001okay everyone we're live okay great uh it's uh 7 18. uh we have a quorum this is the special meeting of the board of education uh the topic tonight is to announce new superintendent of the western public schools um before we do that i'd like to give a little bit of background on the search process um during the month of january and february the board through our search consultant dr joe hardy conducted interviews with staff administration we sent out a simple survey we held two community forums to gather information and recommendations that would help us in the search for the new superintendent in addition we formed the hiring committee that consisted of the board and five additional members representing the school community and the community at large we did a national search we received 28
002strong applications across geography gender and race out of the 28 we picked the top eight we went through an interview process uh we then moved forward with the top three candidates and took them through a rigorous interview process including the formal presentation to the hiring committee on a specific and relevant case study through this process and guided by the community voice it became apparent to the hiring committee that we didn't need to look any further than westin to find the next superintendent i'm thrilled to announce that lisa wallach will be the next superintendent of the western schools lisa has dedicated her career to the western children lisa brings over 30 years of experience in westin and 13 years as principal of western high school through lisa's leadership western high school is recognized consistently as one
003of the top performing schools in america lisa is an innovator collaborator effective communicator and has strong relationships in the entire community the board is thrilled excited to work with lisa to see her carry out the many accomplishments of the westin high school to the entire district please everyone join me in wishing lisa much success in her new role as we write the next chapter in western public school history together and congratulations lisa well done well deserved and we all look forward to working with you in the future um maybe uh i can have some other born members who might want to comment before we move to motions and start um i just want to say that the decision was unanimous we um saw some really incredible candidates and yet the spirit and heart and dedication
004creativity um excitement that she brought to the room made the decision very very easy and we were are so thrilled and we think that this is really something that we will look back on in years to come and and we're very very uh proud as a board to be supporting her yes i i think um everything that tony and taffy has said are are felt throughout um the entire committee including the advisory committee uh it just became so obvious to us that excellence exists in in weston i mean we do education well here in weston and and lisa is a testament to that and her record at the high school has outshone the other sitting superintendents accomplishments that we looked at and we can't wait to see what she does for the entire district so
005we're very excited about this choice and um it's representative of the community's uh involvement and the things that we learned throughout the entire search process about what um what we're looking for in our next superintendent here in weston i just want to say lisa a huge congratulations um and and just so everyone knows this was no small task because we were we are the number two district in the state and we are to borrow someone else's words we are looking from going from excellent to exceptional and it was going to take a very special individual to take us to that exceptional echelon and why we while we are a very high caliber district um you know there are some segments of our district that i would say are in turn around mode and so we
006were looking for that special individual who was going to help us in that turn around mode areas and i know lisa we will be getting with great partnership we'll be getting to work on day one so thank you and congratulations thank you ruby i'll go all right was thrilled to be part of the hiring committee and i was more thrilled to see lisa get the recognition that she so deserves lisa's passion was clear to all of us it's seated in her engagement with all students the faculty and the western community she strikes just the right balance of creativity and academic rigor while keeping her students well-being as her first priority always lisa models philanthropy in the truest sense her ten years of work with builders beyond borders has improved the educational infrastructure of guatemala helped
007build sustainable housing and has inspired students who are truly global citizens lisa's work ethic is unmatched as we have all seen lisa greets her students every morning and attends their extracurricular commitments as every student's cheerleader lisa knows our schools and our town better than anyone i know and will successfully navigate the challenges that we face lisa empowers students and faculty to be the change they want to see and is an exceptional role model i am proud to call her our superintendent i am honored to work with her be challenged by her and see this district grow to greatness under her leadership we're very very proud of you and very very honored to be working with you lisa thank you thank you thank you hilary the feeling smooch so lisa congratulations um and as you well
008know i know very well people who had you as a teacher when you first came to this district and and to be personally attached to your journey um from a new teacher here in this district up through being an administrator in this district and now taking the lead of this of this district um just kudos to you um your dedication to our town and our district is admirable and just congratulations again job well done thank you gina i'll i'll add um the competition was fierce and the fact that you rose over and above everybody is a is a testament to your record lisa and i think more important you know the identity of weston you know who we are and i think that's going to carry us a long way and and more importantly you
009know you know the team and uh you have a very strong team behind you and i think that all bodes well with um for the recipe for success so congratulations thank you victor i appreciate it great uh there was and i was i was debating whether to say this or not but i am going to say okay it was one at least i had one line in the interview process um that for me is going to stick with me for forever and she said you know you're going to have candidates who love children but i love weston's children and and i and that and that for me um encapsulated uh lisa it just it just was so encapsulating uh of what lisa was all about um and i i think that that line is gonna
010resonate with me for a very very long time um so uh anyone else want to say anything or we can move to the uh the motions that we have to move to tonight okay so um who's gonna have we have two motions this evening okay i have it okay all right i moved that the western board of education in accordance with connecticut general statutes section 10 157 hereby selects lisa wolek to serve as the western superintendent of schools commencing on the start date of july 1 and that the board chair be authorized to execute the contract on behalf of the board with respect to lisa wollack's employment as superintendent of schools second second all in favor i ruby hi taffy i'm melissa i'm hilary hi gina hey victor hi tony all opposed okay motion motion
011passes congratulations lisa thank you so much i am i i really appreciate it uh it's truly an honor and a privilege to serve as western superintendent and for me to be able to support our children through this k-12 uh journey um i'm i'm looking forward to it i i feel very very fortunate because um we have a terrific district staff here in weston that every day frankly demonstrates their commitment to to our children and and i look forward to partnering with the community to really ensure that um the western schools bring out the very best that weston has to offer so um thank you for believing in me and um i just i so appreciate your support great um before we do uh the second motion uh i want to really publicly thank the advisory
012group members who really helped in this process tremendously they represented parents they represented the unions uh they represented other town boards uh um they uh we we had um they represented our uh diversity equity and inclusion initiative in town um and so i i they were extremely helpful in probing in areas where quite frankly the board um learned a lot from them and it really really helped in the hiring process so i publicly you know who you are i publicly want to uh thank you uh for helping us in this process but now we have to disband the hiring committee so we need a motion for that move that the western board of education terminate the search process for superintendent of schools and dismiss the superintendent's search committee second second okay uh all in favor
013hi taffy hi ruby i'm melissa hi gina hi hillary hi victor hi tony all opposed okay motion passes and finally i i want to thank dr joe arardi of jay consultant uh who without his help in guiding us through this very very complicated process uh we would be uh struggling at best uh i think that uh thank you dr herrardi um and uh thank you for all all your help um and with that um again congratulations lisa um and uh let's get started uh so with that let's uh can i have a motion to adjourn so moves okay meeting adjourned thank you thank you all