001Good afternoon. This special meeting of the Education Board is called to order at 4:30 p.m. Roll call, please. Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Cintron, present. Mr. Crisfield, present. Mrs. Garza, present. Mrs. Stuart, present. This afternoon we do have a request for comment. Although the Governing Board meetings are not public meetings, they are open to the public. Individual speakers will receive 3 minutes to address the Board on a matter that is or is not on the agenda. The Board will limit the time for public comment to each matter to 21 minutes, in accordance with the regulations. Table 93 22.2. Mr. Anthony Raméz: Hello, am I the only one here? We know we have an item on the agenda, and we just want to reinforce our position so that both the Board and the CS staff have sufficient time
002and participation in the search for a new superintendent. That's all I wanted to say. We want to work with you. Thank you. At this time, the Board will retire to closed session. The open session will resume at approximately 5:30 p.m. Good evening. We will now reconvene in open session at 5:30 p.m. to discuss regular business matters. Secretary KF will... He's going to update, he says we didn't take action in closed session. We're going to talk now about certain topics. This gentleman, the superintendent, well, at this moment, just a moment, please let me introduce Dr. David Verdugo and Sandy Thorton to review the superintendent search process and answer any questions the board may have. Thank you for being with us tonight. Well, I want to begin, board members, by introducing Thorton, the superintendent. She previously retired
003from West Union after 14 years as superintendent there, or didn't you have the opportunity to meet her previously? So I'm very excited that she's going to be helping in this process tonight. I'm bringing to your attention, members, the packets available to you. Also, if I'm not mistaken, they're on the screen. I also wanted to begin by thanking Harry and Lane for such professional work on the job, and Mrs. Linda Howard as well. With her help, we're going to start with the agenda, which is on the screen and alongside you. We're also going to start in numerical order. We'll finally go down to number 11, when she's going to take the reins and explain the process. When we get to that point, to begin this agenda, which is based on the discussion and confirmation of various
004dates and guidelines, in the search process we're going to move on to number two. Typically, we try to designate two people who are the intermediaries and the people who will represent the board in this process. Typically, it would be the chair and vice-chair. In this case, Ms. Stuart, Ms. Gars. We want to make sure that's okay, although all correspondence of any kind, in any important way, goes to all board members. It would be a simple question: Where are we going to meet tonight? What time is the meeting going to start? Typically, we can count on Carry and Lane for that information, but the board, please select an intermediary, a coordinating person who is approved to be chair and vice-chair. Are you okay with that? Okay, very good, colleagues. That will be us. Number three: We
005want to confirm that the assistant has received the guidelines. Your assistants have received the templates and guidelines from the administrative staff. Lind Howard and Yry have also worked very professionally. They have received all that information, the forms, templates, and everything else. We're going to receive number four: your emails. We have them from a worksheet we have, but I'll confirm tomorrow with Carry and Lane that we have the The information available also includes your information. I want to start with number five, the discussion of input from the board and stakeholders, the online survey and the results, and the development of the position profile. Now I want us to move on to the stakeholder input sheet that you have in the packet, which is exactly what Kry just showed us. We're going to skip ahead a little,
006but it's quite important that we get input from you, those partners, community members, and interested people. You want us to receive questions from them. These questions are: What do you most want in the next superintendent? What characteristics, experiences, and skills do you want your next leader to have? We also ask for your opinion on the strengths of the district: the bilingual program, this program, its staff, its teachers, its engaged parents. And finally, and most importantly, we ask what the challenges facing the district now and on the horizon are. Perhaps enrollment is declining, perhaps communication is an issue. I'm just giving ideas. What you see is a template, typically a list of people who... Which ones do we communicate with, and with the help of their executive assistants, we started scheduling that with our executive assistant
007as well. But take a few seconds to look at the list. We have 16 descriptions in general, but we ask the board to provide us with any other forum groups or other groups they want us to communicate with. Which ones do they want us to communicate with, or entities? If you could look at that for a moment, what might come to mind in terms of other interested groups they want us to communicate with, I don't see the Citizens Task Force. Would that be perhaps a... Well, do you see some others they want to add? If I have a clarification needed for the number... in terms of certified personnel, can you tell me, under certified personnel, will you also call special education teachers or double- language immersion teachers? Well, that's correct, certified personnel is... Yes, we
008will make sure to get their input. If they can talk to us by phone or in person, but yes, it will include all of them. Do they want us to meet with them as well as an individual education group, special education teachers, double-language immersion teachers, as a separate second group, or together, or with general education colleagues? My question would be... Automatically in my mind I feel that they may have different needs or different specific desires, or I don't know if that prevents a voice in a general meeting with teachers. No, I would leave it up to you, colleagues, to identify if you would like to be treated separately. I don't lean to either side, but I do want everyone to have a voice. That's right, so well, I would be fine. If we're all together
009in general, Mr. Kersfield, well, there are quite a few groups, as long as we know they are part of the conversation, and because we have quite a lot of information, a lot of interested people, so I do want them to contribute. And the certified staff, let's see how it seems, that will generally be an open invitation to all certified staff. There have been times when we've done it in schools. Sometimes we've done it remotely via Zoom, which is convenient for them. For example, if they finish at their school at 2:45:45, we make arrangements for the meeting, let's say in person or via Zoom, to be at 4:00, maybe 3:33, but we will make it convenient for them. But another aspect I want to mention is that we receive quite a bit of input from your
010teachers, and also from the executive board of advisors. That way we can get quite a bit of in- depth information about the teachers' opinions. The union's executive group captures some essential elements from your teachers that they want to see in a superintendent. And of course, we talk to them separately as well. Madam President, depending on how those meetings are conducted and what the agendas for such meetings look like, if we could make time for pedagogical and classified teachers. In addition to that, I don't know how this works, but one thing I want to assure you is that the people from the athletic department have been heard as well. I don't know what committee or what group will be designated to do that group, but I want to say, well, the coaches or representatives from the
011athletic side can do that for sure. Each session is 30 minutes, and we want a small group for a 30-minute session anyway. So, you can hear the voices of the people, and it's a huge number. It's frustrating for them, but by separating them into small groups, we can double the investment. The athletic group has In that sense, we've included, as you can see, number 12, the cheerleading groups that are also there. We've lost the audio. Excuse me, the meeting continues, but we've lost the audio. We're working on fixing that problem. [Music] Just a heads up, we're having technical difficulties that we're working on. I was saying, the meeting on Zoom that we're going to schedule in this stakeholder group that you see here on this sheet. The survey itself will be monitored so we can
012start. How many responses do you have? Over a week, we'll frequently go to the principals on site so they can send a message through the Parents Square app or whatever communication system they use to remind parents or student volunteers/ community members to take the survey. When we have all the information based on the survey, then we're going to create a job description. That's part of the agenda I'm going to share. If I may interrupt, when we conduct the 30-minute feedback sessions, we also include our emails because if you have follow-up information or want to share something you didn't want to say in the A public setting. Although there would be 10 people, they can all say what they want directly via email. Thank you. I appreciate it, colleagues. Anything else? Then I'll continue in terms
013of number five. We're still there. If you have in your packet, if I 'm not mistaken, a sample of the survey outline, and yes, we're going to ask you for that survey. We're going to ask you what language you want that survey in: English, Spanish. We'll know those are going to be the main languages. And if there's another language, but it's Arabic, colleagues, I think that's all for now. Cris Alisa, no, that's correct. We're still on number five, but what you can do there in that line with respect to number five is discuss the opinions of the stakeholder group, the online survey, the development of the job profile or job description. When we've received all the information from the surveys and all the information from Zoom and in-person meetings, we're going to create a job
014description. Those are the main issues that start to emerge from the stakeholders, what the board and the people want most in a superintendent. The job description has to be approved by the board before That we publish it is something to keep in mind. As we move forward, the job description will also include a description of the School District and a description of the Bellflower community. Who are the people they serve? What areas do they serve? Do they serve North Long Beach? Do they serve all of Bellflower? A little bit of that kind of thing. What will be in the job description is the position of the job. It's a recruiting tool. It's on the Leadership Association website. The candidates know what the board and the community are specifically looking for in a leader. That helps
015us ensure that we highlight candidates who don't have the leadership or skills that will make them a good fit. And the board will review that post so we can use it and submit it. We also indicate the languages, which will be Spanish, English, and also Arabic. Number six, one of the aspects that has started to be discussed is the adoption of the chronology, and I know there have been some suggested changes. We'll address that in a moment, but also let you know that we'll have a publication that is generated by AXA, the California Association of School Administrators. The publication typically comes out twice a month, and in that publication, there's a wide variety of job postings available throughout the state. I think they're going to get national interest. In this district, we're going to see
016applicants from out of state on a national basis if the board wants. We're also prepared to post in the CASA network, which is the California Association of Latino Superintendents, and CASA, the California Association of African American Administrators and Superintendents. That depends on the board. If we don't use what's normally, traditionally, very comprehensive, some thinking from the board. Personally, I think the more they can post it, the better. I'd like it to go everywhere they can get it in. Okay, both would be incredible. Secretary KFI agree. I suppose there are probably some that are overextended, or that in the others, you're typically going to find a little bit that is overextended. But the fact is that it's important that they expanded it to a national reach and based on state-based administrators and superintendents. It certainly wouldn't
017hurt anything. And that's included in the cost of the search. Is that correct? Then I agree. The timeline was generated there as well. Where are we currently in that timeline? It's, of course, the February 27th, this board meeting, and we're going to have a closed session with you after this meeting. We're suggesting, and we think this will work quite well, that from March 17th to 31st, we'll send out online surveys. That's plenty of time to get input from stakeholders. On March 17th and 18th, a two-day period, Sandy and I will be here in person, or a combination of in- person and Zoom. For example, I might commit to being here at the district office to be on Zoom, and if anyone wants to talk to me personally, individually, or in a smaller group, I'll be
018available. But we typically dedicate two days, maybe two and a half days, and there are some sub- calls we'll make or try to connect with other people we might not be able to connect with. I'll also be here during March. We'll start identifying potential candidates, developing recruitment materials, and the job description. When we finish the survey and the stakeholder session, we'll quickly have a job description for the board to approve. Or what do you think about the approval? The 10th and 17th are the two publications we 're suggesting. We already checked with CONIR; they're available for us to use as a publication. And we might also use CAPLE, which is the California Pacific Islanders Association. That would be the 10th and 17th, two consecutive publications. The deadline for applications is April 2nd at 5 p.m.
019If I may interrupt, in addition to the other organizations we already mentioned, it will be posted immediately on our Associate Leadership Website. And if we don't have a lot of traffic on that line, that will be... I think it's already posted. I think it was as a result of the contract that was approved a week ago. When that took place, we went ahead with posting it on our own website, and we also have quite a bit of interest. We'll talk a little more about that in a moment. April 2nd at 5 p.m. is the deadline for applications. Originally, we had May 2nd. That will start right after April. We'll start our reviews and background checks on all applicants who have... requested, and the deadline, one of the critical dates, if I 'm not mistaken, is
020going to be May 12th. I think perhaps the board wanted to move this up a bit, and they suggested that perhaps the board would prefer May 7th. The meeting we'll be attending with you—that's going to be the candidate selection meeting—is a closed session that typically takes about two to three hours, and it seems you're reviewing your calendars and schedules. I'm fine with that date. And you, May 7th? Yes, I'm fine with May 7th. I also agree with May 7th. We can decide the time when necessary. Also, the time would be helpful to see. When we normally start, at 4 or 4:30, I know, with your schedule, if you're saying 3 hours, then we can start at 5. That gives everyone time to come, eat, and start on May 7th at 5. Everyone agree, May 7th
021at 5 p.m. Please, I want to mention that before the candidate selection meeting, this board will receive all applications via a read-only form that you typically have four Or a few days before that, together you'll be able to review all the applications. We're going to prepare, by checking references, what we're considering as Class One applicants or candidates. That doesn't mean you can't look at Class Two and ask a question, like, "How about this question in Class Two? I read your application and I'm interested in finding out more about you." And we'll be ready to provide you with all the information on the applicants who have applied for this position. The applicants we put in Class One are those who most closely match the job description, what you, your staff, parents, students, and community members are
022saying you need. Through all the feedback sessions, we're going to put common themes to see what the biggest needs are and the candidates who match those needs and also have excellent references. How many classifications are there? There are three. We normally provide three classifications. What is that third classification? It would be someone who isn't a good candidate, who isn't going to be a good candidate in terms of their skills, but maybe someone can have—for example, someone from the Inland Empire who Maybe it's an assistant director they think they should be superintendent soon. We know that experience and characteristics alone won't be enough to make them Fran. We've had conversations with every single applicant. We're very careful with those conversations. For example, maybe... But the point is, we do contact all applicants and discuss the opportunities,
023their background, their experiences, and where they come from. As Sandi mentioned, we only present the best people. Someone who moved from one district to another every two years, for example, probably isn't going to be someone we're going to consider. That you review or consider longevity is going to be an important factor here in Bellflower. So we realized, we already realized that. In fact, the point is that Class 3 people might not be a good fit, but maybe they're not that desirable. Or maybe they have that match with the job description. The people who can apply, the people on the board, maybe they're not going to see the applications. No, you're going to see all the applications. You're going to see each one of them, and you're going to see for yourselves. These people didn't have
024a reason to apply to be superintendents. How many applications do you think you can anticipate? I have a sense right now, and Sandy can also say, I anticipate having a high volume. I suspect you're going to have 30 to 40 people who are going to have interest in this position, and after eliminating them, it would be 20. It depends on the district and the size of the district. Sometimes there's a smaller district in a rural area that maybe only has 15, but 20 is quite a lot. We expect many more. Here, I have a question about that. Obviously, we don't know the variables of how many, but typically... On average, in your experience, how many present at level one? At level one, it typically depends on the candidate selection process. The applicants we present to
025you might have seven or eight people who are perfect matches for the position, but the board process might want to narrow it down to five who stand out even more than the other two. That's why that meeting is so important and critical, and we spend a lot of quality time with you. The application process, yes, I would say it's rigorous. You'll see that in terms of their letters of interest, their resumes, the information they provide, their five references, and three letters of recommendation. We also specifically ask if we can go beyond the references and letters of recommendation they've given us. There's a box they can check, and if they say no, we think that's a red flag, obviously. But typically, they say yes, and that gives us the opportunity to find out more than what
026they 've provided. And typically, we do. We simply don't rely on the references and letters of recommendation they've submitted in the application. David and I will be... We are committed every single day to this process, but also our partners— 22 of us—meet every other Tuesday on Zoom and help each other recruit and share information about the district we are serving. The other partners who are all over the state help us because we all have very extensive networks, and all the partners have networks throughout the state and beyond, so it helps a lot. We exponentially make a great effort to ensure that we know these candidates very well and ensure that they are worth having for an interview before the board and members. We will give you updates; I will let you know in a timely
027manner, not the application itself, but general information. At this point, we have received five applications from five superintendents, three applications from three assistant superintendents, and three applications from directors of fiscal services. We will keep you informed in general before that meeting about what you can expect regarding the positions they currently hold and what they have applied for. Vice President Garza, thank you, President Stuart. When you say that you go beyond what is before you, I imagine that you also... Social media, absolutely. Good point, Ms. Garza. Absolutely correct. Yes. If, for example, there is someone who currently works in Santa Clara County and they have put their references in, generally letters of recommendation, uh, we also want to talk to the county superintendent. We're also going to want to talk to a superintendent who works alongside
028the district, if it's an elementary school district, the connection with the high school that it's associated with. And what kind of relationship do they have with them? Many of these questions will be based on the applications that you submit to us. The questions are based on what we hear from you, perhaps asking for more information about the candidate, where they are, what they've done, what their record is with achievements, students with double- entry bonds, things of all kinds, SPED KFI programs. Well, that was going to be my question, but to take it a step further, social media in the application, can we have where their social media accounts are? Because you already receive applications, you say, so I'm curious. Is that a question that's asked there? No, not specifically. We do our research confidentially with
029that social media platform, so it's going to be very critical that the confidentiality of this board, of course, is defended. I mean, no sir, it doesn't mean that upon receiving a We requested that you review the information. You couldn't just go into Google and search for it yourself, but we expect that you would keep that information private. We also don't want to harm someone who may have applied for a position in your current district. That makes sense. Yes, so, uh, if you were applying for this position, let's say the board or your community finds out that you applied for this position, it could harm your current position. So it's a general effect. I'm wanting to put some protection in place for this whole system and process. I think you're asking about specific social media. Yes,
030let's say we see the application and we look at your Twitter posts. Maybe this is a legal issue for us. Yes, we check all of that. We review all those accounts. Any good questions? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, well, going back to the timeframe, we've decided that May 7th will be when we'll do the candidate selection process, starting at 5. June 7th was the original date, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, for the board interviews. But I want you to know... This advances the date to the suggested date, as I understand it, changing it to May 17th, correct? May 17th is fine with me. You can check your calendars; it's a Saturday, May 17th. This seems good to me while you look for the others. Generally, how much time do you need, like, what time
031will we start? It's going to be an all-day affair. We ask the board to be available with us in a designated location, starting from 7:30 to 8:00 for an orientation for the board on how the deliberations and the process will work. Theoretically, let's say you have five people you're going to interview. How are we going to use it? Sandy or I will bring in that first candidate 30 minutes before the next interview. We put that person in a different room, so they're not together. In general, you'll typically have up to 12 questions, maybe an hour for the interview process. Those people who have been selected for an interview, we're going to share the timeframe with them. We keep track of the time in that process and control it. Say when you're at the new question
032and you have 20 minutes left in the interview, for example, we arrange with Carry and Lane for food services or meals for you, breakfast, lunch, maybe some afternoon meal. It also depends on the number of people you want to interview, but we think we'll start maybe around 7:30. Uh, that's typical, until, let's say, typically 6 pm. Well, we'll be there until we get someone great. Members, C, Tron, Vice President, Car. Well, I do n't have another possible date you want. Well, the following weekend is better for me. You say May 24th? Yes, no? Well, there's May 31st. I'm fine with May 31st. I don't know if it's too late for the rest of the board. Mr. Crisfield, I agree with any date. The 31st works for your members. Member C, Tron, well, we have to
033decide something, and a Sunday or May 10th would be too soon. That's another Saturday. Are you available? Well, yes, you can check that date. Yes, I'm available. It's the weekend of the day of the Mothers, I just want to mention that we want to figure out some week, every Saturday in May. They're saying no, so we have to say, "Oh, that's it." And Monday and Sunday, this Sunday the 11th is, except for Mother's Day and May 18th. But May 10th is fine. Yes, that day can't work. May 31st is available for everyone. No, the 31st? No, well, another Sunday is fine too. The 18th, well, the whole weekend, I'm not available. Okay, let's see, look at each date: the 10th, no; the 11th, Mother's Day; the 17th, no; the 18th, no; the 24th, no; and
034the 25th. You know what other option is? It's not typical to do this, but I've had the experience of having a couple of districts where they do it during the week. It's quite difficult for the candidate because it's easier for them to come on a weekend because they're coming from another district. But it has happened that way. So, if May 25th works for everyone, a weekend would be better. That would be a Sunday. A Friday also works well. It's Memorial Day. They're going to leave the city. Well, yes, it's Memorial Day. I'm off on Monday of that weekend, which follows the weekend. What do you think about a Friday? If you're working, you have to take the day off because we're paid quite a lot to be here. So we can all be absent, even
035if it's just for one day. Well, I can take a Friday off. Whatever you all say. I agree. We're having technical difficulties. If you listen... we can't hear what's happening in the board meeting. Again, technical difficulties. Please be patient. June 7th works for everyone. The question is whether there's enough time between June 7th and June 18th. If you're suggesting moving the regular meeting, there's enough time between the two dates, June 7th and 18th. We think we'll have enough time not to have a regular board meeting on June 18th, but also, when your finalists are selected, we're going to work with the public information officer, Esmeralda, and we're going to put out a press release telling the public who your finalist is, pending board approval on June 18th. That gives you a week and a half
036to put it on the agenda. They don't have a meeting on the 18th, but they can call a regular board meeting. They have to have a meeting to approve a contract for superintendent. They don't have one, so it can't be a special meeting. That would work. The only thing they would have to think about in terms of the negotiations between their finalists, their legal counsel, and the board chair. Those are the three people working on the negotiated contract. We have an amazing lawyer. We're good. Okay, does June 7th sound good to you? Okay, I know the staff because we've talked. You're also on June 7th. We won't be there with you, but we're fine. If you make that date, I think everything will work because the staff doesn't have to be available on June 7th
037at 7:30 in the morning. Yes, but someone will let us in. At least it won't be here, but we'll address that in a moment. What Sandy was saying is that the place they want to use... By the way, they can use this board area, but normally we're not going to have the members at the desk. We want the candidates at the same level as those being interviewed. Unless there's another multipurpose room, we have staff who will... We've done workshops and things like that, yes, staff, and we'll coordinate with Carie and Elaine, and maybe we'll ask them to help us with the process, with the food and those other factors that come with logistics. Okay, colleagues, we have the date of June 7th. It's good to move the meeting from June 26th to June 18th. It's
038going to be a Wednesday. I agree. I agree, Act Secretary KFI. I 'm also fine. Staff, you can put it on the agenda for the March 13th meeting. Mrs. Acevedo, you can make that change on the agenda for the next board meeting. We're going to present it at the next meeting on March 13th. So, we have the final date of June 18th. Thank you. I wanted to ask if there was any consideration of location or venue. Do you prefer to have it here in the board room? I think I'm going to speak for myself. I want you to be the experts. I know that in the last superintendent search, there were people in the parking lot, and people did see them go in. So, I'm leaving it to you for that same reason: that the
039members are looking for another place, a community center, or... A hotel, or I agree with whatever you decide, as long as it's not too far away. We can work with the city manager. Maybe they have a room that someone can access, but now you know the date and time, so we'll have to think about it. But trust us, we'll work with the staff regarding that. One of the things that sometimes comes up is the visit from the board after the selection of their finalist. It has to be said that on Saturday, June 7th, after the interviews, the board will want to consider a validation visit to the person they have selected in their district. If it's in Hawaii, that would be different. But if it's local, they would want to go to that district and
040talk to people: executive assistants, board members, members of the PTA, and teachers in general. That's the responsibility of the new person who has been selected. It has often been done via Zoom. But very often the board doesn't think they have to do that. It's an option they can keep in mind, and we can talk about it. al al al al al al al al al al al al al al al