001Okay. 10 o'clock. Like to call the meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance 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. Call the here Evans here. Alex here. Paul Gregory here. Heather Tomlinson here. All right. As a reminder, our board governs by policy aligned with state law. These policies are not just guidelines. They're legal and ethical obligations that ensure transparency, accountability, and consistent leadership. When policies no longer meet the district's needs, it is our responsibility to amend them within the bounds of the law to better serve our community. The board acts only as a whole in duly convened public meetings with a quorum present. Outside of this structure, no individual member has
002authority. Adherence to policy protects the district from risk and ensures that all decisions are fair, lawful, and aligned with our strategic goals. Our mission is to empower all learners to succeed in their world. Our vision is to provide an ideal learning experience where students and staff are engaged and want to come back the next day. Our board policies and action should reflect that mission and vision. The first item on our agenda is a standing item, but particularly relevant to um our educational offerings. I'd like to take a moment to recognize uh some Oscar staff who've stepped up beyond uh the reasonable call of duty uh to assist the district. Is Mrs. Olark and Miss Matthew uh in the room? Thank you very much for being here. [Applause] Miss Smark and Miss Matthew stepped up to
003lead the summer Oscar program during the director's search, ensuring everything ran smoothly. Their hard work and dedication kept our kids safe, happy, and engaged all summer. We are deeply grateful for the energy and heart they put into making the program a success. [Applause] I can tell you um there were a number of moments where we were talking about the Oscar position uh and the director position and and uh the work that you guys were doing. I know I was thinking in front of mind hopeful that there wasn't a huge burden that was put on the remaining staff uh for the void and I know that you guys went above and beyond and again I just want to say thank you so much for really stepping up so we're grateful for you. Um if uh I
004know we were this is a little new for the board doing uh some staff recognition. So you guys are not only our first uh members of our um district team to be recognized for outstanding achievement um but also I I just can't think of a better group of people to start off with. So thank you again. All right, so moving on to the consent agenda. I want to pull up here items 4.01 through quite a quite a few here. So item four, we have consent items 4.01 through 4.16. Um entertaining a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented for items 4.01 to 4.16. Read them individually. So if you can sure uh so items pull up my list. We have minutes of the special meeting June 17, 2025. Minutes of executive session June 17th.
005Minutes of the regular meeting for June 24th. Minutes of executive session June 24th. Minutes of special meeting August 1st. Minutes of executive session August 1st. Minutes of special meeting August 13th. Minutes of the executive session August 13th. Bills payable. Financial reports. Personnel report. Gifts and donations report. Succession of authority. uh review of the executive session minutes January 2025 through January I'm sorry through June 2025 on the destruction of verbatim executive session recordings and the FFA national and state convention field trips. Uh so any discussion on the proposed motion? I don't know there was a motion but I do move to approve the items on the consent agenda. Second move and seconded. So I'll restate the motion. The motion was to approve the consent agenda as presented, items 4.01 through 4.16. All right, Kelly, would you
006call the role? Yes. Evans, yes. The next item on the agenda is the NIA consent agenda. The recommended action to approve the NIA consent agenda as presented. Items 5.01 through 5.04. Entertaining a motion to approve the NIA consent agenda as presented. So moved. Seconded. The items of the NIA consent agenda consist of the NIA treasures report, NIA bills payable, NIA personnel report, NIA contract vendor agreement report. Uh there is a motion in a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, I'll restate the motion. The motion is to approve the NIA consent agenda items 5.01 through 5.04 as presented. Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Evans, yes. Motion carried. All right. Item 6.01, fiscal year 26, NIA budget. The board of education must hold a public hearing for the adoption of a budget. The
007purpose for this hearing is to take written or verbal testimony from anyone wishing to speak regarding the fiscical year 26 NIA budget. Let's see here. We'd now like to open the public hearing on the fiscal year 26 NIA budget. Anyone anyone wishing to speak, please come forward, state your name, limit your remarks, and if you'd like to submit written material, you may do so at this time. Seeing no speakers, this hearing is closed. 7:06 p.m. August 26th. Next item on the agenda is our audience to visitors. Uh here guided by board policy 2230 in the Illinois Opens Meetings Act. This is a business meeting held in public. The seven of us seated here are your neighbors. Volunteers entrusted by you to care for our schools. We're truly grateful that you've chosen to spend a portion
008of your evening with us. To balance participation with the board's agenda, we've reserved up to 30 minutes for public comment. Each speaker speaker is kindly asked to limit their remarks to three minutes. Unused time may not be transferred to another person. Any extension requires a majority vote of the board. When you're recognized, please approach the podium, state your name, and share your thoughts. The board will listen without debate this evening. Questions or concerns, when called for, will be routed through the appropriate administrative channels for follow-up consistent with our chain of command procedures. If you'd like to speak, please raise your hand, wait to be called. Thank you for lending your voice and helping us model effective self-government for our students. Was that for me? Yep. Would you would you please press the pod and state
009your name? Sarah Jennings. Uh I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight and I just want to thank each and every one of you um for volunteering your service to the school board. I know that you'll never make all stakeholders happy. Um so I understand that the challenges you face as board members. Mr. Reinick, I wish you all the best in your role as acting superintendent. I come before you tonight to express my concern for what I perceive to be a lack of transparency from our school board. I acknowledge that I'm not privy to what went down behind the scenes regarding Mr. Wilders's contract. I'm just confused because it was stated that his service was exemplary yet his service to the district ended abruptly. As a taxpayer, this is concerning because we are now on the
010hook for both Mr. Wild Wilders's contract and now Mr. Rein's contract as acting superintendent. I also understand that we'll need to pay a search firm upwards of $20,000 to find a new superintendent. I fully acknowledge that you cannot share details related to personnel issues, but I hope you can understand the frustration that I feel from the lack of transparency. I don't know if anything can be done at this point to help the community understand what really happened, but I do hope that a lesson has been learned from the way it was handled. Now that school is back in session, we are all f busy focusing on what is most important, our students and our student learning. I just don't want the back- to-school busyness to cause us to forget about what happened and stop asking
011questions of our elected officials. Board members, moving forward, please do right by our community and make every effort to be student and community focused and transparent with every decision you make. I have always been so proud to send my children to Sycamore schools and I don't want that to change. Um, and words I hadn't quite prepared before, but I just wanted to acknowledge I am um, grateful that you have attached documents related to tonight's agenda. Um, that hasn't always been the case and I greatly appreciate it. So, thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Appreciate your public. Is there anyone else from the public who'd like to address the board at this time? Seeing no one else, we'll proceed to the next item on the agenda. Item 8.01 under superintendent reports, uh, building
012and departmental updates. Uh, is there anything? I've got a few comments, but I just Any other just general comments regarding this? I was just going to say we had two updates. Uh, one from instructional technology and then one from our communications community engagement uh, department. Both of those individuals are here. So if there were comments or questions, they're both here and happy to answer. Oh, I will I will mention too there's a new format as I'm sure. Um so Michael um gave us some suggestions on things that uh might be useful. So any feedback that you guys have at any time um now or later to make it the most useful for you. Yeah. Yeah, I would just like to say thanks very much for the reports. I thought they were thorough and great and
013I'm happy that we've got like public record, you know, these are in the public record now showing, you know, here's what we're doing. Here's where we're going. We can, you know, everyone can see. So, I think it's really great. Thanks for your effort. I especially like the uh Spartan spotlight. Uh the Tanakis and Ed Holland are being called out and the different department reports. I think that's really nice for all the great things that the district is doing, but especially those spotlights is really nice. Yeah. nice presentation and all the buildings will um or we'll start to introduce the buildings in September. Wanted to give them a little time to get school under their belt, but then they'll use the same format and see how it works for building level two. Any feedback of what's
014is or isn't working with it as changes as we No, these two uh took it on right away and um you know, if it's if they if we don't quite get some right, just let us know and we'll we'll adjust. But I think it goes both ways though. if it's if it's cumbersome or not. There's things that we can do to adjust. It's a living document, I would say. Yeah. So, um I want to just echo some of the sentiments. I really like what you guys have put together in this. This is really detailed. Some of the notes on the communications report, um celebrating central, the documentary partnership, um really nice outreach that was well done. back to school bash. I had um a vendor reach out to me uh directly to tell me how
015many uh people he was able to reach and it was the mo they said the most successful event they'd been to this year. They couldn't believe the amount of people who interacted with them and so um that was amazing feedback. You had said over 800 attendees. This is like huge. That's a massive event. And speaking, you know, having been a part of organizing the car show for Sycamore and Pumpkin Festival and a number of community events with the Roto Act, I can tell you it takes so much effort. And I saw the I think some of the pictures of the team you guys had assembled to do the back to school bash. Awesome. And I have a really cool picture of Charlie in like the bucket of a truck. So that's awesome. Thank you guys
016for doing that. Um, cross teamam delivery on the family tech resource page. Awesome collaboration. Thought that was really notable. uh awards for Portrait of Spartan. Definitely um awesome momentum on that. I think that's great. Um good to see that we're meeting all the needs on the communications front and um noted on some of the um governance linkage pieces and relevant board policies. So I know we've gone through the five-year review so it's always stuff to look at. for tech fiber to the new admin center. It was interesting because I do remember that being like a really big pain point and there was a lot of talk about um you know how that was going to happen. So I was really glad to see that that came through um and the switch replacement in eight buildings,
017window 11 upgrades, refresh Chromebook plan and from what I understand like all on schedule. So wow uh kudos. I am curious about this MTSS tool integration and training plan. Um so that that's really because we're going to be talking I think about MTSS soon at the learning teaching. Yeah. 18th, right? So that'll that's really relevant and um you know interesting hearing the change management posture. So that's like good stuff there. Family technology resource page again mentioned this with comms but definitely like a good customer service move it seems like for families. So hopefully we can build that out. Um, I had an opportunity to sit through the AI uh presentation on opening day. Um, and you know, poor poor you Dr. Valentine because I was your like turn to your partner. So, but I will
018say that was um the Gemini outlook like I I never spent time on Gemini and we now have as I understand it as a board access to gems which are like custom GP not GPTs custom uh generative AI software. Um so definitely something neat to look at as a board to be able to maybe leverage um for uh we were talking about maybe for policy. Uh okay. And then I saw the staffing need for the fifth tech specialist and that's noted and I think that watching that workload and revisiting in our budget conversations is going to be an opportune time there too. So um and now it's in the record. So uh those were just some of my notes and comments. I know there's a there was a lot here and it was really I
019mean so thorough. And then again talking to um Allen's point about the recognition um you know for for our music uh with comm and I'll just jump back to communications here. It was I think it was Ken and Amy Tanaki with outstanding music educators uh through Chicago land award the Quinland and what was it? Fabish music company uh piece. I thought that was nice. I had an opportunity to watch um it was like a like an audio transcript of the uh the writeup. I don't maybe I clicked uh something that should be available but yeah it was really neat to be able to see that and then I know Ed Hollander was also noted as having been pretty instrumental in a lot of this and I actually saw him during opening day too and he
020was willing to you know chat with me in in great detail despite likely having a million fires that he was dealing with. So thank you guys. Just one thing to note too on the new format, the looking ahead and um future focus. I think that's a nice thing for us to keep in mind of topics that are up and coming, but then also for anybody in the community or elsewhere who's reviewing some of the documentation can kind of get an idea of topics that might be discussed at future board meetings. Well, and like that was something and we I kind of lightly mentioned this, but there was an example that they used um when they were giving the like what Gemini can do and it was talking about how Gemini um it overlaps with some
021offerings that like teachers or staff may be already using. And I think that like as we become more comfortable with Gemini as a tool, there's probably going to be some opportunities to have it supplement um some of these existing tools. I think was it Brisk was the name? I think it was was it Brisk or Briskley? Yeah, Brisk. I was like that's neat. And from my understanding a lot of people were murmuring like do we have access to Brisk? And I think the answer is yes. Right. So they do have access to Brisk. Um, but and and not to put you on the spot, but are there any other integrations like that that you think are are notable for the upcoming year with Gemini like Brisk that I you sent an email that had some
022detail about other integrations and so I'm just but that one stood out. So yeah, students and teachers have access to different tools. We just have to be really mindful of our SOPA agreements to protect our student data, but I about what they can use and the followup presentations. I think gave a lot of detail on that. So, we're going to continue to make sure we communicate that to staff. There's also a lot of integration with existing tools we have which helps make it safe for students when it's integrated in a Okay. Well, I'll I'll say the um and I I didn't look at some of the the student tools as closely as I looked at some of the staff tools, but um you know, that does raise a really good point in terms of like
023so where there are going to be additional opportunities to supplement learning for more personalized approaches. And I think that was like one of the points is that Gemini can give you a really personalized learning effect. So they had like they had used Brisk to it was almost like it it scaled down content that was 12th grade content to eighth grade content. So it hit the right audience. I mean it was really cool. So um anything else on the reports? The only thing I'd say in addition to uh the discussion on AI so MTSS is going to be maybe maybe this is actually for later but I'll speak to it because it kind of applies. MTSS is a uh instructional spotlight for the September 18th um learning teaching committee meeting. AI is another topic that we've
024talked about with Dr. Valentine and Mike Christ as being a topic that we'll discuss and can have a much deeper discussion and certainly learn a lot more from from Dr. Valentine as well. Awesome. All right. So, next item on the agenda is 8.02 2. Um, superintendent update first day of school. Anything to report? We are off and running. Uh, day four for the majority of our students. Um, most of our students came last Thursday, half of our kindergarteners, and then the other half came on Friday. Little Spartans yesterday, so we really have kind of three opening days. My family was fortunate enough to fall within that. So, our family got three opening days, although I missed our youngest because of jury duty. Um, but he woke up first thing, threw his backpack on and wore
025it the entire morning until, uh, my wife took him to school. So, uh, it's one of my favorite days of the entire year. Um, students are just so excited. There's so much so much excitement in the buildings. We were fortunate enough to get in every building. Um, Nicole had to wrangle me a little bit because, uh, I wanted to go into every classroom. So, I said, "No, we got time. We'll go into every single classroom in the district." That took a long time. But um it was a ton of fun. Students are so excited. So um I ran into a teacher that um that kind of gave me a good reminder um because we're just trying to make it special for students like like our teachers do every day. But but he said, you know,
026for some of us, we're experiencing this for the 30th time, this first day for the 30th time, but for some of our students, it's the very first time. So how can we make it the most special? Um and it's just been great. So awesome kickoff to the year. be happy to take any questions. I know we have other staff out there, administrators in the building that can answer anything, but it's been great so far. Love the opening day video, too. That was that was slick. So, that was rich. Yeah. Was it? Yeah. Did a lot of magic there. But yeah, I was I I thought that was neat. So, I know we you know, I just like for I couldn't be there uh to work, but I was I felt like I really got to
027get a glimpse of it. So, Lots of great energy. All right, board reports. 9.01 FOYA reports. Uh, there were some FOYAS. Um, any questions? Thank you for answering those. Yeah, it was a busy couple months. Some from both from some from the same person. I was a little confused about the one some of the out of state ones because I don't know if they've got like a wire cross but the Ethiopian one was I know that kind of threw me off a little bit. I'm like okay. Yeah. Uh okay. What is I thought that was a country. Yeah, I know. I was like I didn't know what that was what I related to. Yeah. So, all right. We'll move on to the next set of items. Uh item 9.02 uh teaching and learning update. Any
028teaching and learning updates? I've been trying to plug it the last couple meetings and a couple times already. So not a lot more to speak to other September 18th. Please come. I think there'll be good discussion. Um but no, I not no update from our last meeting. Perfect. Item 9.03, business services committee update. No update at this time. Good. Item 9.04, policy committee update. The policy committee met yesterday, so I haven't had time to prepare a written report, but we went over press 119, um, which was a pretty light agenda as most of the changes were not substantive sub I can't ever get that word out. Um, so we will most likely approve that on consent because it was mainly footnote changes. And then we discussed some local policies and I will have a more
029detailed report on those at our September regular meeting. Right. Is that Yep. the plan. Yeah. But if anyone has any questions in between now and then, I'd be happy to shoot you an email with what what's what's coming up with policy. Sounds good. Uh, anything from parent teacher advisory and behavioral intervention? Nothing at this time. And a board goals progress update. A new standing item. I know we've just recently adopted the board goals. Just to speak to their website placement. Nice. Super prominent. That's great. I know there's to be continued on um what that progress monitoring would look like, but I think just it would be good practice for us to on a recurring basis just revisit those um for relevance and purpose. And eventually I think we'll have to um maybe look at like
030how the website integrates with what goes on the board packet or I I don't know maybe we can I can put a hyperlink. We'll see. we talk about it, but anything? Uh, we do have a little bit of an update if Lauren if Lauren can speak. Yeah, please. We did have an opportunity to to meet with Allen uh to talk about this and just maybe interface what it could look like and Yeah. So, just a quick update um on where we're at on the web page. We did put together a 1.0 version that's live on the site right now just in the interest of time and wanting to get it up as um the school year has begun and we just wanted to get that publicly visible. So that is um pretty much as Mr.
031Grados had presented it um on the page but then we are now in development on a 2.0 version that would be mobile friendly as well. So we know a lot of our stakeholders are accessing our website from mobile devices. So unfortunately with the current version it doesn't look so great on the mobile side. So um we're on it though and we met with uh Mr. too this week or actually sorry last Friday and we showed him the concept and he really liked the direction we were headed in. Um so we're just putting the finishing touches on it now but we should have it to the board to review later this week and then you can provide us with any feedback but then by our next meeting we should be ready for launch and then of
032course we will share that out with all stakeholders. We'll get an email out. We'll put it on social media, make sure it's nice and visible on the website, but um it'll be a great place to track that progress and really be transparent with all stakeholders on our district goals this year. Awesome. Yeah, I know we talked about like there was there's a number of different like matrix and thirdparty services that offer it, all of which, you know, cost money. And so it's like to be able to do something like this inhouse and have it like have the level of quality that they already have is just awesome. So, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. We felt like with given our um current website structure, we were able to accomplish something that would be feasible um dynamic, look
033really nice, but then also not to have to tap into any third party services. People aren't going to want to leave the board goals site. They're going to be right. There's a built-in game there. Yeah, I love that direction. Great and interactive, right? Very nice job segmenting up. What will be really disheartening is if we put like a view count on it and it's like no, but that's uh that's awesome. So really cool. I have a question about it. Um will this be easy to update? So like when we change the intentions and expectations and deliverables for FY27, can you just like copy and paste them into whatever you made so we don't have to rebuild something every year? Absolutely. Yeah. the way it's built out now. Um, the I don't want to go too
034far into the functionality discussion, but it's built under something called post. So, we can truly just take the information, copy paste in, and it updates the module and the graphic and the popup and all that. So, yeah, it's pretty simple. It's just the original build that takes a little bit of effort, but now moving forward, if we get a system, um, and then it'll just be up to us to determine then moving forward how often we want to see that information updated. is that on a monthly basis, quarterly basis, and and the board can also provide us some direction on that, how often you'd like to see those be updated. But I think some of those goals are really going to be some could be quarterly, some could be half or twice a year, you
035know, so that it might just be dependent on what makes sense for each individual goal. Okay. So, we met with Allen at the end of the day, Friday, and then yesterday we talked about it. And this morning, she said, "Hey, I think I have 2.0." uh you know just about finished almost ready to share. So it was that quick um just for Lauren to kind of tackle it. So so then we'll share with you guys get feedback and she'll quickly make any other changes to make sure it's ready to share out to the community however we want to. And that's the thing like maybe we can embed it in the agendas or we could put it in the before the boards or like there's just to like get more views on it so more people
036want you know that's the burden that sits on the board right is like is this something that people want to inter interact with and engage with you know it's not always super exciting but like I can tell you the way that our website even lays out how dynamic it is and like it's just it really pops so it makes it at least easy to navigate. So um if the goals can be anything like that that's awesome. Absolutely. And we could talk about some more strategies too to make sure it's visible throughout the year and that we're revisiting it with stakeholders as well. Whether that's we're including it in newsletters on a quarterly basis or um you know constant reminders on social media if they can go to this web page to track where we're at
037just you know throughout throughout the year so that it doesn't trail off on the conversation. Right. Yeah. Like maybe we can put it in the torch. I I'm just like Absolutely. Well, don't forget that a lot of I think a lot of these goals are going to be discussed and kind of tracked more at the committee level and so this will be a nice way to visualize and see what those goals are so the committee can reference it but the greater detail might be more easily seen u through some of the committee work I think like the academic or the financial portions of it business service side and hopefully it draws more attention to those then right too. Yeah, definitely. Awesome. What about the goals that we didn't need public facing? I assume we've just
038used what I have. Like there's I don't see a ton of value in making something pretty just for the seven of us to look at. Dor's working through some are Okay. Yeah, we did talk about that a little bit. Um I had mentioned to Mr. Zantu potentially about putting it on um our internet, but he had said it might be better served as like a live document that's just on Diligent. Um, so we can kind of talk through what that fit looks like. Um, but there's a couple options there. Yeah. Yeah. Just on that note, I would like to make sure everything's as easy for everyone to get to as possible. So even if it doesn't look so nice on the nice page, there's a link at the bottom that says, "By the way, here's
039another set of documents, you know, just my my opinion. But if they're looking at these, I don't want there to be like a huge distinction between, you know, just the these goals and these goals, just all the goals. get to them all very easily would be my personal desire. But yeah. Yeah. And if we did decide there's no we just want all the goals, we can easily add just remind refresher I guess what was the re why were we doing the two layers personnel related goals. There were some they're all public right like they're all public but it's like we don't need to I mean I just don't see a ton of value in saying look we've created new evaluation instruments for staff. That's one of our goals. I mean, we could that's a conversation
040to have right here, but those are the public ones. District financial is it? And then there's the internal ones, but if we want to make them all public, we could. They're like all public facing on the website, which is at the last meeting we talked about having some of them not be public facing. A couple that are more internal. Not really. Like, is anything ever internal though? Like it's all, you know what I mean? like we can everybody can access them anyway. So like what's there is no internal right. Yeah. No, I should just all be Yeah, it doesn't I get that I get what you're saying like okay yeah re restructure some I I get that some things are more in-house side of stuff and if that's not like living right next to these
041okay I understand but at the very least right below it there should be a link to and by the way here are these other sort of less sound bitey type of housekeeping type of goals that we have you know and here they are. You can just reference the 1.0 as a yeah an all-encompassing. Lauren and the team have put together a really nice Yeah, this is great. I'm not like providing I'm not trying to provide any negative feedback whatsoever. I just don't I also don't understand this distinction between we've got the public facing and non-publicf facing goals to me doesn't sound right. It's like our our goals are how we hold ourselves accountable to the public. And so I just want to make sure that it's very very easy for everybody to see every single
042goal we've got. So I guess I'd be should we just put them all like have direct Lauren to put them all on this dashboard? Yeah. Well, I mean I would say why not? Am I we missing something? I think the distinction that the direction that I had given which we can certainly do differently is that when the goals were developed there were superintendent goals that would go in the superintendent's contract in that regard and then there were the goal the district goals that were more districtf facing if we want to put them all on there that's fine I think there the intention was during the goal setting process to kind of split off the two um but the process as it's been showcased has been always one singular document. So I can understand what what
043everyone's saying. I don't necessarily disagree. Um but I think one of the things discuss is do we want to have something that we can give to the staff right and say hey here is the goals that we're going towards. Um anyway I I don't know that it's overly important one way or the other. I think when we do goal setting next year, this is not a matter of being secretive or anything in that regard, but there are goals that are more specific to specific roles that probably fall within that portion of the transparency, if you will. And then there are other portions that are more for, hey, this is the district. This is what we're doing. Um, and those are the ones that are really distinctive to the greater portion of the district. However we
044want to handle it, I guess I I I I can understand both sides of it. This was some direction that I had given Lauren. So take it as it is. So maybe a future agenda item. Well, I feel like also you don't want to have it too cluttered to where people probably aren't going to read it because when there's too much, you know, it's overwhelming. People are busy. So I think a link to if someone wants to see the other goals would be good, but just have you know our goals there and then the because you're talking about having the personnel goals as well, right on the same um the two I guess just the the two goals that Alan and I recommended keeping more internal were cultivate a measurable and positive district climate that
045attracts support and retains top talent with collaboration across the district. So that would include develop and present to the board a strategic plan to focus on attracting and retaining teachers. And the district will utilize data from the ISBY approved alternatives survey to gather insights into emerging trends, concerns, and priorities with an aim of 65% participation um in each group of respondents. So we I mean it's not something we would want to keep from the public, but it's not like the same as right maybe I'll link to it then. student math growth was XYZ. It's it it doesn't have the same but if we want to just add those two, it's only two. I mean, I'm not super opposed to it. And then the next one is evaluation instruments will be tailored to specific positions for
046personnel. Well, how it lays out, we'll see how we can shake it out and some feedback, but ultimately the goals themselves and monitoring the progress will operate independent of this, you know, practical how it's going to be displayed discussion. So cool. Yeah. Nonetheless, thank you very much. Sorry to derail. Got a uh I think you'll see a clean and concise approach that Lauren and the team have. Yeah, this looks great. Yeah, I just didn't I just Oh, that's better than that one. Don't look at that one. No, that's 1.0. 2.0 is totally different. So, just hold tight for that one. So, yeah. No, all good. Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you. All right. So, the next item on the agenda, item 10.01, 1 approval of the resolution regarding the fiscal
047year 26 NIA budget. Um people left. I think the NIA people left. Oh, did they? Did they? They did. Oh, okay. Um well then, uh item 10.01, I'll entertain a motion to approve the resolution regarding the fiscal year 26 NIA budget as presented. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Uh is there any discussion uh regarding the budget? I'm just I mean I've I mean I should know better, but I I still don't fully understand why we're looking at this. Do does the I I guess we're the body that we used to lease space to NIA, right? I Why Why are we still We are NA's fiscal agent. Okay. So everything we do falls under our tax number. Okay. is everything. So legally this board has to approve anything that goes to the state, but they
048have their own board that's looking at this too, right? Yes. Okay. And do you oversee any of the like is it or is it all is it I I thought it was separate or do you have any role in managing this? Okay. Is it a rolling responsibility or is that just kind of ongoing into perpetuity? It's not the districts don't share that responsibility over time, right? It's been sycamore for Thank you. Seconded. Any other discussion? All right. So, the motion was uh to approve the resolution regarding the fiscal year 26 NIA budget as presented. Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Evans? Yes. Tomlinson, yes. Motion carried. Uh the next item on the agenda, 11.01, resolution to publish bids for 245 West Exchange Street. Uh there's two documents here included. Uh there will be a
049little clarification and discussion. Uh the motion entertaining is to approve the resolution authorizing the publication of bids for the property at 245 West Exchange Street as presented and to direct administration to proceed. So moved. At what price? There's a motion. Hang on. We'll go there. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. Uh so the minimum bid price for the document is 199,000, but we reserve the right to reject all bids. Could we re could you restate the motion, please? Yep. Uh the motion is to approve the resolution authorizing the publication of bids for the property at 245 West Exchange Street is presented to direct administration to proceed. So as presented the 199,000 the resolution as presented. So the resolution um which includes the minimum bid and then outlines the procedure for uh bidding process
050and restating kind of just to your point and Nicole correct me if I'm wrong in this process but we'll host another closed bid minimum bid price is 199,000 the bids as we receive once they're all received and the closing for the bid ends we'll read the bids aloud they'll become public the board will and convene at the September board meeting uh to decide and deliberate an executive session if we choose to accept any or none of those bids. At which point, if we choose to accept none of those bids, we could then enlist the services of private brokerage firm or we could choose to accept the bid and proceed with closing on the building. Is that I got it right? Okay. If we do engage with the broker, they do have to guarantee us the
051minimum bid though. Okay. This minimum bid. Yes. of 1990. Yeah. And there is like a timeline flowchart from the last meeting that um we put together too. So if that for clarity purposes because I just rambled off a lot of stuff fast. So if you go to the last regular or the last board meeting from the 13th, you'll see that like timeline. So gives us optimal options. So any other discussion? I'll just note that I mean this is in the record people can click on this but we got a comparative market analysis that put the value of the building between 199 and 249. So we set the bit the minimum bid at the low end of what our comparative market analysis said. Okay. Any other discussion? I was happy to see the the comparative analysis.
052I think that was helpful to give some guidance because there's been lots of discussions of value and and other items that are been wide ranging from significantly lower to significantly higher. It's good to get a little bit more clarity. Do we was the antenna moving 50 50,000 right? I don't think we had a We don't have that yet. Okay. Do we anticipate it will be less than 199,000? We have some options for other ideas for that. So, I'm not sure on total cost. Love other ideas. All right. Anything else? Well, I guess I'm a little If we keep this though, couldn't we leave the antenna there and we just It wouldn't cost anything. That's my only I guess. So, we could reject all of the bits. Even if we meet the reserve, we can reject
053it. That's my understanding. Yeah, the board has Okay. They can reject any bit. So, we're not committing to anything really now. We're just taking the next step in this process of selling the public's real estate. So, should we accept any bids? We could always negotiate that. Yep. And at this point, the building's costing us money and we're not utilizing it. So, it's worth to keep moving forward in this process. All right, there's a motion in a second. I'll restate the motion uh to approve the resolution authorizing publication of bids for the property at 245 West Exchange Street as presented and direct administration to proceed. Sorry, I thought we already had Yep, we had a motion second. I was just restating. I'm sorry, Heather. No, it's on. Oh, yeah. Perfect. So, uh, we got a motion.
054We've got a second. Uh, Kelly, would you call the role? Evans, yes. Tomson, yes. Apple, yes. Motion carried. All right. The next item on the agenda, item 11.02, approval of Nick Ronic interim superintendent agreement. Um, is there a motion to approve the interim superintendent agreement with Nick Rick as presented? So moved. Second. Seconded. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion. Happy to have Nick if if this passes. I I hope if it does be great to have you think you fill that role. Appreciate it. I'll restate the motion uh to approve the interim superintendent agreement with Nick Rick as presented. Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Tomlinson, yes. Samu, yes. Evans, yes. Motion carried. All right, the next item on our agenda and the last item before we uh go into executive session but not the
055last item of our agenda tonight clarify is the superintendent s process overview presentation for item 11.03 we're joined by two associates from Hazard Young and Associates. HYA is a long-standing national search firm with a strong Midwest reach and a high retention track record. They're going to brief us on the process and timeline. Dr. Lyn Burks is a seasoned education executive. She has 30 years in leadership, including 24 years as an elected board president and a 10,000 student district with a portfolio that spans technology integration, competency based learning and early childhood expansion. She's an author, a coach, and a frequent speaker on future focused practice. She's going to help us keep the search tight, transparent, and aligned to student outcomes. And there is Dr. Carrie Federo. Federaro of them close bringing 42 years in school administration
05615 as a superintendent he's led in systems from 250 to 38,000 students teachers and mentors future leaders at the postgraduate level and as an HR specialist will ground the process in practical hiring discipline and candidate vetting please join me in welcoming Dr. Lynn Burks and Dr. Carrie Federaro to Sycamore School District. Thank you. [Applause] So, this will take about 45 minutes to an hour. So, we'll um we'll stand and then we'll also take notes. And what's really important, too, is that you have your calendars out because we're going to set some dates. So, first and foremost, thank you. Thank you for investing us in the most important decision that you'll make. Um so we're honored to be able to serve you in this capacity and we're really excited. Do you want to say anything? No,
057we appreciate the opportunity. Um and as said, um looking forward to working in partnership with you to select your your next educational leader. Thank you for the opportunity. Okay. Um, so, um, as you, as we go through the meeting, we, um, Carrie and I have a signup sheet as well. And so, as part of the search process, we will have one-on-one interviews with all of you, the board members. So, if you can look at your schedule, we can do virtual meetings, we can do phone calls, you know, however you prefer. Um, but what we'll do is I'll pass this around just so you have some time. We'd like to walk out tonight with with some availability. I kind of provided two options, but if you want to give us a couple more, that's fine, too.
058So, I'm going to pass that around. All right, I'm going to get out my computer as well. Michael, do we have our our time we forward to our time thing? Yes. Is it is there a way that we can get the embedded um agenda on one of Yeah, that'd be really helpful. I have it up here on my computer. We do. Awesome. Okay. I think we're It's in the diligent agenda itself. So I have it here too if there's a way I can. You'd have to sit back there though is the problem. Yeah, I think we can while we're waiting to to pull up the document. This is also an opportunity for each of the board members to ask questions about the search. The outcome tonight is to have no questions at all about the
059timeline for the search. We're going to talk about specifications. We're going to talk about communication. We're going to have some questions for you. So by the time you know everything is clear and everybody kind of knows the direction and I think we stated in our our proposal Lyn and I are always available. Um this is our full-time full-time job. U you're our you're our client. If you have a question um text us, call us, email. Um, if you want an immediate answer, call us or text us. Text us. Uh, Lyn and I joke we sleep with our phones. So, we're we're available 247. Um, this is a what we believe is your most important decision as a board selecting your educational leader and and we're here to support you all the way. Are you going
060to talk a little bit about every district is unique, right? Sycamore is it's is unique and we think it's very special of course. how how you cater your process which is very robust and probably you know quite regular right you have a very regular process how do you specify it and make it more specific to what Sycamore's needs are and what the community's needs are and the district and the boards yeah and that's really the Thank you very much Alan that's kind of what the discussion is about tonight is how we have a robust process in place but every district is unique and you have board needs as well and those are some of the discussions we're going to have tonight. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Looking forward to it. Um so, first up,
061we'd like the board to actually because this process and you know, um as you can see, we'd like to we'd like to take advantage of what we call wave one. Um and wave one would be um concluding the search before the end of this of this year. Um so, calendar year. So, it's going to be, you know, pretty tight. Um, and so we're asking the board for a board liaison during the search. There are times, I mean, multiple times a week where we need one person to be that liaison. So, I don't know if the board has had that discussion yet. Typically, it is the board president, but it doesn't have to be. Um, but but we would like to have one person on the board that we'll communicate to continuously. Um, and then we'll
062also provide weekly updates as well, but just having that onepoint person just just just to kind of, you know, talk over the search as we kind of move the search through the fall. And then we also asked for Kelly. We also asked for for a building rep, but and it's typically typically the role that Kelly Kelly's in. And if she's the one, great. And if not, let us know who who will be. Uh but we will utilize those two individuals as our point point people. We will communicate with all of you. Uh but we need two two point people. Well, unless anyone else is particularly interested, I'm happy to be the point person. And I do want to thank um um President Dev I mean uh Dvito. He's been wonderful through this process as well.
063Um we've gone back and forth several times as well. So, we appreciate that very timely feedback. All right. So, we have that. Um, all right. Another another item we need to talk about is confidentiality. So, that being said, um, the board has you you can determine how confidential you want the search to be. Um, so some boards, um, what we're seeing lately is that the search is confidential up until a certain point. Um, and what I mean for that is as we move through candidates, the board will have access to those candidates and all the information. Um, but it is 100% confidential. Um we do that to protect the the um the the the candidates. Um only one person gets this job. Um so typically the first slate and even as they go into the
064final slate, it is usually completely 100% confidential. So you could imagine a a superintendent, a sitting sitting superintendent maybe in a neighboring school district or a school district in a different different state. Um um some school boards choose to have it public. Well, believe it or not, that's going to limit uh your your applicants. Um um some superintendent um would like to apply, but they're probably not if it's going to be public because it's going to get back to their their school district and they're going to have to answer some tough questions. And so most school districts, especially in the in the Midwest here, keep it confidential, as Lynn said, until that final final round and then they make it available to the to the public. Um, selecting the superintendent is 100% the the board's
065decision. You're elected by the community. You represent your your school community. Um and there'll be all kinds of opportunities for uh all of your stakeholders including your community to give input through this through this process. Um so our recommendation um is to consider strongly keeping it confidential until you get down to the final couple couple candidates. However, like you said, each school district is unique and we don't know your specific needs yet. And so that might might change this this decision right now. So as we think about that, can you where in the process maybe maybe just a really high level? I know you have it written here, but it's hard to to see. I have it here as well, but generally what's the what's that what's that uh funnel look like and at what
066point are you suggesting or what's the common place where the confidentiality breaks? Good. So, we will um we will deliver a a slate of candidates, a first slate of candidates. That being said, we'll also tier that first slate. Um we will work the the first slate of candidates that we call tier one, we believe they can do the job. Any any of the candidates any of the candidates and we and we guarantee it. And we guarantee it. So, if you select any of the candidates that we put on that first slate, uh we guarantee that they're going to be with you beyond beyond year one. If they leave during year one or or right afterwards, we guarantee we'll do the search again at no at no cost. So, you market the position, you get applicants,
067it's a larger pool, narrow it down to ones that you feel guaranteed to fit the position. Yeah. Which meets the profile, which we haven't talked about yet, but we'll talk about the process, right? Yeah. But I don't want to get I don't want to get that either, but um so typically we we we um we communicate to the candidates that it's confidential and then they're more likely to apply especially on that that first slate. So we'll get more applicants if it is confidential. Absolutely. Eventually it will become public. Absolutely. Is the posting listed as confidential or not or how or is it a matter of when we interview them? So we will interview each candidate one on- one and we have that conversation. Some of them have outstanding relationships with their board with their communities
068and they haven't even had that conversation yet, right? So we guarantee them that confidentiality. we will feel the number of calls um from potential candidates to ask us specifics about this this job and and and and that's the one they're our goal um is to aggressively recruit as many candidates that fit within the realm of your leadership profile that Lynn is going to talk about that we're going to use as a tool to vet candidates. This is where the uniqueness comes comes in. And so we're going to learn your your school school community and your desires and your needs from the board, from the administration, from the staff, from the parents, from your students if you if you elect to get their feedback, which a lot of school districts a lot of school districts do,
069and then from your community as as large at large and and we'll devi develop that that profile to to screen those those candidates. Lynn says we provide you with a slate that that first slate and depending on the number that you're looking for could be three candidates, it could be six candidates. If you ask for an average, I say most most boards go with four. They utilize our service. They do the due diligence to make sure you can give us four rock stars right there for us to to select. You're going to narrow that down. You're going to pair it down to a smaller number, most likely two. That's when school boards sign open open or or some do some do not. It depends and we we will share conversations like we if we have
070a candidate and it's your one of your finalists and confidentiality is an issue we will have that conversation with you and you as it's not you as a board can revisit that as we move from slate from the first slate to the second slate. I think as long as there's an opportunity for multiple stakeholders or stakeholder groups to weigh in in the process. Yeah. Whether it be I mean and I think to attract the most number of candidates it sounds like it's later in the process. I personally feel comfortable going with a confidential path. You will have access to the information because we have a portal. You'll have the resumes. You have all the information. You want more information, you'll have that access. It's what you know and it's 247. We entrust you to have
071that information. But no, but you're the only ones at that have that information. anyone feel differently? So even the focus groups wouldn't have access to the dashboard. If we pull in the focus groups is that what like six to 10 community members it's larger. We would have open open forms. No, those are open forums. This is just about keeping this is on the candidate side. Yeah. And keeping the search confidential. I think our last search was confidential. It probably was. I would be surprised if it wasn't. even the community uh discussions and interviews. I believe if I remember correct there was discussion of this part of that process. I was and I'm trying to remember back but I'm pretty sure it was there was an ask that this is confidential for all the reasons that
072you've laid out that we've got some good candidates but they may not want to leave their districts if they don't receive this position. You were on that committee though but you weren't a board member right? Correct. And you could see the applicants. I sat across from a table and talked to him. Yeah. Who was an interview? Yeah. So, is that part of the is so that's No, we're not. We're not talking about that. So, we'll have that discussion. Okay. I want to make sure we don't we we we don't we want to make sure we're as clear as possible. We are going to have an opportunity for every stakeholder that you det that you defined to have input into this process. And that's going to be in the beginning. Sounds like there's some flexibility for
073us to kind of determine which you may decide in the end that maybe you want a a group of stakeholders to to help during the final. Do you have feedback on those candidates? We have them sign. Yeah. Um which I'm sure which you did probably. Um because still at the end only one person is going to get that position. Yeah. And some will have a community forum as well and if you want that to happen we'll we'll make that happen. Can you explain what a community forum looks like just so we can think about that over time? Sometimes if you have if you have two candidates you'll have the community you'll invite the community of the business community of the staff. You have the teachers you know you can have community forums around the two
074candidates. So the they would present to the community member the community members could ask questions or staff. Okay. Yeah. So, think about that too. Is that common? Smaller smaller groups. Um, usually we don't have 100 people. Sure. Yeah. It's in or or a select a select search committee because you really at the end of the day the this is a this is a difficult decision to make and you as a board are trained to make that decision. Um, and if you want to seek additional input, everybody is going to have input into this code. It's it'll be exhaustive where everyone knows their voice will be heard. So Carrie and I will be here for You'll get tired of us. You will get very tired of us. Um but that is something you can think about
075and we'll make that happen. Okay. So, it sounds to me like you'd get the the widest best possible pool of candidates if for certainly the first slate were confidential. And what we in the community are relying on is that you're like a trust clearing house and that you can assess the stakeholders in advance. Make sure that their voices are heard in building the leadership profile and the people you select are going to align with the community's interests even if they submit their resumes blind, you know, to the community. And then we'll pair down people that the community you declare the community would support based on the feedback they've given you. Correct. So in order to get the best possible people in the door to me it makes sense to go confidential for the first slate.
076Certainly and that leadership profile we'll walk backwards from that because we have a couple questions for you. That's a public meeting where we'll present that leadership profile to you. And I I I I believe Michael and I we talked about this that profile is so robust. Um, you talked about the strategic plan a little bit earlier. You talked about goals. It will not only inform the search process, it'll also inform your strategic position of the district. That's how robust it is. So, it's it's it's a it's a and it's a and it's a public report. We'll come to a board meeting and we'll we'll present that profile to you. Obviously, we the all the stakeholders, you know, there you cannot identify any of them. um it's at the aggregate level but it's comprehensive. Now the
077other thing I wanted to mention regarding the candidates and and what what our firm does a little differently than other firms or the schoolboard association. Not only do we support the board 100%. We also support the candidates. We're a resource for the candidates and the candidates know um when they apply for a job with HIA we're going to do everything we can in their best interest um we're going to provide a soft landing for them if they don't get the the job and and and so we believe because they know how our process works we're going to um gather more candidates than other firms might might do as as well. We we we we exercise extreme care with the candidates as well and we give them exceptional service. Yeah. And in addition to Lynn and
078I, we have a back we have a back office and they provide support to the candidates as well, just like they will provide support to you if if needed. If Lynn and I can't do it, we have additional people and staff that can't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say I I think the board would fully support that as well that I think we all understand that the interview process is a two-way street. It's got to be a good it's got to be a good fit for Sycamore, but it has to be a great fit for the superintendent candidate as well. It's not that you don't have that handshake. Yeah, Ellen, you could you could help us with our interview workshop that we're going to put you through is that it's it is
079they're interviewing you. Mhm. I mean, they the people that that are going to come to you are not desperate for looking for a superintendency. They either have one or they're being recruited for. And this probably won't be the only search that they're that they're in. And and and and so they're going to be interviewing you and measuring the school district um to see if this is a good fit because this is, as you know, all of you are are have jobs and are professionals and and so on. This is a significant decision on their on their part. So, they're gonna they're going to do their due diligence just like you are in in coming together for your next educational leader. Any other comment on the level of confidentiality or preference for the confidential one for
080at least the first light and reassess it. But yeah, and then you can reassess. Right. Exactly. Also, we have some dates here. just to start the discussion, but this is where you as a board can decide what those dates are. Um, we would um we would highly suggest and I we don't see it's a problem, but have all of your interviews concluded by September 20th. And again, you you pick your modality. Um, so Carrie and I will both be on those interviews. um and our um we um I don't this was in our in our proposal but um we exercise something called st um standard approach where you know all all the stakeholders are asked the same questions to mitigate biased um so those questions you know we we we keep a pretty tight ship
081just to make sure um bias is all mitigated and that also extends into the um into the focus groups. Um so your interviews one-on-one. The other thing we need you to think about um is is there anybody else in the district or externally that you would like us to have a one-on-one conversation with. So anybody that you'd like to have a one-on-one conversation with um that you can identify, we will have that we will have that one-on-one interview. Um, and then we exercise a mixed method design. We have a quantitative survey um that'll go out to all stakeholders. And we'd like to be able to work with Kelly and your communications personnel to be able to um identify your stakeholder groups. That can go to that can go to anybody. Um, we define who the
082stakeholder groups are. The board works together. How do we define the stakeholders? Well, it's it's pretty and so so the board's going to be a stakeholder. Sure. Your administration's going to be a state stakeholder. Um then your then your staff and you could break your staff up into faculty and so it doesn't have to be it's not very support staff. Um and you could have your students, you could have your parents and you can have the community at large. Those are typically your I thought we were going to narrow it really down to those seven different stakeholders. But if there's another stakeholder group that that you want to include, then we'll We'll work with you. Quick quick question on the one-on-one interviews. I'm not asking what the questions are, but are there specific things that
083we should be thinking of ahead of time so that we've thought it through or are you looking for an answer? Whatever you're comfortable, we've had board members um PowerPoint presentations. Yes, most of the board members come in and they just respond to our questions and we have other ones that, you know, will write a report for us. Um and and and and then as Lynn said, we we just had one that, you know, gave us a PowerPoint. Uh you're welcome with hot links. You are you are you are welcome to show what you want. This is a presentation about Sycamore or what the district is in need of or uh what we're looking for in a leader. All the above. All the above. Yeah. Yeah. We have a set of questions that we use. Yeah.
084And they're open-ended and and you could take them in a variety of different ways. And at the end, is there anything else you would like to to share with us that you believe is is critical to this this process? So, you'll have you'll have an opportunity and we have all the time you you need and so you have an opportunity to to get your thoughts across to to us. Confidential. Yeah. We'll list it as the board to you, but we're not going to list the individual formers who said what. The same if you have, you know, meet with your administration or your teachers. We're not going to identify in in individuals, but sometimes you have community partners that play a major role. There might be some other, you know, one-on-one leaders that you'd like us
085to speak to. So, think about that. That's that's completely up to you. Um, and then um and so we um we will work with the district to deploy the survey. Typically, we keep the survey open for about 10 days. Um, and we nudge as we work through that. Um um usually if we open it at you know if we open it 14 days people take it day 13. So we'll work with communications and with Kelly to kind of identify the contact lists and then how we nudge. Um if you have here's something else. Um if you have it's the beginning of a school year so you're you have a lot of gatherings happening at your schools. Um, if you have some open houses or something like that where you we could put QR codes um
086for the survey, we can work with the district team to be able to identify that and then I'm not sure when your curriculum nights are or things like that, but if they fall within this range, we'd like to take advantage of that because we we we can hand you can hand out a quick piece of paper, scan the QR code, and then take the survey really quick. Yeah. Yeah, the goal is to get as many stakeholders um throughout your community to take it. However, please don't be disappointed um when everybody doesn't doesn't take it. People's lives, as you know, are extremely busy and so on. And and if we get if we got 50%, we would be jumping up for we we will work to over 30 because that's statistically significant. Um but um it
087it depends. We usually get pretty good rates, especially as we nudge. Well, we got a pretty good communications team. So I think I'm confident if the board's comfortable, we can we can work with the communications team to identify some um you know, some events happening. Yeah, because it's it's the you new year. There's a lot of excitement, a lot of opportunity where stakeholders are gathering actually. So it's perfect timing. Would that do you think I mean Do you need any other direction from us on that or is that just if you're comfortable with us working with communications team, we can kind of put some tentative dates together and then and then and then provide them to the board. Sounds good. And we would ask your communications team to um consider establishing a a place on
088your website, you know, a landing spot for the search where you could continually communicate to the community about what's happening with the with the process. Um and we can work with the individuals to help them get that started. So then in addition to the one-on-one interviews, uh we also would like to conduct focus groups and we have no they're unlimited. Um we'd like we go back again and we we want to make sure um we have teacher focus groups, we have staff focus groups, we have administration focus groups, um like parent focus groups. Um and then if we also any if you have a community focused group or if you have um an advisory board or anything like that um we would like to put them you know include them as well. And then and
089then the student piece and students. Yes. You would be amazed um what students know about each school district, about each school, about each teacher, about each administrator and so on. and and very rarely do school districts tap into feedback from from the students. And we've seen be successful for some school districts is they'll take their student council or they'll take um um an organized group that they have 10 to 20 students at the secondary level. Um typically high school, but it could also be middle school. And um we would meet with with them um and get get feedback from them. Um however, just a couple things. Um um we would need um um parental parental permission. Yeah. Um and we recommend a passive consent informing the the parents and if they have uh if they're
090opposed to meeting with someone from the outside, they would let you let you know. And then um we would also recommend that a staff member be with us when we meet with any of your students if you elect them to be part of the qualitative group for for focus. Yeah. So we also would suggest a virtual focus group for parents. Um that's a good way to get and and you know um just because you know at night they're more willing to kind of hop on at night when things have settled and we'll get really good feedback. Um the focus groups bring the survey to life. They tell the story. Um so we use qualitative techniques to be able to code all the information in those focus groups and then the culmination of the survey and
091the focus groups then turns into the leadership profile and what will come come from that are core competencies. We will see we will pull themes from there that that become part of the the posting. they become part of our interview process and also each candidate um needs to show proven experience in those competencies so you have alignment and that's part of your filtering process part of the filtering process correct correct what's the optimal size for these the focus groups hopefully we get a lot of interest in participation and I'm trying to understand Carrie and I are we've we've done you know I it if it's a large group, we may um Carrie may take one group and I'll take another group. Um if we may have multiple focus groups. So for the teachers and then
092for schools, we may go to you know we may go to the schools. We want to see your schools. We want to tour your schools. Um we see little things. I mean it's the little things that make schools really special. It's the little things that happen in classrooms that we catch. Um, so we're going to ask your permission as well to be able to tour those schools and see that and then come to the staff in their environment. We want to be your ambassadors also with the candidates. And so we want to know your school district inside and out. So when we're recruiting candidates, when we're working with candidates and so on, we can give them a very accurate picture because um you don't want to be surprised one month, two months after you hire
093a new superintendent and find out something about them. That's our job. We need to make sure you know inside and out that individual. The same thing for the candidate. We want them to know inside and out your school district because we don't want them to be surprised after a month or month or two. Yeah. And there there's going to be great candidates that will apply, but there won't be any alignment. And and because we've spent so much time with your stakeholders and so much time in your environment, you know, we want to make sure that that there's alignment. Um, and if there is some, um, I know we're going back and forth, so I apologize. Um, that goes back to why we tier the first slate. You know, we'll tell you why tier one is
094tier one and tier two is tier two. Now, as a board, you have, you know, it's your choice to be able to bring tier two. Maybe you have somebody in tier two that you want to bring to tier one. That's fine. But we'll tier those candidates based on the leadership profile in proven competencies. Yeah. The best superintendent in the world could be in tier two and the justification is because he or she didn't fit inside your leadership profile is tremendous skill. We've had superintendence of the year not make tier one because it just to your point school districts are unique. You're at a specific unique point in time and it's not that they're not wonderful. It's just that they're they're you know there's not as much alignment at the tiered process when you provide those
095what what do you provide what's a candidate profile look like? So is it a is it as simple as just a resume and your and your suggestion or is there some sort of report that So we actually have the we actually have our candidates we don't um we don't believe in cover letters. Anybody can say anything in a cover letter. We want examples. Yeah, if you have a if you have a thriving if if it and this is all hypothetical. Sure. Hypothetically, you know, thriving career and technical education and you want competency in that. All right. Did you build the CTE center? What did you do? What were your outcomes? So, we want to see proven capabilities with examples so you can see that and they'll present those examples to you. That' be great. Yeah.
096That's where you know so through that and you may say too as a board you know what you know can you know through our interviews you may have certain things that are also really important and there might be things maybe that aren't apparent now but they're part of your vision you know your fiveyear 10-year plan and so we want to make sure that there's competency in that as well. So when we go to choose from those tiers, we'll be privy to that information of here's what was done and and the quote unquote the proof of what it was done. Yes. Okay. Great. The the other thing and we're ahead in candidates and I'm sorry. So, so we're going to check we're going to check references obviously and the candidates provide references but you know the
097references that the candidates provide are only going to say yeah good things about the candidates or we shouldn't even hire the person because they weren't smart enough to put people that are going to say good things about him if you give them give him a call. So, you know, we take those with a with a grain grain of salt. The fortunate thing about us besides Lynn's network and my network, we have 140 colleagues, associates in in HYA that span that span the nation from coast to coast to coast that have tremendous experience and collectively our networks. It's pretty hard to find uh an individual that's a cabinet level um administrator that someone out of our 140 associates don't know. So we do informal reference reference checks. Um so somebody is going to know them directly
098or it's going to be one person off from knowing them them directly. And so we we leverage that in in the process. We're big enough um we're cohesive enough to be able to to do that. That would go into the profile as well. we have a connection through to this person and and we'll if we see concerns we'll let you know that absolutely right because to car's point people put references down that are good references you know we also want to and we look for patterns oh the superintendent has been to six districts in four years there's a pattern there so any any concern that we have we we bubble that up to you um to be completely open and honest because we want, you know, obviously I know you want longevity and you want
099a fit. So after we so um so um we'll work with your communications department and then we'll put together kind of a draft of a focus group plan. We would like everything to conclude September 30th. So that's tight. Um but the reason why is we got to go into recruiting for six weeks. And then that's when I know you think we go dark, but we're not because we're we're talking to people and we're interviewing people, but we are six weeks into aggressive recruiting um recruiting through um also our professional networks, our professional organizations. Um we run superintendentmies as well across the country. So we aggressively recruit over that time period. So our um but you know this is also as you all know the fall you know you have Thanksgiving and you have the you
100have the the um Christmas the um winter holiday as well. Um so what we'd like to do is work with you to either a special meeting or we'll like we did tonight after you finish your business meeting will present the leadership profile to you. Now, we're going to post something right away because we want people to know that this position is open, but we're going to be very clear that a leadership profile is being developed and that it is going to be approved by you at X date and then they are to ta, you know, they are to tailor. We won't interview anybody, but we'll just let them know that the position is open. Um and so once that leadership profile is final and blessed by you, we will modify the posting accordingly. When you
101say post, are we talking put it on ISA, put it on the site, put it on as many platforms as possible? Yeah. So hya search.com, if you haven't had a chance to take a look, there's a job um page there. We list all the openings that we're aware of, not just our openings, but all of them. If you want to be a superintendent in the United States, your go-to place to look is our website. We get 35,000 unique hits every month on our on our website for for for posting. We also post on our all of our social medias. Uh we do a monthly newsletter. We have over 30,000 subscribers on our monthly newsletter that goes out to districts and super superintendent. And so we will get the word out. You will advertise it or
102you'll have a link on on your website if you want to po post it on the job bank. The Illinois Association um Illinois um minist association of school administrators have a job bank. You can post it on on there. your members as a as a school school district. Um um you can post in there and then it'll go through um all the um administrators part of that organization will see it in the state of state of Illinois. Um but we're going to get you we're going to get you candidates. Um it's not going to be hard to get the word out using using our outlets and anything you want to do. On top of that just be icing on the cake. We offer advertisement packages um print and and digital. It's very expensive and we
103don't see the return on the dollar for for that. Um our our advertisement just on our website alone and we're going to do more of that will get you will get you um significant amount of candidates. So look at your look at your schedule in September. Is there a meeting or what is that what does your calendar look like that last week in September? We have a September 23rd board meeting on the regularly scheduled agenda. Okay. Um but so we can have the most possible time available. September 30th falls on a Tuesday. We could call a special board meeting then. Okay. And that would be as I understand it when the conclusion of the that'll be the presentation of the leadership profile. Yeah. Yeah. Is it possible to do um what October is October 7th
104you wouldn't recommend doing? You think September 30th is best? Just want to be cognizant of how long we usually leave open to circulate feedback. How busy do you want to be in December. So it it depends on your individual. really your schedule because you're going to have to come together move moving forward. And if you shrink the window, you're going to have to you're not going to have as many many options. And so if you can't do it before September 30 or on September 30, yeah, we can go into October, but it's going to be a little more possibly challenging to get the seven of you to um to together. I think if we can if we do a September 30th meeting date, we can have a usual and customary amount of solicitation for stakeholder
105feedback. Is that fair to assume? Yeah, that gives a whole month for that. Okay. Very important to you. Yeah. Okay. You think that's uh the 7-day extra from the 23rd to the 30th is worthwhile? Yep. And then that we have just a dedicated meeting solely to that single item. So we are scary in September really. So, does September 30th work for you guys? September 30th special. I can do it. Got it. What time? 7 o'clock. Yeah, whatever time. Good. Seven is best. Seven. Okay. So, September 7 p.m. Perfect. September 3rd or 30th. 30th. Okay. And I would block out 30 hours for that for that meeting. You got a celebr There's only one retired super that talks a lot. Um, all right. So then we go into recruiting and then now I need you. So
106here's here's kind of so think about this and look at your calendars. So we need you for the first slate. It could be two days. Um, so we will present the profile to you. We'll present the slate to you. So we'll go over both tiers. So that's a meeting. Um, and then um, you decide on who you want to interview to invite to the to invite to round one. And so that's either going to be a very long day or that could be split into two days. So on average, the first site typically is four four candidates. four candidates might be five, might be might be three. Or you might say, "Geez, we want to be in interviews and give us eight." Then then you're not getting your money's worth out of us. Let us
107let us pair it down for for you. And if you don't like who we present, tell us and we'll continue to work hard to find find the individual candidates that that um um I think that's now we have three weeks in we I think Thanksgiving is the last week. Yeah. So, we do have some time in November. Um, and I don't know. Um, and Carrie and I are flexible. I like weekends and evenings. It just kind of depends on how much time were you thinking again? And you said that'll be a long one because what's the long like So, you're going to need you're going to need um about 90 minutes for each block. Um, each each candidate. Not that you're going to talk for 90 minutes. might talk for 60 or 75 minutes, but
108you're going to need to catch your breath um in between. And so you're looking at, you know, 90 minutes a candidate and and if you do four candidates in one day, that's a significantly long long day. So if you do two in one evening and do the second um to that's an option. I think four candidates is a manageable number on I would prefer it on a Saturday. I don't want to sit here at 7 at night and have four 90minute interviews. I just think that's a weird expectation. You know, come to your interview. I can make any time work. So, so yeah. So, Saturday is good. I mean, is there a preference? If you do a one long day, I think a Saturday makes sense. If we'd rather do two days, then, you know,
109you could do it, you know, you could do Thursday, Friday or something like that. I'll be around. I think the key is what you said Carrie which is if it is if it ends up being four I mean we'll see where we end up but it's some continuous communication of hey this one maybe not or really making sure that we're getting down to those right four or five opportunity there are three whatever that really seem like good fits hopefully both ways right and then we can have those um I don't know um we also I mean the nice thing is um schoolboard association and triple I um is is is that um weekend before Thanksgiving. So before we have an HYA booth there. Um we tend to interview and meet candidates there as well. Um
110so on Yeah. Thanksgiving or September. Are you suggesting using that uh somehow or or just in mind that that's a weekend? use it for for for all school districts and sometime we'd meet and greet board members and candidates and and so on. My guess is you may be busy that weekend too. I don't know. Would it be better to schedule after that triple eye conference is that or do you think just for like I'm just going to throw out some stuff and we can kind of workshop it. But let's just say we did a six-h hour four candidate intensive and let's say we did that in November. Are we talking the end of November ideally? Or you could go into um the first week in December. The following week we would do final interview. When's
111triple I Week before Thanksgiving. So when's Thanksgiving? 28 27 28 29th. Oh boy. So we're looking at December 6th. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Yeah. November 29th probably feasibly the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I don't see how that you might have you might have some people traveling. I don't know. No, I don't think that's Yeah. So, December does December 6th Do we like Saturday versus two days? I'm okay with Saturday, but it would have to be December 6th. Yes. And just note that I will be out of town the 18th through the 25th. So, of December. Yeah, I think. Yeah. So, I guess I assume we wouldn't we'd block that off anyway. Is there any benefit to doing it before Thanksgiving? I mean, do we lose anything by doing that? I just worry about getting too close
112to the So, the only thing you could get pinched on is if a candidate is a finalist in another another search, right? That's kind of what I was thinking. Someone someone beats you to the Yeah, we don't want to lose that gun, but we we encourage candidates to to tell us everything and if they're involved in other search, we respect that. and and and as much communication as they as they can because then we can we can help them through that that process. But um some some school districts will will hire right about Thanksgiving or right after after Thanksgiving. Those are school districts there's a small percentage. Um but you could lose out on on a candidate if somebody makes an offer and the person grabs it rather than you you could do finishing the
113process. Yeah. I mean, you could do November 8th and then then the 6th would be your final. So, Saturday the 8th and then um and then the final the sixth. So, November then 6th of December. Yeah. Are they usually gapped that much? It Well, because of Thanksgiving, that's the only problem. If we did the eth and then the 15th of November. I'm just like 15th of November, 6th of December. No, I was saying November 8th, November 15th. I think that's out. I'm I'm out. Eight days in a row. Yeah. Now we know who has a social board and who doesn't. I don't think really hard all week. I don't think there's harm going into December. I really don't. As long as there's no I don't want to lose anything, I guess, is my I I
114don't think there's harm. And if we get someone that's like, "Oh my gosh, this is the person." And we we we could expedite, I suppose. Yeah. And I don't think there's harm going to the 6th or the 13th and then um the 6th and the 13th of December, I'm talking. And if we have to do a 1213, like if there's two candidates, you know, in those final interviews, we can talk about what that what that looks like. The second round is not going to be six hours, though, right? Because there will be fewer candidates, fewer candidates. You'll spend, you know, you'll spend more time with each candidate. And we'll we'll talk to you how how you want to design that last maybe four hours. Second one could possibly be during the week because we could
115do ver we could present the present the slate to you before Thanksgiving. Um and then we can work with the candidates to get them scheduled to be here the 6th and that will be your longest. And then you can you can you can decide if you want to go you just want to block out 1213 pencil those in. Okay. 123. So, we're talking December 6th. 6 and 12. And December 13th. Yeah. 13. So, 6, 12, and 13. Yeah. Of December. I might be I'm probably going to be gone the 8th through the 12th, but I can do the sixth. Okay. Six. You can do So, the 13th. So, you can do the 13th. You're going to be back on the 13th. Don't know. Not sure. Should we call Should we call a friend or call
116a spouse or day is that and and before Thanksgiving? Saturday too. I just know December like December gets pretty crazy doing if we did like the 14th, 15th and then the 22nd of November. Are those opportune? We could we could look at those. Um yeah, those days work better. 14th and 15th work better for me or 8:22. 8 and 22 November. The 14th and 15th of December. Yeah. Of November. November. And then Matt and then hold two weeks and then do final on the 6th. No, I was saying 14th, 15th and then November 22nd. Do the final. Oh, I'm Well, that is triple. I mean that Oh, that's the triple. That's the issue too. Yeah. Yeah. And about the 20. You might want to take advantage of that. You might. I I think I'm I
117mean that has an enormous networking event on Saturday. 8th and sixth. The eighth and the sixth of that way you're breaking it up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Eth and sixth of which month? Eth November. Eth November and then the sixth of December. Okay. And that and that Alan that meets your schedule too, right? I think I can make it work. Yeah. because the farther off you get into December, it does get good. So, final rounds the 6th of December. Yeah. Okay, perfect. As of as of now, right? Just just clarif and do the fifth. Yeah, I can do the fifth, too. I mean, I literally can make any day work. We do the fifth. Yeah. Must we do the second one that's not as long on a Saturday? No, that's what you're saying. Friday. On the
118Friday. Okay, good. So, December 5th and November 8th. Yeah, definitely night. Good. And we could um are there schedule constraints? Could we start maybe one of those earlier like an earlier afternoon? I could do them both. I could do them both early. I can early afternoon work. I can literally make any time work on what? November 5th. I'm sorry. No, November 8th and December 5th. November 8th. Whenever it's a Saturday, I would need it to be at least 100 p.m. or later. Okay. When? November 5th. Friday the 5th. December 5th. December December 5th. Yeah. And you want to start that early? No, after. Well, I'm just saying it has to be after one. I would like Yeah. I mean, when's the early I mean, you're the one that seems to work the latest. So, when
119December 5th, I mean, I can definitely make a Friday work of November easier than a Saturday. So then November 8th, anytime works for everybody. So, preference to the morning, I think. Well, that's No, that's a long day. Yeah, just that's okay. I can unless we're talking about you got to be here at 7 in the morning. If you got to be here at 7 I'm a night person. I am not a morning. And that first round is that 90 minute slot. There's a rotation, right? That's not the entire board in 90 minutes because there's no way that's right. This is a rotation or some sort of format. You the whole board will interview candidate. Yeah. Okay. 90 minutes per candidate. so defeated. So to talk about here and we and we and we add a
120little buffer cross all this out until it is except for this is I just know when you interview people that there's a especially in a group there's a lot of there's a lot of seems like an hour 60 minutes I think a lot of that's going to be I'll leave it to the format you guys presented and we I think a lot of that not too early yeah because we'll hold a workshop if we um if we can start at a nice time. We'll have a workshop to kind of guide through um the questions. Typically, we don't sit on the interviews. We're in the room next door. We'll meet and greet the candidates. We'll handle them when they come in and when they they go out if you want us to sit on the interviews.
121We're happy to do so, but typically we we don't. Um, but we will we will guide you every step of the way to your comfort level through that through that interview process. All right. So, this we landed on two days. You got us with six and the fifth, but the fifth is going to be after 1:00. Well, but that won't I think we should set the times, too, because after one's not good enough for But we need to I just block your calendar in the afternoon. I think it's just But is that okay with Beth? She said there might be a um I can yeah if it's in the afternoon I can um I can arrange my schedule. Okay. That far in advance. Great. Okay. Okay. Perfect. So that was that was the hardest part
122of that was the hardest part of the whole process. That was the hardest part of Congratulations. 3 in the afternoon. Okay. We take care of everything so you don't have to What about Saturday morning? like Saturday. Is that not going to be super early? 8 a.m. Yeah, we'll probably depends on how many candidates. All right. the pool you draw from, that's a national pool. So, but do you put emphasis on like local um candidates at all or anything like that for anybody that would be more familiar with the district or with Illinois policies? So, it's up it's up to you. Um, you know, we we're going to offer the opportunity to get anybody from the United States. Um, and, um, one of the questions we're going to ask in a little bit, um, you know,
123how how much do you want to support those out of state those out ofstate candidates to come in to interview for the for the position? Um, and you say, you know, we're not looking to to reimburse for for travel in on a one night stay. um that's going to cut down the number of out of state candidates that you get and you're going to get more local local candidates. Um so um but that's probably a couple agenda items a couple bullet points ahead. I mean we'll we'll we'll stay connected with you about where because you may have one it's your choice whether to interview them or not. That's the part of presenting the slate because we'll say you know here's this they reside here you know how do you want to move forward so you
124have you will ultimately make those decisions um so that uh brings us to the next question residency have you thought about residency and your next leader living in the district yes at least not as boards not negotiable. I've thought about it too. I've thought about it personally, but and I don't we've talked about So, what's the question? The question is, are we okay having somebody work in the district who doesn't live here? Is that okay? And live here being within I mean, of course, they have to be able to commute here like here if they live in Decal versus like the city of Sycamore. Correct. Mayfield Township unincorporated the district. We have to make some boundary parameters. typically the school within the school district boundaries um where say yeah we want the super superintendent to
125live within the school district boundaries um or they're open to it first I mean does anybody want to speak first is that on the job posting or I'm just trying yeah we were put on the job yeah I think it's important that they live close I mean that's it's a lot of work and it's long hours in the district in the community I think is important for me it's not well I mean within I'd say an hour commute I think that's that's up to the person if if they want to do it and they're willing to put in the hours yeah the the question it's typically in the district or it's it's not not required it could be preferred you prefer them to live within your school boundaries or you require them to live within
126your school boundaries or there's no expectation. Those are the three choices. Typically, if we define the criteria now as no preference and then we get down to it and there are two candidates and one lives within five miles, then then you can't you really can't use that you can't use that as a criteria to make the decision. Oh, then you're could be legally dim. I understand as to that break point. Some boards, I mean, it dep, you know, some boards want the superintendent to be the face of the community. They're a leader. You know, they're they're handinand with, you know, they're one of the most important leaders in the community. Um, it just kind of depends and you can think about it. You have time to think about it. How does the requirement hold suit?
127It's just a somebody Yeah. board says we they they need to live in the school boundaries and so they if they do not they have to move into the boundaries. How's it held accountable? It's just the trust like yep I'm going to so I mean that you know Chicago public schools they all need to live in the city. The Chicago firefighters all need to live in the city. Chicago police all need to live in the this the city. Um do you get some people that I mean obviously we would know right? Everybody know everybody would know you already know some of these like and I'm just thinking kind of ahead a little bit where there's a lot of these like decision point pieces what we talk about as far as our when we do our
12860-minute interviews is it possible to just have you guys having aggregated the feedback from us in the 60-minute interviews. Absolutely. That way we're not sitting here lament because I don't know that you're going to get seven people reach. Some boards are very very Yeah. And it's Yeah. And like I said, think about it saying like the same we'll probably get to the same outcome if we just individually have the feedback in our 60-minute interviews and then that information like the stakeholder input feeds into this and then a determination is made. Is that I mean I don't know is that is it board amendable to that or do you guys want to hash this out right now? I would I would personally like to get some community constituent feedback on this. If it's important to the
129people that come and talk to me, you know, then it's important to me. Ideally, the super would live in this community. Oh, yeah. Well, of course. What I what what gives me pause or what I'm mildly afraid of is, you know, I don't know how restrictive these terms are. You know, if they if they find the perfect house right outside of but they plan to move to Sycamore in a year and we've got an understanding that their their goal is to move to Sycamore, you know, in one or in two years. Like, yeah, obviously you want to funnel them to moving them into Sycamore. If it's going to limit our ability to attract the right perfect person, you know, then listing it as required on the application is a little bit scary to me. But
130if everybody I talk to between now and everybody comes up to me and you're like, "No, that's crazy. They have to live in Sycamore. You listed as required." Okay. Well, then that's where I'm at. Okay. Okay. It's better to be upfront about your requirements anyways. Yeah. So, we can let this sizzle and then come back to you before September 30th or when do we have to make that decision? Before September 30th. Yeah. Yeah. But that would be when you include it in our stakeholder focus group. Before we That was an excellent idea. before we we post the initial um job posting. Oh, so then we could potentially when you guys present the leadership profile, if we make the decision at that meeting, we'll have gotten the stakeholder feedback as the basis for the decision. Oh,
131wonderful. Okay. All right. Um the only other um so the only other additional cost and in we don't we don't get anything out of this. It's optional. It's optional, but this is this third party background check that we offer. Extremely robust, 54 pages. Um, everything social, every like, every everything. You don't want any surprises. We don't want any surprises. It's your insurance policy. So, we we we strongly recommend that. You don't have to use us. You might have a third party that your district uses. Um but we recommend to all boards um there's third parties out there that could do a comprehensive indepth background check on these individuals from their finances to say that any any footprint at all on the on on the web on on social media validates the transcripts everything um um
132in insurance an insurance policy um A little bit under $2,000 for all the candidates. No, this is the final either the final two or the final final one. It's up to up to you. Some boards Oh, geez. So, what if you get to that point and then you're paying like four grand. Well, but then you know, but but you're happy because you found out that you Yeah, we do tell them we're doing this and we do have yet to be if you have any skeletons in the closet, it's going to come up in the in this process and it's better for you to get it out in front of it rather than having it show up in a in-depth background check and trying to uh be defensive and and actually we would give it to
133your legal counsel. Yeah. for your legal counsel to review. When do you need an answer on I'm I don't want we don't want you to be that's the only additional cost to this process. So we want to be open and trans background. I just didn't know whether we want to do that one or not. Certainly we should do our due diligence and do a background check. Yes. Right. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Um I think that's anything else. Oh um think about again nothing. Think about ranges for salaries. We'll need that for the job posting because in Illinois it's a requirement. So, think about where that's at. Um need to have that um you know and um that to you on September 30th as well. Is that when we're going to present that information? I'm just
134thinking because the next time we're gonna like do you need us to in aggregate just as you're as you're kind of go as we're interviewing you and you're thinking about this think about your salary range. Um we can put together a salary analysis for you. Yeah. I was going to ask you you hire or you help to to pos to um yeah to place so many superintendents. I think collectively I'm sure we each have thoughts but it would be really great to understand the marketplace as it relates to the district. We'd like a copy of the contract, the last contract, just so we can see what some of those other benefits are like. Mhm. Um because then it I just wanted to ask, do do we need to have anything ready for the phone interview?
135You know, when you you call us for the interview only if you want to put a PowerPoint presentation together or No, I you don't you don't you're gonna ask the questions that are just Yeah. Just your sense of humor. That's it. Okay. Okay. So, think about Sally and like I said, we'll we'll work with somebody at the district to get the to get the current contract. Um, anything do you have any questions? What do you need from us at the end of the like right now for this meeting for everything to go on track timing wise? I don't want there to be any. You've got everything you need. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Kelly Kelly will be able to get us to the communication. She's right. [Laughter] Um, but we'll we'll present that plan to you.
136So, we'll work through all the stakeholder groups and all that, all those logistics and say, you know, how does this sound? So, we'll we'll work through that probably in the next couple days. We want to get that because it's it's also a it's a wonderful it's a healthy experience. It's a wonderful experience to be able to to bring your stakeholders together and to get feedback. And so we you know we want to really leverage that. Um, one last thing as well. Um, if there are, um, internal candidates, Carrie and I, it is our, um, humble and expert opinion that internal candidates go through the same process that all the other candidates go through and, you know, and if they end up where they are. So, just want to make sure, you know, make sure you're
137okay with that as well. But we, you know, if there are internal candidates, we would suggest to make that those go through the same process. I think there's been a long-standing process in the district. I agree with that personally. I think that makes sense. That's what we do is everyone's treated the same the same. Yeah. The same process. Um, when we meet with you as well, we'll have another opportunity for for you to ask us questions. Um, and like I said, we'll keep lines of communication as open as possible. Um well, you know, the only time you may feel like nothing's happening is when we're recruiting, but we are working very hard during that that time period. I think just one thing I just want to say serious conversation here, right? I I think that
138so our slogan if you if you see there's an old sign that life offers more in Sycamore. There's a lot of people who have moved to Sycamore over time. No, relatively fair bit of construction. And if you ask people why do they move, especially if they have children, it's not because of Pumpkin Fest, which is a great festival that we have. I hope you come in October. It's because we heard the schools are really good. And it really that is something that we absolutely want to continue. Um, and so we really are putting a lot of vested interest in you and confidence in you and obviously in ourselves, but uh to find that person because it it really is a special place. It is a town for lots of reasons. It it's one of those
139districts where it's just not the schools, it's really about the town and the community. It you know that but this is a this is you were in our sports conference forever. You beat us a lot. Um you have community pride. That's right. But but primarily and not not primarily but yes across the board but the schools are very important and they are in every community but I think they're um they're just it's just something very special. The community is wonderful. I've been here born and raised here so I have I have some vested interest but I think it's just important to to really convey that. Yeah. And I hope you do visit the schools because I think we will look forward to Carrie like gets in and does play practice sometimes. Sometimes we'll go to
140a tea party. Got a wonderful orchestra if you play an instrument. No. No, I don't. Um feel free to ask us any questions at all. Um we'll um you'll have our contact information but I'll also leave my card. Is it should that go through the our our point which is Michael or is that something that we can reach directly if you have questions too feel free to krie and I talk and if you ask a significant question we're going to share with the entire board the answer everybody has the same information. No we're looking forward to this relationship. We're going to spend a lot of time together, but we're going to Krie and I do all the logistics so you can just, you know, get in the mindset to pick your best leader. Thank you.
141Oh, thank you for that, too. Here we go. I don't know if I have enough. I've got your email and stuff right here on the top of the memo. Thank you. I did have one question. you there's inter interview workshop listed. Congratulations. I'm going to carry real quick. You have inter interview workshop listed. Is that a separate calendar item? No, we're going to do it right before the first interview. Just a quick prep. Beautiful. This is beautiful space, too. The space is our agenda items. Thank you very much, guys. Really, we appreciate it. Thank you for Thank you for your patience. one day where we invite you know when are they going to raise the parking meters from 10 cents never you still spend a penny it is amazing right next item on the agenda
142session Okay. Item 12.01. Is there a motion to adjourn to executive session under the Illinois Open Meetings Act? Uh let's see here. Uh for section 2C1, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees. Item 2C2, collective negotiating matters. Um 2C6, setting a price for sale or lease of district owned property. 2C8 security procedures 2C11 litigation that is pending. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion. All right. I'll restate the motion to enter into executive session uh under open meetings act ILCS section 2C1, 2C2, 2C6, 2C8, and 2C11. Kelly, would you call the role? Yes. Evans, yes. All right, it's 10:36. We're back in open session. The next item on the agenda, item 13.01, amendment of director employment contracts. Um, at this time, additional information is needed on this item. So, I'd like
143to solicit a motion to postpone for an additional reading. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right. Seeing no discussion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Uh item 14.01 adjournment. There's no other items on the agenda. This meeting stands adjourned. Thank you guys.