11.13.2025 Special Governing Board Meeting

001Heat. Heat. >> [snorts] >> It is Thursday, November 13th at 5:30 p.m. I'm calling the uh governing board special meeting to order. We are at the Joy Jerry Roi District Facility. Uh we have five board members present. Board member Todd, member Kenyon, member Zimmerman, Vice President Sirinion, and myself, Sarah Schmidt. Uh, first order of business is 1.2, the pledge of allegiance. Uh, Vice President Sansion, would you lead us in the pledge, please? >> 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. Item 1.3, approval of special meeting agenda. I make a motion to approve the special agenda form consistent with board policy 1-302 and temporarily suspend governing board policy with with which

002this agenda may be inconsistent. >> Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. There's no discussion, we can take a vote. Um, member Todd, >> yes. >> Member Kenyon, >> I. >> Member Zimmerman, >> I. >> Vice President Sarion, >> I. >> And I'm also an I. We'll show that passed five to nothing. >> All right, we can move on to item 2.1, approval of consent agenda. Are there any items that need to be pulled from the consent agenda? I'd like to pull 2.2. >> All right. 2.2. Any anyone want to pull 2.3? Are we good? Okay. So, pulling 2.2. Can I have a motion? >> Make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of 2.2. >> Second. >> Okay. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Um, we

003can take a vote. Board member Todd, >> I. >> Member Kenyon, >> I. >> Member Zimmerman, >> I. Vice President Sereni, >> hi. >> I am also an I. We will show that passed five to zero. Um, board member Todd, if you would like to go for 2.2. >> I just have a couple questions on 2.2. Is this going to be uh just it's a it's a stipen essentially for services rendered up until today? Are we coming back and doing this again in the future or is this take us through the year? And then also if we're going through the year, what's going to be the next amount asked for? Um also has this amount uh that was offered which I think we saw in the last uh somewhere we saw is has this already

004been offered to the c to the uh employee or I'd like to know a little history and background of it. I don't. Basically, I'm asking is the amount that's being proposed um has that already been promised to the employee? Where where do we come up with that number ahead of time? >> And Dr. Ailo, are you able to answer? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Good evening, Madame President, members of the governing board. The number that was presented came from a recommendation from HR. I met with HR back in September to help determine an hourly rate. Similar to the action uh the personnel list that you see on each of your agenda items, there's an hourly rate. So, to answer your first question, is this going to continue? Well, just like we pay all of the

005other teachers who do extra work, if extra work is completed, we'll go through the approval process. it'll be submitted for HR for payment. And to answer the second question, the hourly rate came from um HR who assisted me in um calculating which um just for the record, the hourly employee, the employees hourly rate is $57.89. So um it was in collaboration with human resources and uh we're following the same process that we do with all other um teachers who work um above and beyond and complete additional duties. >> Okay. Was the employee told that they would get this money ahead of time or is this is this an after effect? Do we tell the employee pick this up and we'll get you a pay raise or how did that work exactly in this particular case?

006Um so as you said it's essentially a stipen for the additional duties. Um as a reminder I had presented to the board our plan to um um the plan for coverage for our school psychologist is we started the year with six vacancies. So was there a specific promise for money? No. Was there a promise for a specific amount? No. But um as we told all other teachers um and staff if you know there's compensation if you do the additional duties. In this sense, this just looks different because instead of a writing an IEP, it's writing an evaluation report. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. Aila. If I may, I have a question. >> Yes, sir. Um, so just to be clear, I know that for other services that we uh there's certain other stipens like

007for writing the IEPs that that she would be getting, but that wouldn't be that time wouldn't be included in this time. Correct. This is just for >> what you said. >> That's correct. And and to clarify, she um a school psychologist doesn't write IEPs. So that's why this was just this is something different um because the the work is different. It's not IEP writing. This is the report writing and the evaluation doing the actual testing of all the kids and and the diagnosing if you will. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Dr. AA? Um, Madam President, just this compensation rate, first of all, let me be very clear. I'm not opposed to paying employees who are doing extra work. I'm just trying to make sure that we do this properly. This compensation amount

008is consistent with every other employee that gets compensation for extra work, correct? Or a stipen. So, our assistant superintendent or assistant principal, anybody else that steps up to the next level, um this is all that the same percentage or or or uh factors are included in this one. >> I'm I'm clear on how HR calculates everything that that's out of my area on how they compensate or create um calculate sorry the rates. Um I can give you an example what I do know. for example, IEP. For an IEP, it's $100 um per hour. [clears throat] >> Okay. I just want to make sure that we provide the same site to all of our employees. Um the same calculations are done. That's that's my only concern. It doesn't sound like we have an answer tonight from

009staff if we've used the same how they came up with this number. >> Dr. trivia. You said previously that the hourly rate calculated was based off of Miss Harrison's current hourly rate. Is that correct? Her hourly rate is 57.89. Um and when I met with HR, they reviewed the information, did a calculation, and then u made the recommendation that $50 um an hour um would be a fair rate. Um so that's what was proposed. >> Can I ask a clarifying question please? Uh Dr. Aila. Uh so I just want to clarify that you did not propose the hourly rate. It was HR who proposed this hourly rate. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions at this time? Would anybody like to make a motion? >> I

010make a motion to approve 2.2 approval of additional supplemental compensation. >> Second. >> Okay. We currently have a motion to approve the additional uh supplemental compensation for Miss Harrison and a second. Um >> yes. >> Um would you like the effective immediately added to the tail end of that? >> Board member Zimmerman, you made the motion. Would you like it to read effective? Would you like to amend to have it say effective immediately? >> I mean yes. I just assume that that is we're making the motion to approve it. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Okay. So, we have a motion to approve supplemental compensation for Miss Harrison effective immediately. Is that how it reads? Okay. Do we need a new second since it changed? No. Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion and a

011second. Um if there's no discussion, we can take a vote. Board member Todd >> I. >> Board member Kenyon >> I. >> Board member Zimmerman >> I. >> Vice President Sinion. >> I. >> And I am also an I. We will show that pass 50. Okay. Moving on to agenda item 3.1. Um, Hazard Young Adia and Associates presentation relating to the permanent superintendent search process. Um, Sylvia Ibara uh from Hazard Young Idea and Associates. I believe I that you are Sylvia Ibara. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank welcome. >> Thank you. >> Um, if you would like to start your presentation. Sure. >> Okay. Well, first of all, uh, good evening, governing board, um, guest, uh, district leadership. Uh thank you for the opportunity to allow us to share our superintendent search proposal with you this

012evening. We know how important it is to hire a superintendent and we would be honored to support you through this uh critical work. Uh my name is Sylvia Vra and joining with me today is Nola Wellman and we represent Hazard Young at Associates. Uh and so we'll go ahead and start with introductions. So just a little bit about me. I am a lifelong educator, 35 years in education, all in Texas schools in title one schools. I retired in uh 2004. Uh I ser I did serve in multiple roles while I was in in my tenure. Started as a teacher, counselor, uh principal, director, assistant superintendent, and then finally superintendent. Upon my retirement, I joined HYA as an associate and primarily I support school districts with superintendent searches. specifically in Arizona. I was part of the

013team that conducted the superintendent search in Messa public schools and currently I'm part of the team uh working uh the Chandler school unified school district superintendent search. That's a little bit about me and now my colleague. I'm Nola Wellman and I likewise have gone the traditional route of um teacher and assistant principal, principal and executive director. I worked 32 years in Colorado as an educator. Well, born and raised in Texas, but then moved to Colorado and 32 years as a career educator there. Then I had the opportunity to return to Texas where I was a superintendent for almost 11 years in a school district outside of Austin. Um my size of districts have ranged tremendously from small under a thousand to uh almost 50,000 where I was uh assistant superintendent. The school district where I

014was superintendent was about 8,500 students. I w I would like to point out our two other members of the team. They actually are located in our home office that's in Illinois. Danielle Martell and Christina Melon. They help us tremendously with all of the back office information. So I'd like to te say a few little bit about Hazard Young and AIO. We've been in business about 38 years. It in doing executive searches primarily in education. Um you can see all the statistics of how many uh searches total we've done, how many we have uh completed in each year. We have a nationwide uh associate network and that probably distinguishes us of over 130 associates. Um we are have a national reach as well as um completing searches. The two of us have completed searches in in

015other states. And so we have uh colleagues that we know because you you join different teams. So we know from other states in order to recruit the best possible candidate um for for Liberty we will be walking through our process with you and the decision that's in front of you is what firm has the best infrastructure to really help you find that perfect um candidate for you. Our search is four phases. It is engage, recruit, and then to select and transition. Obviously, the engagement part has to do with community and you as a board finding out what specific needs you have and what what kind of characteristics for your next leader are important. recruiting. That's our primary job where we go out and seek that match of here's this district that has these needs and

016here's the candidates we think will meet that. The selection process obviously is your is your uh part and we will help you through that. And then we also help you in a transition um for that. This is all customizable and it takes about three months to do. [snorts] In our process of community engagement, we would start with a planning meeting that runs two to three hours and we that is critically important that we plan every aspect of the search because it is it is your search and one that we want to know what's important to you. We have listening sessions, board interviews, uh individual interviews and focus groups where we listen usually 12 to 15 meetings total um in that particular process. And then with those community forums and then we have stakeholder surveys. Those

017surveys are based on 25 years of research on practices of effective superintendence. It's based on then based on the information from the listening sessions and the surveys, we com put together a leadership profile report that drafted that we bring back to you to review, provide input, edit it, and then it will actually be something that you vote on and say this is what our next leader needs to have in terms of skills and expertise. um we use that el that leadership profile report in our recruiting so that we can um eliminate those that don't have some of the specific skills that you uh that you need and want in your district and so that is our whole uh engagement when we do the focus groups you can see we have different meeting formats some face-toface

018zoom uh I don't need to read all of that we have uh flexible meeting meeting times. We can meet any time of the day. Some potential groups and we will ask you in the planning meeting what groups are really important in some districts. It might be a civic group or it might be a parent group or it might be a student group even that you feel like is critically important uh for those focus groups. And we like to reach all of your community uh members in some way um with it. We are your ambassadors in this process. We speak and have uh interact with the community in the community engagement but also with the candidates on your behalf. We excel in navigating the real complex dynamics of listening and validating others uh their voice and

019promoting strengths of the district with the candidates. I'd like to pass it on to Miss Abara now who will go forward with a little more explanation of each phase. >> Yes, thank you. So yes, so the next phase is the recruit phase and the recruit phase is very targeted and proactive. We post the position immediately on our HYA website and other and other um uh um sorry and other uh avenues that we use to advertise because we want to ensure the maximum exposure of the posting and we also began actively recruiting candidates throughout the nation and the state. We have a network of 130 associates who are very knowledgeable and uh know of superintendent, sitting superintendent and aspiring superintendent who may be interested in moving to Arizona, who may be looking for an opportunity here

020in Arizona. So we leverage that network. Uh and then we also begin our pre-screening and reference checking and our init initial background checking. So some of the tools that we have as HA associates at our disposal, one of them is a candidate profile system and basically this is a dashboard of all the uh candidates that have applied that have a profile at HYA. And so we have access to all those applications and one thing that we can do with this dashboard is we can query the leaders by qualifications that are listed specifically in your profile uh leadership profile report. So we can query by experience, degree, size of district, state, etc. Once we query and we have that list, then we actively begin recruiting those candidates that we believe are a good fit. So we

021make phone calls, we schedule meetings and uh so they can also ask questions to see that is if Liberty is a good fit for them. HA also provides advertising analytics. So you as a board as well as us as associates, we're very interested to understand the amount of interest in the position. And so we know immediately on a day-to-day basis, how many users are looking at the posting? How many views is that posting get getting? How many minutes or seconds are they spending on the posting? So all of this information is vital as we move forward to determining there is sufficient interest in the position or do we have to go back and talk to you and strategize? Perhaps we need to modify something in the application. Perhaps we need to consider uh the benefits

022package and so forth. Now once the application closes the recruitment uh phase be uh closes, so then we begin the select phase. And in the select phase, we begin as associates by interviewing the candidates. So we spend about an hour with each of the candidates to get to know them and determine if they align to the leadership profile for your school district. Once we interview all the candidates, then we will present all the slates. We don't exclude anybody all the slate of candidates to you the board but we help you to narrow down the slate to about five or six semifinalist so that you can begin to interview for semi finalist during that u time we also uh continue with reference checks. uh we also conduct blind reference checks because we want to hear not

023only from those individuals that the candidates listed on their application but also those individuals who have worked with these candidates but they're not listed and it's very important that we also hear their perspective uh at this time we also work with you in a workshop to develop those interview questions. So in preparation for the semi- finalist interviews um we also take care of all the logistics and of course with uh look at your calendar to so we can schedule the interviews for the with the semi- finalist and semi finalist. Once you get to the semi- finalist which usually goes from five or six semi- finalists to two or three finalist then at that point we talk to you about a third-party uh due diligence background check. This is a background check that we do recommend

024because it it provides information that we cannot provide. Information such as degree verification, uh criminal history, um ratings, uh and and they go very deep also into social media, uh presence. So all of that information is provided through a third party. And then finally, as you select your superintendent, then we assist you with the announcement to your community and posting this information on your website and and the media and so forth. Now, once you select your superintendent, then we move on to the transition phase. So, we want the superintendent that you select to be very successful just like you. So, we know that that transition is critical. So, we provide a two to three hour workshop with the board and superintendent. And during this workshop uh we you reflect on what was learned through the

025search process as well as set some norms and set some initial goals. In addition, HYA our company provides a six-month transition virtual academy for the superintendent and one board member. And these sessions can be attended by different board members as as a rotation and they co cover topics that are critical to the superintendency. By the end of the uh virtual academy, the superintendent will have developed four artifacts. a 100 day plan um a an analysis of the strategic plan, an evaluation and some key progress indicators to measure his progress on his goals that he has set. So very very thorough, excellent um virtual academy to support the superintendent during that transition. Now maintaining the board is very very important to us. We believe in transparent and responsive communication with the entire board. And so to

026facilitate this communication, we provide you with a board portal. And this portal is um um a confidential website where only you have access to this information. Any materials, any information, any documents pertaining to the search, you will find in this board portal. We organize the portal by faces so that you can quickly access whatever information you're looking for and it is accessible obviously 247. So it doesn't matter. We know you're very busy and you may be the only time that you may be able to look at this information in the middle of the night. So that is why we uh provide this uh tool for you to make it accessible to you any time of day or night. And uh Nola will talk about the timeline. This is only the framework of what we pro

027propose as a possible calendar but it gives you a beginning and the end. We look at the planning meeting as soon as you're make a decision. We'll get that on the calendar and we will begin our individual uh board member interviews that help us with that community engagement. Sometime in toward the end of November, 1st of December, we will start the interview and focus groups that may have to be slid till the 1st of January. We just don't know what is on your calendar and what you're facing. But it dep all depends on on that timeline. We can post the position almost immediately and we can begin applica accepting applications almost immediately as you can see and we go forward. We'll do all the reference checks. I've shared with we've shared with you each of

028the phases. But this this large framework puts you offering a contract sometime in early March and the transition activities in April and May. And that should um help you with the a lot of superintendents look for jobs in the springtime. So it puts you kind of ahead of that rush. But all those dates will be determined by you on that first planning meeting. One of the things that I neglected to mention in my interview is we live six months in Goodyear. So we are in the region for six months. Even though we have our summer home in Colorado during this time frame, we will be in good we will be in good year which should help with the flexibility of the dates. And so um I'll turn it over to Sylvia for the fee structure.

029Yes. So, our base fee is 1,8,500 and this includes six uh on-site uh days here in the district as well as the community engagement piece, interviews, focus groups, forums. Uh it includes a what we call a standard Google survey. Uh this survey basically aligns to the all the activities. We ask those three essential questions which is what are the strengths of the districts? what are the challenges and what are the qualities and attributes that you are seeking in your next leader. It also includes the advertising on our um HYA website as well as K12 job spot and uh background checks conducted by us. Not the due diligence background check, but we uh also can do uh background checks to the best of our ability, do uh social media presence and of course all the reference

030checking and so forth as well as the transition services, the uh one on-site transition transition workshop and the six virtual sessions. Now we offer optional enhancements uh and I will tell you this all you need is in the base fee then that will give you a very successful endor superintendent search but we offer the enhancements because some districts ask for it and so absolutely we can offer enhancements and we'll be happy to discuss those further if you are interested and then of course we have a guarantee and that is that if you uh within the first year uh for some reason need to separate from the superintendent that you've selected, we provide the search at no cost. Um except for the travel and advertising and that background check cost. If most if the majority of

031the board is still in place in two years, we provide that same guarantee for two years. And the superintendent that is selected here will not be presented as a candidate in any other search uh during the three year first three years of employment. So you're not going to have a great superintendent and then we come along and select them for another another position. So that's our guarantee. >> So why HYA? Well, everyone at HYA, uh, we're all educators, retired educators, many of us superintendent, and so we're passionate about education. And we believe that every student, every child deserves the best quality education. So we work, our mission is to work for school districts to help them secure the best high most highly qualified superintendent for the school district that places students first. We also work

032for you as the board. You are our clients and so we customize our services to meet your needs and your priorities. And we have an infrastructure uh excellent infrastructure with many tools uh that saves us time and allows us to conduct a very efficient and timely superintendent search. And lastly, we are um a wellestablished firm with uh many many successful searches to our name and many successful clients. I mean very many satisfied clients. And so again uh this concludes our presentation. And thank you again for this opportunity and we are open uh to any questions you may have. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Any questions for members of the board? >> Uh yes, I have a couple questions. >> Go ahead. [clears throat] >> Um so um I think you know I'll

033just ask some clarifying questions uh initially. Um, but I feel like, you know, one of the things that really stood out to me was that portal that, you know, the board really has access to so much at all times and the entire board, not just the board president or whoever your point of contact is. So, uh, I think that's really important and something that I'm personally looking for to ensure that the board has equal access to all information. Um, you know, we did go through an interim search recently. Um, and so, you know, I'm kind of learning from that experience and I also sat in on the, um, search we did about six years ago. Um, can the application or does your application contain some short answer questions where we kind of get a feel

034for their writing and how they express themselves or is it something that could be added? Definitely. Um, both. So, uh, one of the things that we do is that we they they obviously submit five artifacts and that is the application, um, their resume and three letters of reference. Uh and then through our screening interview then we meet with them and we ask them uh questions uh that are aligned to the leadership profile report and also to your needs. By then we have we'll have met with you and we know exactly what you're looking for. However, uh during the interview phase then you certainly can create a task uh and many superintendents do. They create a task and they respond to that task uh in advance or sometimes during the interview. And so it's part of

035the semi-finalist interview and so that you're able to gauge uh what you're looking for and exactly what it is that you're looking for. So yes. >> Okay. That was one of my questions too is is could we integrate a task into the interview? Um talking about that initial interview that you guys do. Um is that recorded for us to watch or is that just something that you're conducting? We ha have the ability to do that but we usually don't. Um the reason being at that point there are some candidates that have not committed to moving forward and confidentiality is critically important to them. And so they're really just talking to us about the district and about what they have to offer and it's more of a conversation. So we typically don't do it then um

036at that for that confidentiality and because we're often trying to convince them this is a great move for them. M and >> I also wanted to add that what we do however is we uh transcribe all the notes and we provide a summary so you're very quickly able to to evaluate the responses uh because when we present the slate we also provide you with supporting documentation and a summary of uh the the information u that we gathered and our initial thoughts on the each of the candidates. >> Okay, that that was one of my follow-up questions. Um so then do you you know kind of transcribe your reference checks and um internet searches and all of that? >> Yes. So we provide you with a a list or a um um like an Excel sheet

037and it has all that information. The name, the reference checks, uh the comments that we gathered from each of the reference checks and again uh basically a summary of what was said about the applicant, good and bad. Like I said, and that's where the taring comes. So, uh, if the candidates are excellent candidates and meet the qualifications, their reference checks are good references, including blind checks, all of that information, of course, makes them a tier one. Um, but again, through the reference checking, through our vetting, sometimes we find uh areas of concern or perhaps they're good candidates, but they may be lacking. Perhaps you want someone that has a doctorate or has uh experience as a super sitting superintendent. So maybe they're lacking that but yet they meet the rest of the qualifications. So that

038would be a level two and so forth. Yeah. >> When you're doing the the [clears throat] blind reference checks or the ones they provide, do you ensure that you talk to somebody from their previous district or their current district? Cuz there's been some discussion about well if they say they don't want us to contact their current district, we're not going to. But to me that feels [snorts] a little concerning. we won't bring them forward to interview with you until they've given us permission to talk to their previous district. Um, we may hold off, but when we say, "All right, you're supposed to go to the board on this day. We need 48 hours. You have to commit one way or another. you need to tell your board president that you're visiting with Liberty, you know,

039so that we have a chance then to uh speak and you and we we want not only their board but we also want one of their uh direct reports. Yeah. >> So we we give them a list. We need to talk with the parent, you know, before you would go forward to the board. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, can the finalist interviews be done in open session? >> Yes. Uh, in Arizona, yes. In in depends on the state, right? So, in Texas, for instance, it's confidential. Completely confidential. So, it wouldn't that would never happen in Texas because that's a law. However, here in uh in Arizona, yes. And so, that's exactly what we did in Mesa. they were uh um we had um community engage uh with the candidates and so they had an

040opportunity to ask questions of the candidates and also rank them give the board immediate feedback through a Google survey on their thoughts on each of on the top three candidates. So um uh you know the so let me let me back up a little bit. So the interview with the board that is behind closed doors but part of the interview consists of interviews or a meeting with community members um that could be students. So you again we work with you to determine which groups will be part of this um meet and greet if you will. And to go back to the question, you said the interview with the board is an executive session, but if the board chooses, can the finalist interview with the board be in open session? >> The finalist? >> Yes, the

041finalist. >> Yes. Which would be the top three. >> Okay. Um, and so talking about the semi um, semi-finalist interview versus the finalist interview, I noticed in the, you know, proposal that the finalist interview is almost like a follow-up. You're able to ask questions of something that piqu your interest. So, um, am I understanding that then we could ask different questions of each candidate? >> Absolutely. Okay. Yes. And that the first one we we structure for you. That's part of we want to make sure we get a curriculum question, the a public relations question. You know that we have some broad areas that you want every candidate to answer. So you have some comparison when you get to the finalist. Now, you can you can lead off of that first interview and say, "When you

042met with us on your the way you handle your um district organization, you said this, describe that a little bit better and tell us how that really works." Yeah. >> Okay. And then um just to talk about the fees a little bit. Um, so when it says the consultant would be onsite for six days, are we is the travel pay for the consultant in addition to that base fee for each of those six days? >> Yes. Um, so if I'm coming from Texas, yes, that that travel would be included. We do cap it, however. Uh, so we kept it at 10,000 and we usually we wouldn't we don't think we would get to 10,000 because it would only be me traveling. Uh, Nola lives here so that's a great advantage. So she's 30 minutes away.

043Uh, and so we can also minimize cost in with virtual meetings. Now the meetings that where we would both need to be here in person uh obviously uh community engagement and we do two days, three days depending on on your needs and again we uh with Chandler we did three full days with Mesa we did two days and smaller districts may only need one day. So those are variables uh but yes uh the the travel is not included in the fee. >> Okay. And then obviously the candidate if the board chooses to pay for the candidates's um travel and then the posting of the site is or the posting of the position on other websites is an additional fee. >> Yes. uh LAS and NASPI >> that the uh National Association for Black Educators is

044a separate organization >> and the Alice for the uh Hispanic >> Latino educators. Yes. >> So those are additional um cost >> just because they're we don't make any money on that. It's just they charge for posting on their websites. But the AASA >> Yes. So there's packages and so that is that information is included uh in your appendix in the proposal. And so the ones that are typically uh that most districts want to include or add on is Alas and Naspie. However, yes, there's many many other other options that you have in your proposal. uh because with our standard fee uh we post the on our HYA website as well as our lot of platforms, our social media platforms and so forth and the K uh 12 job spo post uh spot job spot.

045Um now we do get 25,000 views per month. So, HYA is like a hub of uh for candidates who are looking for jobs because we not only post our our searches but all searches in the state regardless of the firm. M >> and so that's why we have so many uh candidates um complete a leadership profile and in the system and that's why we have so many candidates that we can query and look at all the different uh leaders that are out there and you know again by qualification as we previously mentioned >> and then I I'll just have one final question for now while I'll let the other board members ask questions but um the guarantee um If the board decides to separate from the superintendent within the first year, is the guarantee still

046in effect or is it only if the superintendent chooses to leave? >> It's still in effect in both ways. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from other board members? >> Mr. President, >> go ahead. Can you talk a little bit more about your Arizona experience like the last five years? What districts you've worked with and your successes if anything went went wrong? You don't have to tell us a district where you had a problem, but just tell us if you've had any, but I would like to know very much which districts you've worked with here in Arizona. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Well, I have worked with Arizona two school districts in Arizona. Uh and that is again the Mesa public schools and that was about a year ago to to be exact that they

047hired their superintendent. Uh no it went very well. Um we had a very successful search. Uh it was uh averiated to some degree at the request of the board. So by December they had already uh selected the superintendent. We started in early November and uh it ended at the end of December. Again very successful and that superintendent is still there. Um, and then, uh, the other experience for me here in in Arizona is the current, uh, team that I'm working with at Chandler Unified, and we're in the we just completed the community engagement, which is why I'm here. We had three uh, very fruitful days of community engagement. And so, it's going very well. And so, they're um, according to their timeline, they should be in contract negotiations at the latter end of January, early

048February. So, um I guess my next question is we had asked you guys to come present previously. Um I guess where I'm looking at is I want to make sure that we're going to be a priority. We'd asked you to come previously to present to the board and feedback that we got back was that you would come, but there was going to be a fee. We'd have to pay for you to travel to come out here. Uh unless you're already going to be here for another district, which I guess that's where you're at now. Um that that's a little bit concerning to me first of all to ask a district to pay for you to come present to get business. Um but secondly I want to know that we're going to have priorities and and

049I think we're a little behind the eightball honestly now because what we've originally heard is we should have this posted and have a good plan by Thanksgiving so everybody can start applying by Christmas holiday. um you're talking about probably January and hiring somebody in March, which if we hire somebody in March, that leaves whatever district they're leaving, uh a pretty short time frame. So, I just want to know that there's some assurances of priority. And it's it's I've never in all my years, I've never heard anybody say, "Well, if you can pay our way to come out to present for a business response." So, if you could maybe clarify some of that. >> Definitely. And so, uh, when we secure, uh, an agreement, definitely the district that we're working for becomes a priority. Uh, as

050associates, we submit proposals. Um, so at at at our cost and so we have to take that into account. And so I was, uh, initially we were invited to come and present and my colleagues because to your point um, they already had uh, the two other colleagues of mine, the ones working in in Chandler. uh because of the commitment to that district and a and another district in another state they said you know we just can't do it and which we we which I understood um we received a second invite and so at that time I uh was going to come and but I didn't hear back in a timely manner so I was ready uh with the reservations and so forth and uh by the time I got confirmation and I went back it

051had skyrocketed and so at that point you know again I have to I had to weigh my uh options. And so I I I did I was very honest. I said, you know, it's just too much for me. And so unless the district is um you know, open to uh supporting with some of the costs, then I will have to decline. And so that's what happened. And I respected that. Um I was invited again a third time and um of course uh my colleague here is now lives here in Arizona which of course would address uh that issue that she's close and that is certainly an advantage that she's here local. So between the two of us we would be able to prioritize uh your district for everything. And again once we meet with you

052if we secure an agreement a contract then that's why that calendar is so important because then you become a priority and everything else becomes secondary. So that calendar that timeline is very important to you as well as us so that we can commit and be able to uh to comply with all of your um needs and and meet all your priorities. >> Thank you. I have no further questions. Madam President. >> Yes, please go ahead. >> Um, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for for what you do. Um, I'm just uh a lot of my questions have been answered already, but I'm just trying to add up the fee structure. Um, it looks like you have the base fee, which is the 185, and then a lot of add-ons. And so some of these

053things, you know, uh we talked about the transition period and it looks like that's another $10,000. Is that correct? >> No, the transition the two twohour water workshop and the virtual academy are included in the fee. They for because you would be our client. If you're not a there, anybody can join the virtual academy and for anyone else who's not a client, then that would be $4,500. So that is included in the fee uh when we when you partner with us. >> Okay. All right. I got it now. So those other options basically anybody can >> use you guys for like consultant >> um situation. Okay. That's kind of what I was looking at there. Um one thing we didn't really discuss much was the survey. So it does the the base feed does not

054include the survey or it does. So we include a standard Google survey. So when we meet uh for community engagement with your constituents, we ask them three essential questions and we ask the same three questions with all the regardless of the the meeting type. So we ask what are the strengths of the district? What are the challenges or opportunities in the district? And then what are the qualities and characteristics that you're seeking in your next leader? And so we gather all this information and then present it to you in the form of a leadership report. The ser the standard survey it asked exactly the same three questions to everyone else who was not able to participate in the forums and the committees and the individual interviews. The researchbased surveys takes it another step a step

055further. So the researchbased question has those same three questions but you can also add additional questions and um that you get a state of the district uh analysis. So your respondents are able to give you feedback on on uh how satisfied they are with your district, your leadership, your curriculum, um you know everything everything basically in in your district. So, they're able to give you a rating um of how they feel and they're also able to give you four what they consider to be the most uh the top um characteristics that they would like to see in the next superintendent. So, are able to rank um the Google standard survey is open-ended qualitative. This uh they're able to give you the top four choices and then we disagregate that data for you by category. So

056students for students these are the top qualities and characteristics that they seek in their superintendent parents administrators community members and so forth. So the researchbased survey goes above and beyond what the standard uh survey offers. The researchbased survey would allow you to work with your superintendent on setting goals. It allows the district, you as a board to set goals for the next year or two years based on feedback you you have gotten there. And it's a it's disagregated again by groups like we're not we're doing really well with our parent groups that know what we're doing and what our plan is. For our larger group, maybe we need to do more community outreach. So it gives you that disagregated information in order to set some district goals. >> Okay. Thank you. So as you said

057earlier that 18,500 base fee plus the travel that's basically going to wrap up what you would assume we would need to get us going. We're you know I I'll speak for myself. I'm kind of in a hurry. I don't want to I don't want to rush the process, but I don't want to drag it out either. Um, and [clears throat] so with that, I also don't want surprises of, oh, by the way, you're going to need this and it's going to cost this much and you're going to need this and it's going to cost this much. So, thank you for putting all these options in here. It was just I was trying to understand a little bit better of what we need versus, you know, all the optional things. So, >> I would add that

058I sense um of a feeling of anxiety about a timeline and making sure that you have your superintendent in place early. Um I think February would really be your time that you would select. You'd be doing a contract first of March, but February, that is not an unusual time frame for superintendent. They don't really start thinking about a new job for the following year until after the holidays. Then then when we contact them in December, January, they're like, I'm I'm fine where I am because frankly, we want a superintendent that's happy where they are. We don't want one that don't necessarily want one that's ready to get out of the place that they're in. But, you know, then they're starting to think about it. And so that January, February time frame is intense. and uh

059you'll have a a superintendent in place. >> Thank you, >> Madam President. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you so much for coming on and giving this presentation. First, u my second question is is about that hasn't already been answered is about the background checks. So, you don't it says you do the social media um background checks and reference checks and stuff. So, if you guys are doing that internally, like what do you have in place to mitigate bias if you guys are the ones going into social media? And what are you looking for? >> Well, the the background check that does cost money, we highly recommend that because that'll do the criminal that we can't get access to financial, frankly, making sure that there are things that we know and the social media much more

060in depth than we're able to do. We do one to uh as re really you know plain people doing searches. This company that we as our our third party it this is their work and they dig up and find whatever that is out there. And so I I would always recommend to a board that at least on your top candidate, >> you do a thorough this this third party background check. >> Okay. But if you guys are doing it, what are you doing to mitigate bias? >> So um we um leverage AI. Everybody nowadays knows the power of AI. And so, um, that's one way that we also do, uh, our searches, uh, especially for background checks and looking for anything that may be a concern. Um, we, um, it's it's pretty accurate and we

061have been using it uh, for the past few searches. And as far as mitigating biases, you know, we uh when we meet with uh our candidates, we actually are recruiting actively um a diverse uh pool of candidates. And so we bring everyone to to you and you will be the ones to determine who moves forward or not. Uh and to us, of course, we we encourage um a diverse pool of candidates to apply and uh and we support them along the way. all candidates by providing as much information about the process. Uh but again our intent is just to make sure that we uncover any concerns and it's amazing some of the things that that we find that we discover through our search uh using AI especially as I mentioned and uh so we'll bring

062that to your attention and if we feel you know there's some concerns there's some red flags uh definitely we we don't recommend that you move forward with those candidates at all. >> Okay. So, we set our criteria and say a candidate meets it all. Uh, even though they might be crazy on social media, would you still send that person forward because they met all of our criteria and just tell us, hey, this person is might want to look at their social media or do you make the determination not to put them into the candidate pool? >> Well, they're in the candidate pool once they meet the qualifications of the position. We will bring them forward. We're going to live tell you five or six candidates we think should be in the semifinal round but I

063have not frequently but I've been in my searches which is about 20 I've completed in my uh years since I've retired where the super the board says how come this candidate isn't in there and we explain maybe there's they're pretty active on social media and We wondered if that was going to be we just felt like there were other candidates that perhaps didn't have that same uh level of presence whatever it might be and the board said we want to meet with them and in one case that's the one they selected. So, uh, absolutely in that round when you get ready and you've seen the whole list of people, um, you know, even though we say these are the ones we think are the are the best candidates, it's your search. >> Thank you so

064much for your presentation and answering all of these questions. I just have a a few that haven't been asked yet. So, Dr. Wellman, you are going you live here for six months. So, would you be our um like lead uh representative, point of contact for our search? >> I can be or Sylvia of course is by phone and by email. And with two of us, because we've both been on teams with three or four other associates, with just two of us, it's easy for us to communicate one way or the other. And I say that a caveat of course is during the holiday time we have I have grandchildren in Denver so I won't I will be going back to Denver. >> That's that's fair. Um and then [clears throat] how many searches are you

065currently working on? Uh how is your time being divided right now? >> I'm not doing any and have not done any in 25 when we connected. I said sure that's real close. Uh I'll be happy to do it. And so um I have not done any this year. >> Okay. >> And I'm not doing any >> great and I am uh collaborating on two others. Uh I am not the lead however because again because I don't live in the state of Arizona. We are also conducting a search in the state of uh Washington. Again I'm not the lead because I don't live in Washington. So I support uh there's a lot of work behind the scenes. uh we are here with you but uh we continue the work from home. We work from home uh

066doing our reference checks and making phone calls and vetting all our candidates uh and so so all that work still has to be done and that can be done from anywhere. I think the um concern that you may have is our presence here when we're needed. And again, uh we also have other associates here in Arizona that we can tap on and ask them to support us as needed. Uh but yes, uh because she is here local, uh she can certainly be the lead and then I'll uh we'll we'll collaborate as much as possible. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Can I ask a follow-up question? Okay. Um, as I was reading through the proposal, it sounded like one of the six times that you're on site is not during the interviews. Um, so

067are you in the interviews? What are you participating not participating but kind of guiding the interview process on site or is that really just the board? >> I'll tell you my experience and Sylvia may have had different experiences. That is really up to the board. um it has not it has not been something because we hope we've trained you very rare and well and that at that point we're ready for you to select your superintendent. Now, that being said, as soon as you finish your first round and now you have six candidates and all their information and your head is jumbling around, we have a process uh in order to help you whittle that down to the top two or three. And yes, we are on site for that process. Usually it's immediately following, but

068we're not in the interviews with you. But immediately following that, when you're ready to deliberate about those candidates, then we have a process to help you help you do that. >> And and my experience is slightly different. um I have we have been with the the board uh and facilitating actually you know following the candidates and guiding them and so forth because uh there's activities throughout the day so one of the activities is meeting with the board and interviewing with the board but there's also activities so they're going to the campus and then they're going to a meet and greet and so forth and so those candidates need guidance and so if there's two or three then we go ahead and guide them and support them and just make sure that they're making it to

069the right place and um so we're kind of the layers on between the candidate and the board. >> Any further questions? All right. Thank you both for your presentation. We really appreciate it. >> The time appreciated. >> All right. That moves us on to agenda item 3.2. Um, McFersonson and Jacobson, a presentation relating to the permanent sub superintendent search. Um, Mr. Don Groing. >> Perfect. Well, >> go ahead. >> Yeah. Madame President, members of the board, um, thank you for inviting me here. I'm here rec representing McFersonson and Jacobson. Uh, my name is Don Groing. Just a little bit about myself, uh, uh, was a superintendent for 25 years in Oregon in various size districts. all the way from under a thousand to the last one was 42,000 students. Uh two of those districts were

070minority majority school districts in which the uh two the uh largest population uh was Hispanic. I currently have three educators in my family. One's an elementary teacher and uh two of them are uh sec at secondary level. Um a little bit uh about McFerson and Jacobson. Um uh they are a like HA ha uh uh a national company. We have about 130 consultants. Uh and we uh have been in business since 1991. We also um in addition to providing superintendent searches provide other leadership opportunities and other searches also but primarily we focus on superintendent searches. Um good pictures of yourself there. Um, our core value is that we believe that regardless of where you're at, every student deserves a great education, quality education. In order for that student to have a quality education, they have

071to have quality leadership in place. And that's an effectively working superintendent, board, and leadership uh to make that happen. Uh we also believe that that leadership needs to have some longevity and needs to have some sustainable outcomes. One of the things that you'll see in our group here uh with uh Matt, I call them Mac and Jake is that we have 80% of our successful superintendent in districts are still there after five years. 80% of those superintendents are still there after five years. After 10 years, 60% of those superintendent are still there. And after 15 years, we still have 40% of those superintendent still in the district. This is the most important job a board can do right now. You're doing it. It's uh you know, you have all the other governance issues, but the

072number one the number one and most important job you're doing, you're doing right now. So, applaud you for your efforts. Applaud you for taking the time. Loved your questions. Great questions. Um, so we have a track record of success. Uh, I'm going to go into a little bit uh about myself and when I was talking and I'll hopefully answer some of the questions uh that you asked. Uh, I'm currently I have current I have uh participated in both the Peoria and Lichfield Superintendent Search. That was a couple years ago. And I'm currently involved with Gilbert and Peoria or excuse me, not Peoria, uh, Cave Creek. Um, so those are the searches I'm I'm currently I'm currently involved in right now. Once again, you look and so you can you can see some of our success

073and uh, I think this says something about the firm. We're going to bring you successful candidates. Someone that's going to match not only your district's values, but also your community's values and your expectations. Your expectations of accountability around students achievement, student success, whole rounded child. We really want to dig in with you when we have our first meeting with the board. We really really want to talk to you about what are the values of this board and the values of your community. So these are um our consultants and I want to uh bring your attention I believe it's on page 27 and 28 in in the uh in the folder that I gave you and it basically says the lead consultant is Dr. Joel and uh and the reason it says that and then Christy

074Wilson would be assisting him. I will be assisting but I probably will not be the lead consultant in the fact that right now I have uh a couple parents that are um uh not doing well in their 90s and so but I will be here. I actually live in Gilbert once again. Moved from Barrett moved from Oregon. I live in Gilbert and I know Christy uh Wilson is nearby. Uh Dr. Joel has a place in uh Nebraska but right a as well as California. Um so but we uh our job is to serve you. Our job is to be on your timeline. I listen to uh board member talking about uh the sense of urgency. Whoever which firm you hire, we want to have a sense of urgency. I have that sense of urgency. I've

075been a superintendent. I do believe trying trying to get it done effectively and efficiently as quickly as possible uh is necessary to get the best applicant. Other thing I want to talk to you just a little bit about is when we start getting these applications, please know and I I believe my colleagues would agree with me. Um the majority of those applications who are serious about taking this job or any other job, they come in that last week before closing. they actually come in the last week before the closing deadline files, you know, files. Um, and that's just the that's the nature of the beast. So figuring out when do we want that to close, what's your timeline, and looking in in looking at that. Um, once again, we've done districts of all size. Um,

076sustainability of leadership. I think that's so important. Uh, you know, I would say it really takes a superintendent to start realizing the fruits of the board's work and his or her work to do it right. You you really start seeing that long sustainable achievement come start coming around two to the three-year mark. You cannot have revolving doors with a superintendent because then the staff has to get used to what are his or her priorities. You need to have somebody that's able to come in, work with the board, have a strategic plan that that's going to be able to uh build on sustainability for your students. Um, we are going to be transparent with you, with the stakeholders. We work for the board of education. You are our boss. You're going to talk to us about

077what stakeholder groups you desire to have in there, what kind of interviews. I you I know we I heard a little bit about uh what type of interviews are they open? Are they closed? Um different types of interview questions. Uh able to are are we going to bring you all the applicants? You can have access to all the applicants. You know, our job is really to go out and vet and bring you the very best for the students in the Liberty Elementary School. We want to bring you the very best. Um, and I will tell you that there we have about our site, just to give you, we have about 250,000 hits on our site a month. 250,000 hits. Now, those are hits. Uh, when you get down to people that are actually coming on,

078applying, being serious about it, but there are a lot of people coming to our site. We stand on the strength of our references. I I I know there's u all you have to do is open up open up a newspaper or read on the television. Reference checks are are absolute must mandatory in addition to the references that the applicant provides. You you got to go beyond there. I've never seen somebody submit a reference and expecting that reference was going to be bad. So we want to dig a little bit deeper. We want to go not only the references that they provide, but then dig a little bit deeper and find out who who else do have they been acquainted with. And more than that, what's their track record? I would just tell you in looking

079at a superintendent, what's their track record? Go on, look at their student achievement, their student success, uh how do they interact with their staff, uh community engagement, are are they doing this? uh if they're not doing it somewhere else, chances are they're not going to do it here. If they're doing it somewhere else and they're doing it well, they're probably going to come here and they're going to do it well also. Our um basically framework is broken into five phases and phase one is where we really sit down with the board and we talk to you about what are the characteristics you'd like to see in the next superintendent. What's your compensation package? What what is what is your range for a compensation package? What's the jobs description going to look like? What stakeholder groups

080do you think are important to engage in your community? Establish the search and the timeline. If the board agrees that, hey, this has got to go quick. We want it to go well, but we want it to go quick. We work with you. You are our boss. We're not telling you what to do. You're telling us what you need and what your expectations are. In phase two, um we really we meet with the stakeholders. So, we'll come in and meet with the stakeholders. Typical stakeholder groups are teachers, um PTA, PTAs, I saw parents, meeting with parents, classified administrators. Uh if you have a district leadership team, um sometimes we do students uh uh business open form communities. It's really really what when we talk to you, you're going to talk to us and say what

081stakeholder groups would you like involved in this process. In addition, I'll talk just a little bit about we work with a company called K12 Insight and they are our survey, our community survey. So that community that survey is able to go out to staff. It's able to go out to parents, other community members, and they can come in and they can log in and they can give us their um their thoughts on the district. And there's about nine different areas. We can even add an area, but we go into everything from how do you think the district's doing with their finances? How do you think the district's doing with student success, student achievement, community engagement? Uh how do you think uh how do you think uh the current leadership is interacting with staff? Are staff

082feeling good about their jobs? Do fa staff feel supported? So there's nine different areas. And then we also asked three different questions. Tell us why somebody would want to come and be the superintendent of the Liberty School District. What are the biggest challenges and issues facing the Liberty School District? And what characteristics would you like to see in the next superintendent? And it will measure it will give you a excellent, good, fair, poor and you will be able to see that as a gauge as well as you get all the comments. We provide you with each and all those comments. Now those comments are not signed. They're not they're not uh uh you know you don't know exactly who did it. However, we do distinguish is it a parent that has this comment? Is it

083staff that have these comments? Is it a community member that's maybe has no children in the school? So, that's that's clarified there. The third phase um and there's a lot of more intricacies in these phases but third phase is basically where we evaluate all the applicants. We conduct reference checks, background investigations. Um, and then we invite selected candidates after meeting with the board, getting your approval to interview them. And then once they're interviewed, they actually provide a video that board members are able to see answering specific questions. And once again, those questions can be from the board. We have a list of questions, but if the board has some specific questions that they would like, uh, so they basically have a limited time frame in which they go on provide a video, you're able to

084go in and [clears throat] and, uh, we present those videos for you. In phase four, um, we meet with the board, we review the short list of candidates. will provide you all the applicants. What I will tell you is sometimes um even though they may fundamentally meet the requirements in doing reference checks, background checks, maybe they've been released from their school district already. um there's issues going on in which you would not want them to be an applicant for for the uh Liberty School District. We assist the board in in identifying those candidates and then we prepare the board for the interview process. Um I'm going to try to answer those questions. If you want us there during the process, we can be there. Another thing that I've seen done before was sometimes the chair

085of the stakeholder groups, the board would appoint a chair of stakeholder groups. Sometimes those candidates will go go to the stakeholder groups before coming to the board for the interview and then all of the comments, questions and everything's provided to each and every board member. So stakeholder groups have another additional role in that in that uh process. Um we also we're responsible for keeping all the applicants informed of their process. That includes the successful ones as well as the unsuccessful ones. So your HR department, your folks, you really don't have to you don't have to do anything. We're going to take care of all of that. And then in phase five, uh we meet with the board and the selected successful candidate and we try to work with you to set two or three concrete

086performance measures that you would like to see happen. Um and that's really between you know we work with you but it's really between the board and the superintendent and we help pro we help provide that and then the other thing we do do uh we provide a a guaranteed two years if that candidate decides to leave for any reason. If the board wants him to leave uh or they leave, then we'll come back and we'll basically do the search for just travel expenses and whatever. We're not going to charge you again. Once again, uh you you can go through and the advertising's out outlined on uh uh page 27. Uh really I believe that the majority of candidates, superintendents who are out there looking for jobs, they're accessing multiple superintendent search firms. And so we

087know who those people are. We're reaching out. >> Um and uh once again, we provide those video interviews. uh the criminal financial degree verification uh they they are done a lot of times you wouldn't believe uh we we we really dig into the finances too a lot of times and we do social media and try not to bring our biases if something comes up we try we'll definitely present that to the board here's what we're thinking but we want you to know maybe you're thinking something else and uh just you Once again, this is this is going to be your hire. It's not our our hire. So, trying to look at all those social media um uh sites, but not not uh uh bringing our biases. And what I'll say as a a successful superintendent

088is if you've been a superintendent for a long time, you've probably made somebody mad with a decision or two. You've made somewhere along the line. you've made a decision. Um, and maybe it was probably based on what's best for kids. Maybe maybe it wasn't best for somebody else, but uh you know uh none of us walk on water and and we've made some decisions that uh uh maybe have not been good. But hopefully all decisions that a superintendent makes is number one with kids first. Kids first and making sure to support staff. um travel expenses for consultants for scheduled trips to the school district. So as you see up there 15950 that's all in. We're not going to come to you and say what about this what about that. Now there have been times where

089a board has asked a consultant to stay on maybe a year and a half or two year transition and that's really between the consultant and and the board if if you want that to happen but the 15950 that is that is all in. There's no extras. Um if you need us whenever you need us um hope the the people that you saw on the on the thing Dr. Joel Christy Wilson and myself. Uh we're 24/7. We know that most of you have jobs and uh sometimes you might have to call 10 or 11 o'clock at night. That's okay with me. Call on a weekend. That's okay. We're going to really try to to work for you, try to meet your time schedule and uh get you somebody that's uh going to do a great job

090for the kids. I talked a little bit about K12 insight and uh it's a great it's a great tool. Uh you're able to really gauge your community's perception of the school district. Uh and with that might might uh come a lot of good things you didn't know. And there may be some areas where you're saying, "Wow, I didn't I didn't realize parents were thinking this or staff were thinking this." And so it gives you a little bit bit of a different perspective. Questions, >> madam president. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Thank you also for the for the coming down here and the presentation. Appreciate it. Um, I guess you kind of heard most of our questions in the previous one, but uh, I did want to ask, so and this kind of follows up with

091board members Zimmerman's question before was um, will the consultants be ha will the all board members have access to the consultants or is it typically all board members? You'll all have our cell phone numbers, you'll have our emails. Uh we do like to usually, you know, for the um I guess for more of the clerical stuff, we really like to work with the board and we want the board to tell us who is that point of contact um that you want us to maybe maybe you don't have time to call us. Maybe you uh uh contact them. Maybe it's an administrative assistant. Hey, I want I want answers to this question or how many applicants do we have right now? And so, uh, we try to do that and scheduling, trying to schedule maybe stakeholder

092groups. I mean, I don't think you guys want to be on the times and everything that the stakeholder groups are going to be scheduled. Uh, you'll tell us who the stakeholder groups are, but just a point of contact for more of the clerical, but to answer your question, every board member has access to us at any time, 247. >> Thank you. Miss Schmidt, >> go ahead. >> Okay. Uh, thank you for the presentation as well. Um, so how would you um how would you communicate with the whole board in terms of, you know, are how are you providing reference checks and those video interviews just in general? Like is that something that's all happening in a meeting? Are you sending that electronically? Do you have a portal as well? Like how are you doing all

093that? >> Are you talking about updating you on the progress or >> uh kind of both? I mean I think they're separate questions. How you're you know you're updating us but how are we getting access to all those different things? >> Well for specifically for the videos we'll actually come down and present you present you the v videos. So we'll actually come down, we'll arrange a time with you to present the videos wi with us in the room to you and questions after we after we get what questions you want uh want in the video. >> Okay. Um and when would you provide so do you provide the board a summary of when you do these reference checks? How is that communicated with the board? Anything you find on social media? Is that all done

094in a meeting or is it done electronically? >> It's usually done it can be done electronically. It can be done in the meeting. I would say a little a little bit of both. >> Um we're we're probably not going to go in if we run into an applicant with some significant significant issues. We're probably not going to air that air that on each and every applicant. And I imagine, you know, I think this will be a a well sought out um district to be in an elementary an elementary school district. So, but we're not going to we're not going to get into all of the details with with the board, but we'll definitely talk to the board about uh specifics or candidates, different candidates. Once again, you'll have we'll provide you a list of all

095the candidates. It's how many candidates applied, the ones that uh maybe we decided not to uh bring forward to you. Um and but then you might say, "No, I want this person to come forward." >> Um and so who do you how do you determine who submits the video questions? >> That comes from the board. >> Okay. So we >> you would tell we've got we've got a list of questions normally that we we've asked applicants that has worked for a majority of boards. But if there's a specific question that you would like uh we would probably determine that in our first meeting when we had with when we sat down with you and said, "Hey, we're going to we're going to do this. Do you have some specific questions you'd like to see answered

096in that video?" >> But is every candidate doing a video? No. >> Okay. So, who's determining um who's determining who submits video questions? >> Well, that would be after we come and present to you the list of finalists that we that we believe that we believe should go forward. And then you'd be able to look at that list and say, "Yes, we want all those to go forward." Or maybe somebody would say, "You know what? I've seen this is the applicant and I'd like I'd like them to do a video, too." >> Okay. Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. Um, do when you're doing their reference checks, do you talk to their current employer? >> Absolutely. The cons the cons uh we we won't the the the application will not pass if we

097cannot talk to their current employer. Um, and um, yeah, it just it just won't pass. And the reference check and the references they have to be they have to be uh newer. They can't be a lot of times you'll see people a reference check that's three four years old and that just won't cut it with us. So um we will tell them if you are really interested in going forward you really need as as my colleague said you really need to talk to your you need to talk to your school district. um uh and go forward and and a lot of you know a lot of folks want to make sure that they're they are in the mixed uh so to speak before they're putting their name out there >> and just I just want

098to really understand when you bring us the slate of candidates like all of the candidates what are the things that you're bringing to the board for us to review at that time for every single one? Well, we're bring we're bringing you the we're bringing you characteristics that hopefully we've learned from you as a board in asking what you want to see in the next superintendent here. We're bringing you uh characteristics that stakeholders want to see. Um examples would be uh you know have they done something with student achievement, student success, have they do they have good community relation uhships? Have they uh great uh staff relationships, parent relationships? Are they visible in the community? Um those type of things. Am I am I answering your question? >> Not exactly. Um >> can I interject for

099one second because I think maybe I can help clear it up. I think what board member Zimmerman is asking, >> and tell [clears throat] me if I'm wrong, is when you bring forth the slate of candidates, what like actual physically are we getting? Are we getting their um their application, their resume, the list of c, you know, their reference checks that you've done with notes attached? I think that's what she's trying to ask. Like, what are we going to be able to see about each individual at that time? Am I right? Okay. >> Yes, you would get all all that information, the reference checks, who did the reference check. Um, we actually like to have the consultant there that did the reference check. There's like two or three of them. If there's two or three

100of us, we actually like to have whoever whoever spoke with that applicant to be there in case there's something comes up, a specific question. Um, so we provide all we provide all of that. So detailed detailed notes >> and and I guess if if a if a board member was looking at an applicant and say, "Well, why didn't this person come forward?" that we would be able to say, well, through reference checks or their their resume, it's come to our attention that, you know, this person was um is currently on a plan of assistance or is a is uh currently no longer employed at this school district or whatever. So, >> okay, thank you. Um that's okay. um when we you know because there we're doing kind of that initial questions um and then we

101would you know kind of narrow it to the finalists are we able to ask uh individual specific questions of of the finalists like different questions you know pertaining to their experience or some you know some concern we had or something they said in the initial um video interviews. Yes, we like to just to have a a uh a fair environment for all. We like we like some of the same questions, but if there's a followup, if there's something that in their answers that need to be followed up or or you can say, "Hey, we noticed in your application uh you had a you know, you you were a you know, you were an elementary teacher for uh two years and then then you left and went to that. Can you can you tell me can

102you expand on why you left why you left that position and went there?" Yes, you can do that. >> Okay. Um are we able to create some sort of performance task uh for the candidates as part of the interview process? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um the guarantees um is that um if the board decides to separate from the superintendent or only if the superintendent chooses to leave? >> You know, I've never had that question asked. I would I would believe it would be it would probably be be either way because I imagine if the board is asking the superintendent to leave there's some performance issues that are taking place. Something's not being done. So, uh I would imagine we we we would honor that. Either way, whether this person chooses to leave and or and

103or um uh the board, you know, there's been an issue that's come come up, an impropriety somewhere, and the superintendent is either happened to be placed on some sort of administrative leave and with an eventual dismissal. Uh my answer would be yes. >> Okay. Um, when I was reading through the proposal and in the part about the different responsibilities, it says the point of contact person selects the names of who would be invited to the community meetings. Um, is that point of contact person typically a board member or a district staff member? >> Yeah, it's typically the board. In that first meeting, you're going to tell us who the stakeholders are going to be. And then usually what we have, we have uh the board may may uh they may choose to delegate to your

104district leadership team. Hey, we want I don't know three or four teachers from each school. We want uh we want to ensure that in the classified staff, we have a bus drivers, custodians, nutrition folks. Uh but really it's it's I I'll go back to you. It's really it's your call and the point of I guess the the person that's the uh the point person is is really trying to do the work to help the board with logistic issues. But it's really you folks that are going to tell us what stakeholder groups do you want? How big do you want the stakeholder groups? um how many how many uh stakeholder groups that you would like and we we try to do those. Usually those stakeholder groups are uh the meetings take uh about 45 minutes to

105an hour each one. So we try to come in on a day when we can do and we know that hey teachers don't get off work till 3:30 or 4 o'clock or whatever. So we try to make sure and uh do the day. If it means going into the night we can go into the night. uh if you want a community meeting. Uh but one of the things that I think will really surprise you is the uh K12 survey. It's it's pretty unbelievable how many people really uh feel good about talking about the nine different areas as well as answering those questions and it being anonymous. other than the fact that it's going to clarify this was a parent, this was a staff member, community member, business owner, uh stuff like that. So, um that's

106usually uh usually a uh a great asset uh to helping the board get a perspective of different thoughts throughout the district. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, board. >> Madame President, I have a follow-up question. Go ahead. >> Um, talking about the K12 survey, um, do you know, we've had issues in the past with some surveys where the same person can answer it like 15 times. Do you know if there's some rule in place that K12 uses to try to delineate this so that it's pretty fair and not weighted? I have I have never had that question answered, but I will I will have that answer to you. Tell me uh who who you'd like it to go to and I'll get that I'll get the answer to that question. I'm pretty sure though

107that with all the advances in technology and whatnot, you can you should only be able to submit once, but I'll I want to be sure. I don't want to tell you something and it can't happen. I would I would like just if if it's okay, I don't want to run over too much time. So, I have an actual survey here. Uh and some of the different areas are academic excellence, communication, how does how's the district communicating, fiscal management, relationship with families, relationship with local organizations, relationship with district staff members, relationship with the surrounding community, student achievement and success, and the last one is transparency. Then it comes I don't know if you I can you just want to pass school district and it gives you the chart like that and it'll give you the number

108of respondents and who responded and the last district I had they had some special requests on breaking down the uh respondents and K12 Insight was able to do that. Any other questions? Madam President, I do have a quick question. >> Go ahead. >> Sorry. Um, similar to the question that was asked previously with the other group. Um, what districts have you worked with and been involved with here in the valley or in the state? >> Yeah. specifically uh in Arizona uh the Lichfield School District and the Poria School District. We did superintendent searches and we are currently um currently uh under contract with Cave Creek and the Gilbert School District. >> Thank you. I know you stated some of those at the beginning. I just was seeing in here you have in here um the

109search you have at least the firm has worked with Mesa, Daart Scottdale. >> Oh. Oh. Oh, previously. Yeah, that was before before my time. That was before my time. >> All right. >> I'm sorry. Yeah, it's and it's actually in the That's good to put uh point out. So yeah, I think uh before uh colleagues did the Mesa school district uh uh we did we did we had previously done Mesa. >> I have one um just clarification question making sure I'm understanding this correctly for the um background checks and verifications. So, the one that's included in the cost for up to four candidates is the one that does um the financial the the uh criminal background and degree verification and all of that. It's the indepth background check and that's included for up to four

110candidates. >> Yes. And I well I don't want to over talk. I would say if you decided you were going to have five candidates, we'll we'll make sure the fifth one gets in there. Okay, thank you. Anybody else have any further questions? All right. Well, then thank you very much for your time and your presentation. >> Thanks to your technology people, too. They were great getting us all set up. Both both of us. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Um, that brings us to agenda item 3.3, which is discussion, approval of presentations relating to the permanent superintendent search process. Um, so I think at this time we could open this up for discussion. >> Madam President, if I may, >> please. Um, I'm glad we were able to hear throughout this

111process these three different firms with the ASA coming out um, previously. Um, just my own personal thoughts balancing between the cost to the district and experience. Um, I'll try to keep it in the positive notes. I could I could go negative in certain ways, but I think for what I can see, McFersonson and Jacobson, this last present presenter, the cost looks like they won't be above 16,000 unless unless there's something really crazy that happens. From what I can see, um the one previous Hazard or HYA, their $18,500 base doesn't include the travel, which can be up to $10,000. That's 28 thou, you know, that's $28,500. That's significantly higher. And that's just the base, not including if we have to use some of the other services. Um, so I'm a little bit concerned about the the

112price of that one. I know the ASA was the cheapest. However, I had some reservations um on how they how the searches have been conducted in the last couple years within the valley. There's been a number of uh placed superintendents that didn't last very long and they also have no guarantee as I do appreciate these two presenters do have guarantees that come along with them. So, personally, my recommendation is that we go with McFerson and Jacobson um and get this going right away. I like how they really also look at the candidates's track record to see if they're bouncing around or if they've been stable. Um, and I believe that they have a much better grasp of not just Arizona, but our area. Um, Dr. Wilson, who would be considered one of our consultants, is

113from my understanding very familiar with the Buckeye Goodyear area. She lives near here. Um, she's also been assistant superintendent and superintendent over at Buckeye Elementary. And so she's very familiar with the area and probably the best out of the consultants who would understand what a good fit would be for our district. Um so those are my thoughts on that and I'm willing to continue the discussion. Please >> um I uh understand what Mr. Kenyon has said in terms of cost. So when I look at HYA and the cost, it it does feel significantly more. However, this is where I struggle is I felt much more confident in what we were going to get with their um package. I guess I feel like their due diligence and really bringing all of the information to the board,

114having it accessible, really spending time with the candidates, vetting them. Um, you know, I really felt very comfortable about that, but I am concerned about the cost. Um, and I know that McFersonson and Jacobson is a, you know, wellrespected firm. I mean, Liberty used them six years ago. Um, and I thought I participated in that process as a community member. um and um they brought forth an very excellent candidate that was a superintendent here for 5 years. Um so um I just want to ensure that the board is truly getting all of the information and I didn't feel as confident based on the presentation that we would be getting that. I think also like for me the just kind of little red flag was that you know he mentioned that they did Mesa and then

115they didn't essentially use them again right they had to go out and look for a new superintendent I don't know the time frame so you know I don't want to speak to how long could have been 5 years you know a change in board obviously changes things so it's just interesting to me um I would agree that I don't think ASA can provide um at this time what we're looking for uh or at least what I'm looking for I shouldn't speak for the board. What I'm looking for and based on our pre my previous experience with them I'm not I wouldn't be comfortable moving forward. Um the only thing you know and I respect that they left and didn't like listen to our discussion but um both of them said they would kind of price

116match um and so I just in their proposals it says that and so I just wonder if if the board you know would consider HYA would it be possible to go back and have a conversation? would they kind of price match um McFersonson and Jacobson because I I do think the cost is an important factor for us based on the financial situation of the district. So those are my initial thoughts. >> Madam President, if I may >> go ahead. >> So I think I'm in lines with what you guys are saying. I I the HYA and McFersonson are the two I'm looking at. Price is an issue um with me. Also, I do like how the criminal background check is included in the McFersonson one. Um, if we wanted to get that done, it would

117be additional $2,000 per candidate, which is kind of kind of steep. Uh, kind of sounds like we can hold McFerson Jacob to like sharing that information. Like they wasn't didn't sound like it's something they normally did, but they sound open like, yeah, we can share that. One thing that concerns me about HYA is it kind of feels like a job of opportunity for them. Now that she's living here, now they want to come out and present, which kind of concerned me. Like they didn't even want to take us on because it wasn't convenient for them a couple months ago because they would have to pay. So that kind of concerns me too because it's more of a job of opportunity than maybe actually trying to help the district. Um, but I'm going to toss up

118between the two. This is just my concerns between both of them. >> Other comments? >> Madam President, >> go ahead. >> Um I think the board has summarized this well between the two um organizations. I I don't feel I agree with everybody. ASA is just not at the level that that these two firms are at. Um I would agree also with the cost that HYA has has presented. Um and I think uh to Vice President Sinion's point, um I'm a little disappointed they weren't available to us when we first tried to do this after they said they were. Then they came back said they weren't unless we wanted to pay for them to come out. I've never heard of a company saying pay us to come recruit you for business. So, be very honest. I

119have a little bit of a sour sour taste um over that decision that they made. Uh I would say that overall we've seen a pretty good track record with um with McFersonson. Um what the board might consider doing is requesting a best and final from these two c or these two um vendors and see what they come back with a best and final. That would of course require us to have another special meeting and and usually don't give them much time to come back with a best and final offer. My suspicion is that they will price match but not on the travel part. Um, and I'm still just concerned. HY has somebody local, but she's already said she's going to be gone quite a bit over the holiday time. Uh, I don't think her roots

120are really here. It's more of a new winter visitor situation. So, um, with McFerson having folks that live local who have worked in the area, I think that puts them ahead in in the search process. there is uh obviously some maybe some controversy around some of their folks. Um but I think again that's going to uh as as both presenters said, superintendents uh are always going to make somebody upset. It just seems that's the that's the course. So I'm I'm leaning more towards uh McFersonson. The other option, if I may, >> go ahead. um is that the board consider doing this internally. Um we've we've kind of seen the processes. Neither any of the firms have all basically said the same thing. We've seen the same presentation multiple times. They all come out with about

121five steps. Um committees and so forth. We could we could also consider doing this ourselves if if uh if we wanted to take that on. It is just an option to to surface. Not recommending it or saying it's bad. I'm just surfacing that ideas as the last the last bit, >> right? Um I I you know maybe shockingly I I think I'm in line with what everyone has said as well. Um my concern with HYA after reading uh their proposal yesterday last night again um and then hearing from them is their cost. the 18,500 was already a lot and then um you know up to 10,000 for travel which I don't think we would hit but if um if the one consultant is traveling from Texas to come here we have to think about the

122cost of that which you know could get fairly high um and then the due diligence which they had two options at 1,100 or 1950 per candidate uh where the McFar Jacobson includes four background checks that do the same thing in their 16,000 um essentially $16,000 price. So um that was obviously, you know, looks much better and the the travel is included. And then McFersonen Jacobson also offers the 2-year uh guarantee versus one year from HYA. So there's that to think about too. um you know, best case scenario, we we don't need that again, but realistically, it's it's still good to have it as an option. Um I do see the benefit of HYA and their portal. I really liked that idea that that's all available 24/7 for all of us to go look at, meaning

123that everyone would always have access to all of the same information and there would be no question that all board members were uh able to access everything and have the same information. We wouldn't have to worry about um anything not being disseminated appropriately um or even the question of that happening. Not that it it would. Um, I do also like that HYA interviews them personally uh and doesn't just do the videos. Although the videos would probably still be fine. It was just a slight difference for me that I thought was um something nice that they seemed to do. Um, I also appreciated their support after hiring, which I think both did. He didn't talk about it very much, but I remember in their proposal they do have some um support after hiring in the transition

124period helping set goals between the board and the superintendent. Um but HYA does have the um the three-month transition period plus the extra uh 6 months uh that is available for the superintendent and one board member or or all board members could rotate through those trainings however we wanted to handle that. But I thought that was a nice benefit as well. Um, so, you know, I I think it could go both ways. They both have like really positive things and then they have other pieces that are are a little questionable or make you wonder just you know in terms of cost really is my biggest concern with HYA cuz I think um as board member Kenyon said you know you could be looking at I mean we could truly if they went as high as

12510,000 for travel and we had three candidates that we needed due diligence on We're looking at $30,000. That's That's a lot when our other option would be 16,000 all in. So weighing that, I mean, that seems almost like a no-brainer at that point when we're talking potentially double the amount of money potentially. We don't know how much travel would cost us. That's an unknown. So that's kind of scary to me, too. So those are my thoughts. Um, any followup, >> please? >> Yeah, I I I agree. Um, I I saw a lot of positives with with both of the presenters tonight. Um, and my my two biggest takeaways again are the cost and the experience in the in Arizona. Um, [snorts] and so knowing Arizona, knowing the area, I think is going to be pretty

126pivotal for not just us, but those who are looking for a candidate for our district already having an idea what the district's like, you know, the struggles, the challenges, all the positives. We have a lot of good things going on here. and being able to get that out to the candidates so that the candidates understand what they're getting into versus they show up, they thought it was one thing. They were presented one thing, but then it's completely different. And now we're having to use that guarantee, which we don't want to use. Um, and so I I'm right now still with McFersonson and Jacobson, uh, personally >> Mishmid. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Um, I, uh, I think we need to use a firm. I just think I want to surface that I think we need

127to use a firm. I think our legal counsel told us that we need to use a firm. Um, and I think it's it's really important uh that we do that and that we do a good job with this process. And I think that having an outside perspective is uh imperative in this situation. >> Madame President for me. >> Go ahead. >> I think I'm ready to make a motion if everybody's ready for one. >> If you're ready to make one, we are ready to hear it. >> All right. I make a motion to approve McFersonson and Jacobson for the permanent superintendent search process. >> Yes, >> Mr. Kenya. Can you please repeat that? >> Yes, I can. Miss Cameron, I make a motion to approve McFersonson and Jacobson for the permanent superintendent search process. >>

128Do we have a second? >> Second. All right, we have a motion to approve um McFersonson and Jacobson as the firm for the superintendent permanent superintendent search and a second. If there's no other discussion, we can take a vote. All right, >> Madam President, do >> ahead. We uh >> do we want to ask McFersonson Jacobson for a best and final as well? Just see if they'll sharpen their pencil. want to put anything else into that. It's fairly common. >> Um I don't have any issue with doing that. Do we need to include that in the um motion? >> Believe it would have to come to the come as a part of the motion, but it's just for discussion if the board wants to do that. See if we can maybe get that fifth person

129definitely locked in. I I appreciate the gentleman tonight saying if you had five, we probably can make it work. Um [snorts] I would hate to get down the road and find out it didn't work. Um they may also be able to sharpen their pencil a little bit um on this. I suppose you could ask both candidates, both both firms to do that or we can just keep it the way it is, which will be fine as well. Just for discussion for the board if they want to consider it. I'm fine either way. I I think if we did that then we we really couldn't offer it to them. We'd have to wait to see what it was. >> And right now I'm just and I I do also appreciate that. It's just I'm in a

130position right now and my my thought process the sooner we get this going the better. Um and um he did mention that they would probably work with us on some of these umable areas and and they he he seemed like they were willing to work with us on some of the stuff like that fifth candidate, you know, trying to make sure those get included and things like that if we need it. Um so seemed fairly flexible as where FYI didn't or um H YA didn't uh necessarily seem like they were very flexible on their prices at that time. >> Um so I would like to just leave the motion as it stands. >> Okay. Okay. So, as it stands, we have a motion to [clears throat] uh select I'm sorry, Miss Camaretta, could you just

131read the motion back because I don't remember what it is at this point. >> Of course. A motion was made by um Christopher Kenyon. Motion to approve McFersonson and Jacobson for the permanent superintendent search process. Second by board member Brian Sarinion. >> Thank you very much. So, we have the motion and a second. So, um Mr. Kenyan would like to keep it as is so we can take a vote. Um board member Todd >> I. >> Uh board member Kenyon >> I. >> Board member Zimmerman >> I. >> Vice President Sinone. >> And I am also an I. We will show that it passed 50 to uh have McFersonson and Jacobson sorry as our superintendent search firm. Okay, [clears throat] moving on to 4.1 board comments on agenda topics and items for future consideration. Um,

132before we start, I would just like to remind everyone that all agenda items should be made, a request should be made at the public meeting or emailed to the board president and the superintendent. um as per policy and then the items can then be placed on the Google doc that's available for all board members to see and track um but please remember to request them in public or via email as well. Um but now does anybody have agenda item requests for tonight? >> Madam President, >> go ahead. >> I guess we need to get big F and JSON back so we can start this process. Any other agenda items? >> Madam President, >> go ahead. >> Um, I would like to see us have a policy on stipen pay. I don't know that we have

133that published. Um, a little uncomfortable about the last presentation this tonight. So, I think we need to develop a policy on how we handle stipens. Also, our assistant superintendent has worked a long time without any stipens. I think we need to address that with her as well if we're doing it for all the other positions. All right. Anything else? All right. I have one. Um, I think we need to discuss the, uh, vacant superintendent position currently and what our plans are moving forward for the remainder of the 2526 school year. All right. Uh if there are no other agenda items, we have an upcoming board meeting on Monday, December 8th, um which is a public hearing and then a regular board meeting to follow. Um and um I it is likely that we will have

134to have a special meeting about McFersonson and Jacobson. Uh so we'll try and contact them and then get it on the calendar as soon as possible. I know that Thanksgiving is coming up so it's going to get a little dicey. Um but be on the lookout for an email asking for availability. Uh but we will try to cut back on special meetings at last minutes when possible, but this one is kind of out of our hands at this point. Um and with that, we can adjourn the meeting at 7:36. [music]