001All right. Uh, I'm going to call this to order. Um, like to welcome everybody to our Wednesday, June 4th, uh, special board meeting. Um, can I get a roll call? Vinnie here, Christie here, Bradley here, Stacy here, here, Silva here, Linaman here. All right, we have form. Uh, if you please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by uh, invocation by Superintendent Harris. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Bow your heads with me, please. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day that you've provided for us. I just want to say thank you for keeping our students safe at the end of the year with the tornado and helping us
002able to finish that that last week of school. Thank you providing for our community. I just pray that you're with us tonight during this meeting. Help us conduct the business of the school district that would be pleasing unto you. For it's in your precious name that I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. We don't have anything under the consent agenda. No. No. Correct. That's my thought. So, we'll move to the minutes. Uh, section four, approval of the minutes of the special board meeting of the board of education held on May 6th, 2025. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Roll call. Christie, I. Bradley, I. Stacy, I. Currin, I. Silva, I. Linen, hi. Vinnie, I All right. Uh we'll move to section 5A, retirements and resignations. It's recommended the filing retirements and resignations listed
003below and on the GCSD9 website be accepted. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Bradley. I Stacy. Hi. Currin. I. Silva. I. Linamman. Hi. Vinnie. I Christie. I. All right. Section 5B1, employment of a Prather Elementary 6th grade teacher for the 2526 school year. Yes, you've received uh detailed information about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for the discussion executive session. The GCSD9 administration and interview committee are recommending Jessica Thompson as Prather Elementary 6th grade teacher for the 2526 school year. Approval is recommended pending the submission of the required paperwork. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Stacy. I. Currin. I. Silva. I. Linaman. I. Vinnie. I. Christie. Hi. Bradley. I. Section 5P2. Employment of two GCSD9 custodians for the 2526 school year. You've received detailed information about the site and the
004administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. The GCSD9 administration interview committee are recommending Braden Dickerson and Alex Wright as GCSD9 custodians for the 2526 school year. Approval is recommended pending the submission of the required paperwork. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Currin. I. Silva I. Linaman. I. Vinnie I Christy I Bradley I Stacy I section 6A request to intervene in appeal proceedings at the property tax appeal board. The GCS9 administration requests that the board of education approved the resolution so that district attorney Tom Skoolie can intervene at the property tax appeal board with regard to the following appeal proceeding in Madison County Illinois. Approval is recommended. So moved. Second discussion. Tom, do you want to kind of just explain this? Five warehouses industrial complex. This is for tax
005year 2024. All five of these also were at for tax year 2023. This is one where uh the board authority to spend uh $12,500 to get appraisals. So, we do have appraisals for both the 23 and the 22. This is just more and and we're not the only district that kind of is in on this, right? Beach is in on it. Um, we have been reimbured for Edwardsville School District is on it. They have reimbured this for their share of the appraisals. MSB is Metro San Diego. All right. Uh, roll call. Silva. I Linman. Hi, Vinnie. I Christy. Hi, Bradley. I Stacy, I All right. Section 6B, policy and administrative procedures. Yes. So, what I'd like to do is uh just read through the administrative procedures that we're we're looking to have approved. Um obviously,
006if there's some discussion, there'll probably be some discussion on it. If we need to make amendments, we can. But I'm just going to read through these so the public can hear what we're proposing. Human resources. So these are the interview administrative procedures on that we're presenting. So human resources will receive the current job analysis and description to ensure the accurately reflects the required knowledge, skills, abilities and essential functions of the position. Two, human resources will post the position dependent on the contractual requirements internally, externally, bid, etc. At the conclusion of the application deadline, human resources will conduct a paper screening of all applicants to look for minimum qualifications, spelling, grammar, and select candidates to be interviewed. If necessary, the human resources department will conduct a virtual screening interview to determine qualified candidates to be scheduled
007for our formal interview. Bullet point. Human resources will maintain accurate and confidential records of all interview related documents including applications, interview questions, evaluation forms, notes, and reference check information in accordance with district policy and legal requirements. Upon the conclusion of the application window, human resources will send the list of applicants to the board of education. Four, determine the composition of the interview committee, ensuring representation from relevant department stakeholders. Example, human resources, hiring manager, administrators. Five, human resources will develop a structured set of interview questions aligned to the job requirements and the KASAs. Development consistent rating scale, an example one through five, uns unsatisfactory to outstanding to ensure objective and consistent assessment across all candidates. Next bullet point, create an interview evaluation form or rubric that includes the questions, evaluation criteria and rating scales. Six, human
008resources will conduct will coordinate an interview schedule ensuring adequate time for each interview and breaks for the interview team. Communicate interview details, date, time, location, interview team members, format in person, virtually, clearly, and promptly to candidates. Provide candidates with all necessary information or instructions prior to the interview. Seven, conduct the conducting the interview. Time will be allotted one hour prior to the interview for the interview committee to review applicant resumeumés, cover letters, and interview questions. Adhere to the predetermined interview questions and ask them in the same order for all candidates. Allow candidates sufficient time to respond fully to each question. Practice active listening skills, including maintaining eye contact, nodding, and asking clarifying questions. Each member of the interview team will independently review their notes and evaluate each candidate based on the predetermined criteria and rating
009scale. Post interview, the interview team will meet to discuss their individual evaluations and share their observations. Human resources will conduct a thorough reference check for top candidates. Human resources will conduct background checks in accordance with district policy and legal requirements. This may include criminal history checks, child abuse registry checks, and verification of credentials. Selection and offer. Based on the interview evaluations, reference checks, and background checks, human resources will make a final selection. If necessary, the top three candidates will be brought in for a second interview. Upon the final interview or consensus of the hiring committee, human resources will extend a formal offer of employment to the selected candidate outlining the terms and conditions of employment pending board approval. The candidates recommended for hire will be sent to the board of education for approval at the
010next board of education meeting. Upon request, the board of education may receive the cover letters and resumes of candidates that were interviewed. Human resources will communicate respectfully and professionally unsuccess with unsuccessful candidates in a timely manner. So, uh, we have some discussion, I'm sure. Um, and so I I'll start I'll start. Um um are we are we being asked to make this an actionable item or not? Are we voting on this? Yes. Then we need a motion a motion to second. Yeah. I'd like it to be held for executive session. Okay. For what purpose? A little more clarification. No. Well, we it have to be an open session. As long as you're not talking about someone in particular. Okay. I got you. It has to be an open session. I move to approve. Second. All
011right, now we can talk discussion. Um, so just a just a couple things um as we go through here. Um, for me, um, I see under the conduct number seven, conducting the interview, I I mean I have concern with an hour being adequate time for people to review. if we turned one hour maybe into one day. So that I I mean if you have four or six or what have you, an hour I don't think is enough time for people to really be able to compare and contrast and and look at look at them. Um so my thought is that probably needs more time um in the in this. So with that, are you meaning come down to the HR office and look at that stuff or do you mean that? I don't know how.
012I mean, you tell me how it's done now. It's so it's not sent to them. When I first started, there were some things that I felt like were kind of leaked out, names, things that um I felt like we needed to kind of rein in to make sure that we're maintaining the confidentiality of those applicants. So, it it can change. That's just what we've been doing um thus far. So, yeah, I do I mean I think they have to have more than an hour. I don't I don't think that that's I mean if I was I I only look at it from my perspective. If I if you gave me six six resumes and cover letters and everything else taking an hour worth of time, I I don't think it's fair to them and I
013don't think it's fair to the candidate, right? Um you might be able to skim over that and be like, okay, uh you know, what have you, but I I think they need more time. I I'm I don't know that a day is it, but I know an hour is not it. Um, so that's that's something that I think I think a little more time would be needed. Yeah. So you'd like that shared with them ahead of time just with the committee? Yes, just with the committee um in this instance, right? Um, another question I had was uh the next bullet point underneath that um the predetermined questions is that like required like you have to ask them the same questions. And then once again, the the only reason I asked that is because if I
014interview these three, inevitably I'm going to have a question for one of them because of a question, right? Um, so I mean, I can even address this. As someone that participates in educational hiring a lot, we are not like legally mandated, but you need to because otherwise if you have any irregularities or inconsistencies from one interview to the next, that can open you up to be liable for litigation. for special treatment. But like I'm saying, if you have a follow-up question, uh you need to keep them pretty limited and you need to try to ask the same questions across. It has to be very standardized because otherwise you're giving each person a different interview. I can tell you one thing, just recently we did and that's why they conducted a second interview. uh they brought
015someone back in because they felt like they needed to ask some more of those clarifying questions and so they they brought someone back in to ask them some of those things that they had concerns about and that's why they did a second interview uh to handle some of that stuff. Um and I know that's is that the primary use of a second interview is to ask those questions you wanted to ask in the first one but couldn't. Um we use secondary interviews for a couple different things. One it could be that second interview is another tier. So, I'm a building principal. So, I have my interview committee with usually my building people and me. Then the second interview would go to like the district level, the superintendent or I might be involved in that. It
016could be for clarifying or it could be we had a robust applicant pool. We've narrowed them down and now they've met the second tier and so we're narrowing them down as we go to hire. Sorry, I don't want to speak for the district. I've just been actively engaged in this, including today. Yeah, I mean I would agree there's probably some follow-up questions if you might have something with that, but we try and stick to that specific area to the point where you have to turn in your notes. Like if you write responses to the questions I ask, we have to keep those on file in case we get to so you do have to ask the same question. I was going to ask you to keep those on. That's just best practice to ask so
017that everybody's being rated consistently and fairly. And then there's I'm not saying I have a problem with everybody being asked the same question. I'm just saying inevitably like I mean you know uh you're gonna I mean have a clarifying clarifying question but it's still going to be centered around that same subject area that you're discussing. There is some discretion like you're not it's not going to be an invalid interview if you don't but then you need to document what you asked and what they answered and that it was a follow-up and tie it to the question that was agreed upon by the committee or the district however it goes. Okay. Um, under eight, the post interview, it says the interview team will meet and discuss their individual evaluations. Is there like a time that they
018do they do that right then or they typically do it right after? Okay. Um, they complete scales prior to that though, right? Like So they do that during the interview or post the interview or like privately and then you discuss after everything's correct. You normally give a little bit of time between each interview so they can fill that out. Yeah. Um, Adam, is it still the practice that the evaluations is done in a ranking format where they rank candidates from one through whatever? So, we right now there's a rubric under each question that kind of has a one through five and then there's a total score based upon that. Then we discuss at the end after we kind of use that information to discuss then who's the top, you know, three of the points who
019have the highest score. So, so in the interview committee um itself, how do we determine how do we pick the interview committee? You know what I'm saying? And I mean because I know it's going to be different for every building or every you know what how how do we go about picking the interview committee? So I mean obviously Adam's in on most of them um as as a central office with with him and you know if it's a certain building we'll look into that building principal. uh if it's an area where we may need uh say it's custodian obviously we try and have Eric on that those type of situations if it's a specific thing uh when we look at coaches obviously that's going to probably be the building principal and the uh ad uh
020at the junior high it's probably going to be Pat Curry um depending on where it is severity of it or the level of it we might include a an administrator from central office as well and you probably speak some more to that and That is pretty much it, right? Yeah. But we don't want it to just be one person. We try and have three. Um we haven't done any administrative interviews this year, but I can tell you when we have administrative interviews uh for principal jobs, a lot of times that's people that are going to be central office people. Uh they're going to be down here and we will have somebody from special ed. We'll have somebody from elementary, secondary, and then that's when I sit in on the interviews as well as the superintendent.
021Uh and then Adam will be on those as well. Um, the only other thing I don't want to hog all the all the questions here. We can all just take. Um, so, uh, under number nine, selection and offer, under the fourth bullet point, I'm sure this is what it means. I'm sure this is what it's intended. And if not, I I apologize, but I'm sure this what it means, but I think just being clear, it says upon the upon request, the board of education may receive. I I think it probably should to be clear it should say upon request upon the request of any board member it would be provided to the entire board of education because it makes it sound like one so if one asks everybody gets a yes and everybody if one
022uh it makes it sound like we have to have a meeting vote on it and go yes we want them you know but and by then it'd be too late so yep on the request from one board member all right so Adam did you or you got any more? I don't have any. Okay. So, no, I just want I want to go back before we go though cuz back to seven bullet point one. Um, I think we need to just put in there that it will be shared with the interview committee. This is just an aesthetic thing that literally just occurred to me. It's not anything major, but for future policies like it might be helpful instead of like the bullet point to have like a B, you know, under it for Sorry, I was
023counting bullet points there. You can call it. We can update that on the uh while it's just an aesthetic thing, honestly. No, no, no. I I It helps to be specific. Some stuff was added in there with the bullet points. We at first we just we put we went into more detail. So, sorry, what did we just say for bullet point one? So, one, it sounds like everybody was wanting the allotted one hour. They wanted that shared with the interview committee prior. uh to that. So, we'll we'll look at time. Are we specifying how long or we just are agreeing more than an hour? I'm I can go either way on it. I don't know what the board wants. So, I mean, if you're going to share it, you're going to send it out. I
024I I don't we just have to be we will talk with them about confidentiality and the responsibilities of those things and it has to be followed and if we start having problems with that then we'll address we'll address with those specific people. But we will uh that's been a practice That's been something that's done in the past that's been emailed out. Um, so we'll we'll put that out. You know, once you're selected, we'll give you the information. Another option might be it's in a Google Drive where like he's the only Adam's the only owner. Everybody else can only view. So then they can't be sharing that out with people, too. I mean, you can really lock it down. Yeah. Google Drive will be shared and I think a few days prior to Yeah. Okay. So,
025did you want to go over anything else? I mean, I went over Did I get all the other ones that you mentioned? Uh we did that one. We did we'll change that one to any board member. Yeah, I wrote that on as well. So any one request but we all receive it. If one of us requests it. So I put upon request from one board member the board of education time and you know may receive. Sounds good. Okay. I see we're saying right just to just to keep this kind of and and as I've talked to a few of you separately is you know when we have when we present this this can obviously be held like Lori went to hold earlier and we can go back in executive session and talk about a specific
026person and share uh bring some of that information and talk about that more so than just the resumes. We can actually talk about the interview and how that went and discuss that stuff with each of you. Obviously, we can't do that in an open session, but that is something and I think that's that hasn't happened since Adam and I have been in these positions, but I know that has been done in the past where we brought some stuff in and talked about um and we can bring that documentation and we can bring people on the interview committee depending on their availability because a lot of times when it's principles, they might have things going on in their night, their building that night, but we we try and do that as well. So, those requests, if
027you want to hold something, we can do that. Obviously, if we know ahead of time, we can make sure the right people are here to discuss it to to just keep us organized here. Why don't we start at one end and go to the other? Does that make that make sense? And that way if we cancel something out, right? It might hit somebody's question and you know Yeah. This is pretty standard based on other districts that I've worked in. One question I have just for clarity, this is intended to be a se sequential, right? like using what we just talked about asking for the applications materials that's happening after the hire offer has been made. We're not asking that at like step one when you're selecting. That's what we're looking at. Yeah. Is that it
028for you or I think that's all I have for now. Yeah. All right, Randy. So, one question I had about the the point system. So, we're going to grade and we're going to have a point system, but it sounded like that wasn't going to be the determining factor to rank them one, two, three, or four. If the points isn't the determining factor on ranking them, what is the determining factor? So that's one of the factor like we asked the candidates or the interview committee to kind of tally up their points and then in addition um you know there were conversations even happened today with um you know who perhaps we didn't ask you know enough questions that we felt like were fitting that particular. So, we wanted to bring that person back even though their
029points might not have been at the highest level, but we knew that they had subbed in the district and their interview wasn't wasn't great. We want to go ahead and give them a second interview, but these are some questions in that second interview that we feel like are important to ask. Um, so so those questions in the second interview, are they going to be the same questions that you asked the original candidates or do they get additional questions? So, those will be new questions based upon. So like for example today um in we wanted to ask some specific behavioral questions about kind of supervision of students interacting with students. How are you going to manage that for the position we were interviewing today because that's not something that we kind of touched on um heavily
030in the in the first round of interviews. So kind of targeting those interview questions back to what are we looking for? Is it a cultural fit? Is it kind of meeting the needs of what we're looking for within that next round if we haven't touched on that? But it still would be a standard set of questions in that next round of interview. So it would be a next round for a couple of people or a next round for one person. Typically we bring back the top two to three people. Okay. Then the reason I asked that is if it's so important that we have standardized questions for the initial interview, I think that you're not holding it fair by having a second round of interviews and not giving those applicants that were in the first
031round an opportunity to answer other questions. So you're saying you get these six, but if I call you back, you're going to get six different questions that they didn't get an opportunity to answer. But they didn't clear the first round, right? That's what I was trying to clarify. They clear the first round. Now they So it's only for people that clear the second round. It's not like, hey, we didn't ask enough questions to this one person. Let's call that person in and ask questions. No, it's like a tournament style. So, so and then another one we had a person that we knew was we knew was the top. Yeah. Just recently and but we wanted to bring them back in cuz we wanted to make sure that they were going to culturally fit with some
032of our other stuff. So, we did ask different questions, but they were still the ones that was going to be the recommendation. So, and then and then your score might be different than my score. And that's why we have the conversations cuz then we're like then we can kind of talk it out a little bit and be like, "Wait a minute now. Yeah, I scored that down, but I see what you're saying now." And then collaboration to come to consensus on the right person. I have a question related to the points a little bit because anyone that's conducted interviews that it's been an interview knows that sometimes interviews don't go great and that's not always an accurate representation of who you are. So, have there been is there any consideration or anything in place in
033terms of like almost rubricizing like experience or references, you know, anything to that degree where like cuz that also factors into a or maybe the person is just a terrible interviewer. Yeah. Like I can tell you I've hired I actually this year I hired a new student teacher. He knows so he's fine. It's fine. I don't care if he sees this. Um his interview was terrible. But I also he basically auditioned for me all the school year because he student taught and so he was going I feel like that when I'm in sitting on interviews because obviously a lot of my my times for an administrator position. I look at that as well knowing their body of work. They've been working in our district for how long and see what they do. So I get
034it and interviews a part of it and a big part of it. But I look at some of that stuff is that I'm as I'm making these decisions myself and and that's when I start to have those conversations with the group as well. Yeah. because like it's hard I you need to have a points and because you have to have some kind of system and documentation but that is limited if you're only scoring the interview and so I just wanted to know like cuz some people are great interviews and they just don't or terrible employees. Yeah. And that lesson too and that's some of that's the follow-up questions that when we call references and things along those lines. Adam's been conducting more interviews. as my that was my next question was sorry are we building
035the scale for your she's still this is superior and this is under you know so it's the same question you know are we going to have something like that okay you have anything else um yeah I do I just want to make a uh a statement this is kind of to the entire board and to the community um the last few days for me has been kind of stressful like I've been trying to review all the information and and making sure that we're making good decisions for the district and the community. So, I thought it was important that I share just kind of a blanket statement for everybody to think about as we get ready to vote, you know, on a new policy. Uh, I want to highlight the importance of transparency and accountability and
036trust within district governance. um emphasizing that withholding information from board members kind of undermines our ability to make good decisions and to fulfill our duties and foster an environment um that undermines what we're trying to do. Uh it's easy to scrutinize whether decisions are being made in the best interest of students or the community or driven by self-interest or administrative favoritism when policies are being presented. So, it's easy for the community to kind of scrutinize us. So, I think it's important that we take these things seriously when we're voting. Um, we need to have honest leaders, leadership, integrity, and open communication because we don't want past abuse to come back and get us. Uh, during the hiring process, information needs to be shared with openness and trust. I encourage that you as the community uh
037remain vigilant and hold elected officials accountable, ensuring that policies prioritize the district's best interest over individual and administrative agendas. We as a district need to foster a culture of integrity and shared responsibility. I think it's important that we all do the right thing no matter what what the outcome is. So, it's really all I have to share. Thank you. Thank you, Becky. You're up. Thank you. I don't have a statement but uh only question on the questions and the interviews are how do we come up with the questions it you or like the interview committee do they get to like have input that the principles or whoever or how how is that done? So currently um we develop them based upon what the job description is. Um and that's kind of the first round. Then
038when we bring people in for the second round that's when we'll ask for input of you know did we did we miss something? Are we looking for something specific? Um, but that first round is typically developed by the HR office. Okay. And it's pretty consistent like ideally you've only you haven't been here full year yet. This is my I'm almost done with my first year. Almost done. Not done. Almost completed and you're continuing. Um, those I would assume are then stored in like next year you would probably do those same unless like something was glaring that you had to make a change. But like it's not like you're inventing the wheel every time you have an interview for a So, it's been something we've been working on updating as I've started just kind of reviewing
039those questions. Um, but you know, open to doing something different. That's just what we've done this year. I mean, I guess if like a PR or somebody on the interview comm you you know like I don't know what the situation would be, but obviously like a certain kind of teacher or somebody that works well in their building if they have something that's important in their building or something. As long as you get that in there prior to giving the questions to everybody. Yes. Ahead of time once they know they're on the interview committee or whatever. Being on many interviews as a principal, I know that there was there's a big bank of questions that um that you look at and you know you're hitting some of those key points uh for the different positions. So
040I think and what Adam has is that bank right of that has been developed over the years. And so it's just putting that together. I think it's honestly from when I was on committees as a building principal, it was sometimes walking in at the last minute and putting questions together. So, we're ahead of the game a little bit on that so people can kind of see what they are and have a better understanding. Um, and well, even then when we were just putting questions together, a question that I may have had may not be the question that I ask. We normally would just go in order and ask the questions. Do the interviewers get to add a question or is this just come straight from HR? These are the questions we want you to ask.
041Kind of Currently, it comes from HR. Yeah. Okay. Just curious. If a if a an interviewer though said I'm sorry, I didn't make that noise. Um if an interviewer said like, "Hey, I think we should ask this." Is that something that can be added? Yeah. So, right now there's if it makes sense. Yeah. So right now the the benefit of us doing it currently is just that we've tried to have a consistent rubric that gives kind of look fors to that one to five rating scale. So there's kind of prompts that you're looking for of like did they give a detailed response? Were they missing this key thing? So that's it's not that you as long as we're consistent in asking those questions though if there's something that's missing we we can add that at
042that time. Uh but I think we the last minute keeps the preparation out of it unfortunately to to set a rubric exactly how you're looking for. Um I mean I would think most people like if they knew this position was coming open like a building principal might say this is important for my building but I don't obviously they shouldn't wait till the day of the interview. That should come ahead of time. Did you have a comment? Yeah and what Adam says is absolutely correct. I mean most of the questions that are developed are j you're made to that particular position to be built but more importantly there is an AP that that we had the board has that has been developed by press which talks about the questions not to be asked and that is
043just as important as right has developed you can ask right don't want to get in trouble there by asking yes you got any kids question what did you make at your last Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. You don't ask that. I also learned this year cuz my school we had a favorite of like, hey, we're having a poll like what are you bringing just to like get to know somebody, but we're tightening up our hiring practice this year. And we had to eliminate that because that's not relevant to the job and you could show discrimination if I like what someone else is bringing versus I mean, we obviously wouldn't decide the hiring on that, but to that extent like those questions have to be accounted for and right. So that that was sad. I had to
044get rid and what are you reading? I like that one too. You have to be very careful. See, that's unfair because I'd be like nothing. And then if I didn't hire you, then it would be like trying to get a bribe. Do you have anything else? I think that's Yeah. Uh I've got a few here. Um, one of them is on the rubric that we're talking about and we've got that, you know, say on a total score, is every question weighted equally or are or are they is there waiting to the questions? And what I'm getting at is I'm sure in terms of importance, not every question is as important as another one. There's, you know, the second question may not be as important as the fifth, yet do they score equally in the in
045the rankings? So, currently there's not a waiting system. It's something we can look into. Um, but that's um, it's just a standard one through five for each question and then they total the score. Okay. Okay. Um, I think that might get a little tricky if we started waiting things. I don't I feel like I don't I'm not saying you have to wait every question, but there are certain ones that are going to like, you know, okay, they better do good on this one or they better have a solid answer. Say if it's on the interview question list, all of them better they better do well on it. But you think they're all weighted equally? I think they should be all weighted equally because if one's less important then they probably don't need to be on
046the interview list like because a lot of times people have too many questions in interviews too. Right. Right. Okay. Um on uh let's see what was the next one of these is kind of already answered and um this was something that's come up people have asked me in the past uh and this had to do with people who are not chosen who we do not hire. Uh, do we offer any kind of feedback? Not that we offer it. If they ask, do we offer any kind of feedback? Because I've had several people come to me who said, you know, I asked for what I could do better on my resume or I asked for what, you know, I could have done better in the interview and they pretty much got ghosted. And this, not you.
047Um, but I was just wondering if there's if we're willing to do that cuz I feel like we should if there, you know, I'm not saying if everyone asks, okay, that's a time problem, but I feel like it's probably not that many people that ask about that kind of a thing and we probably could answer. Yeah. Um, I have not done that. I have I would tell you I have some concerns about that just because I think you're going to engage in some conversations that you you're going to not prepared for. Yeah. you're going to have to be fairly objective, obviously factual. Um, but I think internally I'm happy to meet with any, you know, often we have internal candidates to interview for positions. Those conversations I'm absolutely comfortable having um because I think that's
048a that's a different scenario versus an external candidate who um applied or maybe not chosen for an interview. um that I'm not sure I would have to defer to Tom legally, you know, kind of what what we would be dipping into something that I just haven't that's not an experience that I've had and not sure that, you know, that's necessarily I can tell you for myself last year sitting in on some of those administrative uh interviews. I did have some staff come and ask me some different things that they could have done and and in those interviews I wasn't voting on anything and I just talked to them about some things that they could have looked at maybe answering different when they asked me about their resume but it was internal candidates that came to
049me outside of of the interview process and just kind of gave them some guidance on almost like when you're mentoring somebody when you're when you have a when you're a principal and somebody's working on their admin degree you're working with them on stuff those type of conversations but and it was our current staff. Okay. Um was the I know there's a section in there well and we've talked quite a bit about you know if if the board asks you know that that every board member gets uh the the resumes and such. Um, wouldn't it also make sense for the board so that if we're going to be digging into one, which I know is a slippery slope, too, but uh that we would also have the reasoning from the committee in terms of why they
050selected a top candidate just so we have a full picture. I guess what what information would you be looking for? Maybe the scoring, maybe the, you know, some and I mean it could even be in a uh executive session or something like that where just just so we have a full picture if it's getting to that point if it's a certain one you want like you're really concerned. Here's my thing. I I you know we got to be careful with it. I mean we hire people to make these decisions. Yeah. But if we're going to be digging that deep, does it not make sense to get the full picture? I would think if it's something that was going to be held and there was some concern about it that yeah, we could definitely bring that
051into executive session and have a conversation about that. Yeah. But I don't think for every hire they recommend, they should be justifying to us why we're doing it because their justification is always going to be this is the best person for the job and that's what I don't think and I don't think we're going to be asking for names and all that information on every hire. No, I don't think we are either. It's upon request. So there's a controversial one and we need to go to executive session. I think providing that information, maybe the score sheet. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think and that's what I'm getting at. That's what I mean. Yeah. And I'd love to bring that executive session to have that conversation. We've done that before in the past, I think. So,
052I'm Yeah, I just didn't know if that needed to be mentioned in here. I just have a question. Is this like something we would do with every teacher that's hired or just are we talking? I think it's something you were I think it was something somebody was looking to hold an executive and then we knew that ahead of time which most of the time if something's going to be held we do know ahead of time and we would have that information and we can talk about it an executive. Yeah. I don't think that's I think this is pretty much I don't I wouldn't codify in here because I don't know even know what you would say for that but I think that's a general practice on any actionable item that our board has if we
053hold it and then if we have to hold it for personnel reasons etc which this would fall under you would go to an executive session because you have privacy issues with that. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay. I'm I'm good. Anything else I have is either been answered or it's not really relevant. So I'm good. Did we? So, you're done. Yeah, I'm I'm done. Okay, Lori. Um, well, the interview team com committee members just I just had kind of a question about that when it comes to administrators. I mean, of course, teachers and so forth. Not, but um I just had a question about like the they would be administrators in the board office that are interviewing. Is it possible to think of like maybe having one of a board member there too for an administrator
054to do the interviews? Reason being it's a little bit more representative of Granite City. Not that, you know, we don't trust the people that are giving their opinion and stuff, but they may be out of town and maybe not know certain things in Granite City, you know, that people who live here would know. So, so I will tell you um as I was I was actually saving that to the end to have a discussion. Now, you didn't know, right? You didn't know. Um but I I I know when I came on the board for administrators, for principles and above, the interviews were held in here. Well, not in here. They were held in another room, but uh we sat in on them. We didn't ask questions. We just basically observed. Yeah. Um and then the
055after the interviews were done, the committee like left. They did their discussion. They did their hey uh this is our our rubric. This is our our this is our choice. And they came back in and kind of presented their choice. Um and it was held in an executive session meeting. And so at that point, I I believe that would allow us to to at least ask like that gives them the opportunity to go, hey, this is why we chose candidate A over candidate C. Um, I don't think the rubric I I think we've discover I think we know this sitting here. I don't think the rubric is the end all be all because you might have somebody who interviews terribly and their rubric might be a little bit lower but you're like they have this
056experience and we think that they are the best fit. So it's kind of like in and I'll I'll equate it to taking taking bids. Um you know we take bids but if one is like we have a company and we're like there's no way we're taking that company. we've you know we've just done business it might it's way too low or whatever you not don't necessarily take the lowest bidder and you justify why you do that and I so I would like us to go back to administrators and above principles and above having our executive session meetings and doing the interviews like that that that's what I would like for us to do I don't think it's I don't think we can have one board member who just goes to um yeah I was just
057thinking for I mean just so that there's some representation, right? No, no, no. I I I and I agree. I have some representation from Granite City as well, though. So, I said I represent Granite City pretty well, too. So, just just saying that, just throwing that out there. So, that was something I wanted to discuss cuz it kind of is wasn't necessarily in here. Um, and so that is something I wanted to discuss. I was just going to wait to the end, but since we're going now, um I that is something I would like us to see us I don't know that it has to be written down necessarily in this, but um I mean it says interview team members communicates the members. Well, we would not be interview team members. We would just be
058observers. Yeah, we would just be observers. Um because the interview committee would do the interviews. They did I like I said I've only done this one time and then they uh previous administration got rid of it. Um so uh I did this well we've done this a couple of us up here have done this once. I have not I was not able to participate which I'll get to that point in a moment. Were you gone? Huh? What? I wasn't able to participate in observing interviews but I'll get to that point in a minute when I speak. Um and so uh I I would like to see us go back to that. So I remember when I interviewed as a teacher, the entire school board was there interviewing me. I don't know that I want to
059do every teacher. That's what I mean. I was like there are a lot of teachers and a lot of other people that uh but uh I feel like us being involved in the administrators kind of gives us when we look and go, "Oh, the interview committee for the next hire is so and so, so and so and so and so." we can look and go. We have we sat in on the the interviews and the choices and things like that uh of you know this principal that per you know that central admin guy and it gives you just that much more makes you feel better. Yeah. That I know I you know we we did hear these and chose these and what have you. Um so that's my I'm it's no secret to the board.
060I think this is very problematic and here are the reasons why. One, our job as a school board is to employ the superintendent and we delegate authority to him and his administration to run the hiring process. We are not managers. ISB is very clear on that. We are not managers and managers are the ones that hire. two, while I get what you're saying, having the insights that will create inequity in our board because certain ones of us cannot ever attend those meetings. And so, why should one of seven have the privilege or advantage, so to speak, to observe those whenever we could address all of this collectively in executive session. Three, kind of on point one, we're trusting our superintendent and his administration to do these. So, if we feel it necessary to be in
061those meetings, those interviews, I feel like we're inherently saying we don't trust our administration. And if that's the case, we have some other issues to work through. Well, I'm going to tell you, I I trust our administration. And I'll be the first one to tell you that uh when I asked to go back to this, I didn't trust our administration. Yeah. Um so, what do we have to gain the insight? So, I'm just going to tell you that I I think we gain a lot. I think the process we see the process in action. I'm going to tell you uh I I can't talk about the interview we saw but obviously you you look and candidate A might be like you might be like man that was terrible you know in my mind that was
062a terrible interview. Um as far as being uh able to do it I mean we'll just have to schedule it like we normally schedule a special meeting. um it might have to be a little bit later so that like you who works till 5 can can be there but I just don't know what we stand to gain from it. And fourthly, I feel like it it kind of goes against other commonly accepted legislative practices in our country at various levels. There has to be a checks and balance and us hiring and approving is that check and balance to a recommendation brought to us. So if we're participating in that, then how are we checking that process? I don't know that you're participating and saying we're picking that one. You're still looking at their, you know,
063when they come in and go, I want candidate C. You know, that gives us the opportunity. And I think there are I think we can point if if we weren't sitting out here, I think I can point to people that this board might have said, why are we picking that person over that person? And that's when we should. But you won't know that if you're not there. I wouldn't I mean I had no idea I'm when they when we have for instance like principles that we're going to hire say that aren't in our district. I I know nothing about them. Zero about them. So I you know when you look at somebody and you're like I'm just taking I'm just taking your your recommendation really blindly, right? I mean but that's what we do every
064time we approve any action. No doubt. No doubt about it. But I think in administration, it's you have a little bit uh more to lose. As an administrator, I would tell you that a principal job is not any more important than a classroom job, than a custodial job. And I'm not being a polyiana about that. I'm being honest. And so if we're going to do that for one over others, I think that sends a bad message to the people we're hoping to attract to our district. I I and I disagree. So we can agree or disagree. Anybody else? No, I I just I worry about the slippery slope part of it because if we start doing it with one and then we do it with another and we do it with another and it's going
065to be easy to get back to the elephant in the room that we're dancing around right now is that there have been previous boards that were known for completely ignoring committee uh choices and yes throwing in who they wanted and that hasn't always worked out. And we still and we still were pushed to blindly follow them. Here's the thing. I mean I understand what you're saying about the slippers. I get that like I don't want people to meddle inside of our hires. I think that's fraudulent. But I also it doesn't matter if I'm sitting in the room or not. I'm not going to blindly vote yes to something I don't have the information for. So whether you let me sit in here and watch the interview process so I can trust that the process is
066happening or we just get here and I want everything held for executive session and we spend hours back there doing it. It doesn't matter which way you do it. I'm not going to trust it. And this not me personally. I'm just saying the process. Yeah. It doesn't matter whether we're watching the interviews or not watching the interviews, it it's not going to change how we operate here. I think for comfort and trust, I think having a board or board members watch now, you have built some credibility and trust that the process is happening correctly. I'm not saying it's not. I'm not saying I'm just saying like I can understand both sides of it. It can be very intimidating for boards sitting in on an already under pressure candidate trying to do an interview, right? But
067I also see the flip side where having a board here may also keep from the people doing the interview process doing the wrong thing. At what point go both ways? I mean it good. At what point like you we've all talked about like the rationale behind this or in favor of it is you know to build that trust you know trust and credibility whatever. So at what point do we say we've built our trust and credibility we don't need to keep watching the interviews and also what message are we sending that because we're saying we're basically telling you right now we trust you but we don't trust you and we want to watch you and see how it's done. So let's play it out. Let's say we go and we're like yeah your interview process
068is good we'll stop. Then we stop. Now we've created inconsistencies from one interviews certain interviews to others even not even the same round. So it's just it creates more inconsistencies in that apparently has happened in the past. Right. Right. We're not the past. We're like in the future now. Right. We're planning for the future. And and yes, and we are planning for the future. Superintendent Harris is not always going to be the uh superintendent. And and when things don't happen the way we like, then we call we talk to the superintendent about it. And if it still isn't getting changed, then we follow through with that in our evaluation process of that individual. I don't see that. I don't know that that's happened in the past. That's that would be my because we didn't have
069a good I mean with us now but we for me we were at a place where I didn't trust now we are. So if you make something so why is this current administration expected to bear the burden of feelings remaining from the past? Well, I think we were trying to change it before and or we have discussed this isn't new. We It's not like we've never talked about No, we've talked about this before and my points have been the Our points have all been the same before, but that's why I'm saying and before we really should have changed it and we did. I disagree. I don't think we ever should have changed it. Um, so and as far as a slippery slope, I don't I don't know where that if one board member wanted to
070meddle by themselves in it, it could happen, right? They can call whoever they want and and make and do things. But that's on that board member, not us giving an open platform for them to do. So if there's seven of us sitting here, I'm I'm going to tell you right now, I'm willing to call out a board member if they are obviously trying to manipulate the system. Well, if you're doing it behind the scenes, no one sees it until it's too late. So I I mean as so as far as a slipper slope, I I don't know that that's I I would say if we go this route, we also need to treat it similar to even though we would not be a hiring committee. If you're going to sit in on the interview for
071a given position, you need to sit in on every interview for that position. If you can't make one, you can't make any of them. Yes. Because you can't have you can't have a complete view of it. Mhm. Yeah. So, and one of the issues we had when we were doing interviews with administrators is the scheduling of them, whether we can do them in all in one night versus having to do them in two nights because then we have a situation where we really want to do an internal candidate on the second night and questions should be told to her or him. uh as far as my board member because that's that was concerning my even another interviewee. Yeah. Even another interviewee could share the question you know I mean oh by the way they asked
072me this. Yeah. And also you're creating a different circle. I mean even going two nights you're creating a equity and you know there's an like it could be different. You may as well ask them different questions because you don't know what's going on in those two nights. Are we well would we be considering like not the full we're talking about the second interview it would be with but that's what I'm getting the impression. So it would be two or three people is all it would be. You're saying I we're saying board members should observe the second I'm just saying I don't think they would start with if there's 27 people that have applied for we're not going to interview 27 people but you don't always have a second round. How many do you Oh I
073see. Okay. I wasn't sure if there's somebody that's the top candidate and honestly when you're looking at an administrative position you try and narrow it down. Yeah. If you have a lot you talk about what six seven people maybe that could be a long be a long night. I wish we had our board training already because ISB will say very clearly the board members should not be present at interviews because it's not following through with the delegating of authority and if you all look at other districts that's bad practice. I mean, my past say I feel like you that's not anything that I've ever had an experience with. I understand that's been, you know, kind of done back and forth. Um, in my previous experience, we had executive se, this is just food for thought,
074but we had executive session prior to the board meeting and that was where those conversations were had where, you know, you knew the list of names of people that were recommended for X position and then that was the time where when we were discussing a a principal or whatever that candidate may be, you know, we could bring in. So you have the executive session first. Yes. So instead of kind of what we do now is you would hold that item. We would go into executive. My experience was the executive was prior to the board meeting. So those conversations were had and then typically at least everybody you may still vote no if that wasn't you know but there was conversations had where you could get those specific questions answered prior to taking action on is
075that is that a time then when you could see the rubric and you know get that kind of stuff correct so that's like walking in I I that's just been my experience where like I attended every executive session as the assistant superintendent and I was able to answer questions on behalf of the interview committee or if we knew ahead of time there was specifically something that somebody wanted, we would bring, you know, that interview committee or something to the table. I'd be a minimal to that because I think it gets to the point and I think Mr. Christie made this earlier like, you know, he's not going to vote blindly blindly for anybody. Neither will he, but to him it's the same as being an executive session or watching the interview. If we take us
076out of that interview, that alleviates my concerns of inequity around the board because only certain people went. It doesn't have us present in the interview. So, it's getting around that and there's nothing wrong with us asking. Now, I don't think it should be open to where we're constantly grilling and they have to completely make a court case every time they try to hire somebody. So, I would caution the board not to do that. I don't think any of us would. Yeah. But I think that would be a reasonable compromise. Mhm. And that's something Adam and I have been talking about a little bit. I said, I don't know if we're there yet or not, but I think it's something we could look at. Uh, obviously it cause us to change some times up a little
077bit and look at some different stuff, but it's going to keep your end executive a lot. We won't be here we hours into the night. Well, we've done a good job over the last few years of not going into executive session too much and I don't want us to get back to that because that's where if you're talking about community trust and accountability, I don't want the public seeing us doing a lot of work behind the scenes because they shouldn't, right? You know, I kind of like this is out here. Yeah. That's why discussion is really good to Eric's um proposal like when you're hiring an admin or something just if I'm not saying Adam would do this is not if Adam's saying this is who I want and the other people on the interview
078committee are afraid to go against him because they're afraid for their job you know just like a check of that kind of power. Yes. I mean because like I want I'm not saying you would do I'm not you. What if we have a new HR? What if we making policies around the organization not around the people, right? It should be so like or a superintendent who's like I'm bringing in all these people. You vote for my principal no matter what. Like I'm just I think that could be a checks and balances where the board oversight of what's that is the positive to your proposal I think. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. So, do you have any more questions? No, I think I started I was just questioning it. Sorry about that. Sounds like we answered
079all your questions. We're good. You should probably go the other way next time because you know I talk a lot. So, so just not to beat this dead horse, right? Is everybody good with us not being on the because I feel like that's the only thing we don't agree with here, right? I just going back to like when we were going to vote for some administrators before and we did have a little discussion about it which really helped a lot because you're like you don't have any idea who these people are. So you're like, well, you know, why did you choose this one? Or, you know, what what kind of experience made you give that? It just there's those questions in your mind instead of just saying, "Yay, I'm voting for that person." Well, I
080remember the last one when you guys did we voted cuz I was in there in executive session and we had pretty much majority of the committee that was there. And I think that's one way that you can keep your check and balance on that. You just say, "No, I don't just want the superintendent there. I want the whole committee in there and I want to hear them talk about it. I want them to be honest." Yeah, the interview great. I mean, and most administrators are going to be honest and they're going to and they're hold their hold their own now moving forward. I realized that was not the case in the past. It was not the case. They were not. It was not the case. I'm going off that experience. We did not because I
081would have conversations later with people. I'm like, uh, but I don't know if I don't know if they were all an executive session either because I remember just recently when we did that for this, we had everybody in there and it was an executive session. those conversations took place. So I think that's something that we can definitely Yeah. And your committee is not that big. And then also like but I still don't think that committee was honest in that meeting because a certain person was sitting in they they still feel that's going to be the case. I mean you can't come out for hiring. That's just where I am on it because I think you're always but that doesn't matter for the that's the other. So, with the it looks it looks like we only
082had a couple changes in into this, right? Uh I think you made specifically seven uh just so we're not just so we're not uh going under seven bullet point one 1 hour. We'll change that. I like the Google Drive uh option and will be shared a few days prior. What's good about that too is you can I mean You can try to lock it down a lot, but you can also like cut off their access after a certain amount of time, too. I mean, there are ways around it, but it's Yeah. Yeah. Those confidential emails and stuff ahead of time. I mean, people are so busy that So, so we changed that. Um, under nine, bullet point four, we changed the board of education to upon the request of any board member, the board of
083education will then receive. Yeah. Yeah. The board of education will then receive. Yeah. Yeah. Um I don't I don't think there's other than that I didn't have any amendments. I mean we talked about a lot of things but I think it was a lot of clarification. Adam, are those the only changes that you had in there? Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to So with those changes, you know, I as you all know I represent the board. One of the items on under nine is bullet point three. And this is something that is a new practice, Don. And and the reason I bring this up, can you explain is the the letter of the formal offer of employment. Is that going to be an oral type thing? Are you going to submit it in writing or
084have you thought about that process yet? And so and so yeah, we've discussed I I I don't know if it's going to be formal or not, but just so everybody knows uh one of the things that we we did talk about and that is this bullet point is the way it's done today is we decide for example we're going to hire Randy Christie. We don't ever tell him that that that he's the guy. maybe finds out Facebook maybe up to a month later he fains out finds out on Facebook live uh that he's you know he's not been told this is his salary he's not been told this is the benefits that you would receive. So he a he finds out on Facebook Live. B we then call him and go, "Hey, this is where
085you'd fall on this. This is where you'd fall on this. This is, you know, maybe what you're having." And he goes, "No, that wasn't what I thought." And now we are now another board meeting uh to try to get the second candidate. In this bullet point, what they're trying to do is go, we're going to be able to call candidate A, you know, our number one guy, and go, "Hey, you're our recommendation. Here, you're our recommendation. We are not telling you you're hired, but we are telling you, you're our recommendation. This is where you would fall. These are the things blah blah blah blah blah. At the next board meeting, you will be put up for vote." So, at least he knows that he or she, sorry, I don't want to offend anybody. um he
086or she will know that they are the the pick pending board approval. And I mean, let's face it, I mean, even though we've all had this major discussion, a large percentage of the time the the recommended person is normally the the person that we end up hiring. Um so that's all bullet point three is. But to Tom's question, is that just going to be a phone call? Is that going to be a letter saying you're our person? So it'll for most candidates it'll be a phone call because I think there typically is a back and forth conversate you know like right you know because I you know for example we don't tell anyone for years of experience officially where they fall until we receive the verification of employment for like a teacher. So we could
087have verbally like if you provide this this is where you would fall on the salary scale. you know, we can honor up to 10 years of experience, etc. Um, but we can't truly verify that until the board approval. Every everything would say pending board approval and pending completion of paperwork, pending background check, all those things plus um, you know, verification of employment to get experience. So, it's a phone call, which which is what I will tell you that I thought it would be, right? Um, you know, so does that answer your question? Yeah. And the reason I brought up is for primarily Ry's the school code grants exclusive jurisdiction to U7 to hire employees. Don Paris cannot he makes recommendations to the free two guys but the the school code best in exclusively what the
088school board so even when he decision yeah in that policy 530 that we talked and they have to explain that to them that this is pending board approval that that's pending board approval that that's a big a big phrase so not to get into semantics a little bit but like that's not really a formal offer is it prior to us like it's kind of an informal like You're letting them know of our recommendation at the library. We do a tenative offer, but that's something we've never done in the past, at least since I've been in this district. So, when this was written, resources will or human resources will extend a formal offer. Are we saying that's a formal phone call? I think I think we need to change formal informal to me when I read
089it. The formal would be like the letter we send them after being Yeah. the condition that you turn in everything you're supposed to turn in and then we approve it. Approves it and and approved by the board. Right. Yeah. Sounds good. Extend an informal conditional recommendation. I don't know that you need all that. Could you add one more word? But I think you're right. Tentative, but tentative also. Tom, did you have anything else? No, I'm fine. You sure? Yeah. Okay. Hey, I have a I have one question to ask on that. I'm sorry. We We've used all your time. Sorry. Do do we if we make the initial offer, do we make the initial call to the candidates that don't get the job and say, "I'm sorry direction." I would say no because what happens
090if that person uh we get here and we go, "Nope, like or the other one doesn't say we say no." And then you've already told them they're out at some point. Yeah. We normally make that we make that Adam makes those contacts after. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you always wait till the board vote to make it afraid because you don't want to be like, "Hey, you're our third choice." If I didn't get the job, be notified at some point that you did not get the job. Yes. On Facebook Live when they on Facebook live when we got it and tagged you. All right. So, is there anything else that we need to look at for that? Is there any other There's already been a vote and a motion second with amendments. We just need to adjust
091it to say with the amend except with the amendments. So So the motion would be to approve that with the amendments that we discussed. Discussed. Does that make sense to everybody? Mhm. All right. I'll keep my motion the same. Keep your motion. Some who I don't know who seconded it. You did. Okay. Yeah. We have a motion in a second. I have kind of a logistical question or point of border credit question. So this is a policy we're approving. So this is a procedure. This is procedure. This is not a procedure. It's administrative procedure. This is not going in like so. This is going to be like an AP something or is this just Yes, this is an AP. This is an AP. An AP and that doesn't have to come through the policy committee
092because it's an AP. No. Okay, I'm good. I I thought that was the case. I was just curious. We operate under Robert's rules of order. The proper procedure would be to vote down this current motion and then bring it up again to approve with amendments. Okay. So first so we're going to vote no vote no on how it was presented. You never withdraw a motion. It's we've had a motion and a second. It's got to be it's got to be acted on. So roll call. Roll call on as written. As written. Um okay. Hold on. Let me find my spot. Lynaman. Yes. No. No. Oh no. I'm sorry. As written out with the changes. As written. No. Yes. I'm sorry. That's what we got to vote down first. Vinnie, no. Christy, no. Bradley, no. Stacy,
093no. Curran, no. Silva, no. I moved to approve it with the amendments. We made with the amendments. Second it. Guess I got to do any discussion. Please. No. I have to ask. Um, so, uh, roll. Now we vote. Lynaman, you again. I, Vinnie. I Christy. Hi. Bradley. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Currin. Hi Silva. Hi. All right. All right. Good discussion. It was there is no other uh no executive session. Um we have no other business. So we will have another meeting June 24th. Anybody has anything for that? Let us know. Motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All in favor?