001election. >> All right. Good evening everyone. This still six o'clock. I'm still on time. Um this is a special meeting of the board of education and public for the purpose of conducting 117. Um it's not to be considered a public community meeting. There is time for public participation during the meeting as the agenda and upon request of the superintendent the district shall make reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities to be able to participate in this meeting. here. >> Arnold >> Here >> we need to approve the agenda. Next, >> I'll move that the board of education approve the agenda with an item added as E for discussion after a short minute or short five minute break after the candidate interview. >> I'll second it. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All
002those in favor of approving the as amended say I. Any opposed? Um this is time for our first opportunity for public participation. Please note that for efficiency policy 254, the public participation has been suspended for this meeting and there will only be one opportunity for public participation. Uh the board will be providing feedback forms to all attendees to collect written feedback for board consideration following each interview and we do recommend that you use the written forms to provide us with the superintendent um uh is there anyone who would like to address the board and start with our first candidate or only candidate interview. What >> says? Ready? We will ask that you push a hold button until it lights up and then we'll just have to leave your members on during this evening today. >>
003Um, good evening everyone. On behalf of Dexter's committee of school students, I would like to welcome Melanie Novak, uh, Dexter High School principal to this interview for the position of superintendent. I will take a few moments to briefly describe our format. The interview may take up to 90 minutes. There will be 21 questions from the board. Toward the end of the interview, time limiting, we will give you the opportunity to ask questions of the board and make a closing statement. And we will let you know if time is becoming an issue and there is a need to evidence responses. For those present for this interview, we welcome and encourage your feedback. You may use the form provided in the back for this purpose. Although the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of
004the board of education as the elected representatives of our community, we value and seriously consider the input of our stakeholders in the process. So I will start with some opening questions for you. Miss Noah, while we have had the opportunity to review your application materials, the audience members have not. Please briefly review your background and share what causes you to be interested in this position at this point in your career. >> Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank the board for this opportunity. I'm honored and humbled to be able to be in front of you tonight to uh interview for the superintendent of community schools. So, thank you. Also, thank you to all the community members who are here tonight. Selecting the next superintendent of community schools is so important. this is
005a big decision for our community and so I appreciate your religion process. Um so I feel like every uh experience in my educational career has brought me to this moment. So I have varied experience and I have to talk to you about that. Um in the math and um English classroom at a high school level I taught for 10 years. Uh I always challenge my students to push further, engage more in the content, not just on an academic level, but on a personal level and make sure that they don't silo their education. So just as I challenged my students to further their education and push farther um and stretch themselves, I was doing the same myself as their teacher. So I was always trying to find new ways to engage in the classroom, whether it
006be new technology, new um educational supports, programs, resources, whatever it may be. Um, through that I found that not only did I want to support the students in my classroom and on my roster, but the students in the classroom next to me across the hall down the hallway and also um support the teachers of those students um to make sure that they had all the supports they needed and um take away any barriers that might um be in front of them. Make sure that the students are really at the center of what they're doing. Uh so through um leadership experiences at the teacher level I uh really wanted to further that impact and became a building level leader first in an elementary level um and then at a middle school level in both cases opening
007brand new schools not only in a new fiscal um building and structure with different grade levels but also a new instruction model. um through those experiences. Um and as you can imagine, opening a new school is not just about the physical layout of the building. Um bus schedules, lunch schedules, special schedules, all of it, curriculum. Um there's a lot that goes into that. Um I felt like I wanted to take that experience a little bit further and really uh concentrate on the curricular development. I'll get more to that um hopefully throughout the night. Um but I so I took my talents to Farmington Public Schools where I was the career and innovation coordinator. Um as a curriculum coordinator in central office uh guiding teachers and instructional leaders and administrators on how to make um teaching
008and learning more relevant to students. specifically supporting teachers of care and technical education and innovative practices um specifically through this strategic design um process um that Fington was going through and is continuing to go through um as well as um again supporting teachers in CTE. Those experiences brought me here to Dexter um high school, Dexter Community Schools um where I absolutely loved my experience here and I got to find out what the fuss is all about. We have really cool things going on here. Theory programs, wow, we're these students, um, engaged community members who are always willing to give feedback and support. We have a great going here. So, my hope is that through the varied experiences that I have and offered a district, um, I would be a great position. Um, what do you
009believe are the two or three most critical long-term priorities we will need to address and how would your background and skills help us address these priorities? >> Yeah. So, um, coming back from the pandemic has um really opened our eyes to some systemic problems that we have in education that we really need to address head on. Um, one of them being technology. When I say technology is in u many different areas of technology one I'll say it is artificial intelligence what do we do with AI here at school are we teaching our students how to use it responsibly can't push it away it's not going anywhere what do we do with it what is its space in the classroom and bigger educational um realm additionally with technology cell phones social media and how does that
010impact our students and their social emotional wellbeing and then all the residual um impacts that that has on a student and their well-being and also their um ability to learn and um our teachers ability to educate our students during the school day. There are a lot of um different issues within technology that we need to address and figure out who we are as a community, who we are as a school district and and make good decisions so that we have a solid um answer of this is what we want to do and what we want to see from our students, our staff and our district. Um also flexible learning paths. Um, you may have seen articles and different news uh um articles about um Indiana and their new pathway to diploma um and certifications um
011many credentials um flexible pathways to graduation. Um we can't teach and guide our students the way we did 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago. the the landscape uh the career landscape is changing so quickly just as quickly as the technology landscape. We need to teach our students and educate them in a way that matches with that so that when they graduate and leave Dexter Community Schools they know uh they know what to do. They can take their skills and translate them into whatever they go into. We cannot be stuck in that industrial model of education where it's more facilitation of um learning and direct instruction. We have to be more flexible and innovative with our teaching practices. Um another item would be the recruitment and retention of staff. This
012is not just a doctor issue. This is across the nation in Michigan. So, um I saw a current stat statistics that said that almost 55% decline of um u students going into teacher preparation programs. 55% just in Michigan alone. That's huge. So although Dexter is a destination district and we do attract many high quality staff members, not just credential staff members but support staff members as well across our district, that still becomes an issue for us, right? Um and again, not only are we doctor community schools, but we're part of county and the state make sure that we are servicing and advocating for all children. So, how do we address this statewide issue, this uh federal issue of people not going into education? Do we need to address uh the preparation uh of teachers and
013that process, salaries, support, um is it culture and climate specifically in our district? there are different things that we need to tackle and really address head on uh so that we help some of these issues remediate some of these issues. >> Thank you. Um what specific qualities and capabilities do you bring to this position that may set you apart from others? Yeah, so um as I spoke about earlier, I have a lot of varied experience. um classroom teacher, athletic coach, principal coach, uh curriculum director, uh elementary principal, middle school principal, um high school principal, um leader of the teachers union at a previous district, um now part of the lead for our administrative association here at Dexter. Um, so I have a lot of different roles that have given me very unique perspectives at a
014more um districtwide lens to help me see uh why some decisions are made in certain ways and why we follow different uh processes and protocols that we do. I think that my varied experiences uh will help me in a role like superintendency because uh many different perspectives have to be considered in order to make good decisions. Um so I understand instructional practices on a very personal level. So I was in the classroom for 10 years. Um and while in that classroom um position I was part of the data um team. So I led a team um to analyze, explore and um address issues that we saw coming up from our data through standardized testing. Um like I said, I was also an athletic coach whose full coach and um had all our leadership roles in
015that instructional role as a teacher. Um I understand the importance of a strong relationship between union leadership and administration and how do we come um to compromises um so that our students can have the best education and experience possible um here at the school. Um it's important that you have a good relationship with union leadership and understand um different perspectives and are able to come to compromise and compromise based in um where we are in our strategic plan and who we are as a district. That's important. Um I understand building level administration. That's what I do every day. So whether we're talking about finance and budgeting um and making sure that teachers have what they need in the classroom and budgeting properly with that um or also um day-to-day emergencies, first responders, those types of
016things. Um I also um understand contract language of going through so when we're making a master schedule making sure that all of the elements in the contracts um but both teachers uh DESPA are met so that we can have a good working place for all members in the building. Um and again that broader district lens um I'm not just a building administrator. I I have seen multiple perspectives in the district to see how they all come together and work together um to make sure that we provide that um well uh that balanced educational experience for all of our students because um there is not a one-sizefitit all educational model for our students. Um we have seen over the years that um in order to uh make education accessible for all of our students, we have
017to have varied ways in which they can uh express and show their mastery. So we need to be able to provide that. How do we provide that? We have great staff members and how do we support our staff members? So there are many different elements that go into that. So again, that goes back to the very um experiences and positions that I've held in the past that will help contribute to that. We're going to talk a little bit about uh district relations here. So, maintaining healthy relationships with school and community stakeholders is important to the board of education. Please share with us how you have gone about building and maintaining successful relationships with all members of the school community. >> Thank you. So, that is key. Um as a district leader, you are not going
018to be able to f further any of the work whether you agree with the community or not about that work. you're not going to be able to further end unless you have good relationships and relationships start with trust and honesty. That trust and honesty needs to be present or you can't have any movement. Uh so part of that trust is gained by having open communication um flow um with multiple stakeholder groups. Um a a smallcale example I will give of that is at the high school um when I first got to Devster High School is created a student advisory board um where students could serve um on a board and give me their honest feedback and I'll tell you they are honest they give a lot of really good feedback um but it's very valuable
019feedback and so we have been able to improve so many processes events um daytoday operations because of our student voice uh a small example I will give for that is they said that our dances were lame. Yeah. So this past year we brought back the winter formal and our kids designed it top to bottom. They brought in the DJ all those different things which may seem like small but it is not small. Those contribute to their educational experience. That's huge. So their voice made that and they said this best one ever. We're having the same DJ. They were so excited because they were able to do it. They were able to produce. They had a voice in that. That was important. So um and that can be seen in multiple areas. So um I would
020make sure that we have strong stakeholder feedback groups like student advisory. We would have um staff opportunities for staff to give feedback as well so that they can make meaningful uh give meaningful feedback and have impact in our day-to-day operations and what we're doing uh as a district. Uh and I'm part of this community. I don't just work here. I live here. My students go to school here. My nieces go here. my neighbors go here. This is my community. So when we do well, that makes me happy. When we don't do well, I'm sweating over that. Trying to figure out what can we do to improve this. It's it's more than just a job. It's this is I am part of this community. So this this job, this this impact is important to me. >>
021Thank you. Effective and timely communication is vital to the success of the school district. Please describe type of communication students, staff, parents, and the board should expect to receive from you. >> Good question. So uh over the years I've learned effective and not so effective methods of communication and um so I am constantly looking for ways to improve that communication and those um avenues for feedback um with all stakeholders. Uh so one of the communication routes that I think that we have improved over the last few years um was specifically targeted to senior students and senior parents. If you have ever had a senior student or if you have not, buckle up. There's a lot of events. There's a lot of things going on and it seems like almost every single week there's a last
022something, last homecoming, a last senior sunrise, a last end of the first semester. and keeping people informed of all those different events is tough because there's things happening constantly. And so something that we have done uh specifically, we started it last year and then continue to improve that uh stream of communication this year is to separate a senior communication every Friday and give parents and students a look ahead for the week and the month. Here are some things that you need to put on your radar right now. You haven't ordered senior pictures, do it now. If you haven't ordered your um your yard signs, here's the link to it. Here's the dates here. All of those different things which put all the senior activities in one spot for parents because let's face it, we get
023too many emails. Get too many emails. No one can keep up, right? Especially if you have children in multiple buildings. There's way too many. So, how do we make sure that not only are we communicating, but we are effectively communicating so that people can go to a spot, get the information they need, understand it, and are able to engage with it. Uh, so I'm hoping that we are able to continue to increase and improve our current communications. And sometimes that's not only just email. Like I said, we we get so many emails. Um, I'm hopeful that um in this upcoming year that um I'm able to incorporate some um mini mini audio or video clips of maybe less than five minutes of things that the community needs to know, needs to hear. and and it
024also puts that human connection to the um information as well. It's not just panel. It's not just printed words. It also has meaning behind it. >> We're going to switch uh to some political awareness questions. As our superintendent, how would you advocate for political action that benefits our district and public education within the state of Michigan? >> Um great question. So, it is absolutely imperative that superintendents and leaders across the state are engaged um in political um action and awareness and advocating for our students. Uh so, one of those ways that I would do that is to continue to be involved um in FLC. That's the future learning council. um that is a council that is made up of leaders across the state of Michigan um that um advocate for innovative practices um different legislation
025that helps um give funding to um educators and school districts to help further um our efforts in education. Also just being involved and being aware. Um all too often things are happening without the input of school districts because sometimes legislators don't know the impact that they are having on our educational system. Um an example I'll give um you know head start you know it was proposed that funding it would be taken away from Head Start although that might not be a huge impact for DEX communities because we do have different revenue funds and and we have an amazing community that is going to impact um communities around us. And again, although on Friday night on the basketball court, I'm always going to say golden dreads and move for us and want us to always win.
026But when we're talking about the educational experiences for students and not be Dexter against the world, we need to make sure that we are advocating for all students, not just our Dexter students, but our county students, our states, our students state. So, it's important that we not only advocate uh for legislations that legislation that will impact us and benefit us, but also the communities around us. Superintendents are often faced with the challenge of making decisions when there's no clear right answer and members of the community are split in the right way forward. Talk about a time when you were faced with a difficult decision where you knew there would be a group of people unhappy with the decision no matter what you chose to do. How do you go about making that decision and keeping
027people on board with the decision you determined was best? smileing happens every day as a high school principal something for me it it goes back to that effective communication it's so important and at the high school level I really try to engage with student voice and student um agency to make sure that they are part of those decision those decisions uh so an example I'm going to give it is from my very first year at Dexter um coming to Dexter in the Fall of 2021 was interesting to say the least. Uh if you remember what was going on in the fall of 2021, we were returning back to the physical building after being gone for a long time. Um it seemed like on a weekly basis and health and safety protocols were changing. Um at
028the high school, we just got a new block schedule which not only affected the daily schedule, but then also affected some of our curricular decisions. There's a little bit. One of the biggest events that I helped lead was homecoming. That's always one of our fall events. Um something that came across my desk was about like I have experience with this. I know how to do this. And so um sounded like it was a topic that had been explored and discussed before I even was hired. They had started a conversation with the previous principal even before the pandemic and started to have had started uh conversations about changing the homecoming for it to be more accessible um more representative of the student body. So, I thought, okay, this is something about student voice, student choice, uh,
029agency. This is something that I really know how to do because I don't know how to, um, you know, with with health department changes and mask on, mask off, quarantine, 5 days, 10 days. Those aren't things that I'm trouble. Here's something that I can really help with. I learned a valuable lesson through that. Communication is key. I did not communicate effectively through that change and show the community and the uh and all the stakeholders why that decision was being made and how it was made. Now was it made with student choice and agency? Yeah. Were there meetings that took place and were there was there a lot of feedback um that contributed to that decision? Absolutely. Did I communicate that effectively? No, I did not. So um that was unpopular decision because not because of
030necessarily this the decision although some may have pushed back against that I think a lot of it came from how it was communicated which was not well so uh I would say that no matter what the topic of the choice that has to be made it's about the communication and the transparency in that decision and how that decision was made that matters. so much. Um, and that's how you're going to earn trust um, and have stronger relationships with the community. Whether it's the decision that that particular person wanted or not, being able to communicate effectively about it and tell them why it was made, that's really important. >> What impact has the use of standardized testing had on our education system in Michigan? Okay. So, um I am a math person. I love I can
031take comfort in a really well organized spreadsheet. That's where I can find peace. However, I will also say that that is not where our students can always find success. That is not a a standardized test is not always a great measurement of what a student actually knows or does not know. Although standardized test um results can give us some very concrete data about where we are doing well with our programming and where we need to um um maybe funnel some more efforts and supports is not always the best indicator of what is actually happening in the classroom. Um so when looking at standardized data um I think it's important but also there's a lot of background information. We can't just take that as one data point. There are a lot of contributing factors to that
032one piece. Um so again, although I will say I love to do spreadsheets, I love analyzing data and looking for um role and trends, uh although correlation and causation can't be directly applied to standardized testing results because there's a lot of factors there because we're working with humans. Again, we we need to look at the bigger scope. um of a child's education. It's not always boiled down to one test score. Uh are they necessary? Yes. Um I will say that we do lose a lot of instructional time that could be um better spent. These questions will focus on your leadership qualities. Please describe your typical style of leading and talk about situations in which you may vary from that style. Thank you. Um so as you may have picked up on my style so far
033today in this interview um one of my beliefs is from one of the Renee Brown um ideas of clear is kind. We have to be direct with each other. Um that's the most effective, efficient and compassionate way to lead is to be clear um but also kind. Um, although gritty conversations are tough, they are the best way to build relationships and trust and show others your integrity because it's important to be forward with anyone you're working with, whether it be parents, students, staff members, community members. That is important. So, I would say that I lead with the um idea of clearest kind. Um, also, um, although they just recently announced their closing, my time at, um, Sienna Heights University taught me to be confident, hurtful at the fall. And that's something that has stuck with
034me to, uh, to today. Um, that every time you make a decision, do you have the information? Are you confident on the subject? Are you being ethical? And are you being versatile? That's important. You need to lead with purpose. You need to lead with ethics. Um, and when you build a team and build relationships with those around you, you have a lot of helpers and you have a team to make good decisions together. Um, I say that and also there are times in which you need to take a step back and your opinion is not the most important opinion at the table and it's more important to seek the advice of everyone on your team. And as a leader, it's important to know the difference between the two situations. Is this a decision that has
035to be made right now by the leader and communicated by the leader or is this a situation and decision that we need to take perspective of every single stakeholder whether it be student surveys probably got a lot of those this year? So whether it be student surveys, staff surveys, community surveys, that's important and it's important to know the difference between those situations. What is the most difficult decision you have had to deal with in your career in education and how was it resolved? Um difficult decision in education. Uh student discipline is tough. Um students are children. Even if they're 18, they're children. Um and sometimes when they make bad choices, people forget that they're still kids. And so when faced with um having to address um a very difficult or significant discipline issue and making
036the decision on what happens with that student, those are tough. Those are tough. So although I'm not going to give really specific examples um because of this format uh I think this board can understand um that um a lot of thought consideration and uh election is made during those really tough situations. We're not talking about a lunch detention or a community service hour, but sometimes when we talk about or even explore expulsion or long-term um suspension, have I had to do that in the past? Yes. Does it ever feel good? No. Never feels good. No one wins. No one wins in those situations. Um no matter what the student did, those are tough calls. Those are tough situations. um because again you're dealing with a minor um who made a bad choice and then how
037do we help them overcome that poor choice so that they can still have a productive um life and and learn from that decision. So again, I'm not going to give super specific examples because of the nature of my answer, but I would say those are my most difficult decisions in education is significant discipline issues. Thank you. >> What are the key elements needed to establish and maintain a working relationship between you, our staff, and our board? >> Um being open and honest. Again, going back to um my leadership style of clear is kind, being direct. Uh and again that uh stren strengthens relationships um and builds that trust and shows others your integrity and that uh we're all in this together. Again, I'm not just a staff member here. I'm a community member here. So
038decisions here affect me in more than just one way. My children go here. I want to make sure that we have the best curriculum, that we have the best staff, that we have the best facilities. This is important stuff. Uh so making sure that we go back to the tenants of what we really believe in and what is important to our community. Um and then discussing that and making sure that we have all team members and perspectives at the table when making some of those big decisions are Okay, head it to curriculum now. So, uh please give us uh examples of educational change or reform that you've initiated in your career and that have led to improvements in student learning. >> Thank you. So, um I'm going to point to an example that uh is
039from my time at the East Team Center in Tumpsy. Um that is a building that we opened not only um a new physical location for seventh and eighth graders but a new B schedule, bus schedule, lunch schedule, special schedule, new curriculum um um format and educational design. We were totally throwing out the old traditional system of direct inter um instruction for middle schoolers hour by hour. Instead, we were um working towards competency based education and starting with standardsbased um learning and doing that through um crosscurricular programming and units um to make sure that our students weren't just learning in a traditional siloed um traditional education. Uh so although they might be in math for 35 minutes, they were able to self-schedule and say, "Okay, for 15 I need 15 minute PE break to before I
040go to English class." So I'm going to go to a HIT class or weightlifting or something in between math and English because I know myself and I know that I need a little physical uh break. And so we were really shifting the entire model of no longer hour by hour. There were no bells. There were no uh there was no student group, right? Every student truly had a personalized schedule there. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, a lot of spreadsheets and a lot of adjustments. So, it was a living breathing system and we were constantly finding improvements. And when we found out like this, we changed it. We would get together as a staff um what begun as a monthly staff meeting turned into weekly staff meetings turned into every day.
041They wanted to calibrate every single day and say, you know, we're going to try this today. You know, I want to walk my students to the stream over there because we're really going to look at some of the um water cultures that we've been testing. Can someone take my math section for 25 minutes as people were jumping in. It was such a cool model and students were able to exhibit their learning in different ways. Um so every quarter quarter we had what were called schools where students got to present their passion project and in their passion project they were required to uh show competency of different standards in different curricular areas. that was something of their choosing. And um through that um through that experience and through that different programming, we saw a student who
042begun the school year as u selectively nonverbal give a presentation in front of the entire community about Marionette's stats he was passionate about. And so he measured the strings and talked about how this foot moved. Was it typical with um to all of the other presentations? No. But you know what? That was more growth that that student had made in most of his schooling. We saw that our math test grades went up uh I think was like 20 points. Something unheard of because students were able to go at their own pace at their own um level and they were able to take breaks when they wanted to and they weren't just stuck between belts. It was the coolest learning model that I've ever been um involved with. Um so so that was a big change.
043It was a good change and we saw a lot of uh progress in that regular change by the >> How will you ensure that our students are well prepared for postgraduation meeting the needs of college readiness plus providing high quality and devel relevant career focused opportunities also. >> Um this is a topic I'm really passionate about. Um I'm thankful to the district that we were able to uh hire a career development facilitator this past year and with her help and uh guidance we were able to um launch new initiatives this year um connected to the board goal the board established a goal to increase um college and career readiness uh and have different activities by the end of the school year which we did and we made that presentation at the April um board meeting
044so many cool experiences for our students this year. I'll start with um just a program called school links. It's more than just a program. It replaced what was once career cruising then zello then Navvian a lot of programs that kids just clicked through and didn't have a lot of connection to not a lot of meaning but schooling students were able to explore their um personality learning styles what they were interested in and it matched them with careers that they might not have ever have thought about or explored before. Um, so although we are in the very we in the first year of implementation of that program, by the end of the year, students were seeing like, oh, I can actually dive into Michigan State University and see all the different um programs that they offer
045that match up with what School Links suggested for my interests and um, talents. Um, so that would be one of those pieces of the career and college readiness uh, initiative. I would also say that prayer fair, some of you in this room um took part in that um awesome event. We had over 120 area professionals present to our students. We we were able to represent 16 out of 16 of the career clusters um organized by the state of Michigan so that our students could see varied uh careers and um avenues for um post what postsecondary life could look like for them. um which included trades, which included uh an attorney was there, you know, medical professionals, um military, there were all sorts of different careers present that day to speak with our students about what
046they wanted to do in the future. That was a huge undertaking and it was so successful and awesome and we only want to improve upon that next year. What's the biggest risk you've taken to do what's right for children? >> Biggest risk. Um, I'm going to say that this goes back to my time in Steam Center. Um, there was a lot of changes as I described, lots and lots of changes. Um, and so it wasn't just the physical um, school building. It wasn't just um the curriculum, the grading scale, it was everything all at the same time. That was risky. But we saw what it could do for students and that was so powerful. Uh we could have done it step by step by step, little by little, but it would not have had that
047big impact that it did um if we would have done that. So, I'm so glad and thankful that we dove right in and tried a bunch of things and and allowed ourselves to um live in that progress and continually make improvements upon that. Uh again, that was risky and our students loved it. In fact, um that was the only time that um that district had a um performance marks that were in the top 20 of the state. The only time in that district's history. >> All right, last one for me. >> Yeah. What do you believe are currently the biggest challenges in special education here in our district and the state? and what would you do to address it? >> Special education is something that is near and dear to my heart. Um although I
048don't have formal education in uh special education other than the required classes um my time spent uh in special education has been so valuable. So, I would say that some of um the biggest difficulties we are um we have seen and are going to continue to see um our funding um and understanding differences and tailoring to student need and balancing that and what is right for the district, the classroom, and that specific student. Sometimes those are hard balls to name. Um and so we sometimes see students in special education that um are significantly impacted by their impacted by their disability um and that can impact those around them. But then how do we help our um general education students see that as a positive and help students and work together so that if we're all
049learning through the process um and coming up with different uh programming and support to make sure that everyone is benefiting from those different situations. That's hard to be honest. Okay, Melanie, please describe your experience with budget development and financial management, setting the largest budget you have built and maintained and how would you ensure that we manage or maintain a balanced budget? >> Sure. Um, so at Farmington, um, when I was curriculum coordinator there, I oversaw all the CTE programs. Um, so that district served over 10,000 students. We had um over 11 CTE programs and while I was there I brought in another CTE program for um our Farm Remington Central students who um that is our that was their alternative education program and they previously did not have access to any CTE program. So alternative
050education um building. So um myself and another and a co-orker um managed that entire budget which in a district the size of Farmington was significant. So, um I had to be wellversed in um regulations around Perkins um funding and um the revenue and expensive of Q completers of CTE and um educating the teachers of CTE. Um what are Q completer students needed so that they could get the revenue from the state in order to continue um that funding. We also talked about allowable and not allowable expenses um with that CTB and Perkins funding. Um for instance um you sometimes can buy equipment with some funding but not with others especially when it's attached to uh CTB funding and Perkins and certifications. Um so that was probably the largest budget I have ever managed. Um and
051uh and that with that kind of funding it is very closely tied to the state. So we were in um the CTE reporting system on a weekly basis updating um our documents. So that that's a very intense um process there. Um so that would be the largest one I've ever managed. Um and then here in Dutch community schools um I oversee the high school budget which is it's is the biggest one in in the district because under the high school is also a lot of the athletics. So those are two huge pieces of the district. So, um there's a lot of line items um a lot of different uh programs department um that that I oversee um with that budgeting. Um, I think it's important to always be a breast of all of the different
052uh the the changing uh pupil accounting uh laws and restrictions that change on a yearly basis that affect um those funding streams and what we can spend and what we can't spend and um how we get money from the state or how we schedule students. So that is sometimes an everchanging um mark and so making sure that um I'm aware of those changes is important. >> Thank you. >> Have you had success in procuring additional funding for your school or district beyond what is normally provided? What ideas might you explore to raise money for Dexter schools? Um, I would say that here at Daxter Community Schools, our uh community education program is it's it's amazing. We provide so many services and opportunities for our community members and students um and that does raise revenue for
053our district um in many ways and not only in a monetary um way but also that rich experience of bringing community together. Um, if you have ever looked across the street on a clear day night, you're going to see half a community picker. So, it's not just about money and in my perspective about that, although I know that's important. We're talking about that, but it's also that value that it adds to the district and how we come together as a community um for our students. So, I would say continuing to bolster the supports of community education, helping community education grow um their programming and their offerings um to our community so that we can bring in not only revenue but also um those opportunities for our district. Also, we have a lot of opportunity um
054in the very near future with all of our bond projects and the new facilities that we are building. There is um opportunity there because we are in the very early stages of that planning. We don't know how we're going to realize that yet in full, but there's a lot of opportunity there and a lot of different uh choices that are being made right now so that we can see that come to fruition. Okay. And lastly for me, what opportunities do you believe budget limitations present and in tough financial times? What are your top three priorities? Um when making tough financial decisions, it's really important to bring in all stakeholders and uh get different perspectives. Um looking at the data there, that's one piece of it, but also speaking to the people who oversee those programs.
055So if um tough financial decisions needed to be made, uh as a superintendent, I would bring in all program leaders and talk about individually and talk about um what supports are there right now. Probably do a SWAT analysis with each um program leader and go through the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities, and the threats to those programs and talk about like what do we need here? Um is there an opportunity to combine services to slim services or do we need to bolster services in here so that it will give us fruit in a different area. Um so a SWAT analysis is just one method. Sometimes in education we just soar which um concentrates more on the the strengths and the opportunities and then how we can turn that into um more efficiency. Um, so that
056would be really important to get that data and that feedback to help make those decisions. Um, priority is always students and student achievement. And so, um, whatever is going to lead to better student achievement and to continue to support that student achievement, those are the decisions that we need to make because that's why we're going to shift to staff and personnel. How would you interact with other administrators in our district? Striking a balance between giving them the support and autonomy that they need to lead effectively while holding them accountable as appropriate necessary. So we have a really talented staff here um not just um support staff um DEA staff um on the administrative staff as well. Um and also we need to work together as a team consistently to make sure that we are getting
057the intended outcomes and that they are aligned with our strategic design. So something that I would do as superintendent is to make sure that we are regularly um revisiting our strategic plan and our goals to make sure that all of the decisions we are making are centered about that. So um we we need to center ourselves on that. So if if a decision is made that is not in alignment, we need to address that. Again, going back to that clearest kind and doing it compassionately um and doing it in a way that respects them and honors them as who they who they are as a leader, but also reminding them here's who we are as a district. Here are our goals. Here is what we are striving to accomplish. So, we need to center oursel
058back here. Um so, it's and part of that is trust. And when everyone um has a good trusting relationship, we are all working towards that same goal. Um so when we have something to center upon I think people can make better decisions. Um I know that and I go with the understanding that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have at that moment. So when giving clarity um to different situations, I think that that will also help in that um balancing of uh accountability and responsibility and and trusting the staff. But having regular meetings um that is something that um I had in in another district where every month there was um a one-on-one meeting with the superintendent and every single building principal. And that was very valuable to me as a
059building principal to have a one-on-one meeting with my superintendent every single month. We talked about budget, we talked about leadership, we talked about staffing, about curriculum. You name it, we talked about it. And we always centered it back to what is our mission and vision of this district and are the decisions I've made in those different areas aligned with that goal. >> What would you suggest in terms of a comprehensive professional development plan for our educators? specifically what would be the key priority areas as well as the delivery system. >> Um great question. So this goes back to my previous um answer about having clarity about what our mission and vision is. Um and in the last couple years we have really been focusing on the health and and who we are as a district
060to um develop, educate and inspire and work on the different competencies of the health. We need to clearly articulate what are our what are our goals each year and what steps are we taking to accomplish those goals. Um we've done a great job and a lot of work in establishing the helm and um the different rubrics behind that but now it's time to um address those different areas head on and how are we going to accomplish that. Um so that would be our next step steps to um uh establish what those are. To me th those are not decisions made by one person or one small team. That's going to take a lot of feedback. Um so the staff should be part of that and establishing what those priorities for the professional development of the
061um upcoming year are. And then um once those are established um establishing ways in which we can accomplish that goal by doing backward design similarly to what teachers do in the classroom where there's scope and sequence of their curriculum do a backward design with our professional development goals and then how are we going to work backward to make sure that our end result happens in June. How would you assess the current culture and climate of our district? And as the superintendent, how would you positively impact that culture and climate? Yes. Um so not dissimilar to our community, sometimes there's divides, right? And so those are um that is something that we need to work on and we need need to come together. People need to feel honored and valued. People need to feel feel heard
062and respected. Um, so, um, something that I would hope to do as superintendent is, um, have, and it's outlined in my, um, 90-day entry plan, is to, um, establish a, uh, different communication streams with different stakeholder groups and not just hear them. take the data, reflect on the data, present the data back, and then how are we going to utilize that data to help our culture and climate and build that trust and respect because when we all have that together, we're going to work together better to get accomplish our goals. One person can't do this job. It's it's all of us as a collective that will be able to accomplish our goals as a district. Uh and so having that open communication and allowing people to know that it really is an open viller and
063feedback is not only welcome but it is it is expected. So when a decision is made do you want to hear what people feel about that and and again not just hear but take that feedback listen to it and did we make the right decision? do we need to make some adjustments or yes, this was the right decision and data is supporting this and um we're moving forward. So, it's important that everyone feels respected. Um and don't get me wrong, this is a great place to work. We have an awesome community. We have an awesome district. Um we have some things to work on. We definitely have some things to work on. >> Definitely. So, we would like to take a few minutes now um to provide you with an opportunity to ask any questions
064that we might have. >> Um so, from the board perspective, what is your vision of the um profile of a learner going forward? And are your thoughts and desires still aligned with the strategic plan that we put together a few years ago? So over the last two months we have talked to a lot of people, a lot of staff, a lot of community members, a lot of parents. Most of us have experienced both the process of developing the Helm as well as having our kids sort of in the program both before and after. So I think generally speaking for myself, what I have heard from most community members is that generally people are very happy with the direction that we're going. doesn't mean we're on like the perfect path, but we're all heading towards the
065right, you know, end point. So, I think I I think one of the reasons that the board started with internal candidates here is because generally the feeling was that we were heading in the right direction and so we would like someone to pick up the mantle, continue the continue the relay um in in whatever the next right path is, but still heading out the direction where we're going. Anyone else? I mean, I think I think in general we had strong feedback that we were heading in in the right path. >> Thank you. Yeah. And so with that in mind, um, again through the board's lens, what are some changes, if any, you would like to see in this upcoming year to either our strategic design, our planning, our delivery of that? I think this is
066going to be me answering really, but um I think that one of the things the board has been thinking about knowing that we have a a new superintendent transition um we really wanted a long transition. So that we felt like there's a lot going on in Dexter and we really wanted to see things handed over well and we didn't want to see any pieces of the puzzle wrap on the floor as we were doing it. So I think for me if we were sitting here next year at this time and we felt like everything had sort of rolled to the new person um I think that would feel like a win and I'm not sure that new initiatives at this point are completely necessary. I think we would just like to see a smooth transition.
067Anyone else want to jump in? >> Yeah, I would say 100%. uh you know damage you know our um there a lot of stuff going on from the federal government the states impact our budgets what we don't even know the trouble will impact us yet uh and so you want to keep on a trajectory that's good we don't well I say we but first the uh don't leave people cashing in uh and keep a steady keep a steady flow so new superintendent comes in they have a full grasp of everything that's going on is everyone that's been interviewed has their their lens. Every parent has their lens. We have our lens, but superintendent has to grasp the whole entire strategic approach of students. So, >> yeah, I would I would add um continuation of of
068improvement of the literacy scores and continuing the the changes that have been made and and just staying consistent with that to see how that's working through the district. We've had some good feedback there. Um and I mean just another thing was the Mil Creek um curriculum delivery system, you know, trying to iron out some of those cakes and make sure that that that uh that's cleaner. So, but yeah, not changing every, you know, learn the job and then figure out what changes to make. >> I think I'm generally in agreement with that. I I always though would like new employees at any level to after a certain period of time give us your input as to what changes you believe we should make because we're only doing the best that we can with the information
069that we have, the resources we have, all of that changes every week. So what we're doing right now and our plans right now are not necessarily after you sit in this position for nine months what you think the next direction would be. So, I would hope that the next superintendent is confident and comfortable enough to come to the board and say, "I know you already approved this and this was our charter and we have it engraved in wood on the wall, but maybe I think it needs to be tweaked a little bit." I would hope that the superintendent would be comfortable doing that because I think we would all be very receptive to that. Yes, we are fortunate to have a very close look at all the work that's done in the dispect and so
070I I think we very much appreciate both the recommendations that come to us and work behind them. >> Yeah, we expect that. >> Yeah, >> we we expect to be um informed and to be to have open dialogue as you have have I think clearly articulated. And I guess finally, is there anything we haven't asked you that you'd like to share with us or anything that you would like to close with? >> Well, first of all, I want to thank you again. Thank you for this opportunity. I am really humbled. I am honored. I'm excited to even be at this table here with you today. Um I think my varied experience um in my the different roles that I have filled in my educational experience um give me perspective um on a lot of different
071programs, a lot of different um levels of the organization that I can help bring um to this district to continue our um long-standing history of excellence. Um also like I said, I'm not just an employee here. are a parent, I'm an aunt, a neighbor, a friend. I will be in the CPA to listen to my sons, friends, sister sing at the preside choir. I will be at the drama events. I will be at all the concerts and the games. You're going to see me at the quads. You'll see me on the field. This is where I live. This is where I want to be. Um, there were many openings across state. This is what I applied for. This is, you know, I applied for. This is where I want to be. This is where I
072want to make my impact. Um, so again, this is no more than a job to me. Um, this is where my children should end up. >> Thank you, Miss Noah. We appreciate your interest in the superintendent position for Dexter Community Schools. The board is interviewing three candidates this week and we will let you know after our meeting this Wednesday, July 16th, where you stand in our search process. Thank you for your participation for us. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Let me just give everyone uh a brief look at what's next. Um we will we are going to take a five minute recess. Everyone in in the audience here, if you'd like to complete uh feedback forms, you can bring them up to vote here at the table. Um after five minutes, the board is going to
073have a just a discussion about uh process and plan for tomorrow. You're welcome to stay or welcome to leave. Um but we're pick five. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. All right. So at this point in the meeting, the board is being he is their consultant with Michigan Leadership Institute who is helping guide the board through this process. So we just need to take a little bit of time to talk about tomorrow and what we need to do to prepare them. >> And anything else John wants to talk about? There you go. >> So, you made the decision to complete the interviews and then come back the following and to give yourselves the opportunity to be thoughtful about this big decision that they face. I mean, it is huge. You're not yet
074picking your next superintendent. You don't have to be certain about any of the candidates yet, but you want to be in a position where you feel like, you know, who among the three that we've talked to do we feel could well be our successful as our next superintendent and who would we like to hear more from to help us at that time in the city. So, you've got the opportunity, not a lot of time, but time enough to walk away. You've got the interview notes so that you can reflect back on the responses that you've heard. got feedback that you received from your stakeholders were present at the interviews. They've got the application materials you received at the very beginning of the applications themselves, resume cover letter. Every candidate unsurprisingly has given you additional materials
075to consider too. So there's a lot of data there and I imagine just being community members, you've heard from people even outside of the process, right? So, lot for you to consider, but again, I just want to emphasize that you don't have to be certain yet. Maybe the only certainty is that if you feel confident at this point that any one of the folks that you've talked to is maybe not the right person to to take the seat, next superintendent of chair, um that may help you kind of narrow the field. And in terms of how you narrow this, I would say the ideal number of candidates is two. But it doesn't have to be ideal. I'm not going to tell you you have to bring forth a certain number. And honestly, it can range
076anywhere from zero to three. You can feel like there's not enough to differentiate yet between the three. We need I need to I believe any of them could be our superintendent. I need to hear more from all of them and I'd like to have all three of them come back. um you can say on the flip side I'm now convinced that um you need to look beyond right and I don't expose this quite right yet for the right person. >> Um so but it's going to be an individual decision that you make and we'll see where kind of the chips land collectively. So, we'll be asking each of you one at a time to go around the table and speak to who it is that you'd like to advance in the process. To whatever extent
077you're comfortable doing so, I think it's advisable to speak to your why. We never get to the why not. Remember, we don't ever disparage anybody and talk about why we would choose not to advance somebody or share any reservations we might have about canvas, but to whatever extent you'd like to say, here's who I'd like you to advance, and this is what I have seen or that makes feel that way, that not only is being transparent with your community, but it's going to help your fellow board members who may well be sitting here tomorrow evening having an idea of what they're going to say, but still not quite sure depending and what the motions could be and how they may vote. So sharing your thoughts could be helpful in that regard, too. Um, I'm going
078to add it up for you as you do that. Not that it's going to be hard for you to do on your own, but I'll do that and just kind of share them back out. This many of you supported this candidate spending. So wherever there is clearly consensus for four or more of you name that person said that you would like to advance them. The appropriate thing would then simply be for one of you to make a motion that includes any and all candidates that four or more of you get the case floor to advance. Um and then we will have made that decision and have further dialogue here. So I I want to before I move on there's a couple of other things I want to touch on but in terms of that process
079is that clear and more questions maybe that's for >> correct Wednesday let me just >> videos how quickly can we get those up? >> Uh the videos will be up by 8 a.m. tomorrow. >> Okay because we want to get people that obviously couldn't attend tonight give some opportunity for them to have feedback as well. Let me just ask procedurally, would we want for our agenda, would we make this a discussion then first and then make it an action item to vote to move the candidate forward? >> That would be appropriate. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Is that better? Am I closer? Sorry about that. Sorry about that. >> So discussion and then action discussion then action. Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> And then uh once you've identified the candidates um we need to talk
080about what things will look like and how it will work week right and what we have is Monday designated for interviews and then Tuesday for your planning. So remember that vote is going to be part of this now on for the interview is the candidates will start with the presentation and this will be on any topic that you choose and but we need to make that decision tomorrow evening. Um so I I'm encouraging you to think about that. It could be literally anything. And I've seen boards, for example, ask candidates to speak in more detail about their transition, their 90-day plan, whatever the case might be. You know, if there's a particular issue that is near and dear to your hearts in your district, something that maybe you're struggling with, literacy has been a common
081one. Uh something maybe a little bit more specific is could be um just about anything. But remember that it's an opportunity beyond the typical 3 to four minute responses to a question. Now you get to hear from someone in 20 minutes in presentation style. So we will treat tomorrow as a little bit more of a brainstorm. You don't have to come in with and be reluctant to share your idea if you don't think it's genius. Right? The better thing to do is share any idea that you think may be viable. Let's put them on the table and then collectively you can decide what makes the most sense. When I contact the candidates tomorrow at the end of the meeting, I not only let them know, and I'll be contacting all three, not only let them
082know, those that were selected to advance, get them on the schedule for next week, but I'll immediately let them know the presentation is even thinking about it. Relatively short time to turn that around, but I want to be able to let them know right away and get the wheel start turning. >> How long is the whole the entire interview? 80 minutes and we I'm going to time it at 80. I was timing these at 90, but um you have 21 questions here. We're going to go forward. 14 questions. So, start with the presentation, 14 questions, two from each board member. Um and so with those 80 minutes, the guidance I give to candidates is a nice balance seems to be about 20 for the presentation and about 60 for the interview questions. I'm not timing
083them separately though. just let the candidates know it's up to you. You take an extraordinarily long time on your presentation, you're going to short yourself interview questions and vice versa, right? If you take a short time on presentation, you'll have more time to answer questions, but maybe you have to share it presentation. So, um they So, we'll talk about questions tomorrow, too. Just briefly, I'm going to end up asking each of you. touched on this before. I would say three to four questions that you have interest in asking next. And once you have so we're not going to do that tomorrow. I'll just remind you that I'm going to need to get that reviewed I would say probably by Friday as president. Um you have a lot of questions that I provided to you questions
084that you can choose from but you can also make up your own questions. Frankly something specific to Dexter. to be something that you feel like is not captured there, but that you're still wondering about relation to however many finalists you have. And remember too, when you begin thinking about this, um the questions can be specific to each of the candidates as long as you're equitable in that regard. So, if we ask an individual question of one, let's assume we have two finalists, you need to do the same for the other. We have two specific questions for that person's one of those finalist needs to have two that are specific to the other as well and then the rest will align like they did in this. So once you give those suggestions I'll go through those.
085I'll eliminate redundancies. I'll sometimes there's opportunities to combine them too to try to give you as much voice there as you can. But then the two questions that you'll each ask will be two of the questions that you provided. And you don't have to be overly concerned about word smithing. It's a pretty quick turnaround. I can help you with that as long as you get the idea down. I have been ask >> any other questions you may have. We'll talk more tomorrow evening after soon. >> Nope. Tomorrow we need to have um a plan for who to advance and when and then um ideas for presentation topics. >> Yes. >> And also think about our own questions. Those are that's our homework. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I do have a question,
086John. So, what is like one of the uh most unique areas that you've seen a board ask a candidate to do a presentation of? >> Oh, I'm being interviewed. >> That is all I thought. >> I mean, you said it can be anything. So, you made it seem like I mean, do you ask about something not related to the job? What? Well, I haven't heard that. >> Okay, >> I'll say that. It's always been related to some >> like a con constitutional dissertation about the Equal Pay Act or something. I don't >> Well, I mean, it could be as benign or or you can make it I give you this example. A district kind of skirted this but and and wasn't really direct, but um DEI is really controversial topic, right? Right. Um, and that
087term itself has become a hot button topic. And yet, um, are we still concerned about with our students and our staff? Um, how do we honor diversity? How we make sure we're equitable with our students, how we're inclusive with our students, and given that variable, given what's happening nationwide and pressure that's been brought to various schools, how do you even deal with that? That's an excellent question. It may be too much and too intense, right? But to give you an extreme example, this what how this can go anywhere. That's why >> but I mean it should the most important thing is it helps inform your decision. So as you think about the the people that you pick um what is it that you still need to know about? What is it you still need to
088hear from them to help you make the final decision? So to whatever extent this can help inform that decision that's really what should steer your suggestions. >> Thank you. With that we all six o' same.