance of mine who's been on the board for a while at Mercer Island and talk to them about her about their search experience. And um so I think it's a great opportunity for folks to either use their network or build a network. Um there is one other thing I want to mention. There is an upcoming regional schoolboard directors meeting director's area too. I wrote it down somewhere. Um that that may be a place to also go kind of chat people up. Um that is Tuesday, April 29th from 6:00 to 8:30 in
004Belleview. Um I am I can you repeat? Sure. Tuesday, April 29th in Belleview at a elementary school that I didn't retain from 6:00 to 8:30. I'm already out in Belleview on Tuesdays, but I don't have any burning desire to do this, but I do think maybe it's what is the the it's a regional WASDA meeting. Okay. They do these um periodically. It's sort of a mini conference. Um there's I think there's workshops. I think they feed you. I Yeah, I think I saw an amount. I don't think any of us have ever been to any of them. The last one I remember the last one was. If folks are at all interested or compelled to going to one of these, we could, you know, but being smart about taking if there are opportunities, maybe there's
005a place somewhere in this drive where we note actions that we are interested in taking or opportunities that you know something like this like this conference that someone may find and you know I can't go to But this might be a useful, you know, thing to do. Anyhow, I I do talk um to someone at a search firm in terms of process because I was doing a lot of research and um and to me one of the biggest decisions that we need to make in terms of processes interim or a full search and do you know and I will go ahead and place my hand that was reiterated in a lot of different ways that I I feel it's a much wiser decision for us to go for an interim. Um this is such an
006enormous commitment for hopefully many years and at this level the normative timeline is almost a year and I feel like this is a board that's really been rooted in an investment in community involvement and transparency and a chance to make a really um wellinformed decision and one that's informed by educators, administrators, families Um, but when I look at it, you know, they're kind like yes, it's possible, but they and no one I talked to said, I think it's a good idea. We're making a permanent decision in this amount of time frame. It will be made with urgency and not a thorough process. Yeah, I have a feeling that you're going to have a unanimous consensus on this idea. Will you say what you mean? I think I know, but I want to I would appreciate
007having you articulate it what you mean when you said something about process would take a year. Well, that most searches for someone at this level are about a year long. And so looking at that and then looking at what's a realistic um process and you know almost every piece I heard was that listing it any later than February after a process of of really sitting down and wrestling with what we think are critical um characteristics or elements or CSI's expertise that we think we need um to be able to have genuine community involvement. etc. That um that's all before we even advertise and put it out and so that we get a really strong competitive pool. Um that listing later than February doesn't give a time for a listing like that to be out for
008a significant period of time and that should normally be out for several weeks and then we're talking about interview processes that bring people to the district to meet with people. Um, and so, so for me, I I've never seen something at this level happen any faster. And I feel like if we can have a good interm one of the things actually the search firm I talked to has said, and this may be true for others, is that if they're hired as a search firm, one of the things they do for people for districts in this position is they will give them a pool of superintendent candidates for an interim position. and that they said they already have a pool. Um, and this person said they'd actually already been contacted by two superintendents who were retiring
009but are interested in a year or two and were curious about the Bashan. They had seen the thing. Um, and these are people who are superintendent and and one of their pieces. Um, what they talked about is then you've got someone who's got experience with the bonds system, the levy system, all of the other layers. Um, that person can come in and provide continuity and then they're also in a position to help onboard someone with a clear transition um, you know, from February to July or whenever that hire is. And the other part in terms of interum and this I think there might be different things is and talking about continuity I there's a part that can be pulling from within the district but I can also say this done doing hires for presidents and
010colleges is that if you hire if you have an intern from within the district and you're not 100% sure you're going to hire that person it puts them in a really difficult position if you're going to bring in a really competitive pool in the sense of um if that's not the candidate you end up hiring then they're in the position of having to train someone. It's a small community. It's a you know and and I think with real care and so if there's someone internal them interviewing for the actual position is fantastic but to bring in as an interim um you know there were a number of pitfalls articulated which which resonated for me as well because I don't for me as well because I don't want to engender any ill will in that I
011think that's a process. Um, I I got to say that everything you say I totally concur with. Everything you say has also been um validated by the contacts I've made so far. And one of the things that that that we are doing in this that that uh in the folder, if you'll notice, there is a section in this folder that's notes from other districts. And if you click on that, you'll open up um the notes on the phone call I had from the executive director of WASDA. I called No, I mean Wasa. Yeah, I'm sorry. Wasa and he uh gave me exactly the timeline that is typical for that matches exactly what you're talking about. I totally concur, River. Everything you say makes sense. And so the question that we really need to know to
012do very quickly is to I assume and we'll talk about this but I assume there's general consensus for an interim because usually what happens is the superintendent um job is open in early to mid December and uh and then closes in February. So, uh, we are not going to get a large candidate pool and I none of us want to rush it. So, I assume we're going to do an interim. The thing that I find that I think our job is is to figure out what agency to research the agencies quickly. um and and then to make a decision quickly because we need to get an interim we need that to get that process going. Um and I I ideally we will get a you know a superintendent interim superintendent who's interested doing that who
013has the experience. Um and I'm not going to reiterate everything you just said. So, River, from your call, it did not I I did wonder like where a person goes to find this magical pool of interims because I know in the nonprofit world, there's absolutely people whose careers are come in, right, sometimes write a ship if things are really bad, sometimes not as an intentional placeholder. Um, but I it it sounded like the firm you spoke to, they have such a pool. They have a pool and they had already been contacted by two people which I thought was interesting. Two people who were curious in terms of what was going to transpire here. Um, and these are people who have been superintendent. And so what they said is they would provide us with roughly six
014candidates if that was the case. Um, that we may could look at. May I ask which agency you contacted? I contacted um I mean here's I agency that was used previously at the the Northwest Leadership Association. Let me pull up the exact Yeah. Yeah. Northwest Leadership Associates. Okay. Um um I so that's I'm not sure that we can it's actually not a thing I'm super clear on if we can decide in this meeting that we're going to get an interim that's one of our first steps. So I think we need to decisions are only made potentially add that to our agenda. Let's on on Thursday. So we have to I know we don't we can't decide but we can decide to agenda. We are agreeing are we agreeing that we want to add that? Are
015we able to make that decision prior to an official resation? Um we can ask but I I we could do a first read of it you know or whatever. I don't know. That's a good question. Um I think I know he replied. What was his reply in terms of time? November. Okay. Yeah. That Breton will do a final vote on his contract on 17. Um but we can start researching firms. Right. So that's where I want to make sure if we're going to look at the list and I I have one that I just hand did from some research I did and then I found the list. So where is your on the WAZA? It's in the search room. Okay. There's two. I have the one that I wrote, which you can see is just
016a doc, and then I there's a fancy one from Wasa. Okay. Um, from my chat with my acquaintance at Mercer Island, they did a pretty robust search process for a search firm. They brought them in to schoolboard meetings and had them do presentations. They they chose three kind of finalist firms. they researched. I I don't know how many they considered. I don't know if I mean this list here is I guess it's not that many. It's maybe a dozen. Um and it's not exhaustive. Um I was surprised at how many firms there are that a lot of people use firms out of state like um uh Mercer Island had rave review I mean rave reviews about the woman that they worked with who was out of Houston. um who I guess maybe used to live
017in the area so did kind of get the Pacific Northwest. What's wrong with that? We're sorry. Let me just I'm It's not letting me open this this um the Mercer Island list because it says the connection is not proper. I'm sorry. being. Um, so maybe that's a thing. We decide to divvy up the list. Maybe I turn the list into a spreadsheet and we write next to each one like River's going to call these three. Call these three. Um, does that seem like a reasonable step? I think that is a very reasonable. I'll make the list and then before I before I divvy things up, you should obviously if you talk to Northwest, I could just put your name next to Northwest. Could we come up with a standardized list of questions every time and
018not Maggie Thai? Because I don't see any reason to reinvent the wheel. Maggie Thai at Mercer Island gave me her list. Fabulous. Uh I think I have it in my personal email so I'll migrate it over here. Um, so we should use her list. No, we can see if that feels like we should look. Yeah, let me move it over. Um, because I agree we should be asking the same things of people. We just don't want to have to call them back and ask five more questions. Doesn't feel very professional. No. Um, she did say one thing she said which I liked so much about this firm, this woman that they worked with, which I would want to hear from everybody, is that they did really robust stakeholder engagement where people, and she said this
019to me more than once, that people felt heard, even if they didn't get what they wanted, right? They felt that their concerns had been seriously considered and that they had a voice and they were able to She was the Yeah, she was the board chair at the time. I think it sounds like she h she was really driving this in a way that I don't think any one of us wants to be in charge of it. But that they came up with a list similar to what we did when we did the liaison or the whatever we called them the list. Yeah. When we talked about that similarly they came up with like a list of groups you know union leadership commuter parents MLL families like whatever we would come up with you know business
020leaders whatever and that then a consultant goes and talks to them and and is has a process that we don't need to manage you know whether it's in person or they're able to convene online, I don't know, however they want to do that and get the most information and the clearest picture hopefully that we can then offer. Like I thought of this the other day. My my sisters-in-law uh ended up going the adoption route. And when they did that, they had a book about their lives that they made. And it's almost like we need a and it had like pictures of their extended family and songs that they love and pictures of their pets. And you know, obviously it was meant to um and it worked and they have a beautiful family. So, but like
021it's almost like we want a consultant who can make a book about us warts and all, you know, that's really robust and honest where where a leader could look at that, a potential leader could look at that and be like, "Oh, I think I want to be a part of this." Or someone could also look at it and be like, "Oh, no, thank you." Right? And that's okay, too. Right? And and also conversely that research group has to have the ability to do the deep listening of our community members on what do you envision is the character of a superintendent. You want um what do you I mean I I want that agency to be able to come up with questions that help guide groups into thinking about what they want and to be able
022to give us feedback because um the the lit the the I think that process itself just gathering that information will be about a two-month um pro process and it's it's important to have that probably in September October of the year, you know, of this following year. Um, and then the other question that I have, and I'm sure the agencies would be able to help, is does the interim uh do the entire year or are there interims who will uh do three quarters of a year? Um, how is it usually done? Um, and I think you know they can answer those questions. And obviously the other question that we need to research is how much does it cost? because Northwest the leadership associate associates is the one that um was keeps recommending for smaller districts, small
023and medium districts and they tend to be have I they're telling they told me um costs less. So we that's something that each of us has to gather in our informal conversation. So he said you know roughly in the ballpark of 19,000 y It's fall apart. Yeah. Was said 20,000. So, do we have to do this process twice? Like one and then later we I assume that the agency and this we'd have to check, but the agency we hire will do it as a package of interim. And that's what this one said. I had not heard that before. That would be one of the things. Yeah. And the executive director told me that that's often the case as well that they will do all of it. Well, and I think it's important that whoever we
024do the full year because we want the offering into the new absolutely. We got to have that transition because there's going to be ideally some transition between our current superintendent and the new interim coming on. We need that dollar transfer. Sure. Sure. 100%. We can't it can't be a game of telephone that we have multiple handoffs unnecessary numbers of no I also you're very right we have a very special type of community that for the right candidate would be a dream come true yeah but and then but it is hard too so we have to be really honest because we don't want to come back to this table in a year um although can I say so on the spreadsheet I would like a way identify what we think is distinctive about these terms and
025then we may find out it's not that they're kind of all doing it but that could shift. Um but also a way to highlight something that came up that maybe because we've got you know this set of questions that we have but maybe we hear something from a firm we haven't heard from someone else and then say I'm talking to them that everyone else would ask questions about that right like is that something that you might do like a way to signal questions that aren't on our current list right things that are coming up that are distinctive about current firms um because for for example, and one of the things this firm said also is that they they do offer a guarantee in the sense of if within two years there's turnover um and it
026wasn't a good fit um they would do that again. I don't know that that is something that would matter to us. No, I I agree. It's just like the idea. No, we don't. No, none of us want to do this again in a few years, but we want the we want the longterm candidate that's going to help make everything amazing here. Yeah. And also, most firms will come and talk directly to the board. So if we narrow it down to maybe three firms that look good and we have a a work session where we get the candidates to come and and do their spiel so we can talk to them. Um the the uh I think that would be ideal involvement though at least option I think what what they did at Mercer Island is
027they had the meetings were public and then they had a Google form. Yeah. Where people could give feedback. I think that's the best way. And so and that we we advertise it. We advertise it. We advertise it to make sure as many ways as possible that people know this is an opportunity if you want to help shape this process at this time. At this milestone, there will be many other milestones. Y and that was another thing she said was that she they were she how often did she say she did it? At least once once a week to every two weeks, they had an update, an email blast and an update on the website that they had a section on the district website to keep people informed about where they were in the process so
028that people could check in on what's it wasn't all happening behind closed doors. There was both an outgoing something and a static something on the website. And I think that should be a job that somebody takes and manages. So let's put that there. And I think it should go up tonight if we can or as fast. Well, we haven't made any I guess we could just recap. Let's talk about the banner of where we are where we're at. We haven't made any decision. Um but people are already, you know, asking and asking and asking. Are you thinking like Skyward? Um, not Skyward. It's on the I I school website. Parent Square. Yeah, sure. Yeah, Parent Square, but also on the school website because there are people like me who would never I I I'm not
029on Parent Square. Anyone that is doesn't have children isn't on. It's more of a community page rather than just the parents. Both. You can stick it on both. Well, we also don't want to bombard Pam Square with a whole bunch of messages. There have been a lot going out lately and a lot. I can't read it all. Yeah. Okay. I also only just added the app and I may interpret. So, it may be that uh that it just it's on the on the website. Um Okay. My only is do we send that out tonight or do we? It is Tuesday. We're meeting at the board on Thursday or do we make an announcement Thursday? Oh yeah, let's wait till Thursday. Yeah, let's wait till Thursday. I'm just being hyperbole. Can we still edit that agenda
030to add to that? Oh yeah, we can always walk we can we can even walk it right into the meeting if we wanted to. But we can edit it right now. Okay. Um, who would like to volunteer to write this? Martha or I'm sure I'm unsure exactly what y'all are planning to write. So, um, what you write is where are we at at this particular just an update on for instance the update would be there was a work session held um discussions regarding blah blah initiating. Yeah. something very simple, but and River if you'd rather. Um, I mean, I just figured since I'm already doing the communication law, you know, thank you so much. I I have more flexibility in my world. I mean, one of the things I want to kind of think about
031is timeline in terms of hiring is search because I do feel the kind of investment we're asking in the room to make is significant. And I think even about this one search firm, okay, they have, you know, people already that they would identify and turn over. That's not a decision somebody's going to want to make about uprooting their family to be late. So, I I want to make sure we set up a really strong timeline tonight so that we can for at least onboarding a search firm so that we can an interim. And here's another question that I want to pose and I don't have an answer for it at this point since you're talking about someone uprooting their family. Um, we do have in our policy that the superintendent has to live on island.
032Yep. Uh, do we have a policy that an interim has to live on island? And if if so, do we want to change that policy so we can widen the search? That's something we need to consider. I can't believe there's a policy about interum. Okay. So, I don't think there's any policy about interim at all. The only policy I found too, okay, is that the superintendent has to live on island because we all need access they they need to be part of our community. So that I mean that's always been a very strong um component. Um it does in some ways narrow the the the candidacy pool. There's a lot of housing options right now. A lot more than I've ever seen. Well, that's not a problem you solve. No, I'm just But we do
033for the if there was a restriction on interim, we would have to do it. But perhaps as we look at full superintendent if that becomes an issue we can then reconsider the policy on it if needed. But I don't think that has to be No, I mean Yeah. And I can see someone doing an inter who is really rooted here for the year but doesn't uproot their family and maybe you know goes home on the weekend or some I mean would still be here for some of the weekend pieces but I I do think we need to be cognizant that we're asking for a year position and so there needs to be some flex and This is a commitment I'm making is to turn the document into a spreadsheet that then we can assign people.
034Uh I can't get to it before Thursday midday. And there'll be a place on that spread sheet for a narrative because that's really for notes also. Oh, for notes. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it is said right foot is Lucia. There's a thing if you push it. I logged it. So let's set a timeline for what we're looking at. Yeah, we do. Um, so if we get spreadsheet day, do we need to hold an additional work session to go over the questions that we want to ask? Here's I'll I'll tell you the questions that I'll give you the question that Mercer gave us. Okay. How do you facilitate community and I put it in the search firm folder. How do you facilitate community, staff, parent, and student engagement in the search? How do you
035balance online meetings versus in-person meetings to move the search process forward? Can you provide references for placements you have made for districts similar to ours? Here she lists their size, which is 4,000 students, high academic expectations, etc., etc. Opening this opportunity up to diverse groups is important to us. How can you ensure we have diverse candidates who are qualified for our position? What background, education, experience, and references checks do you do on qualified candidates? Are there any best practices we should adhere to so we ensure a successful search? What else would you like to add to this um list? I think so. This would be um for do you uh do interim placement and uh superintendent and uh is that I would also ask is that in a sort of inclusive package um that is
036you know and so that we would get a cost number for both um The other thing is um do you have a guarantee if the fit if the ultimate fit for the superintendent isn't there? Do you have a fit guarantee as some districts have it but two year? Okay. Uh what else? anybody in their group speak languages that I would like to see and talk to speak to what they feel has been one of their most successful search processes and why. I think of your three it's important to highlight the diversity of our islands because that is different than others. I it's the pride and diversity. I think also somehow I would like them I would like them to um I'd like to know how many small are do they specialize in small districts or
037you know islands well islands have you ever placed an island? Yeah. Yeah. Um just welcome to the difference. Yeah, there is a um factor significant. Yeah. Yeah. The commuter factor is significant especially as they work with that scene. Yeah. We can do video conferences and all that but Yeah. How Yeah, exactly. uh their their ability to meet our needs is right Mercer Island and Bashan Island. Two very different. Absolutely. Do you think there's any reason to ask about um kind of the moment that we're in? I mean, in terms of the this moment in history, like how do you whoever is going to come into any new leadership position anywhere in this country at this time? I mean, yikes, right? I mean, just in terms Yeah. In terms of, you know, I was on Did
038you get on the call today? The OSPI call today? Anybody? The I didn't. Um, you know, I feel like we're I continue to be very impressed with Chris Rdall. I'm very grateful that that he's at the helm at this moment. Um, and he makes himself very It sounds like he makes himself very available. Like every soup has his personal cell phone number. Um, but navigating maybe there's always stuff and there's always stuff boiling and something's always on fire. I believe that to be true, but Sure. I mean to be in a moment where the Department of Education is effectively been decimated and other I don't know how I don't know what question you ask of a search firm which then would translate into knowing they're going to ask the right questions of candidates. Well, hopefully
039if we get a search firm, they're going to give us the list of questions that they're going to ask candidates. But I think what you're asking is how do we know the search firm is poised to have that conversation with candidates and to seek out candidates particularly skilled and gifted in navig but I want to know are you using a lens that includes some considerations of this? Are you providing considerations for the candidates for the hiring additional candidates because I do think it's an additional school skill set. I mean in the sense that there has been an erosion and decay in terms of investment in the public school system that is different that has a target on its back. Sure. But it's also maintaining the calm persona for your your people and your constituents to
040not run around screaming the sky is falling and causing as well. That takes a special type of personality to do that. Many are freaking out for a better way to put it and I understand that but we can't as a leader you can't pervey that to your community. No, I'm looking for someone who can actually district in Canada. Okay. So, but isn't that question I mean I understand what you're saying here, but isn't that a little that's a uh the question that we ask of the representatives when we when they come and interview? Yes. But the search firm is going to be bringing candidates to us. No, no. I mean the the the rep the agency we're gonna ask them they're handling it. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. But I want to know that before we whittle
041it down. I'd like to have some vetting question. Okay. On this list that I'm just saying we're getting into the weeds on this question and this question should should do it, shouldn't it? Which question? 11. Oh yeah. Yeah. the base generate more. Yeah, the only person She used to be now twice that I can count still. All right. Um, I'm going to lock this document because we should not all be editing. Yeah, just lock it. So, we can't delete it. I can't make a mistake. Um, we'll do something to it. Clean it up sometime. You'll clean it up at some point, right? Since you're locking it. No, we're not going to give it to somebody. How do you want it clean up now? We'll go with it. Okay. So, if we come up with any
042additional questions, send them to me and I'll unless somebody else wants to own this document, which means I hand it over to you. Let's have you own it. Okay. Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. Great. Um, all right. What else do we need to do tonight? I think we need a timeline of when we're going to stop searching and yes, move forward. So, we needed that one. I need that one. And we also need commitments as to who's going to do what? Yeah. Well, no, because I can't I mean, we could update if the if the if what we're going to work off of is this WAZA generated something. Plus, I had also gotten this other list from a couple of other places. I can write people's name just for the sake of doing it.
043Now, that's actually a great idea. I feel like I'm just talking over myself. I apologize. Oh gosh, don't worry about it. I While it's true, I can't turn this into a spreadsheet before Thursday. Tonight, we can claim names on this list. Exactly. That's what I was hoping. So people can get again, we can get going on our research. Yeah. Especially I mean Yeah. Let's see. Yes. And because we're all here in this room right now, if there's anything on here, we already see that Northwest. Can I ask a question? This question, this top little paragraph of questions, am I supposed to be talking at the same? Sorry. Thank you. Go ahead. In the top little paragraph on the notes from your phone call. It has some questions there. General questions for an agency. Yeah. That
044I don't think are on the list we just did, but I can't see it because Well, no, I can't see it. Just I need to know what you're talking about. You're on the in the Mercer Island notes. The notes from the phone call with Joel. Oh, that's my phone. Okay. Um it says to make sure you ask the agency what would they do to provide a deeper dive into reference checks for the final candidates. Um So there there are a couple of others that follow up that I just need cut and paste. We can cut and paste those on too. Great. Give me one second to do that. Okay. Okay, I did that. a full day then like different people. Each candidate has one day then they they meet with with the labor leaders leaders
045the labor leaders the you know what the all of the people within the community you set it up and at that point you could also I was thinking and it's just to save since they are commuting that you would set up a you know bring the candidate in don't they can put in a 12-hour day, but um have them do the school community and then the the general community in the early evening, maybe something like that. Possibly. I mean, possibly overnight in the sense that we are also courting candidates. It's, you know, we're evaluating what we're supporting. So, a chance for them to get to have a sense a little bit of take a candidate to dinner. Exactly. that kind of thing. And I have to say, go ahead. Well, from doing our processes with
046three-day interviews and the totality of the day, making sure that there's space in the day, the breathing room, because they're preparing. So, I just think of all the groups that they're going to be meeting with to do that in one day intensely on the island getting here and off feels like a lot. You're talking about the search forms or candidates, right? Left us and look where we went went to the very end of the process. That has nothing to read the documents. Sorry. You okay? from an adult that it's worse. Yeah. Kids first. Okay. This this I've tried to turn this PDF into a Here's what we're going to do. Let me go back in here. Different version. All right. Um, the doc I'm going to share with I'm going to do this reshare. I'm
047going to share a different document with each of you. It's just I need to do this research only. Yes. Um, I just shared a doc that I've now called edited superintendent search consultants via email. Via email. Yeah. Okay. So, let me go. It should be should be in the inbox. Okay. Oh, it's also now in the same drive folder called edited. It's in the search firm folder. Okay. If anybody has a great desire to talk to any of these firms, write your name next to the firm. Um, I would like someone I'm going to add this other one. I would like someone to talk to um confirm that uh pressure island used that isn't me because I've already had I am I am going to be talking to the chairperson anyway um uh about hazard
048young and blah blah so I would be happy to do that for them um so should I put my name on okay underneath do you want me I can hit whatever's last but this is a This hit my skill set. So whatever you need there. Oh man. Companies to hire people. Well, hiring. That's amazing. No, it's not. Do we need to talk to all of these people or are we just going to research them? Research like a Google search like here, Casc Cascade Consulting, the second one on the list, seems to have no website. Part of me is like, why don't you have a website? It's 2021. Um, well, maybe they operate under a different name or LLC. Education consultants are all using what looks to be personal email addresses. There's and an AOL email
049address. Yeah. And it I think those just automatically remember this is just a a generated list that probably nobody took anybody off or update it. Yeah. So I'm going to ask you since I can't figure out where to put this where I don't end up being uh in blue under hazard. Yeah. Then I will take that one. Right. This one in Asheville might actually have some island thinking about all the little things. Oh, that's interesting. Why don't you call Southern draw going on right now, too? Yeah. It'll take a week. So, that's Roberts and Stevens. Yeah. Okay. Um Oh, I'll call the one in Massachusetts. This is fun, my people. I'll I'll pull out my Boston accent. Okay. Um let's see. Oh, this. So, so Hazard Young Haya is in Illinois. Well, there you go.
050No wonder I haven't. Let's see. Just for funsies. Uh, oh, and here's one in the Illinois. Exactly. I was gonna say human, which one are you talking about? The very first one, BWP and Associates. Oh, okay. I was human capital enterprises, but yeah. Are they also You're also going to call them Spanish. You're also going to call one in Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The human human capital was one that that was uh given to me by the uh director too. Um, let's see. River, have you ever lived in Nebraska or Iowa? Yes, I did. I lived in Iowa for five years. Done. Great. Associates. It is. Yeah. I'm also I mean, I'm happy to follow up or someone else can do with Northwest leadership with the seven questions that we have. You started there. I think
051that would be ideal. Yeah, I think you should follow it up since you already have a relationship. such a deep relationship. Why can't I find them on here? They're in here somewhere. leadership off. call these people in. Um, oh, you know what? That's not actually true. I'm gonna The one that's not on here that I want someone to call is this one in Houston. Um, I need to add them from the other list. Cascade Consulting is a mighty womenowned consulting firm. Okay, I like that. Um, do they have a they have a website? Can you add the website to the list? Wait, you're talking about Cascade Consulting? Cascade. Oh, there's also Cascade. That's not Where did you get Cascadia from a different list? It's not Do you want me to do Cascade Consulting? Yes, I'll
052do that. Let me check. This is coming up like 12 different options. None of which are they may have business what we're searching for. I'll look it up. Um, okay. Oh, this is not what we want. Wait a minute. Look at this one. The one on Plum Street. Health and safety is the best I can. I think if I have to search his heart for him, it's probably not a good fit. I feel that way, too. Yep. So, let's just take them off. Let's take them off. So, that's Cascade Consulting. Yeah, there's nothing more than a page. All right. And this this very generically named thing with with the AOL addresses. Let's dump it. It's got an AOL address. AOL. I'm going to look I'm going to see if there's a different see if they
053interesting. The and first kits are only for WASA and then it looks like they were considered somewhere nine years ago. Yeah, I think they've gone out of business. So, let's let's dump them. How easy. This is just They have a cute web page though. They do. How'd you find their web page? show my professional learning teachers. Um um GR recruiting in Arizona. Does anybody have any feelings about I can call them. So, I can't find me now. Control F. It's okay. It's okay. You're all fine. You're doing great. It's this whole Google Doc thing. I could probably get most of this cleaned up depending also how late we're here tonight. I could even get this cleaned up tonight. So far, what I think Martha is that you've got Hazard Young, Atia, and Associates. Yeah. And
054then I did have someone else that seems to have disappeared. Well, that's because you had Cascade and we just Okay. Um, I am also going to Oh, okay. Um, I have a I have a couple one other school district that two other school districts out that I tried to contact that have just hired superintendent. Sultan and um have a green card. Those are the two Uh it is near coverish as far as I can figure but I've never heard of it before. I had to look it up. Um but those are the two that um Lassa had recommended that we reach out to since they were just finished their process besides South Wy and so okay. So that's in the pipeline. I'll stick those notes in. I think it is getting worse and worse symptoms.
055Um it's wise for me to um my biggest lingering question later is just the the timeline. I think that's our next search that too. That's our next thing. And so we'll type up the timeline and leave it in doc so that we're all on the same page. Y is that I'm just going to express the same way because my one my one worry of a lengthy timeline is losing good. We can't have a lengthy time. Is it worth writing it and we build it together? Yes. Okay, let's do it. If you need anything, it's really always fine to also call 911 or go to the fire station. Yeah, if you call 911, they'll stop the car for you. Yeah, if you just call them on the way, they will stop the car for you. If
056you need anything, call Yeah. You need me to go check on the job or something? Let me know. She died this weekend. I'm telling you, like Thank you for your research. Good luck. It's a great team. I'm just going to do this and then I'm going to erase it so that we have room and I think we start from the end, right? We start from we know let's just do the itum right now. Okay. Okay. Um start when we're because we don't that is the first thing we have to do and then if we have time we can go beyond. What is that? Okay. Um, so we have to figure out we're going with this Thursday. Yeah, we have to get it on the agenda. What's this? 10 the 10th. Um, do we call that
057a first read since we don't have an official resation? Um uh we can make a resolution to uh begin to research can't we? We have to have a decision that that's what we are going to be doing. We could I don't know how we do it. We have to yeah call a vote for research or begin the process or just even agree that we we think that's the thing we we're going to do. We have to vote. We have to vote for answer. Yeah. So that would be first read. Uh so there's no vote. It's just or are we going to skip the first read? Yeah. Can we skip the first read? Oh yeah. Okay. We could do we have to skip the first reading? Yeah. Yeah. Y Okay. All right then. I thought asking
058questions. We have our own internal timeline for the research deadlines. When how long how long do we need to take to contact the people on this list? If we have our final resignation by he said the 20th, right? They know on the 17th he have the final resation in writing by the 20th was his word I believe. So three days later. I thought it was the next day. Okay. So, we should have our research done and ready to roll. So, what date is that? 18. Okay. That's not And are we researching and coming to top three and then vetting as a group is that are you talking about for agencies? Yeah, search rooms. Okay. Okay. Search rooms that the next step is we want a top three and then well we have to come to
059a decision in a public meeting. Correct. about narrowing it down to our we're not going to present on each of these. I don't know that this is a just I honestly don't know. We need to find somebody who can tell us for sure which of these things need to happen in public meeting and these things. So let's make our timeline and then we'll run it by someone think someone at Wazda. Yeah, that would probably someone in Boston could I'll I'll call Joel or any school. Okay, I could do that. So then our next deadline would be a top. I'll put that as So what do you what do you want me to to ask him? What's legal? What are the legal which milestones okay need to happen in public meetings? What things need to be
060voted on? What things can we make decisions about? So then we need to finish with the milestones that we we think are milestones and go from there. Yeah. Um okay. Okay. So, we've we we will have each done our research and then there is an a date unknown at which we arrive at top three and I think there to discuss our research. Yeah. So, there has to be that happen in that before is that an executive session is that a work session I see no reason why it has to be done. I don't see any reason why that happens behind public work session would be great. Oh, and it should happen uh as soon as we can get together after the 18th. So, um Great. Everyone fill out your calendars. And I not here. Okay.
061Um well, we can let's Yeah, let's figure this out. And I think we need to make a commitment that uh if we can't be here in person um that we try to do it virtually but this has to happen in a very tight timeline. Um because there is going to be at this after this milestone we won't have control over how soon they can get us something because they're going to want to come and talk to us, right? So do we want and so a work session to determine the final three search firms. Um does and then they then they come and talk to us. Correct. Yeah. All right. Maybe not in person. If we're talking to people in Omaha and Houston, then we do they want to pay to come here, but we'll be
062that'll be too soon. Too too soon. Yep. So, I think like we looking at the week of the 21st. Yeah, that's what we're looking at. I think so. So, we have a meeting on the 24th, right? I'm going to pull up that in mind when we're scheduled and come together to talk about the terms before his resignation. I don't either. I agree. But then that would have to be next week. Yes. Because we don't have an official resignation. We cannot We can talk about our research. It's only pushing some money. Huh? That's pushing some some gray area there without an official resation. Start talking about how we're replacing. Well, we're not. I mean, he made a public he made a public notice that his you're right. He hasn't been hired. But if you think that's
063gray, he hasn't been hired, but he also has officially been terminated himself. Resign. It's like wait for an hour. Um, okay. I think then let's go back to the week of the 21st. Okay. So, on the 24th is is a regular regular board meeting. I could do any of the other nights that week. I could do Monday, Tuesday. 24th. I could do any of them, too. We booked for something Monday, but I think I think that was library. I also have something on the 21st which I thought was my cookie. It's my cookie. It's your cookie. I don't know. Maybe I wrote it though. I thought I was holding it. No matter. Tuesday. Tuesday. Why don't we do Tuesday? Let's just hope real hard that that works for River. Okay, same time. 6:30. Would I
064bother her right now? 6:30. Just like this one. Seems 6:30 works for me. Yeah, luckily this this I mean in theory this list may get whittleled down even further hopefully between now and then because there are red flags, they've gone out of business, they can't take on another search, whatever, right? Um, so, okay, so we've met and we've made a decision about our top three. Or does this need to happen? Do we need to make the decision about the top three at a public meeting, which happens two days later? Well, well, we can find that out. Um, but then we need to start scheduling them to present themselves. So, it would be really nice if we could do it in a work session. Yeah. And that would ideally be what? Like the month of May
065in general. I Yeah. That way we're going into June and we can narrow it down and determine one. I mean, it would be really nice to determine one in the first week of May. All right. When do we want to hear from these people? If if the world if it's all up to us, when do we want to hear from these? May and early May. Early May because we have until the last day, right? June 23rd or something like that. Yunch time. No, I don't. So, this happens at a public meeting of probably a special meeting. I think it would be ideal to have all three at once back to back like that first week. Do we have Let me look at what we've got for May. Yeah. Right. Okay. For me, other than election
066day, we have a board meeting. Did anybody hear from River? I have not. She wanted to keep her seat. She has. Okay. Um yes the filing deadline is very very firm. Okay. So public meeting um so we could do that. Uh there's nothing on the calendar for for um if we did May 1st is open in fact in the fact that we don't have a board meeting for that Thursday. Um we do have a board meeting regular meeting on the 8th. It would be sure nice if we could get this as fast as possible. First or do we want to have them all attend on the eth? No, the eth. We can't take over a regular meeting. That's not the way we want it first. So shoot for the first because the public assumes that
067Thursdays are you know kind of when we do it. Um and before sometime before that between here well at some point we start well I guess we will have had ongoing communication to the public right and we will have primed them to come to them that if they want to have some say so in the firm that we use to come to this that they come to this and then we've come up with a a Google form for feedback. Mhm. So that May one is cutting really close to are we going to do virtual meets because that's only one week from when we decide on but get people here questions we choose someone in North Carolina. I think if we choose anyone out of state, it has to be via Zoom, right? I mean, it
068would have to be because we're not going to fly them out. I mean, we're not Oh, absolutely not. If they want to pay for it, they're welcome to welcome to fly themselves out sometime. By the way, over here firm that's actually part of job is to pay you to fly out, not the other way. That's what recruiters do. Do we need to come up with a budget for this situation or do we first find out what let's find out is and essentially my feeling is this just from what I've said talking to to Wasa and Wazda a district our size shouldn't spend I mean we should be able to get a decent service in around the 20,000 and given our budget I don't really want to get too far out of that because there, you
069know, new le the new leadership is used by many many firms um you know many many districts that are in this state and they that's their ballpark. So I I just want to say you know we're we're not we don't have a ton of money. So I I'd say somewhere between 20K is about where I would start with thinking. What do you folks think? I think I'd like to talk to a few people. Yeah, but I mean somewhere in that ballpark. That's our I think we need a budget by the time we come up with this. Yeah. But again, recruiters usually pay for their own problem themselves if they're going to come in public, but it's fine. So, Jess, do you see any holes here since this is your your superpower? You think we're going
070to find holes as we go through this process, but I mean at this point, no. Okay. So when do we we meet these people and when do we make a decision that happens at a public meeting. Are we ready to make the public meeting at the on the 8th? I think we should. Great. So we make the decision in the regular board meeting. It has to be. It definitely has to be a public meeting because we're spending school money on it. Of course. Then when do we want to set their deadline? That's also a good thing to know is not only are they available, are they available? Yeah. Because we have to have an interim by 623, right? So what we don't want to be at 622 all clinchy. Yep. Um the interim it's is
071probably we need some especially if this is person is likely coming from outside our district. How much overlap do we want and to have with slave well and that's why having the final resignation will be great because that gives us our time too right that tells us what date he's at or do we know? We know he starts July one in the other district. I don't know if he's planning to take take a week off or just so there's no knowledge transfer that we know of set in place unless we hire by the beginning of June. Yeah, that's fun. That's really pushing. Yep. But we're not asking them to start their search. We're asking them when we interview them, what's your stable of interims like? Do you have do you have a list in your
072back pocket? Yes. that we could that of interims that could start questions. Do you have a list? Do we have do we have that? Do we have time? Yeah, that's one of the things we need to ask them in the questions. No, we need to add that to the list then. Any questions? Oh, that's not on the list. Nope, not that particular date. Yeah, that has tail. I mean find out but it needs to be specific. Yes. So we're we're looking at if there's an overlap of a week. It has to be the an interim that can isn't that how long Slate had with um Sman? Um he was given He's given a week in June. Yes, basically. Yeah, they're available to start June. What date is June one? So, they will be in June
073two. That gives you June two month June two between first first 10 days of June first 10 days of June. That gives you plenty of wiggle room at this point. Is there any which the most loved superintendent of Ash school district comes back for an interview for a knowledge transfer. It's different knowledge. No pass. I've already checked. Yeah. Is it 4,000? Oh, thank you. And can we get um Thank you. a type of written knowledge transfer from our current superintendent. Just if we get I've been through an interim superintendent before and we had a seasoned retired uh superintendent who came in and he did a splendid job. I mean essentially if we get an experienced superintendent there won't be a lot of knowledge transfer you need. I understand that but I also operate on the
074theory that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow I'd like somebody somebody to be able to fill my shoes. Same. So having some knowledge transfer coming out of one to the next to continue forward so that the new one can also he also he also has perfectly capable staff. Yes. I mean this staff can right. So it is this is not our job to do that. It is not our job to to No, it is actually our job to make sure that that transfer happens. Yeah. But it is our job to organize all the information. I think it's our job to direct him on how we would like that knowledge transfer to happen. Yes. It's not our job to at some point. No, but it's his job to make the book if we direct
075him to do so. parking lot and I think a book would be handy or at least some kind of nice friendly outline on dayto day year to year stuff that happened. Well, I'm sure that we can we will have a significant conversation regarding that. Um I just don't that that has to happen to have that conversation or it will not. Yeah. Yeah. And we have not we haven't even talked as a group and that will happen with a work session with in our next work session with slave. I mean we have to put that in. Yeah. Um, so somehow between knowing we're going into a candidate search knowing that anybody who ends up in our top three must have an interim. What if we find a great search firm and they just don't do interims?
076They're off the list. I don't think we have the time to do anything more than that. I don't think it's fair to this community. No, we can't do that. Okay. We need the community input. I mean, it's too small of an island to not have that input when it comes to that. So, what are you asking? Are you asking I'm asking when we talk to these when we go through our list and we're calling all these firms and we say, "Do you have a list of available interim superintendent that you can call up that so we can get somebody in here?" And if they say, "Oh, that's not that's not part of what I offer. That's not part of what my search firm does." And we I don't think that would use it because Yeah,
077I don't think it's an option. We could hire the interim. The interim could come in and do a great job of their their hat in the ring and get hired, but we can't make that decision without the community. We don't have the timeline for that. Yep. Okay, great. I think we're at a tough timeline, right? That we're voting on the interim. So, it doesn't make sense if there's a a company or a firm that doesn't offer that. Well, let's put it this way. I think it'll be a lot more expensive if we run the two companies. Yes. Yeah. Right. And I This is a package, right? Yeah. It's usually a package and we need to go with a company that offers that. Okay. So, we've known from these interviews that someone they feel confident they
078will have somebody because we're saying in April, are you going to have someone available for us in June? Mhm. Hopefully. Yeah. You know, no one's going to wait for us. No. You know, and we can't pay them to wait, right? So, hopefully they have enough people in their Well, I think that's part of what the research we're doing right now is is you know where we sit. So, we've got a working timeline that if we need to adjust this timeline, we can address this. So, here's the other the other budget consideration. Anybody know how much you pay? Hints, right? Like that's the other thing we ask. We ask we know what we were offering our current maybe also knows. Will you add that to your specifically to ask to what's the going rate for an
079interim? Let me ask my what's the average in Washington? It has to be in Washington. In Western Washington. I was about to say King Washington. You know what? There's an interum at Breton right now. I bet that's public information. The person that slave is replacing on is an all right. And she was the vice superintendent at Merc. Didn't Mary just get an internship? Who? Mary's just get an internship. for the community too. Average superintendent salary is $17,787. That's for an interim superintendent salary is $230,000. Well, the salaries on the superintendent are different than the inverse, right? The interim superintendent on a cloth pay her salary is $230,000 for typical pay for inter department in King County 170,000 to 200. Okay. That sounds about right. Need to large districts 210, but a small district 170 to
080200. Yep. That makes sense because when I looked at the um Yeah, that's the bottom pretty much. Sounds right. Who were we going to ask about whether or not? I really don't believe there's any policy that says anything about an interim anywhere. Mary's talking. Are we willing to I think we'd have to come up with some sort of resolution if we are willing to have a soup who doesn't live here as an as an interim. Okay. All right. I think yeah obviously it's non-negotiable for the permanent hire but it is a lot to ask somebody can you come live in our community our very expensive community for a year 15 months. Yeah. You can purchase and then maybe go away. Yeah. And I think it's 12 months. It says that the shortterm contracts to 12
081months. Yeah. Like that. Um is there anything else we need to know about this month or is our hands-on work? Well, we're gonna have to start interviewing them and going from there. When's the next? Well, then we're gonna have to have them. I don't think they're just going to give us one interim candidate. No, I don't want just one. So, we need choices. So, here we go then. Then immediately we have to interview then. I think that should be public. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But so I'm saying this with full knowledge. People might be watching. How much input are we really willing to take on an interim role? Well, we don't have the time. I'm going to be really honest. We do not have the time to take a great deal because we have to. These
082people are getting jobs. I mean, we're late in this process already. May 22nd is the last board meeting for the month of May. We have to have our intern candidate figured out and voted in ready to vote on May 22nd. Thank you for checking that. That's also my daughter's 16th birthday. Sorry. No, no, it's fine. She She knows what she knows what mama signed up for. Um uh uh must vote on interim. Yeah. O that's And then we're going to say can you move here in two weeks or but maybe they don't have to move here. So maybe they just have to be with a stones throw away. So this person So that's right. this person is either is going to have to live essentially in one of the communities where our commuter students come
083from as well and rever mentioned that these or we call an emergency meeting. There's no reason we can't I think we think about calling an emergency meeting. There is absolutely May 22nd and June 12th are already set. Yeah, but I'm saying there's no reason we can't find between Yeah, I would say that gives us a deadline. Yeah, that the deadline should be I mean that's too late. Um June 12th. I mean they don't have to live here by June 22 days. We have to be able to decide this in time for people to So well the interview will be a work session. That'll be a public work session so people can see and We'll have this Google form and we'll get some public feed. So, we're also we're also going to do a a second
084Google form for the inter. Great. Yeah. Yeah. It should be a Google form, but I don't think we can. This community has to be involved. What about the teachers? Everyone can. Okay. So the question then is the public decision is to vote on the search form. Then the interview of the candidates, can that happen a week later in a special session? Yep. And I think it has to. So we're going to we're going to pretend 5:15 is a date that we call a special session. Special meeting. Yeah. I think it gives us a good timeline to get started. Okay. I think we have to be cautious that once we do the figuring out things, this might shift a little bit, but it might, but it gives us a good layout in a reality check on
085what we're looking after. Is this enough for tonight? I think it probably is. I think it is until we figure out. So, are are we going to have a executive session to discuss the knowledge transfer with Dr. Machi, I think so. I think we need to come up with a plan, but doesn't have to be executive session. Yeah, I don't think that's something we do. I don't think that's legal to do that. You can't do executive session is personnel only or real estate. So, we would have to have it as a work session. That was a session of some form. A meeting. We need to figure it out. And I think we need to consider scheduling that soon after a final resation proceeds. Give him the time to create that documentation. So, so that would
086be week of you don't know what's going on on his calendar. Well, we uh if he is telling us the 17th right now. So, we're having do we do we invite him to part of this work session? Yeah, why not? Or we could do it even I don't know if he he wants to be or he needs to be involved. Oh, yeah. Not about this about the knowledge transfer. We need Oh, right, right, right. No, I'm just thinking about the work. He's going to be super busy. No, I don't. It doesn't matter to me if he participates in this part. But if we But we need him. We could do a two-parter work session. And the agenda is, determine the final three search firms. Yeah. And talk to him about succession planning. I think it
087would start with succession planning for sure. Yeah, that's a good idea. So on the 18th we let's see if he's available. But if he's not available, then we do that session planning later, right? Regardless to remind you all that we also have all the negotiation stuff and all of that, of course. And and that is I mean I when when were they hoping to have that all wrapped up? Well, I mean question it the thing is I'm just being honest. Um negotiations hopefully will be wrapped up before the end of June but often we have negotiated in July and August. So the interim may be negotiated. So what I I mean that that is a possibility which is why we need an interim with with experience. Um not someone that is yeah someone who has
088negotiated contracts because hopefully it'll be done but I've spent many a time in July when everybody came back you couldn't reach an agreement in June. You waited, you know, July, everybody takes a vacation. You come back late July and we were negotiating into August. So that is a possibility. Is that normal? That's not unusable. I'm just saying. Yep. Well, we there's only so many things we can control. Yeah. And that we can't control. Um I just got it. Nope. It's pointed out an incidence. Okay. I think we got a good plan. Okay. I'm messaging Slade right now to check on his availability on the 22nd to talk about succession planning. Great. Okay. So, do you know that you can take pictures of things on micros and um AI will transcribe it? What? Pretty cool. How
089does that happen? Computers. It's one of the few things that I'm saying. Yes. I should probably take a picture. I this is what you know everybody this this shows my age. It's not something we usually do. I feel like I want to take a picture of all of you guys. Exactly. Yep. Oh jeez. I just got a chart. Okay. All right. I feel pretty good about this, y'all. It's a lot and it's all necessary. Yep. And I feel like we're well positioned to take this do do our part to take this as far as we can. And then hopefully we're going to find somebody really great who's a great partner for us. Yes, that's what I mostly hate this term, manifest. We're gonna manifest a really dynamic partner who's who will know how to do
090all of this. Who will shepherd this process? Yes, that's their job. And deliver to us really great candidates. Yeah. Hopefully first get us a perfectly competent. They don't need to be logical, but a competent interim. Yep. Keep things steady. If they're magical, even better, but highly competent is really form would be helpful. Well, all I can say is we have done it before in the past. You know, that is absolutely true. All things happen for a reason. It's just going to be any more question. I mean, if people come up with other questions, shoot them to me. I'll organize this and make it look good. Um, what I'll probably do is make it into a spreadsheet and it'll be a tab with the other thing. So, toggle back and forth. Thank you. And I will
091call you we can have Teraki and I'll help you out. All right. All right. Uh, how's Jamie? Um, actually, I'm going to call this meeting too. Let's go. Yeah. Uh, it is 8:07. Uh, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Liz.