001[Music] good evening welcome to the Mount Vernon City School District special board meeting today is Thursday February 27th please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all trusty McDonna present trusty marabel trusty Mitchell here trusty Middleton pres trusty and Jenga yeah trusty White trusty trusty Kerwin here VP Kelly here president Saunders here trusty marabel pres okay we have a quorum I didn't look get the plate number I should have just R okay we can all right so um so I'd like to introduce um Ed McCormick um from from hya to do a presentation for the superintendent search thank you Ed good evening the uh this is a exciting
002time we it marks the complete phase one uh that's the good news uh perhaps the uh you would not be too excited when I tell you that there are two more phases to go the but uh but I trust trust me those next two phases will be equally exciting and certainly important for the district this evening we would like to take you through the leadership profile report and that's a uh summation of all of the uh information that we received from your community uh from the online um online uh uh survey then uh and we will also ask you at the end of the meeting to approve the uh desired characteristics report this desired characteristic report is important because it allows us uh to put the requirements that you have for the next superintendent on
003the website uh and be part of our advertising and recruiting campaign it also will be the uh you will use it also again as part of the interviewing process as as we will use it as part of the uh recruiting and interviewing pieces that we do uh so this evening is a a key key part of the process and we'll take you through that just as a matter of order uh this is the introduction that I'm doing uh the Karen will take you through the lpra I'll take through the D desired characteristics we'll take questions as we go uh although I would prefer that we took questions at the end uh but if there something burning if you have a burning question and want to ask us we and uh we'll be happy to respond
004uh after that we'll sh go to and talk about the uh desired characteristics piece that will be posted you have a copy of that and see if there are any modifications or additions or anything you want to do be before accepting it and before we uh put it on the website uh any questions about the process and the protocols that we use this evening uh and we will also give you a quick update on uh where we are with the uh search itself uh although this is the official beginning of the search but we are uh but uh we are looking at some interesting candidates already there is a one thing before I ask Karen to come forward uh I'm extremely proud of this number there uh we have 962 total participants a u 152
005of those uh we T to uh face to face and the were done through the survey uh that's a magnificent number you may not think so but as one who uh who sees a survey almost every other week that is an outstanding reflection of your community uh I've had districts of 20 30 40,000 that did not have as many participate in person are uh via the online survey so at some point in time you don't have to do it now give yourself a hand clap you it's an outstanding Community there's a said we talked to 18 focus groups had 10 individual interviews and one Community Forum I was in I was impressed with all of those venues uh people some say well maybe it could have been more uh but they were they they came
006with Vigor had interesting questions uh and uh hopefully we were able to respond we have to show you how the community is in tune we did have a glitch in that we would shut down the survey on the 23rd but I told everyone we would shut it down on the 24th so we we upped it again last night or night before last for another 12 hours and 25 people responded so it was uh worth a delay and worth the fact that we had to send you two two uh two reports uh over the last last couple days so forgive us for that but uh you know no no good deeds go unpunished so the uh there's a uh with that we'll follow the protocol that I asked that I just laid out feel free to
007ask us questions uh as I say I prefer at the end but but I'm I'm an old country boy I can we'll take care of it as we go if that's if that's the will of the board uh Karen right hear oops good evening I think this and it's working great um again I'm Dr Karen gilan I am also on this team and I I want to Echo that thanks because it makes everyone's job easier when you have the kind of participation that we've had and I also want to just say it has been a real pleasure getting to know the various constituents in this very fine School District it's uh it's exciting it makes it exciting when you know more and how can you not know more about a district after 962 people have
008put in some kind of um have put in their two cents right have told you a little bit on their views of the district so in that process here I I would like to emphasize again that we asked the same three questions to every group and every individual that we spoke to so out of those 152 participants they were all answering these three questions and they're very simple the first one being what do stakeholders value regarding our schools what are those strengths put very simply why Mount Vernon the second question what are the issues facing the district not right now but also in the next 3 to 5 years those issues that from whatever your constituency or background would be uh whether you are a parent or a student Community member or work in the
009district somehow it's what do you see as those issues coming up and the third one is then taking all of that information and with all of that in mind what are those personal and professional character istics that you would like to see in the next superintendent and so I'm going to get into a little bit I'm certainly not going to let you um I will not read to everybody what every 152 people so if you were thinking I was going to do that don't worry we'll talk in generalities because as you would imagine there are patterns that emerge from the data there are things that multiple people said and those are the really important things then not only for us to discuss this evening but for your superintendent search team to again keep in mind
010as we are vetting through those candidates for the position the community survey is broken into Administration faculty support staff parents community and students and that was a self- select when someone took this the survey I'm I'm sure everyone in this room took the survey when you did you would choose self- select which group do you belong to when um when answering these questions and then that helps to understand the data when you look over the survey when you see the dots along the line those dots each one represents a constituency group so let's get oh I guess I'm the person in charge of this we'll move to the next slide and let's start by looking at the responses the strengths people spoke so easily and freely about the strengths in the district and I think
011the most important thing that came up was the location it's just where we are right now where we are right now not only is it close in that proximity to New York City but everyone spoke about how easy it is to get there the number of train stations and we're very proud here that we have more and more accessibility through train and rail than other cities in nearby communities on their way to New York City not only that people talked about the highways and they work in different directions so it's not just coming in here in the accessibility to Mount Vernon but it's going somewhere and where do people go well very quickly you can go from an urban to a rural field you can go to the beach you can go to the city
012to the Arts people spoke about all kinds of places they could go but then they always wanted to come back home and that idea of home was very strong and pervasive through all the data there anyone you talk to that here in Mount Vernon we have a feeling of home there's a feeling of family even for people who are not related but we stay here we tend to even the folks who are working in the school district tend to send their children and their grandchildren and I've also been told many times that this is a welcoming City but with a small town feel so that family atmosphere that that sense of community which is so strong and so pervasive around here especially um that is something that if you're not from here I've been told
013is something that you feel that welcoming into the fold very quickly and then what ends up happening well I have been told in in part of the data you'll see that we are a true Melting Pot there are a lot of cultures that come together within the community of Mount Vernon not only are we welcoming but we're welcoming to a variety and that diversity is ethnicity it's culturally it's financially so there's all kinds of types of diversity too so it's a very exciting place to be but I don't have to tell you that you live here you know that what we do is we share that with prospective candidates for sure so the staff the staff that's another strength we have staff members here who graduated from Mount Vernon as I said they send their
014children and grandchildren they develop relationships with families and students often attending the student Productions the events the activities getting truly involved and invested in what students do and this was mentioned by students that they recognized School personnel and Community leaders as well they talked about um the police men the firefighters the kids said quote they get to know us and um they were very proud of that and that's not something that you see everywhere the students spoke about oh and the dedication of the staff of course the students spoke about opportunities here that there's a variety of curricula but also when you're getting to the high school age our high schools are very different and they offer something for everybody and I I was told that over and over again that there is something for
015everybody here and what they really liked is in the rich history of Mount Vernon where you have accomplished students people who have left here graduated and done very great things whether they're um in in the Arts in business uh they're actors they are in their own right authors accomplished folks are then accessible by students and they value that and they um they mention that the inspiration encouragement and support that students receive was noted by many including the students so it wasn't just people saying yes that's what we do and what we value it was reinforced by the students that yes they see that too so that's all very um all of the strengths there are um individual comments that go beyond Beyond those main ideas that did Bubble Up the second question was about the
016challenges and um first and foremost we have to talk about the financial challenges and declining enrollment and those go hand inand too um they talked about the New York State fiscal oversight um but not necessarily as being a challenge more that the superintendent they were looking for someone just to be aware and to work hand inand because everyone spoke about in a very positive way where do we go next because these challenges it's not something that uh that we're stuck in forever but it's we're looking for a way to move forward to plan well and to move on from it so with those financial concerns um there were also student achievement concerns but you can imagine that too because as you have declining enrollment the allocation of resources become more important and more prominent in
017people's thinkings so what we have to be concerned about is as curriculum needs are there it also gets into the resources that go along with the curriculum it's the professional development to teach something new for uh for principles for support staff for teachers and uh then it's also having all of the resources to support the curriculum and the curricular choices another thing that was brought up as a challenge is just in the planning itself being accountable having those strategic plans and um always going back to those goals having measurable goals that are set but um folks talked a lot about wanting to make sure that as moving forward we continued to do that and did that more and kept student achievement in what's and keep our students in the Forefront as a priority of everything
018that we do one thing that was brought up as a concern is um was more of a cautionary concern and that had to do with with diminishing resources being careful that our various schools don't get pitted against each other and this was brought up by the staffs within the school but also the students and the parents that um they wanted to make sure that press was positive and honest in that we were um championing all of our schools when we were doing our messaging to make sure that everyone knew all the positive and good things that were happening in each of our schools so that was something that came up over and over again but um the low morale was something that came up in every group that they were concerned about how people were
019feeling well let's go back to the financial to um as as you have fewer resources of course that can happen but they brought up collective bargaining agreements being coming up this year um teach the teachers contract that has not yet settled um those were things that they brought up as concerns and being something that was hard to move forward with because the schools when we were looking at reorganization and also with um the fiscal situation in concerns personel changes and that reflected in the comments changes that had happened but it was also anticipatory about CH changes that could happen in the future and that was working on the current state of morale I want to add again uh there was a positive note that when you were thinking about morale it also wasn't think it
020wasn't um brought up as a state that is a permanent state it was more of here's where we are right now and looking at those kinds of characteristics because everyone always wanted to jump to that third question too on what we could do and who could help us move on from it so um the honesty and the answers about that were uh striking but also very very helpful and they all go back to the district culture as a district as a family who feels like they operate as a family within a community where sense of family is something that's very very important it um it's important to then talk about well how do we as a family behave and that's what's really meant in the district culture parent engagement comes out as number one um
021parent engagement not just talking with parents but it's bringing parents into the decisionmaking it's uh having them feel as if they're valued members of that decision making and that's on a smaller scale but it's also at a district level and they also talked about um parents talked about parent engagement and it was helpful hearing from them on um they didn't just say say it and drop it they brought forth ideas and they talked about multiple modes of communication types of communication and hearing things even bad news they said just tell us early tell us the truth and tell us early early and that's okay and bring us into it they um they talked about someone had even mentioned I believe that's also in the report about um backpack notes work so instead of always worrying
022about getting it out electronically where some folks don't get to the electronics they always get to the backpack at the end of the day so the backpack notes that come from school that was one thing that they wanted to make sure I brought back that that uh everyone heard and I I could relate to that that makes sense and then with that they talked about vision and um you will hear later as of course that's one of the desired characteristics is a leadership with a vision who articulates the vision but they talked about the vision right now and they weren't real sure what the vision was and so that this is all about current state and something they see as a challenge they said as a challenge we all need to see that vision and
023be on the same vision and path together they talked about as we did that the roles and responsibilities of everybody who's within this learning organization and that um when you have challenging situations and a lot of challenges going on it's easier if we can be more efficient and we're not doing double duty or feeling uh the added stress of messaging that might come from multiple directions so the role and responsibilities piece was had a lot to do with everyone who has a role of maintaining within that role respecting the roles that everyone else is in that would be wherever you are in the organization those who are above and below thought to be in that uh hierarchy to maintain those um those lanes and I think there are a few different groups that talked about
024people staying in their Lane that sometimes what it means means is I'm the last one to hear or I don't know or um I had parents were talking about I was talking to the principal and I ended up telling the principal something and they hadn't heard it but the parents had heard it from another Channel and they said that makes us feel uncomfortable too so that communication kept coming up in a lot of different ways as being um something to be worked on or something to be a chall a challenge to overcome and that's not surprising I have never seen an organization that didn't say that communication was somehow an issue but that really they were specific in talking about those roles and responsibilities so that's interesting and the concept of trust well of course
025as all those other issues were happening then trust itself starts to erode um and making everyone feel as if their part in the organization whether it's in decision making in setting goals and going back and and evaluating those goals they want to know that their contributions are going to be heard they're going to be valued and um their time will be well spent and those were the main challenges so going to the survey results as a reminder this was the online survey and this was the one where we had the the 25 extra at the very end they which is fantastic it was really good to see the results from everyone coming back do you have excuse me oh it's right in front of me so this also takes those ideas of the strengths and
026put them into various categories you'll see the the letters at the end um these are the top five that came up from all of those six constituency groups and the first one here technology is integrated into the classroom that TL is for teaching and learning and and that is a strength teachers personalize instructions instructional strategies to address individual learning needs and teaching and learning and what that shows is those top two strengths both have to do with teaching and learning that's a very positive thing the district engages with diverse racial cultural and socioeconomic groups that's Community engagement the fourth out of the top five district strengths is the district employs effective teachers administrators and support staff in its schools that's one of the managements and the last one District technology infrastructure is sufficient to support
027use of technology in the classroom so this was something or this is something that shows those strengths from each of those groups anyone who took that online survey so what do you do with that information um the next part was asking about those leadership characteristics and it's important to take a look at these five top leadership characteristics one is to effectively plan and manage the long-term Financial Health of the district when you think about all those interviews that we had face to face with everyone that's not surprising either Foster a positive professional climate of mutual trust and respect among faculty staff and administration that's Community engagement which again in a place where Community is so important that's not surprising to recruit employ and retain effective Personnel throughout the district and its schools comes in at
028number three number four is to provide transparent Communications and provide a clear compelling vision for the future so when we just stop and think for a moment of the similarities coming through in the online surveys compared to what we saw when we were meeting with individual focus groups and individual people face to face um when you see these same ideas coming through it from both channels of eliciting information from the greater School Organization organ A's Community it's um it just accentuates and punctuates each of these as being the top things that we're looking for and being um being important within the district so this is very hard for everyone to see it is in um in the survey data but what this is about was everyone who took the survey was asked to select the
029four attributes or the leadership attributes that they deem as most important and then just stepping back and taking a look at what's blued and what's grayed the blue shows in that constituency group which were their top answers which means that one across the top and then the third one down those were the top four of each and every group so for those who can't see what that is let's see what they are so it it's easier for us to understand the top one there is effectively plan and manage long-term Financial Health of the district and that makes sense so we're all on the same page everyone sees that as their number one and that came in at 52% of the respondents the next one at 44% is Foster a productive professional climate of mutual trust
030and respect among faculty staff and administrators and the two that were gr out in the middle there where it wasn't necessarily their top but it didn't mean that it wasn't something that they responded to were the parents and the students everyone else saw that um that ended up coming in as number two and number three was and we heard this before recruit employ and retain effective Personnel through the district and its schools and then the last of the top four of the four that people selected as deeming most important was provides oh my goodness oh provides transparent Communications yes as I stumble on my communication of it that's about Communications and the groups that picked that were the parents the students and the teachers who are often the ones who are on the receiving end
031of communications too so I I just wanted to mention that so again to highlight these ideas and strengths that came up in the interviews very similar to the kinds of things that we saw in the survey results and of those survey results at the end of the executive summary that summarizes what the individual focus groups and the community Forum that we held on uh those comments what you'll see underneath after the executive summary is what was said and it'll be the answers to each of those three questions starting out with the strengths then those challenges than the desired characteristics and all of that is in the report at this point I'm going to pass this back over to Mr McCormick to talk about those desired characteristics thank you very much the uh any questions about
032the survey are the focus group input there is a uh I'm I going to the um share with you some words about the yes I'm not yeah we did the uh Community focus groups and the guys had to come over and tell me which was by left and which was my right a couple times so I don't know if that was a good optic for the Community or not thanks SC so I'm going to share some words with you in terms of the way that we have structured the uh the desire characteristics piece of it and this will be the lens that we will use to evaluate all of the all of the people that we talk to all of the candidates that we evaluate and and you also will have this as you uh
033when you get ready to interview the candidates and and everyone will go through the same lens uh what we've told everyone uh quite simply is that uh it everyone goes through this lens it does not matter if they're black white female male uh internal external everybody will be measured and evaluated through this lens there is a uh so uh but I want to I want to talk I I'll go through the words here and they and they're pretty self-explanatory but uh uh but I want to talk about the concept of how we will approach uh the desired characteristics and looking for and evaluating potential candidates it's obvious that if you look at the things that we've seen on both the online survey as well as the focus group an experienced leader uh would be preferred
034uh there is a uh someone who's passionate who's able to use research data has experience with educational best practices is a Visionary all of those all of those good things that we talk about uh and experience as an effective leader so the and the second part of the of that is do I have it uh oh there is a direction is everything a uh uh relationship and consensus Builder an outstanding communicative a professional and open environment a transparent uh develops Partnerships collaborative is visible and actively engaged in the community uh and that includes the buildings and prove Rec proven record of a developing trust with community and staff quite frankly I've been working on this model because I I think that leadership is probably only two parts of leadership we put a lot of words
035around it but one is the ability to manage people and the other is the ability to manage the operation so you we could put it we could put a thousand words out there but they got to be able to manage and interact with people because people are the ones they have to help to who we who need the help in the district and they need to and you need to be able to manage operationally so so I don't want to get too carried away about today's problems for a for a leader that will be here for I'll jinx myself and say five years 10 years because today's problems go away and if they can't run and manage the district across the board uh then they they will have a short-term uh uh tenure here in
036the district so we'll focus on today's problems but we will uh look at it holistically to run a a district where certainly needs healing uh from a Personnel standpoint from people standpoint it needs a unified to bring groups together around a common Vision they they need need to be able to show respect some people said they didn't feel respected some they feared they were they had fear in the process so we'll do those things but I would expect those things would go away if we find the right person those things should go away relatively quickly but you still got to manage the reorg you still got to manage academic Improvement you still have to manage the financial issues and and wherewith all to get from from where you are today to where you need to
037be in a solid place where you're somewhat comfortable that you can make it year to year so so we're looking we're trying to find that portrait of a superintendent that says he can do all the things to engage people but also do the things to engage the the district itself uh the technical pieces of the Strategic plan comes to mind and implementation of the Strategic plan a number of people talked about a Visionary and a vision as if it did not have a strategic plan and I believe there is one uh there is but it but the implementation of it escapes a lot of people in the district so the individual needs to be able to do that so so we have fashioned uh the desired characteristic istics around a person who can develop relationships
038consensus Builder as well as manage the district on a long-term basis so that is a uh uh that is that is our goal and the people that we bring forward uh should be able to exemplify those two requirements there is a uh if not you should send us back to the drawing ground a drawing board not don't don't put me in the ground yet but the but that does that does that make sense so when you look at the full sheet of the desired characteristics uh and one we're asking you to improve we're not looking for a one person a person who's onedimensional what you need is someone who's going to improve academics and improve relationships in the district uh one who's going to help the board understand their role and their responsibilties as it
039relates to the district uh because believe it or not some people complain that perhaps you were a little uh eager and tended to move into into their Pathways uh there is uh so all of those things need to be figured out on the people's side of the equation As you move forward exactly how the superintendent is going to relate with the board uh the board is going to relate with the staff uh the board will relate to the community so the uh so there's a lot of work ahead of us so that uh uh you notice I've just moved into the district I'm I'm already part of you so the but that is that is uh uh that is the uh desired characteristics based on what we're seeing we're emphasize initially the reor we emphasize
040uh some of the uh uh trust issues and and relationship issues but we were we will focus on Mount Vernon as a holistic district and what it needs to do to be uh successful five years down the road with that Madame chair we'll take any questions that you may have can you hear me yes I can just one clarification on page two of the strength it has that um residents appreciate the beauty of Mount Vernon and its surroundings as well as the housing stock with relatively low taxes for Westchester I don't think that's um pretty accurate and and it may not be okay um I I uh I did not try to prove it or disprove it it is a uh but somebody in your community believes that [Laughter] so okay oh problem Karen just
041told me quite a quite a few they used to maybe I guess what they wait yeah there may be other things that you would disagree with factually that's why we come at it three or four different ways but we did not um try to change thinking we um we made no judgments as hard as that is for me we we we did not judge what we heard we just reported does anyone have any questions for Mr mccomic not right now okay if uh so so what do you know what what's so what's the next steps I guess everybody wants the next the next step will be that if you approve that uh uh approve the the uh the page that we gave you on desired characteristics if you're okay with that and approve that uh
042then tomorrow we will put that up on your web page we'll put it up on ours and it would be available for all applicants to see and evaluate their own skills against that against that uh document trustees any objections to the desired characteristics page any questions so he wants us to approve it is it okay for us to approve it are we approving this all right any questions okay all right so can I have a motion to approve the desired characteristics for the superintendent search motion questions concerns discussions all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries thank you that's it I I assumed the vote was over with the so you you should you should give yourself a head you have uh we will uh continue to keep you a breast of what's what's going
043on and to that end you should know uh that with your vote the the search is now officially begun uh but you also should know that 25 people have already submitted their applications and so we are we are well on to I believe bringing back to you on uh the date is do you want to go to the next slide that the uh yes we are bringing it we're bringing the Slate back to you on March the 24th I believe that's on your calendar and we're well on the way to having a very strong slate we got a a very good start there is a um um a uh a number of of sitting superintendant who have applied uh there uh there uh uh uh probably one or two three I believe out of state
044U that have apped so we'll give you all of those demographics as we go along and uh cuz quite frankly we have not vetted any of them they just sort of come into the system and we see them but uh we've been um working on this Pro the first phase but that's part of the second phase and I'll give you more detailed information on it as we go forward but I will tell you 25 at this stage is an outstanding number there is uh there is also on your calendar should be the initial interviews will be March 29th that's it we have not moved any of these dates although we did move the uh today's beating out by week I believe there is a uh and the finalist interviews will be April 5th the and
045the board should be uh uh in a position to know uh their preferred candidate around uh April 5th uh they are the same day as the finalist on those days of the interview you will be asked to come spend the day make your decisions before you go home so the uh um and uh we'll we'll provide you whatever information you need we'll have the U all of the information will be set up in the board's portal you'll have access to it well before for uh well before the interviews there is a uh the uh we will do the background checks and and I understand that um I got the note on the background checks but that should be done in the first week of uh April consistent with uh any contractual work to be done
046and he should the uh that says Target for Public Announcement we're not telling you when to do the Public Announcement it should be Target for available for Public Announcement so you'll make the decision on whether it's that week the next week or uh whatever the case may be and we still anticipate that the superintendent will be available to start his or her responsibilities on around July 1st any questions yes sir in your in your experience is it is it average to to see that many applications in that fast 25 that is it normal no it's it's abnormal but in a good way okay that's a good thing right um the other question I have is how many how often has it been your experience that even with all those candidates the board really can't align
047on a candidate even after the finalist and all of that is it has it been often not with me no the I let me answer differently I expect to bring to you uh highly qualified folks for the position and that uh uh and if if we can't do that and we can't certify that they're highly qualified I'll come back to you and follow my sword and say we need more time but I don't I've not had to do that either so uh trusty Mitchell very uh you have highly qualified candidates and you will have a difficult time selecting the final candidate but because of their quality rather than any other reason sounds good all right so is it a motion to adjourn can I have a motion to adjourn please motion carries thank you very
048much thank you