001Not a minute. Well, we just crossed it out. I'd like to call this meeting, the special meeting of the board to order. And if we would have roll call, please. Present. Mr. Faber. Here. Mr. Callahan. Here. Ms. Beebe. Here. Ms. Pied Barcelona. Here. Thank you very much. And now if you would all join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. We now move to adoption of the agenda. Mr. Faber. Yeah. Mrs. Shaughnessy, I'd move to adopt the agenda as modified with the removal of item number one under business. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded that we adapt a modified agenda. Is that
002a roll call vote, Mr. Zeman? Yeah. Okay. Mrs. Shaughnessy. Aye. Mr. Faber. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Ms. Beebe. Aye. Ms. Pied Barcelona. Aye. Thank you very much. And now comes our big event of the night. Mr. Faber. Well, thanks, Mrs. Shaughnessy. I get the privilege of introducing a resolution here naming a Margaret Nzwicki as the next superintendent of the Lakewood City School District. I know other board members are gonna wish to comment. I'll just say that from the standpoint of the search that we went through, that we did retain a search entity. We started taking in names. We knew that we had an in-house, a good in-house candidate. Conversations were held with her and the board has chosen her, Maggie, to be our next superintendent. So what I would like to do is introduce the
003resolution for her contract and also folks, this will be on one reading. I second that. Thank you very much. I think this is a good opportunity before we vote to see if the board members would like to make a comment. So I could start at the very end. This is Pied Barcelona. Thank you. And actually I appreciate it given that this search really sort of began when I was president last year. So, well, first of all, I'm just really happy and excited for how we're going, but I just did want to share overall some of our process that we talked about wanting to discuss, big picture. When Dr. Kelly in Mayfield set this whole course in motion by announcing his retirement or at the end of the school year and Dr. Barnes then of course
004being named accepting to serve the Mayfield school starting for the next school year. We, the board had an opportunity and a moment in time to really think about how we wanted to move forward. We're in a school year unlike any other, I think that anybody has ever done with not at the time two models of education, but a global pandemic that was impacting our children, our families, our community. We have a brand new, relatively new vision that was created by the community, created by so many people who really thought through what they wanted to see Lakewood graduates possess in their core, in their very being after they've graduated from our district or left our district. That was still sort of, I guess we'll call it an infancy. So we had a lot of positive momentum
005amid a lot of chaos. And we have, we had and have a very talented, capable, smart, just talented assistant superintendent here in our district already who is instrumental in helping with the vision, providing leadership along with Dr. Barnes in helping it come to be, to come to being. And so when this opportunity came where the board was considering new superintendents, we did reach out to Ms. Niswicki to find out if this was something that we could do together moving into the future. At the time, it wasn't the right moment. We all needed some more time to think about it and to consider the best interests of everybody. And as such, the board proceeded with hiring a search firm to help us identify the next superintendent. And we did that. The search firm has been very
006helpful in and perhaps some people here are watching, participated or were aware of focus groups, getting us good information, things like that. A big picture, we needed to just to really start and move forward with that. Of course, my tenure ended, Mrs. Shaughnessy became president. And then the time was right where with Mrs. Niswicki and the board that we could, as Mr. Favorite noted, have some conversations, talk about the future, what our collective goals were for this district. And we sit here or stand here now moving forward on how we can keep the positive momentum of our district, the new and great things that have sort of been formed and germinated under Dr. Barnes that we can now see through with consistent, steady leadership without having to recreate a new vision, without having to start
007from scratch, we can build and grow in a new way, but with some consistency given all the challenges that we're all dealing with. So I just wanted to make sure that all of us here in the public were aware about just that context there about how we arrived here and how exciting this is. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Beebe. Yes, I'm excited about this for several reasons. The, when Mrs. Niswicki's name came up and we started thinking about who we were looking for. And we had somebody here on site who had participated in all of the finding a vision of a liquid graduate and had worked with cabinet, et cetera. And when in an interview, she said, I will continue the direction we've been going. And I personally have found that direction exciting. And all
008the years I've been on the board, I think strategically we're in one of the best positions we've ever been in. And the idea of continuity from somebody who's dedicated to the process really struck me as being just right for the moment. I'm also excited by the fact that she has expertise in curriculum. And I think curriculum and improving on the way we deliver information curriculum to students and how to encourage everybody to collaborate and make that better. I think she's bringing a lot of expertise and a lot of commitment and dedication in that particular area to the district. And then just also the fact that she works well with people, you know, it's the old, what you learned in kindergarten, she plays well with others and she does. And we need that all of us
009in our lives. And I think Ms. Niswiki is going to bring that to Lakewood and I think in hope that people in this community find it as exciting as I do. Thank you. Mr. Kellehab. Thank you. Maggie has a great understanding of the many strengths of our district. She has a great understanding of what is unique, I think to Lakewood, to Lakewood City Schools, as well as an understanding of where our areas of opportunity lie. She has noted supports the community's vision of a Lakewood graduate. And I'm just truly excited for the future of the Lakewood City Schools with Ms. Niswiki as our superintendent, especially as we look to, you know, move beyond the pandemic. I would also like to note that, you know, our search firm truly felt that we had a highly qualified
010individual right here among us. And not only that, our current leadership, she has the support of our current superintendent and of our current cabinet, her peers. And that was very meaningful to me. So thank you. Well, yeah, I would just add as a follow up on what Mike was talking about, the search firm, you know, we never really got into other formal applicants and so forth. But we had a feel of what the pool of applicants was, we knew that there was, as we expected, there was a good high caliber people that were interested in this job. And when we were looking at what was out there and once Maggie had confirmed that she was interested is she's right there with them. So believe me, we're getting somebody of the caliber of any other superintendent
011applicant we would have got on one hand. But what backs it up and really makes this sort of a no brainer is everything that the other board members have been talking about, her familiarity with the organization, the continuity of her in the organization, that she works with everybody, gets along with folks, knows the challenges and we have significant challenges, but not the least of which is getting things back to normal with this COVID situation. But so it makes this whole transition rather seamless. And that's significant and very important to me. Thank you. I did want to mention that finding leaders had engaged a number of you. And if people are watching this from home, number of people in focus groups, just to kind of hone down to what qualities, characteristics, experience that we wanted in
012a superintendent. And there were eight questions, I believe. And actually across all eight, the two characteristics emerged, both of which Ms. Niswicki is extremely excellent at the ability to effectively communicate and the desire and ability to improve or establish communication channels between groups, between people, between the city and between the schools. I think that the communication was, that word came up in every single question. The other was the ability to collaborate and then in turn to facilitate collaboration. And I think that Maggie will be excellent at both of those. And in terms of experience, I think we could check off every box that people mentioned as important. She was a classroom teacher. She was an elementary principal. She was in central office in very successful school districts. She had statewide responsibility for Race to the
013Top, which was a very big organizational monolith to work with. She also brings the personal qualities and characteristics that people have talked about. And I know just in talking to a lot of people in this room, they have come through. She's empathetic, she's relatable. She's someone who will enjoy being in our buildings, working with our children and staff. And then most important to me is that she has a passion for children learning and for children doing well and thriving. And so Emma and I both get particularly emotional at these things. But I think that she's a stellar candidate we're just lucky to have her as an assistant superintendent. And I believe that now we're gonna be so fortunate to have all of us working together to make up for these kids learning losses and to
014keep building this district up. So has anyone thought of anything since we left you, Emma came up the road? No, I think we covered it. I think so. Okay, great. Then should we have the vote? Yes. Mr. Shaughnessy. Aye. Mr. Faber. Aye. Mr. Callahan. Aye. Ms. Bebe. Aye. Ms. Peter Arcelona. Aye. And so congratulations and thank you for joining us. And would you like to say a few words? I am truly humbled by your comments. Thank you. President Shaughnessy, Vice President Faber, distinguished board members, Dr. Barnes, Mr. Zeman. I feel blessed to be here tonight and to be chosen for this position. I look forward to continuing the work this community has collaborated on. And much like you discussed, that's the work of the vision of the Lakewood graduate. The vision of the Lakewood graduate
015has launched our district into improving our STEM offerings, our work around diversity, equity, and inclusion, and expanding our educational technology. Together, we have developed a blueprint for providing our students with well-rounded education in grades pre-K to 12. Our administration and teachers are committed to bringing our vision alive. I am committed to continuing the conversations with our community, teachers, parents, and students, to ensure that their hopes and dreams for the future drive, that will drive the work we do in our district. Thank you for this opportunity to serve you and Lakewood City Schools. Together, we will make Lakewood proud. Thank you. Thank you. Would you like to introduce your family that's with you tonight? Absolutely. So hopefully virtually, which is kind of exciting. My three older ones, I believe, are watching. Oh, good. So my son
016Thomas is in Cincinnati. Mark is a senior at Miami. And Anna is a freshman at Ohio State. And then with me tonight, do you want to come up here for a minute? You know, middle school. They love it. They love the attention. This is our youngest. And as you all talked about, my decision timeframe for this job, anyone that knows me much like everyone in this room, family first. And I believe that everybody, I feel that at Lakewood too. You're a family here, but you also have your families at home. And it's so important. So my decision timeframe revolved around my family. And so I appreciate your patience. And I am excited to say that we're all in agreement, even with our youngest at home, our only child, it seems like. But Michael is a
017sixth grader and 12 years old and living the life as an only child of four. And my husband Scott is a lifelong educator and coach and my biggest supporter. So I am appreciative that they're here. And she has said that before without being in front of you. Yeah. Thank you. And I believe that concludes our public business. We do have need for an executive session, two executive sessions, a consideration of the employment of a public official and consideration of the employment of public employees. Is there a motion? Ms. Shaughnessy, I move that we recess for executive session for the items that you just outlined and then conduct no further business. Second. Thank you. Spoken and seconded. Where will we be meeting in the Ranger Cafe? Okay. Thank you. Ms. Shaughnessy. Aye. Mr. Pfeiffer. Aye. Mr.
018Callahan. Aye. Ms. Bebe. Aye. Ms. Bebe of Barcelona. Aye. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. Thank you all for coming. How are you?