001We are going to get started here. Fire them down for you before you came in. Thank you. >> Glad you wouldn't be surprised I have. Thank you. All right. Good evening. On behalf of Dexter Community Schools, I would like to welcome Barb Leonard, executive director of human resources to this interview for the position of superintendent. I'll 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 for the end of the interview, time permitting, we'll give you the opportunity to ask questions of the board and to make a closing comment or statement. We will let you know if time is becoming an issue and there is a need to pick up the pace of the resources. Um, for those present for
002this interview, we welcome and encourage your feedback. You may use the form provided for this purpose. Although the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of the board of education as the elected representatives of our community, we value and seriously consider the input of our stakeholders in the process. So we'll start with a few opening questions. Miss Leonard, while we have had the opportunity to review your application materials, 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. Oh, and sorry. Let me ask you to turn that microphone on. You need to push and hold and then we'll just leave it on during the Okay. First of all, thank you board of education for um having me
003here this morning. I appreciate not only the opportunity to interview um but also for the time and energy that you have put into this process. I know it's been extensive and it's taken personal time from you and I appreciate that. Um my leadership journey began in u vampire public schools and uh I was an elementary principal in a K5 building of about 500 students. Um for the past 13 years I've had the honor privilege to work here in Dexter um as the executive director of human resources and previously the um executive I'm sorry the director of special education. Um both of these roles have given me a deep understanding of our systems staff the values that define our investment. I've had the honor to work with all the employee groups and always with the student
004at the center of every decision makes. I began my career as a special education teacher and that experience shaped my belief in purposeful student focused position. It continues to influence how I support staff and lead systemwide work that strengthens instruction, operations and culture. my education. I started at Eastern Michigan University or bachelor's and a master's degree and then an ed specialist degree from Oakland University. I've also completed the MLI aspiring superintendent academy as well as the AASA aspiring superintendent for female leaders both of which further develop my skills in governance communication and leading with clarity. What draws me to this role in Dexter is a deep personal commitment to Aster schools. I believe in the work we've done and the people who do it every single day. I'm ready to build on that foundation, lead
005with purpose, and ensure our schools remain places where students and staff and growth can succeed. You, what do you believe are the two or three most critical long-term priorities that we will need to address and how would your background and skills help us address these priorities? So first of all, I think the major uh priority in front of us is the bond that recently passed and there's a twofold issue with that. First of all, the bond will take a considerable amount of work in damaging the bond to make sure that we stay on budget or under budget with the rising cost estimate, but also ensuring that as we begin our construction of facilities and improving facilities that it doesn't impact instruction. And the second um priority that I would think that is we need to
006continue to work on is our student support student interventions. We have been developing over the past few years at FTSS the multi-system um support system for multi-tered system of support for our students and we need to continue to work on that to provide interventions and support for our students who are struggling um with their achievement gaps. We also need to continue with early literacy with with our students. So those I think are the priority and then the obvious is that there's a new superintendent that will be in place and building that trust and relationship with the board and the community will be a priority and what specific qualities and capabilities do you bring to this position that may set you apart from others? I think my background in beginning uh as a teacher in special
007education and understanding how students learn and developing plans for students um understanding development I think that that has led success in the classrooms as a principal and most importantly as an HR director understand that um how to meet everyone where they're at and then once we're there we're meeting them where they're at um we can provide the right supports we can problem solve, we can work together. It helps me listen to understand where they're coming from, what their needs are. Um, so I think that that background also I I have a pretty extensive background in administration from um an elementary building with a very diverse population, socioeconomic status, skull. Um, my special ed background has carried me through teaching and administration and I can't speak highly enough about the learning that I've had and how
008that supports me in supporting students and staff and meeting with parents and understanding what this their child may need in the classroom and helping those college. >> Thank you, Barb. We're going to talk uh more questions on district relations. Uh the first note here is maintaining healthy relationships with school and community stakeholders is important to the board of education. Please share with us how you've gone about building and maintaining successful relationships with all members of school community. >> I think relationships begin with um being transparent and open communication and that happens by being present at activities and events that are happening not just in the schools but outside of the schools. could be our athletic events, our music concerts, our drama performances, being involved in the community. I think when when you are speaking and
009you have conversations when you're um at a festival downtown or uh at at an event and just meeting people, they they know you that FaceTime, oh wait, I I know I I know I can call her. She will meet with me and she will problem solve or she will help me direct direct direct me in the right way and the support. I need I think it's really important that all of those relationships start with building trust and that is being present visible open communication um personal open communication but as well as transparent communication from the district do a great job of celebrating the successes that we've had but I think we u it's important that we communicate the things on for example transparent communication with us so that they trust that we're doing the right
010thing. So I think building those relationships absolutely begins with building trust with them and being visible so that they know who you are and they learn to listen. >> What effective and timely communication is vital to the successful school district? Can you describe the type of communication students, staff, parents and the board should expect to receive from you? Um I believe the students that that needs to be timely weekly. It depends on the degree level with students that comes from classroom teachers that come from the building administrator. Um I believe that community needs to have the information in a timely manner and and making sure that we're timing what what is that communication and what is it that they need and what how do they need to receive it? assessing and talk with the community
011to text messages, emails would rather have a Sunday night phone call that where I'm highlighting the important things or the building administrators highlighting important things. I think understanding where what communication and need is needed and how people want to be communicated with. Some people love a phone call, some people prefer an understanding that and meeting community where they're at, which means that we need to communicate multiple ways. Um, I think we've done a nice job in this district using social media, using test, text messages, emails, updating our website on a regular basis. Um, buildings are communicating. We're adding that communication at a district level. Finally, with board, I think that I that comes from each of you. How each of you want to be communicated with. Do you prefer a weekly email? Do you want
012um would you like something when it's an e immediate situation that's coming up? Do you want a phone call? you want to text message. I I need to talk to you today. Is there a good time we can connect? So that that depends on you. Again, some people prefer a phone call immediately. Some people want a text message. Some people are fine to wait till that evening because they have a busy work schedule. So I think at the end of the day, it's really important to get to know your students, your parents, your community, the board members, and how do you want to be communicated with? How how do you want to receive that communication and the frequency of that? And then finally assessing how that communication is working. So if we set a plan
013and we want a weekly update every Friday and then that's not working, you really need something more frequently. parents. Our parents need something more frequent than at the end of the day, for example, then we need to assess that and review how we're communicating and how do we address that to make it meet the needs of all of our um consuments including board, students, parents, staff. >> All right, we can switch gears and uh talk about some political awareness questions. as our superintendent, how would you advocate for political action that benefits our district and public education throughout our state? >> So, um, a few years ago when I was the director of special education, I was fortunate enough to attend, um, and to go to DC with a delegation from Washington County and then other,
014um, districts around the state to advocate for special education funding. and I was able to talk to our legislators in Washington DC and and share the importance of why we need to fund appropriately fund and fully fund special education. I believe at this point continuing that work as well as staying connected I receive weekly sometimes daily depending on the political culture updates for both MASB and then MASA which is the superintendent association as well as TRON. Our law firm sends out um monthly updates. sometimes more frequently like like that than that depending on the situation. I believe staying connected knowing who your legislators are, attending the legislative breakfast, advocating for appropriate funding in schools and our are advocating for the needs that we have. Um starts with staying a breast of what the political situation,
015who are our legislators, what communication is coming out. We frequently will receive something from both MASB and MASA urgent. contact your legislator if you believe this is important one making sure that I'm staying across and doing that but also sharing that information not only with the board administrators and staff so that they have that information if they believe in that cause that they also are advocating for that because more voices excuse me more voices are not heard the more likely legis >> superintendents are often faced with the challenge of making decisions when there's no clear right answer and members of the community are often split on right path forward. Talk about a time when you were faced with a difficult decision where you knew that there would be a group people unhappy with your decision
016no matter what you chose to do. How did you go about making that decision and getting people on board with the direction you determined was best? >> Um, and my role as the HR director that happens for me and my process is one I listen to gather information and then I and I understand it. So as I'm gathering information about um the parent for example will reach out and have a complaint about a teacher I listen to the parent and I take notes and I ask so I should just make sure I understand what the concerns and then secondly I will meet with the staff and I will talk to that staff member and ask them questions to understand what happened sometimes it's a very clear it's a miscommunication sometimes you know the parent will
017own okay my child or the typed say you know I I could have done that better. So one is listening to understand and then two once I've done that and meeting with the parties then we work together for a solution and sometimes that means all parties are at the table and sometimes that means the teacher says you know I I I've got this I want to communicate with the parent and feel them and rectify this. So I think it always starts with listening to understand creating a plan and make sure everyone feels heard and respected at the end. And that doesn't mean always that everyone gets what the outcome that they desired when they filed a complaint or they shared a concern. But I it is important to me that everyone feels valued and heard
018and respected at the end of that process and that they know that they trust that we followed policy. We um heard what they had to say. you know, we looked at our policies and maybe reviewed, refined, maybe we provide additional training, maybe we provide additional support to the student depending on the outcome. Um, those at the at the end of the day, not everybody always is pleased with the response, but I hope they are pleased with the process and that they know that they were heard and respected and that they're consent seriously. What impact has the use of standardized testing had in our education systems in Michigan? >> I believe that standardized testing has a a role in education. We need to data is important to know where our students started and where our students
019ended and it's important to review our student progress along the way. standardized testing has become a high stakes process for our students and creates a lot of anxiety and worry. It also creates that same for for parents because parents want they know that this is my child needs to do well on this so that they can take the next step. I I think the pressure that we put on students is really high and I don't know that it's always beneficial. I like the way that some of the universities have gone where their their scores are not the priority. When we start testing our students in third grade, it's a lot of pressure for them to sit now on a computer. When I started as a teacher and administrator, it was me, but it was paper
020pencil with the number two pencil. You know, it it's a lot. I think there's value in data. And I think we need data to assess our instruction, to assess where our students are, how they're learning, what their learning gaps are. What do we need to do as the professional and as the instructional um teachers, instructional coach? What do we need to do to refine our instruction so that we're meeting the students where they're at? I think we need to figure out how to make this less stressful for our students and more meaningful because the data it's not always the most useful because by the time we get it back, those students are at the end of their school year. want to address some of your leadership qualities. Please describe your typical style of leading and
021talk about situations in which you may vary from that style. Um I view my leadership style as very collaborative and problem. I love nothing more than to when a problem arises and I will use um our unions for example. I I believe we have a very strong relationship so that when problems arise they bring those to me before they become to the point where everybody is frustrated and upset and it's a a major issue. So I I like that collaborative approach where we listen we talk about what's what is the problem and how do we get to a solution where everybody is feeling like they've again heard and valued and that we're meeting their needs. I also believe that every decision I make is based on what's best for students. Always that's at the forefront
022of of who I am. I when I I believe most importantly that if students are at the center of every decision I make then this that allows the adults to be able to support them by me supporting the adults. So if if I um know that a curriculum concern comes to me for example, what does the student need and how do we best get at that? So if I'm providing the professional support, maybe it's professional development, maybe it's resources for the teacher, then they are now able to support that student. So I believe that student at the center of my decision making process always comes first while we're collaborating. I'm very committed to the relationships and building trust with staff and working really hard at being responsive and timely in my communication with them. Um
023there are times where there is a delay in communication and some of that is because I may need to research and find more information. So my leadership style will vary from that where I will I will say I'm sorry I can't read my list right now. I need a little more information. that collaborative approach works well until there's a immediate situation that needs a response. And at that point, I I can be very decisive, I can make a decision, and then um once we're finished with that process, sitting down and reflecting, did we hit all the steps? Did we make do all the pieces that we needed to hit as we're making that decision? A good example of that is in a a situation where students are on a bus and something happens. We have
024a checklist and our emergency aberation plan. We review with all all of the steps and then when we are finished the entire team comes together. We go through did we did we do everything we needed to do? Did we miss something? Communication. Did we communicate appropriately with the families? So at that point there's a decision that needs to be made. We make the decision but then always take time to reflect and review that decision to make sure that moving forward if that situation were to occur again that we adjust as needed. so that we are leading a program and supporting staff, supporting administrators in a a decision that needs to be made, but also looking at what do we need to do moving forward so that maybe we missed a step and someone didn't get
025the communication they needed. So adjusting as the situation comes. What is the most difficult decision you've had to deal with in your career in education and how was it resolved? I think any decision that I make with staffing is very challenging. Um, a couple years ago we were in a situation where we had to lay off some teachers. That personally was very challenging. Um, and knowing that it was impacting people's lives financially, emotionally, and they had to finish out the year. And so my approach to that was I went ma met with the individual teachers and and shared the situation we were at, shared why um this was happening and provided support for the staff who were looking for another job. Um those are hard decisions for me um because I know the personal impact.
026I believe meeting them, supporting them, having those conversations one-on-one in their space. I did not ask them to come to me. It was really important to meet them where they were at so that they even though it was a very difficult time that they all supported um providing references and those kinds of things. So anytime I have to make a decision that involves staff that is incredibly challenging for me because I know that there's three impact on just going to that. What are the key elements needed to establish and maintain a good working relationship between you, our staff and our work? communication and trust. Uh again, I it is so important to build that relationship with individuals and understand who they are, what do they need and re and support, mentorship, communication, um how do
027they just want a quick here's the answer, here's policy 2201 and this is our process or do they need someone to walk them through that? Do they need a thought partner and just I just want to process this with you and how I and I have a situation. I want to talk through it with you and I want to hear what you have to say. I just want you to listen to me. So, building those relationships and meeting them where they're at, providing the support that they need is the best way to build um relationships amongst teachers, parents, administrators. >> Thank you. >> Okay, pivot a little bit to the classroom. Please give us some examples of educational change or reform that you've initiated in your career that have led to improvements in the student
028learning. >> This is a very personal one for me. >> Um during my tenure as HR director, Chris and I were talking about our students and what life looked for our students after high school and some of our students needed more support. Um and as a first generation college graduate uh I really believed in early middle college. I really believed in that concept of supporting students. They start their journey as um 11th graders and they start slowly taking classes at community college as well as the high school and eventually in their fifth year. It's a five-year program complete their um associates degree and high school diploma at the same time. through that process they also can earn several associates degree if they don't help. For me that was a very personal ex because I was
029a first generation college student. I did not have um while my mom was incredibly supportive she didn't have the resources to support me. So knowing that we were providing an opportunity for our students who needed that support. So when I started classes here in high school they had teachers to support them. They had someone to teach them those soft skills. They had someone to teach them study skills. they had someone to say, "Oh, hey, you have class today. You need to make sure you get there on time. Do you need to make sure you have lunch? What can I do to help?" Those kinds of things are so important and going through that process of applying to get approval through the state and working with WCC to create that relationship. At the end of the
030day, keeping students in mind, that's the thing that was not an easy process, as you can imagine, a lot of hoops to jump through to get approval. But it was so important to me to do that for our students to make sure that there was a pathway for them who needed it. And that has expanded and we continue to have that program. Um it doesn't just serve first generation college students. It serves students who who have a variety of needs but at the end of need that support and we've had um that have graduated and I'm very proud of that. Keeping with that that thinking actually how will you ensure that our students are well prepared for postgraduation meeting the needs of college readiness while also providing high quality re relevant like career focused uh
031opportunities too. >> So carrying on with that early metal college the other thing that I'm really proud of is the alt program that I was part of starting if I I believe in pathways for our students. My daughter was an IP student. That was wonderful for for her. That that's not for every student. We have students who take AP classes. That's also not for every student. We have started our own CTE classes here in the district. Um we have consortium in Seline where our students can attend. We need to provide additional opportunities of and that starts with students. What do you want? What are you interested in? We just had a prayer day in the spring. The a number of students who said, I've never heard of that prayer. Oh, I'm interested in this. we
032need to provide more opportunities for students and again I go back to when I was a middle school student and we had this research careers and I thought I was going to get a secondary because I didn't know what was so we have to do a better job of preparing our students and exposing them to multiple careers and we start that in middle school now with exploratory classes but continuing to provide those pathways for students so that when they leave high school they have a well-rounded experience they can do internships I know we're working on that with some of our al students now were they able to go out and work in the community and I think that is incredibly important for our students because if you don't have those experiences and exposure to things
033you don't know what's out there and what things you can explore what you need next >> keeping in mind our privacy obligations what is the biggest risk that you have taken to do what's right for and in staffing decisions and that is very difficult in looking at what is best for students and then secondly what is best for the district and those decisions are incredibly challenging um take a lot of time a lot of thought um personally a lot of sleepless nights when I'm thinking about what is the right thing to do and it's there was a question earlier about that don't obviously have a right or wrong answer or don't have a clear outcome. Being thoughtful and taking the time to make sure they're gathering all of the information to make the right decision
034for students and the districts as a whole. Again, it's challenging because I know that philosophy are affected by whatever decision is made. I would say that is the most challenging part. What do you believe are currently the biggest challenges with special education in our region and state? How would you address those? >> Um, our biggest challenge is that it's not 100% funded and educating a student with special education needs is expensive. providing support for our students. Um whether it be an occupational therapist or a speech therapist, social work in addition to a classroom teacher, it it needs to be funded 100% so that our students can level the playing field so they have equal access to education. Okay. Um so these these questions relate to finance. Um please describe your experience with budget development and
035financial management citing the largest budget you have built and maintain it and how would you ensure that we maintain a balanced budget? So I managed budgets both as an elementary principal and a special ed director. My special ed budget was the largest with a lot of categorical um and grants with specific um ways that the money could be spent. And if you didn't spend it correctly or you charged something incorrectly then now you're our we're paying that back. So the the process that I have used is spending a lot of time with the business office and the CFO to understand the budget understand what those different categoricals and grants are what can be spent what can't spent um that requires multiple meetings and quarterly reviews of the budget. when I was the special ed director,
036I was also met with the ISD and their finance department to talk about those things. Medicaid is one of the billing pieces that we had to make sure we got right. Um, in addition to those things, negotiating contracts, that is the largest expenditure the district has on people. And so when we sit down and negotiate contracts every we've been doing it all every year now financially. um understanding the impact of when we give rates of support or we um increase the district's contribution to health care uh or if we are paying stiffness for something all of those things cost money which impacts the overall budget and that spending a lot of time I'm fortunate that Chris is very well versed in school finance spending a lot of time with um our CFO business office and
037asking them to run examples what if we do this what does this look like what is the impact on prevention um again MASA provides a lot of information and some workshops on that MASB um or I'm sorry MSVO has a lot of training and resources on budgets um so that understanding the impact of making one decision all the domino effects that it has that so it's not just a simple I always joke that if I could give everything away to our staff I would 100% to it but then none of us would have jobs to run so thinking about that the bigger picture and what that impact has on those on the budget when we make the decision is um ha have you had success in procuring additional funding for the school or district um
038beyond what is normally provided and what ideas might you explore to raise money for Dexter schools I can use an example of co so during co there were a lot of grant opportunities out there Um and one of the things that uh I don't know if I can say I'm proud of but I became very wellversed in co and um part a big portion of my salary was paid by grant money and followers understanding we're going to apply for this grant I have to do agency and do the following things. Um there are a lot of grant sources out there that have allowed the us to continue to fund staff and programs. Um, one of the things that we have done in the past is we have a lot of students that um, enroll in
039our district for three-year exchange students that brings funding that allows us to fund other programs. So, I think being creative and looking at ways that you can apply for state grants. You also have businesses have grants. We we had uh businesses that partner with us to pay for professional development for teachers. Um, so finding those ways and building those relationships, spending a lot of time reading those updates that we receive from the variety of resources because they will say, "Hey, heads up. There's this grant that you can apply for and the deadline is this day. Oh, and here's a template that you can use to apply for them. So carefully paying attention to all of the information that I receive and apply for those things. We just applied, you haven't heard back yet, but I
040applied for a large grant to pay for mentoring for our teachers. Hopefully, we got that. that will help and um boost our mentoring program for our new teachers so we can keep them in the profession. So, it's reading, finding, and doing the lab to apply to those. >> Okay. What opportunities do you believe budget limitations present and in tough times, excuse me, in tough financial times, what are your top three priorities? So budgeting is always people and that's the top. It's the majority of our budget is staff and um I am proud of the fact that I've worked really closely with our union leaders to make sure that we're doing everything we can to save jobs. So looking at that, what are we what are we going to do? And that sometimes means making sure
041our classes are balanced so that we don't have a class with six students and a class with 25 students. Um so looking at those things um making smart decisions about um raises and about uh insurance costs and being creative with some of those things. So that doesn't mean we can't give braces, but how do we do that? Sometimes we look at our staffing and this year we had some entire we were able to work through that process to make sure that we're able to give raises well earned deserved raises to our staff while also managing the budget because we do not want to get ourselves where we're dipping too deep into our fund balance and then now we're in a deficit. That is not worth anywhere. It's my job to be fiscally responsible and I
042believe that as a whole that is I know that's a priority of yours. is also a priority of mine. So, looking at that, looking at staffing, um making decisions about our budget and what things are necessary and what things can we put on hold and there are times when we can look at those things and that takes a lot of conversation. That is not a decision that's made in isolation at all. If there are programs or services that we're providing, um sometimes that doesn't mean cutting that. That means finding a grant that'll pay for that so we can continue moving down that path and continue using that service or providing that support. Um we've done that with our coaches at this point. We've been able to find grants to pay for um instructional coaches because
043we don't have the money in our general fund or in our budget per se to pay for those. So looking at other ways to fund those things is a a priority that collectively we we we work on together. That's not something that can be done with just one person. there is too bright out there all the opportunities of grants and not knowing what the budget will be at this point. We don't even know what our funding will be this fall. Um so making some very careful decisions about hiring, staffing, those kinds of things. There's a lot of unknown insurance costs and don't know what our people are. So looking at our staffing and looking at ways that we can supplement our our um our cost with grant funding is one of the key things that
044I would um ship to staff and personnel. Um 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 also holding them accountable as appropriate necessary? Um, so I think that goes back to something that I said earlier this evening, which is building those relationships and getting to know them as individuals and as a group. What do they need? What, you know, learning learning their their uh leadership style is really important. Some people, as I said, want to have that conversation. They want to just process. Sometimes they just want to know, can you can you just give me the answer to this? Where do I go to find this? So I think building those relationships about while I have
045them now it will be a different relationship and rebuilding those relationships rebuilding those trusts and I think the rebuilding trust with them because as I moved to a bigger goal I'm I I would be stand so meeting with them individually meeting with them as a group what are their goals collectively for their buildings and what are their goals for the district and does that align with what our goals are for the district um building that building those um building supports for them. Some of them want some time where they just have one-on-one mentoring and coaching. Some of them said, "You know what? I got this. I just want to make sure I get resources available so that I know where to go to find answers. Um I I have a situation that with a concern
046that was brought to me and I want to just know like I'm I'm thinking about doing it this way. Does that make sense? Yes, that's great." So finding the individuals who they are, what do they want, what do they need, and then meeting them where they're at. >> Thank you. What would you suggest in terms of a comprehensive professional development plan for educators specifically? What would be the key priority areas as well as the delivery system? >> Well, I think we need to look at curriculum instruction assessment in in asking our teachers, what do you want? What do you need? our teachers know that they need more help with um instruction on a certain a new uh goal that the state has put out. I think surveying our our uh teachers is incredibly important getting
047their input. I think looking at our student data is also really important. Where where are our students at? What gaps do we have and how do we meet them with those needs but in professional development? Finally, I think we have to stay um on top of the current events that are happening and providing asking our staff what kind of support do you need for that. I know that a lot of stress is surrounds current events for our staff because they just want to know what can I say, what how what can I do and I think providing professional development for them on that topic is incredibly important. And finally, I think one of the largest things that we need to be focusing on is our students and their social emotional needs. Our students are coming
048to school with a lot of stuff and providing teachers with tools on how to support students that goes hand in hand providing tools so our teachers can support themselves and each other. It shifted a lot and I think we need to focus our K on staff but they can our best students. How would you assess the current culture and climate of our district? And as our sup superintendent, how would you positively impact that culture and climate? So I've done a lot of work with positive psychology and prior to the pandemic I was um went to an orange frog training which really looks at positivity and how does that impact a person's wellbeing and when people are feeling positive about what's happening in the district then they're more likely to cont support and contribute to that
049so I think one of the things is getting out listening and learning asking questions attending meetings with them and asking asking for there, but where are you at? Do you need our our staff will tell us um what they need? I know they have value connections and I know we've worked on that. We need to continue working on connecting with one another there. There's some isolation that's happening with teachers in our classrooms. So, it's so important to meet with them, listen to them, attend events. Um, I was active in our professional learning community. We spent for the past few years and just sitting in groups with our teachers and talking about um, how do we do things better? I was in the culture group for the past year and then the ideas that they have
050are inspiring. How do we bring each other together, support one another so that we're at our best with our students and everything? Um, and I think that being present and available to them is important and, you know, being in the building, attending their events. There's a music concert. I That was really great. I loved what you did with students last night and and letting them know I'm here and I'm ready to listen. But I think it's important to hear their voices and what do they need? um and how can we provide that for them so that they are feeling supported um and that they can do their very best because culture is not good that it goes right down to our students. So we need to make sure we have a really strong positive culture
051and continuing that. I think starting as we have a transition that it's going to bring some some fear, some concern and making sure that they are heard and validated and I listen to them. I meet with them uh here with administrators. What's happening in your building? Is there something I can do to support? Is there something going on? What do we need to do? I think we did a really nice job of trying to do some connections at TV. We get five of those a year. So that's not enough to to have some of those connections. We did the food trust talking with people. I think it's just really important that we continue to build the Dexter culture which is really strong. Our community and our school community is very strong. There's a lot of
052pride here, but continuing to fill that is really Um, we would like to take a few minutes now to provide you with an opportunity to ask any questions that you might have to go in. Okay. Um, I just have one. What aspects of the Dexter schools are you most proud of as a board and how can the next superintendent build on that? >> Good question. Um, I will start and if anyone else wants to chime in, you start by. Um, I think one of the things that's been really fun about this process is that we have all had a chance to talk together over the last two months about what we're looking for, um, and what we like and we've heard back from the community. Um, so we have built our profile based on that
053sort of thing. Um, because a lot of these things are things that the Duster schools are doing right now. we do what I think generally we all feel like is a great place to raise our kids and the academics are wonderful the extracurriculars are are wonderful um and I think a lot of us both feel and I've heard from others that say you know we are on a good path and while there are things that we would like to continue to um adjust as with all organizations generally speaking they're very happy with that um so I think Um what was the end? What where do we want to go? >> How would you like the superintendent to build? >> Okay. >> Um I think that the relationship between the superintendent and the board is really
054important. I think we are an I will say essential connection with the community because we do provide a level of both accountability and reality checking. Um because we are the every parent and so you talk to people in baseball fields. We do talk one of the grocery stores and sometimes we are able to make connections and share updates in a way that and hear a little bit differently. So, I think just thinking about establishing a really positive and two-way communication between the board and the superintendent um I think will continue to keep us pretty strong. I mean, I think we we've all learned a lot about the feedback loop in the community over the last two months and and I think it's, you know, I think it's inspired some of the ways that I respond
055to emails and talk and and some of the information that I want to gather from the district. So, I think just more of that. Yeah, I would add um that I agree with everything that Elise said that that um one of the things that I really appreciate as a board is the open communication with the superintendent and to be able to um he he keeps us apprised of things that that are coming up where we we don't have there's not surprises generally speaking. Um, so that so that communication that you spoke to in your in many of your your comments um is so important and and I think that this board is very strong and that um we are not um we are very open and and honest I think with our superintendent and I
056think that that's really important uh just to be able to have open dialogue. um we all have ways to improve and um you know he helps us and we help him and I think it's been a very good good relationship in that way. Um and then as Lee said just just making sure that we're listening to the community and and hopefully sharing um you know the eyes and ears and and helping um you know in the in the way that we can. So, in closing, I'd like to give you a chance to share anything else that you'd like to add that we didn't ask about or anything you just want to make sure that we're have a statement. Um, I wanted to thank everyone again for the opportunity to be considered superintendent and Dr. John
057Dexter. This district has been my professional home for the past 13 years. I care deeply about its people, its purpose, and its future. I know firsthand the pride this community had of his schools and I share that pride as well as the responsibility that comes with it. Throughout my time at Doctor Dor worked really hard to build strong trusting relationships with staff, families, and district leaders. I've led through periods of growth and change, supported collaborative labor negotiations and worked to align systems that support student learning, staff success. I've grown in each role I've held and I've helped to grow the departments and people I've been responsible for. The steady focus on improvement of self system and outcomes is something I carry with me into every leadership role that I have. I also understand the complexity
058of this position and the importance of clarity, transparency, and consistent. What excites me most about this opportunity to serve the district that I know and love and to do so in partnership with the dedicated board, the talented staff, and engaged community. I'm ready to build on our strengths, face challenges with confidence, and lead with both humility and resolve to ensure Dexter meets a place where students can stand at. Right. Thank you so much, Miss Leonard. We appreciate your interest in the superintendent position for Dexter Community Schools is interviewing three candidates this week and we will let you know after our meeting this Wednesday, July 16th, where you stand in our process. Thank you for your participation in this first round interview. >> Thank you. Thank you again to all the guests for to evening tonight.
059We look forward to reading them and thank you again.