001Um, I don't know if she gave me the thumbs up. Are we ready? Ready? Good. We're good? I don't know what this means. I'm not sure either. 1 minute or what? Everybody have your mics on? Mics are on. Good evening, everybody. I'd like to welcome everyone to this special meeting of the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools Board of Education. Thank you to the Minnesota School Boards Association's Director of and Leadership Development and Executive Search, Barb Dorn. And thank you to the four candidates, the staff, and community members for your engagement in this important process. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to conduct conduct interviews with each of the superintendent candidates. I call this meeting to order. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance as you're able. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag
002of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Um, all board members, except uh Director Johnson, who will be joining us any moment, um, are present. I will now turn it over to Barb Dorn for some housekeeping before the interviews begin. Thank you, Barb. >> Thank you very much. So, first and foremost, I want to congratulate the school board. This is an exciting point in a superintendent search. You have four very qualified candidates to visit with today about becoming the next leader of Prior Lake A- Savage Area Schools. So, I do have a couple of things I want to go over before I go get your first finalists. So, in front of you, there are some
003materials. Uh I think one of the things you'll see first is the schedule. That is just a schedule of who is scheduled to interview when. Sometimes interviews go a full hour, and if we start a little late for whatever reason, we they still get a full hour. I'm going to be sitting over here, and I have these signs that they can see me very easily from here. I'll make sure they know when they have a half hour left, 15 minutes left, 5 minutes left, and when time is up. Don't watch the clock at all, because if they are in the middle of a thought, I'm not going to interrupt their thought and do this. I don't want to distract them. So, it's approximately 30 minutes left. So, I'll wait till they finish their thought, and
004then I will let them know how much time is remaining. If you'd like, I'll probably turn it toward the board as well. I think you can see me over the the stand here as well. So, I'll be keeping time for them. Uh so, on the schedule, it does say times are approximate. The question I have for the board is if we're running ahead of schedule, if someone takes less than an hour, do you want to stay on that same schedule and start when it's indicated that it will start on the form, or if someone's here early, if they've had 15 minutes with the questions, do you want them to go early, or do you want to stay as scheduled with 15 minutes or maybe a little more between candidates? >> Um thank you for that
005question. I think um I think if they're done extremely early, and the the next candidate has had ample time, we will keep the we will keep running >> Keep moving. Okay. >> instead of waiting extra time for a >> Doesn't always happen, but when it does, I just want to make sure that each candidate gets 15 minutes with those questions. Same amount of time, consistency like we've talked about is really important. So, just want to be sure on that as well. Um the other things you have in front of you is the EMD form, which I'll go over in just a moment, but you also have the interview script. This says candidate interviews. On the backside is deliberations. I gave this to you last week as well, but today it's really only the interviews, and
006this script is mostly important for the board chair to follow because we want the candidates to experience the same thing and hear the same thing from the board chair. So, that's just there as an FYI, not necessary that we go over in detail. Um one thing that is helpful, and I know when Director Johnson gets here, he may have a couple of questions, is after you've asked your question, and that's what we're going to do before I exit here is just who's asking which questions. It does help if you wrap it up with a thank you. Every once in a while they're done speaking, you think they're done speaking, but the next person doesn't know if they should ask the questions. So, just an acknowledgement, thank you, is really appreciated by the candidate and by
007the board so that they know that you know they've wrapped up. Please remember not to ask follow-up questions unless it's a clarifying question. Specifically, those tend to be acronyms, a program you've never heard of before, but please don't ask probing questions because it will give an advantage to the other to that candidate that you're not asking that same follow-up question for all four of them. So, please keep the questions consistent. If you do have a clarifying question, feel free to ask it, but just make sure it's not giving them an advantage to expand on an answer they already gave. All right. Uh just a reminder that we are also recording the interviews, and as you discussed last week, uh tomorrow after your deliberations, whoever is the successful lone finalist, that interview will be provided online
008for folks to watch. Uh similarly, tomorrow you're not live streaming your deliberations, but you're recording them, and they will be posted online as well. Just a reminder that we want to make sure we're adhering to all of the statutes that are required as part of this process. Everyone's treated the same, and you are on mic. Okay? Thank and advance in advance for helping um follow up on that. I have a question about process. When they come in, usually they'll go put all their materials over at the interview spot. Are handshakes okay with the board? >> Yes. Okay. So, they'll probably because it's very easy to reach you, just go this way or this way to shake hands with everyone. Sometimes since COVID, I always want to make sure if someone doesn't want to shake hands,
009we acknowledge that. But, if they like to do that, you'd be okay with that. >> Yes. >> Okay. And how about the formality of them addressing you? Generally speaking, they don't use your names, but sometimes it is Chair Boykin or, you know, Director Mason. Do you want to use those? Should I tell them, or is it more first name basis in your district? What's the formality you'd like in the interview? >> It's typical to say Director um and then the last name. >> Wonderful. So, the formality is a little more here. So, I'm going to make note of that. All right. Um I will go into the EMD form, and then while I'm gone, you can sort of go around and select who's going to ask which questions. So, you'll notice on the hard copy,
010you have four of these. That's on purpose because we want you to put the name of the candidate at the top and your name. We talked about you inputting the results. You have um until tonight. I'm going to send you the electronic link after all four are done. You can input all four tonight if you want. We'll run the numbers as soon as everyone is done. We could even run them in the morning because you really don't need very long to look over the EMD results. I'll cover them tomorrow with you during deliberations at 6:00 p.m., but I will send you that link after all four are done. We'd like you to score them on the hard copy so that everyone again has an equal chance. If for some reason you wanted to input yours
011right away, I guarantee you will find out you were a lot harsher on the first and second candidate than you were by the end. You need to sort of get your bearings and your context about which answers for you resonate as an exceeds, which answers really disappoint you. So, sometimes it's helpful to do it on a hard copy cuz it's much easier to change before you go in and electronically input it. All right? So, when you look at this, name of candidate board member, really important because when you do input that, you have to triple check the name of the candidate and your name is selected in the drop down box. I know you had a chance to perhaps practice with the EMD form. It's really simple, but don't rush through it. If you accidentally
012choose a different board member's name or a different candidate name, it's very difficult to change it electronically. It requires some maneuvering. So, when you look at this, you'll see EMD and there's T. Do not use T unless they time out. In other words, if they run out of time, you only have 11 questions. You will see that they're listed as 13, but that's only because question one is the candidate's name, question two is the board member's name. So, there's actually 13 on here, but it's 11 questions. They have a copy of the questions. So, when you're on here, don't check timed out unless at the end of the interview, an hour and hour and two minutes has gone by. I'm waving my zero time left. If they don't get to the question at the end,
013you put timed out. But, we don't want to penalize them by putting a D for disappoints when they simply ran out of time. Most of the time though, they're watching me with my time cards, they won't run out of time cuz I'm sure they want to ask you questions as well. So, on here, the left column is to indicate who's asking which questions. Typically, the chair asks the first question and then you either go to her right or to her left. And that's the same order you follow for all four of them. So, I'm going to just suggest Sherbolyn that you take question three on here, which is one. And then from that point, I'm going to go meet with the next candidate to get started, but I would suggest you sort of divvy up
014the questions and jot your names to the left of the one that you're each going to ask. Does that sound okay? >> Sure. >> Are there any other questions for me? >> Um Charles, do you have Director Johnson, do you have any questions just to catch you up? You're good? >> And is a handshake okay? With the candidates. Is a handshake okay with the candidates? >> Oh, yeah, absolutely. >> And then I think if I just reiterate the um it was saying thank you after the the question is asked. >> After their answers given and they are saying thank you or you are. >> To acknowledge the answer to your question. >> Okay. So, um and then the other thing that you said was >> No follow-up questions unless you didn't understand an abbreviation or
015an acronym or something like that. >> Just clarifying question. >> Correct. Okay. >> Um Barbara, do I have a question? >> Yes. >> When when and if they ask us questions, how do we determine are we able to all answer that or do we take turns from candidate to candidate or how is that done? >> Generally speaking, the chair takes the question and says that's a great question. Who'd like to answer that? And sort of looks around at the board. It's great if maybe two of you could answer it, two or three. There probably not be time at the end for all of you to answer every question. So, if each of you gets a chance to answer one or something, that's wonderful. The main thing they're looking for is to see how you build
016off of one another and how you support one another's ideas and add to it. So, I think it's facilitated by the board chair. Um if you have something to add, just say "Chair, I'd like to add something as well." And I think that shows a really high-functioning board if you can work well together in answering the questions. But not all of them by everyone. You will run out of time in that case. Yes. >> Any other questions? >> Yes. Quick question. Are we able to keep our notes tonight? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes, please do. And you'll notice the very last box is not a question. It does say what I liked best about this candidate. You're going to be tired after four interviews of 1 hour in length. You're listening very, very intently.
017But I want you to take the notes that you need to take in order to fill out that EMD form afterwards and to come back tomorrow and and about these interviews. So, it helps to just go high-level, top three things I really liked about them or the answers they gave. Those are for you. Keeping in mind again that your notes are subject to data requests, so please don't list anything in your notes that are protected classes, which we talked about in interview training. Uh if you keep your notes professional and appropriate, you're good to go because your notes will be turned in to the HR department upon conclusion of the search. All right, great questions. All right, with that I'm going to duck out and bring them back in in 5 minutes. So, I'll give
018you 5 minutes to divvy up the questions. You don't have to go in order. It does simplify things, but you don't have to. If you just are passionate about [clears throat] one particular question and you have to ask it, you can sort that out while I'm out in the hallway, but usually it's, you know, a round robin of some sort. Okay, great. Congratulations again. I'm looking forward to this. >> Thank you, Barb. >> Uh for ease, I think if we just if I start with three and we just go around like this. All right, sounds good. >> Because there's 11 questions total, do you want to start where we stopped the with the last candidate? >> it has to go in the same order. >> Yeah, she's going to go in the same order all
019the time. So, we're going to have some people that ask questions twice and just so you know. Is that okay? >> That's fine. >> Just want to make sure >> Simplicity. >> So, >> If I start with question number three and then we'll just go in a circle like this like the clock. >> Sounds good. >> Good enough for a board game, it's good enough for me. >> I did send you the link, the EMD link, and I would encourage you to fill that out tonight. Would you like a deadline to get that filled out tonight because I'll be able to email the results to you late tonight if you want us to, but the deadline should really come from you and you're interested in the next hour to fill this out, or would you
020rather have some time till like noon tomorrow? And I can send it to you tomorrow afternoon instead. I need to let my staff know sort of what your deadline is to submit everything. >> You said um either having a deadline tonight or possibly noon tomorrow. Um but you said something about sending something. You said you already sent the EMD. >> the link, so you have the electronic link for the forms that you have in hard copy right now. So you'll just go in and you'll select candidate name, your name, and then select EM or D for every single question, and hit submit. You will notice when you hit submit, it will ask you, "Do you want to save your response?" You can say no because that just puts it in PDF format, and you don't
021need to save your individual survey. So say no when it says save, but if you've submitted I guarantee you've submitted. So would all seven of you like to try to get those submitted within the next hour to hour and a half, or would you like until noon to submit those tomorrow? And I'll send you the results early tomorrow afternoon. You'll have plenty time to look at it. It's not very long. It'll be a one-pager, just an overview of general totals, EMs and Ds, and then there's a second one that will be by board member. So people will see how you rated the answers EM or D for all four of these folks. So I'll have two reports. It's just a PDF. Do you want until tomorrow at noon, or do you want to just get
022it over with tonight? >> If we choose tomorrow at noon, you would have the information back to us probably by 1:00 or 1:30 in the afternoon. Okay. Um are we comfortable just going around? Director Atkinson, do you have a preference? >> I'm fine with that. >> Tomorrow That's fine. >> Tomorrow at noon is okay. >> Yeah, as long as we have enough time to be able to look at it in the afternoon. >> Yeah, tomorrow's fine. >> Director Mason? would be to do it tonight so that I have time in the morning to review, but either way. Director Olson? I'm fine either way. My preference is tomorrow at noon. Director Tomorrow at noon. Tomorrow at noon. Okay, so I think the will of the board is having a deadline by tomorrow at noon. Okay, that
023sounds great. That means I can let our staff know in St. Peter that they can go home. So that's great. Tomorrow at noon and then I'll have it back to you within an hour to two hours. And it's again it's a very short report. It's the first thing I'll go over tomorrow before your deliberations begin in earnest. So I will get those to you electronically. Um, remember that you need to bring your conversations back to the board table tomorrow. So please don't visit with one another tonight or tomorrow about these interviews. Very important that everyone gets to see we're recording your deliberations, what you share about each of these folks. I would really encourage you if you have time to go back into those applications cuz you still have that folder. The uh password will
024be will still work. It'll be in a separate email though. So it's two emails that you got back to back. Go back in and look at the applications for these four people specifically and pay real close attention to their cover letter and their letters of recommendation. Just to really now that you've seen them it's going to be a lot easier to sort of connect those to a person because you have a very big decision to make tomorrow based on an interview, yes, but remember you have also seen a lot more information about them. It's not just how well they interview. There's a lot of data you want to be looking at. So do go back and look at those tonight as well. Okay, um, that's all I have unless you have questions for me. I
025hope this was helpful. >> Wonderful. >> Again, it's exciting. Question here. >> When you say you're going to compile the report by board member, will it have board member names on it? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So everybody's going to see how everybody ranked >> Yes, correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. And that's helpful I think only if for whatever reason let's say on question question four. Half of you gave it an exceeds and the other half gave it a a meets or gave it a disappoints. That's a pretty big gulf, right? Most of the time you've got shoulder scores. It's exceeds and meets or it's meets and disappoints. But every once in a while when you get into deliberations and you just can't Remember we talked about what to do if deliberations get
026stuck? You could go to deficits, but you also could go back to the answers and go well let's take a look at this. Here we had this divide where some of us loved the answers and some were really disappointed on question six. You could talk that through and it gives you more information about which to make your decision. So it will be by board number board number name correct. And again because it's um it's your own lens you're using when you're evaluating these answers you'll have some disparities where some have exceeds meets or meets and disappoints. So it's not a bad thing if you have different opinions about how good the answer was, but generally speaking there's going to be some consistency. But it's only one thing you're going to look at. You know, it's
027not a statistically significant analytical tool that will say you shall hire this person. That's not what it's for. It's just meant to indicate how you each individually felt about the quality of the answers all of them gave you. So one little piece of the puzzle. Okay? Any other questions? >> Thank you Barb and for everyone who participated in this evening's interviews. The board is now in recess and will reconvene tomorrow Tuesday, June 2nd at 6:00 p.m. for deliberation regarding selection of a superintendent finalist. So this meeting is Do I have to do something? Nothing? This meeting is in recess. >> Ouch. >> That feels weird, doesn't it? >> Okay. >> I know it does.