Almont Board of Education Special Meeting May 26th 2026

001Okay, thank you and welcome. We're going to call this meeting to order for the Elmont Community Schools Board of Education special meeting at 6:08 p.m. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Mr. Rowe, you can roll call, please. Ms. Rotarius? Here. Mr. Burns? Here. Mr. Burrough? Here. Mr. Wade? Here. Ms. Ankley? Here. Mr. Eckert? Here. Ms. Smith? Here. We have all seven members present. Thank you, Mr. Rowe. Um, the adoption of minutes. Anyone in the audience like to grab a minute? Thank you. Are there any business communications for the final superintendent interview? Now, before we begin our final decision discussions of the evening, I

002would like to take a moment to recognize the extensive and thoughtful process that has brought us to this point in the superintendent search for Elmont Community Schools. The Board of Education is equally grateful to all members of our community, our staff, and everyone who participated by providing feedback, attending meetings, and engaging in this important work. Your involvement has been invaluable and reflects the strong commitment our community has to the future of our district. I would also like to extend a sincere thank you to my fellow board members. I know each of you feels the the weight of the and significance of this decision, and you have approached every step of this process with moral responsibility, professionalism, and dedication to our district. On behalf of the board, I would like to express our appreciation to our

003facilitator, Pat Morand from MASB, for his guidance and support throughout this search process. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to both of our finalists. Their time, preparation, and commitment throughout this process have been evident, and we are grateful for their interest in serving the Alma Public Schools. In the interest of transparency, I also want to make a brief personal disclosure. Over 20 years ago, my wife volunteered at Alma Public Schools, and my path crossed with the then superintendent. Per guidance from our legal counsel, this past connection does not constitute a conflict of interest, and I remain committed to upholding the integrity of the process as we move forward towards the final decision. Before we begin, we ask everyone in attendance to please be mindful of distractions, including silencing cell phones, so that each

004candidate is given the full attention and respect that they deserve. Today, both candidates toured our campus and facilities, and met with a variety of staff members. After that, they attended a meet and greet that was open to the public. This evening, each candidate will begin with a 5-minute presentation to the Board of Education. During the interviews, the board will ask a series of questions. Board members may ask follow-up questions, and request additional examples or information as desired. The candidates will receive different questions. Each interview may take up to 75 minutes. A brief recess will occur between the two interviews. After the second interview, the board will then enter another recess, and then return to deliberate. After each interview, please be sure to complete a feedback form and submit them to Mr. Morand from MASB. Our

005goal is to make a final selection this evening, and move to recommend a candidate as the next superintendent of Alma Public Schools, pending successful contract negotiations. We will now welcome Mr. Kyle Wood. Thank you. Thanks for having me back. Thank you. I spoke to your wife earlier. Hi. Hi. Good to see you again. Welcome back. jacket Thank you. Thank you. All right, well, I appreciate for having me back. That's another good turnout from the community, which is always great to see as well. Um before I get started, I did want to um introduce my family. So, in the back there is Suzanne. She's a special education teacher at Yale. And um we AERs I think third was the lowest, a lot of firsts in the county as far as scores. Supportive culture, dedicated staff and

006leadership. Um the staff kept talking about the staff, how much the staff care about students. And so, those are things that we can really build from. Those are strong foundational pieces. And so, priorities to address. This is basically from the strategic plan. I know I talked about some of these at the meeting our first interview. Attract and retain highly qualified staff, master staffing plan. The part I really appreciate about the strategic plan is it's focused on people. Right? We are a people industry, and two of the four directly relate to people. The other two, I think in a roundabout way do, but that's just great to see that that's where our focus is on is on our people. And then we want to promote Alma Public Schools with strategic communication and marketing. Um I did

007some work um and I saw that we have an agreement in place with K12 Media, who I worked with in the past. So, I appreciate Mr. Burns you when I said that previously, you kind of gave me a look and I prompted in my head to make sure I did some digging. So, um that familiarity I think will work well. I saw the video over the week I think it was over the weekend or maybe end of last week that was released. Great idea to spread that word about the great things that are happening here. And then strategic facility planning. I mean I think everyone knows where we're at with that, right? As far as we got the operational millage coming up for the non-homestead renewal. We need to look at the sinking fund and

008I'll get into this more throughout the interview and later on, but just the idea that our facilities, you know, we we need we need some attention there. And then I asked the question, what must never change? What is something that Alma Public Schools must always have? Student staff engagement. I just uh talked to a first or third grader that went to the Detroit Zoo. Lit up, right? Student staff engagement. I saw on the on your Facebook there a four-day field trip. That student engagement, the staff working with our students, and the love for the district. And those are all things that he improved today as well um throughout the process. So, the next thing I want to just briefly touch on is experience alignment. Okay? So, we've got the strategic priority and then we've got

009the aligned leadership experience. Continuous improvement, um but we've been able to have 87% retention at the elementary, 91 at the middle school, and 94 at the high school. So, just it's starting to see how those um processes, where we're going, and what um experiences correlate to that. Um hiring for culture and passion of learning, leadership development. Learners today we're going to have a new elementary principal and a new high school principal. So, those are things that when I came into my current role, the superintendent and I, we had one returning administrator um of all of our positions. And so, that first year was a lot about building the team and building the capacity. And so, similar here, build that team, build that capacity, and getting to know the Elmont community better. And then, community engagement.

010Hey, this is what we just talked about as far as marketing ideas for that. And this is kind of what that one Elmont idea comes back to. The idea that let's gather information from our stakeholders, and let's present an idea. Is this something we want to run with? Is there something we can market with one Elmont? I I've got a lot of ideas, but something How can we use that as our as our catch flag? How can we have a community promotion? So, if they say our mission or our vision to us, they get a sticker that says, you know, one Elmont or go Raiders or a t-shirt that says those things. So, that's what I'm thinking about with that marketing aspect. And then, obviously, facilities and operations. Uh you know, as I talked to

011Jason, the facilities director, you know, you you can tell these buildings have been cared for, right? The they're in good shape. And sometimes that's hard to relay to the community that our buildings look good, they're cared for, but the infrastructure is what we need to work at and what we need to replace. And so, you can tell there's love in the buildings, but how do we build that that that knowledge? Um the strategic planning sign out front was good. Complimented you guys last time on that board um as far as having that out there. But how do we just continue to build um that capacity between the two? And one of the things we talked about that came up was kind of just not repairing, I don't know if that's the best word, but bringing

012the community and the school closer together. And so, that that's, you know, some things we did throughout our bond by hearing what they wanted, and we were able to pass that bond. So, let's get into the 90-day plan. Uh listen, learn, align, and launch. Okay. So, one of the first things that I want to make clear that I I said this throughout when I was asked, "Well, what are what are you going to do when you come in?" I said, "I'm going to listen." Right? I'm going to listen. And so, my first responsibility is not to arrive with a plan, but the people who built Elma, right? In my research on the board, I know one person's been in the district for 24 years, right? I'm not going to come in and say to that

013person, "Here's what I think we should do." Right? I'm going to sit down with them and say, "Give me some information. Give me some institutional knowledge on what direction we need to head." So, the first thing, listen and learn. Okay, days 1 to 30, gain understanding from all stakeholders. That's what we talked about previously, meeting with the different groups, making sure we're developing that understanding. We're not I'm not going to come in and jump to, "Here's what we need to do X, Y, and Z." It sounds like the PD plan that I was a little curious about last time with Wonders to Amplify. Already a lot of training in place and part of our August PD. Awesome, right? So, we're listening and learning already. The next thing we want to do is we want to

014align. So, we want to make sure that as we listen, we translate stakeholders into measurable work. And maybe there's some quick wins. Maybe there's something we've identified that we can say, "Okay, this is something that the staff has really wanted or something that they wanted done." Let's see if we can do that to start building momentum. And then from there, we're going to go with our launch. So, visible momentum building on the strengths. Okay, so how once we get to that point, I've got a few ideas rolling around in my head about the launch and back to school. But now once we've sat down, we've heard what the community has to say, let's put that plan together. We need to make sure we're relaying it uh just from the board, but to the staff as

015well with the back PD days, to the community. Everyone needs to know this is our direction and where we're going this year. And so, one of the things that and we talked about I I talked to a lot of people today, but one of the things that we talked about was this idea of building trust. And so, one of the things I'm committing to publicly, right? Because if I come in and say I'm going to do all these things and don't do them, I lose trust immediately. So, one of the things I'm going to publicly declare is we're going to have 90 conversations in 90 days. So, we're going to do that. We're going to make sure that's happening. And actually, that's probably outdated because I had a lot of conversations today. So, maybe maybe

016it's down to 80 by now. But, I want to publicly declare that because accountability starts with the superintendent. If we say we're going to build the bridge and and work with the community, I have to be the one leading that. I talked about coffee with the soup, and as I reflect, that was not a great answer, right? Like, it needs to be more than that. I need to be invisible and approachable at games. I need to be at drama club. I need to go out into the community. Right? Get out from behind your desk, Kyle, and get into the community. And so, each week, I will update the board on the conversations I had in my board notes. So, you, the board, is familiar, and I obviously, I want you to hold me accountable to

017that. I've already got a plan of talking to how am I going to talk to the fall sports teams. I want them to give me, like we talked about, what's two things we're doing really well, two areas we need to improve. That's a conversation from the football team. That's a conversation from the volleyball team. I'll include that in the board note, and we'll start to build this whole list of collaboration and start to create our plan. And so, how I'll organize this is called the VOICE framework. So, the VOICE framework is the valuing. So, this is the listen part, right? We're going to value our stakeholders with meetings. Then, we're going to organize the insight by identifying themes. That's the align piece. And we're going to identify opportunities and quick wins. Again, the align piece.

018And then, we're going to create alignment with the stakeholders. So, now we're preparing for the launch. What is going to be that main focus for the year in our continuous improvement journey? And then, the last one there is evaluate the progress, right? In the first interview I talked about, if we want to look at student achievement, we have to have a system and a process in place to analyze this where we want to be. How are we going to collect the data on how we're doing throughout the year? Make adjustments so we're meeting and getting to where we want to at the end of the year. So, the outcome, what I really want to emphasize is what we hear will be our direction. Right? We want to hear from all stakeholders. Come in, I'm not

019coming in with a plan. I want to come in and develop one and create and grow together to create that plan. So, that would be my 90-day plan and beyond. Questions? Um Mr. Wood, you stated in your application about the hiring of the Oakley principal and the high school principal, you have a plan on how Um in that panel as well, depending on if if you're available. Um but that's usually the committee. I want to make sure we've got a wide variety and a lot of voices in that in that committee. So, usually seven to eight, nine people. Um usually we have a first round interview that's a little shorter. Um and then we come back with a second one that's a little longer, similar to this almost, a building tour, second round interview. Um

020sometimes we'll even have like a meet and greet with more staff members. So, yes, there I have a process in mind for hiring those positions. Thank you. Um the other question I would have is um if you um during your 90-day plan, if you find that something's not working, do you do you reevaluate do you adjust or push it to see if you can get it to work more or would you how would you adjust? Yeah, I mean, if something's not working, I'm not one to to keep beating a dead dog. I mean, if we're doing if it's not working and but it's a goal that we want to get to. You can see it. Oh, okay. Um if it's if it's something that we want to continue to work to or towards, we can.

021Um but I think if it's not working, I think we need to reevaluate kind of what what direction we're taking and analyze is is there another approach that could be more successful? Any other board members have any questions for the presentation part? Okay, so Mr. Rueger, we're going to do um kind of the same style that we did the other night in the wrong round and um format. So, thank you for that presentation. We're going to move into more questions. Um board members will decide kind of ask all the questions. And then the current AG budget after this one here. Sounds good. And our next question or will be from our Vice President Ecker, and then we'll proceed more. Um tell me of another time when you had to optimize a district department or implement

022a corporate-style efficiency budget, such as a major budget reallocation or operational overhaul. How did you execute this shift while ensuring it did not negatively impact student learning or teacher morale? Good question. Thanks, Jensen and David for coming. Suzanne, thank you. Um good question. So, I think I can the most uh I can think of a situation that we're working through right now. Um so, currently in Crow Agency, we're absorbing about six teaching positions um to make sure while we're we are a little bit of a deficit to make sure we get on the right side of that again. And so, um we had some positions where a teacher retired. And we had another couple where um they moved on to other positions or um decided they wanted to retire after the school year started. So,

023we subbed those positions knowing we were going to absorb them through attrition. And that's usually the approach that I prefer is if we know um based on numbers, you know, we're getting smaller um just like most schools are, especially in one of our elementary buildings. And so, we knew that those positions were going to be absorbed, so we didn't want to hire somebody and then lay them off at the end of the year. And so as the year went through, we monitored retention numbers, we monitored I mean, basically student enrollment throughout. And then after spring break, after we obviously notified the board for multiple weeks about these changes and had conversations with them, after spring break, I met with each one of those staff members that were going to be impacted because obviously in order

024to fill those internally, someone has to move. And so I met with each one of those staff members individually with the building principal just to go over that this is not a reflection on you or a negative on on you and your teaching abilities. This is simply we have to that teacher is now met with that teacher multiple times throughout the day. So we set up subbing time for that teacher to be released to go work with that teacher to get access to their curriculum. And so to make that we support that transition as much as we can throughout that process cuz we know that's not easy. And so that that is kind of what I that's the one that's popping in my head. Okay. How How did the Were you guys able to right-size

025that ship over there? Yeah. Yeah. Were Were you Were you guys able to right-size that ship by doing this? Yeah. Yeah. So there was no gaps or anything? No, we yeah, we're able to right-size it. We'll be back in the black next year. So yeah, it was a move we had to make and it's something we've been doing through attrition instead of layoffs for a couple of years. This year we just had such a large number and it just happened that our elementary numbers were decreasing particularly in one building. So we have two elementaries and a and a Geiger Early Childhood. And so the one is maintaining three sections, the other elementary building is mostly going down to two sections in each grade. And so as that attrition happens, those are the positions that we

026had to bump staff around into. to But yes, we'll be we'll in a better position not just for next year but long-term. And those are those are hard decisions to make because we know it impacts people. Um but for the life long-term success of the district we have to Um so when you're using long-term subs, do you do you find that as an administrator does that impact your overall student performance or test scores? Like is that something you guys put into consideration in that process? Yeah, we definitely take that into consideration. We were fortunate to have um multiple retired teachers come in and fill those positions. Um one in particular actually was the previous retired teacher. Um then another teacher had moved in and then she decided to retire and that retired teacher came back

027and filled that. So absolutely. I mean that's always the first thing we look at is that student instruction. Um we same thing we had a fifth grade ELA position and we had a former um retired K5 teacher with 20-some years of experience and she had such a wonderful time that she is going to get her cert renewed so she can come back and teach again. So yes, that's well yes, that's definitely something that we consider um and have many conversations about. How do you engage parents and community members who may disagree with district leadership? Well, that would be new to me. Um never had that before. Obviously just kidding. Um no, I mean I feel like it's it goes back to that listening. You know, I mean we're not we're not going to make decisions

028and and be able to keep everybody happy all the time. Um [clears throat] I think it starts with that open door and just being willing to listen, um being willing to meet with them to gain understanding as far as why they disagree with the decision. You know, is there common ground that we can work from towards a mutual resolution? And I feel like just being open to that is is really the first step. You know, we make tough decisions, right? The board, superintendents, building principals, teacher like we don't we don't get many softballs. You know, most of the time a decision could go either way. And so I think as long as you have a strong rational basis for your decision and it's in the best interest of students and staff in the district, then

029then that's the direction we would go. But always be open to what the community has to say and their perspective because that's who we're serving. Thank you. Mr. Wood, we are proud of our academic performance while also facing significant facility needs. How would you prioritize and communicate difficult financial and operational decisions without compromising student achievement? Danny, good question. I think that's always the balance that you're looking for, right? As we as schools get smaller, right? And I saw in the strategic plan where the kindergarten group coming in is the is the smallest group in the district. Um although I did hear good news today. And that the kindergarten group is bigger than the outgoing senior group next year, so that's that's phenomenal news. Um but I I feel like just being able to rationalize the

030decisions and so let let me just give you a for example like a priority list. So the first thing I I feel like we always want to protect is student instruction and well-being. So if we get into a situation where we need to reduce hopefully we never get into a situation we have to lay off, but that's the first thing we want to look at. We want to make sure that student instruction is is preserved, right? The the least amount of impact we can have in that area. But not just that area, but their well-being, right? We know students are coming with more social emotional needs than previous generations. Um I'm going to turn this up so that's why I can talk to you. Um and so we want to make sure those programs are

031valued as well. And we also need to make sure that we're evaluating their effectiveness. So if we have a curriculum or if we have supports, we need to be evaluating them to make sure we're getting our bang for our buck. And same with our uh SEL programs, um the the challenge that um is in place. I talked to Holly today and was very passionate about Rachel's Challenge. And so the just things like that, like those are student well-being things that is difficult to put a price tag on that have a dramatic impact on overall student mental health. And then the next one you look at is staff and organizational stability. So we know whenever there's budget reductions, it's going to impact staff, right? We know that. But we also want to look at the organizational

032stability and how that impacts us moving forward. And we just need to make sure that when if we're in a reduction situation or attrition situation, that we've thought through all the angles. What teacher certifications, who all has these certs, how are we going to determine, you know, who's the one that's going to be moved. And as long as we've got a process for that and explain that and obviously working with the union um on those areas is important in that role. Um and then the third is the long-term financial stability. Um I would want to make sure that any decision that we make is better long-term. I would not want to make a a decision right now that gets us through next year, right? I want to make a decision that gets us back on

033the right track, which is kind of what we've done this year in Croslex. And then you're set up for long-term stability because I'll be honest, I don't want to have these conversations with staff members every year, right? I don't want to hey, you've got to go here because these are the reasons why. I want to get to a point to where, okay, we've got our people are our enrollment is stable, and so now we're bringing in a person to replace that to preserve those academic pieces, those organizational incentives. Mr. Wood, what district wide systems would you strive to put in place to address the achievement gap, particularly assuring that both struggling learners and advanced students receive the appropriate depth and pacing? Good question. So, this actually came up multiple times today as far as the

034work that we want to do for our advanced students, and making sure we've got offerings that are competitive to surrounding areas. And so, that number one is great to hear. And I think throughout my career I have In the first meeting I really emphasized the creating opportunities for students and removing barriers. And throughout my career, as we talked about like concurrent enrollment and bringing college classes to the students, right? That appeals to that upper level group. CLV, bringing SC4 to our campus so we can keep that program running. So, I did the advanced students is is a group that we want to make sure. I talked with I forget his name, but we popped into a classroom. One of the things I'm seeing as a potential addition to that, I see you've got a robust

035AP offerings and good AP pass test rates, by the way. That we have We don't have an AP science course. And so, that would be something that I would look at. I didn't see that in the curriculum handbook. I talked to He was the chemistry teacher. And so, we talked about that a little bit as an option. And so, I feel like there's an the there. And what what I've done in the past is when you you have multiple AP courses in the sizes of the high school, you offer them in every other year rotations. So, if the student's going into, you know, the medical field, for example, obviously they should have AP bio, right? So, they can plan their schedule in their four-year plan based on that rotation. All right, like we Thomas got

036three, I think it was three AP social studies courses, right? So, how do if they want to go into that, how do they plan their their four-year plan to make sure they're getting all of those um opportunities? And I talked with Ella Testa today, and she talked specifically about these type of things as far as her desire for the classes she's taking, the plan she has, and it was just awesome to see this student who wants those extra advancement opportunities. So, I think that's kind of the way I would I would focus on that. It's about when you see those opportunities, how do we then make them a reality for our students. Um and the the other part of your question, um as far as um the struggling students, I think that goes back to

037our MTSS processes, right? You know, when we talked about that in the first interview, about when we take the assessments and do the data analysis, the group that's not where we want on the NWEA benchmark or on our interim or common assessments, how are we then going to support them? And what's our process in place there? Um what I when I read through the AERs, especially at the um elementary sounds like a robust MTSS process in place. Um Prolex also uses that WIN time as an intervention time, with that block of set-aside instruction, which hits all three groups. You've got your group that's struggling, you've got your group at grade level, and then you've got the group that gets advanced instruction. And so, I think you enhance those, and if something's not working with our

038progress monitoring, then we switch the intervention. Um but I know we worked collaboratively with um SC4 on a number of partnerships. Um and so it's really just um finding a community college to partner with and then starting to create that map of, you know, what's your junior year look like, what's your senior year look like, what's your fifth year look like as part of that Michigan transfer agreement. And then, you know, what associate's degree do you want to offer? And then the number of classes listed. And what we worked with was we, you know, they needed like eight eight students in order to run the class at our campus. Um so that was what we always we had more than that, um but that was what we always worked with and it was really just

039about creating that conversation and having that partnership. Um another example we had um when I was a building principal, we offered uh our first CTE program at the high school. And so it was our business um CTE program and we were able to work with Eastern Michigan Bank as the community partner. And then students who earned a certificate through that program, again working with SC4, we created an articulation agreement that if they got that certification, they got the the business 220 credit. And so I feel like it's not just CL5, but maybe there's other opportunities there like a CTE program where we could create an articulation agreement. Something like that where there's other opportunities in addition to that. Thank you. Mr. Ward. Okay. Um you currently service the assistant superintendent. What experiences, leadership skills, and

040accomplishments do you believe have prepared you to successfully step into the superintendent role? Specifically, how have you demonstrated the ability to lead an entire district, manage complex decisions, and build trust with staff, students, family, and board? That's a lot. I know. Well, I I think I mean as far as the assistant superintendent role, um this is something I didn't do a good job as I reflected on my first interview um talking about the different roles. I'm our um homeless liaison. I am our English language um coordinator. And I see Almont has an increasing number of EL students in the district. Um I'm the sex ed committee advisor. Um we uh we presented that to the board 2 years ago or a year ago. And so this year is our off year, so that'll be again

041next year. Um I'm our Title I coordinator. Um so I mean I've had just about every role you can have. And I've also been in budgetary meetings. I've been in facilitated or facilities meetings um assessment planning. And so I've had all of these roles. Um you know, when we talk about the suspected gasoline, right? I'm right there with the superintendent and we're collaboratively making decisions together. Um extensive budgeting experience both with grants but also the district budget. Part of those attrition conversations, how do we right-size the ship? Um so I I a variety of experiences. Um as far as trust, um I talked about the collaborative processes that we use when we um adopted curriculums. So we would always have multiple grade levels, multiple teachers involved in those processes. They would be the ones reviewing

042the curriculums that we might pilot. They would be the ones implementing. We would meet, they would provide input, and I would always ask like which curriculum do you prefer? And so just having that collaborative process um to go back to your original question about interviews. We always have multiple stakeholders in on those interviews, right? So develop that trust in that leadership piece is important. And and as far as like the district, I don't I don't think there isn't anything I've been, you know, worked with the board on numerous topics. Worked um on the district negotiating team. So I I've been through all of those processes um in in my current role. Um through a search it shows in 2022 you moved from principal to the director of curriculum and instruction and human resources through 2024

043and then the assistant superintendent. How much in that two that initial two-year time frame 2022 through 2024 was more grants versus the in-depth budget that you see as a superintendent? To be honest, it was changed because I was already doing all those things and so we wanted the title to reflect the work that was was going already. So, that's that's why the change was made when I talked with Ms. Moody about that and so no, I mean I've always been involved in facilities, always been involved in the budget, in staffing, always been involved in those areas. So, it was just really to have the title match match the role. Thank you. You said that you had extensive budget experience. Was there any part of the budget that was solely your responsibility for you know preparing,

044planning, getting the whole numbers and everything or was that all in collaboration with the superintendent? Yeah, I mean the state and federal the the state and federal grants part like was was my responsibility. Obviously, I worked with the CFO on that. And then as far as building the district budget, I was always part of the the team that looked at all the pieces of that. I mean we collaboratively work on that, we collaboratively look at that. So, I've always been a part of that process and that's what led to the you know the the attrition of staff and knowing that we had to make those adjustments. Ms. Moody and I actually met on that numerous times throughout the year Um, then we talked with the CFO and said, "Here's our plan to kind of reduce

045this deficit and work through the numbers with them." You know, we monitor the the funding. Um, another thing that I was instrumental in is Chromebooks. We put them on a rotation. Previously, every 4 to 5 years, we would um, just buy for the the entire district. And now we're on a rotation, so we have a fixed annual cost. So, we know that each year we're going to buy Chromebooks for an elementary grade level, fifth grade and ninth grade. That keeps our rotation good. So, fifth grader uses it through middle school, gets in ninth grade, gets a new Chromebook. And so, to make that an annual piece rather than just a big item every 4 to 5 years, that was something that what was our idea, but it just that process. So, I've been involved in

046in all of those small and big budgetary processes. Thank you. Mr. Wood, um, give me a second to take a drink there. Um, you're good. What What is your process if you don't know a topic well? You brought up like Chromebook rotation or maybe there's a facility like we just put in a new track this year. Something that you have no like not a lot of experience in or haven't done before. What's your process like collaborating with staff to figure figure out that uh, that system? Yeah, we actually just put in a new track this year, too. So, cool. Um, I I think number one, I have a great network um, of superintendents that I can reach out to and gain information out. Obviously, um, I would reach out and work with Cathy um, to

047know some of the district history as far as some of those decisions if it was specific to budget. Um, I'd reach out to Jason if it's something with facilities. Um, so I mean, you you have a team for a reason. I I mean, I don't plan on making any of these decisions in a silo, right? We've got a team, we've got a team of directors, we've got a team of admin, we've got a team of staff in the community, and obviously the board of education to make collaborative decisions. And so that would be my approach if I didn't know something and even if I do know something, I'm going to reach out and say, "Hey, Jason, like, you know, this was the next list on next thing on our priority list. What What do you

048know about this? I need some background information so I can accurately talk about it with the board." Or Mr. Zimmer, "Have you given me a prioritized list of athletic uh the next highest priority item that we need to replace? Give me some details on this. Where is this history coming from?" So I'm a detail-oriented guy on those things because I want the information and then I want to share it with the board to make sure you always have that information. So it's always a team approach with me. Thank you. Yeah. I'll ask the next question. There we go. Uh in your first interview you mentioned how great Almaden School's test scores were. Um and then uh so how do you make sure that during this transition that all things that Almaden is already doing well

049stay intact for our staff and students? Yeah, that's kind of what I was doing today. Uh you know, I asked a lot of questions about that curriculum transfer. Um I am familiar with Wonders, but I'm not as familiar with Amplify. And so my One of the things, you know, with your your your your elementary scores are great and your ELA's curriculum is switching, right? Why did we make the change? And and a lot of my questions were about what PD we've done already. What other supports are we going to need to start the year? Do we have PD scheduled for August? And I got great answers. Great answers. We had staff collaboration time. We went and saw other schools that are implementing or have been implementing Amplify. We've got PD planned for August. And so

050I think it's coming in and making sure things that I know work as far as you know, professional development and the professional development schedule we talked about, I like to have a training and then we implement the curriculum for a month or month and a half and then we have another training. So you can add layers of professional development as the teachers gain a greater understanding of the curriculum, for example. And so, I'm well aware of the achievement and the Blue Ribbon accomplishments. And so, that's why I'm very um want to make sure I've got an understanding of everything in place because obviously, you know, that's a high bar and I don't want that bar to be lowered when I come in. And so, that that was a big focus in in in my information

051gathering today. Thank you. >> [cough] >> Well, Mr. Wood, um as far as breaking the rules, like what's your approach on like I guess some would call it heavy-handed. Like are you of the type that is more heavy-handed about like, "Okay, this is the curriculum we decided to review. We want all teachers to do it the same way." or is there is it really more for teachers to use that as a guide and kind of add their own bits to it as they see fit? Yeah, I think it's a little bit of of of both of those, to be honest with you. I think number one, if the district makes a substantial commitment to a curriculum, right? Curriculums are not cheap. I like to do longer agreements. I tend to do six-to-eight-year agreements just because

052I really need process and you know, implementation different those things take away from what you previously had in place. So, once we adopt a curriculum, the expectation is that yes, like that's that's the curriculum we're going to teach. However, what you find when you implement a new curriculum is there's tends to be different gaps that you don't know about. So then, how do we scaffold those gaps, right? A fourth grader moving into a first year Amplify curriculum is not going to have the previous three years of teaching. So, that fourth grade teacher is probably going to have to have some scaffolding from previous materials um to help those students fill in those gaps and scaffold that learning. Now, as that first grader moves into second grade and then the third grade and then the fourth

053grade, you see that cohesion come tighter. And then to me it's about that PLC team that grade level team meeting, making sure they're teaching similar topics, similar times, the assessments are aligned, right? And then at that point you start aligning the curriculum to what you're teaching. So, the one thing I will always say is the art of teaching is the teacher, right? I never want to take that away from the teacher. But we provide the structure and the guide with the curriculum to make sure we're all teaching the same things, right? And then that's why we purchase the curriculum. Thank you. Mr. Ryan, if I am appointed as superintendent of Alma, the first priority task would be to hire new principals for the high school and primary school. What process would you use and how

054will how will you include staff so that they have a voice in this process while learning the culture and climate of the district? And you can talk a little bit about the primary but you want to elaborate on that. Yeah, I I mean I think again, coming in, right? We know that I'm going to I'm going to need to support those new building principals which I I I know I can do because I've done it many times. But I feel like it will need to be a a collaborative decision for sure. And and so like I said, the committee, you know, would be the committee would be obviously myself, other building administrators, teachers in the building. I like to get a variety as much as possible. Um you know, for the high school I'd want

055multiple subjects department heads in on that meeting um or committee. Um I always like to include a parent from the community and then a board member if it works, you know what I mean as far as the time commitment. Um sometimes I've done students a student on there, especially at high school. Obviously it's more relevant at the high school level. I'm not going to bring in a an elementary kiddo for the you know, the elementary position. Um but then that committee is is the one that makes those decisions. And what I normally do is all the candidates that apply, I share that with the interview committee and we all mark who we want to interview. And so, I'm one person in that process. And so, that's how I've always approached it. And I mean, especially

056coming in here, I would rely heavily on the staff in place cuz they know the building culture and they know what that next person needs to be or what they need to bring to the table better than I am. And that will honestly probably be a learning experience for me to learn more and build some camaraderie and team within that interview process. And then, like I said, there's always a first interview, always a second interview. Um you know, the first time someone can go in and knock knock your socks off, right? And hopefully I did that first time. And then, you got to come bring them back though and say, "Okay, was this person for real? Is that who this person really is?" Right? And so, two interview process um and then make a recommendation

057to the board. Mrs. Uh so, the two interviews, are those both with the whole committee or do you do like an initial screening interview before the committee? No, I mean, I've done I've done like a quick interview before, um but I like to do, you know, two more full interviews. And yes, the whole committee um is there for for both interviews for sure. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Mrs. Smith. Uh this is a question from our committee members. How will you make sure Alma stays Alma with a mostly new admin team? >> Mr. White. Yeah, I think uh we kind of hit on that in in the 90-day presentation there in that you know, it's it's one Alma or it's it's Alma community schools. It's not Kyle with schools. It's not the new administrator schools. You

058know, and I think that approach, you know, if you're coming in as a new principal, you cuz I've done this in multiple districts. You're coming in as a new principal, you come in and you do the same things that I'm talking about. You get to know staff. You get to know the curriculum. You get to know the community and the parents. You don't come in and make a bunch of changes. You get to know what works and then as you're in with the teachers and you're working and you're meeting with your department heads and you're working with um the the staff and students. Then you start to say, "Okay, this is an area. Let's look at this." Or this is an area, let's look at this. So I I mean I would expect the building

059and principals to come in the same approach I have. That we're coming to comment, we're coming to assimilate, and then as we see things then we're going to address them and have a plan to improve those areas. I mean, uh and one thing for my role in both as building principal and building principal um for 12 years and as assistant superintendent for four, they they the issues will find you, right? They will find you. And so you'll have to work through those um with the team, but just to come in with that same approach that that I'm coming in with is what I'd be looking for. All right, this one is crisis management. Describe an example of when your organization faced an immediate acute crisis that threatened the following: physical safety, operational security, public trust.

060What immediate actions did you take to control the chaos? And how did you manage communication during the first critical hours? I mean, I think the one that's popping in my head is that suspected gas leak, but I'll go a little further as far as um how we handled that situation. So that obviously, you know, multiple parents had reported that they smelled gas um at our student drop-off line. And so the first thing we get the call from the building principal, "Hey, this is what I'm hearing." We instantly called the gas company. They're sending somebody in route. We have the gas meter that our our gas meter our facility guy and yes, it's going you know, it's it's reading gas. So then okay, we we need to get these students out of here now, right? And

061so then it became a process of directing the the people as far as okay, we called the transportation director. We need to know how many buses you can get. We called back the building principal and started to develop a plan and give me two staff members I can go around in the room by room to tell the staff we're going to be evacuating as soon as possible and I'll give you the the sign. We reached out to local law enforcement so we could make sure they were there, right? And where at this point we weren't sure if it was, you know, how big of an issue this was. So we made sure we reached out to local law enforcement so they would be there. And so we just continued to coordinate these pieces and as

062they're giving us back this information, Ms. Woody and I pulled up a community document that we've used and we started to adjust the language in there so we could let the community know that this was going to be happening, right? And you send the communication out that we were going to be evacuating the building on a suspected gas leak, that the gas company was in route to check it. We turned off all gas, anything with the gas in the building we turned [clears throat] off. And so we just tried to have a step-by-step plan to notify the community and make ensure student safety. And then towards the end of the day, the kids were having a great time by the way. Like they were they thought it was a blast. Like let's have a field

063trip there more often. And then at the end of the day once we received the all clear, what it sounded like was there was a an excessive gas burp and so that is what they were smelling. And so by the end of the day, we again sent a message out to the community just saying we have an all clear to return. We're going to return to the building and have a normal dismissal. So again, we coordinated with transportation, you know, we moved back to the building, let the staff know. Staff was great, the directors were great. I mean, it truly was a team effort to ensure student safety. Mr. Woods, uh so for the communication portion of it, what do you find to be the most effective communication uh to the different like to the

064staff, to the parents, to the community as a whole? Yeah, I mean, normally what I do is um we send the information to the board first, then we send it to staff, and then we send it to community kind of in consecutive order. Um and so that that process has tended to work well um because the staff don't want to hear about it from a student, right? So, we want to make sure we're relaying it in the proper order. But, I think it's just about being open and transparent based on the information we have at the time. Uh at the time we had concern of a suspected gas leak and in an abundance of student caution or student safety, we're going to evacuate, and we will and we will provide an update later in the

065day. And I think it's just maintaining the communication and keeping the community informed. But, I also think it's a balance of you you know, in those matters, you have to make sure you've got student safety taken care of first, right? I'll answer questions, and I'll I'll take the heat for not relaying it fast enough later because the first priority is always to handle the student safety piece first or staff safety first and then we're going to draft the communication. We didn't start drafting the communication until we had the pieces moving to ensure student safety. Then we went to the community communication. Thank you. Yeah. Mrs. Smith, the next question is actually duplicate. If it's okay with you, I do have some additional questions that I can switch your spot. Mr. Woods? Yeah. How would you

066proactively market Elmont to school choice students and retain current families in the face of fluctuating enrollment without compromising our academic or fiscal stability. Good question. I think that goes back to the strategic plan goal. I think that's I know starting to work with K-12, the video like I said that I watched. And I just think it's creating that base on that feedback we get. How do we spread the word? Right? We've got the Facebook page, we've got the partnership, but how do we want to do more with communication? How do we want to market the district? And I've already been thinking about, okay, you know, like if I hope that the one by one. If I'm the one, then you know, I I want to do more than just like a yes, you can do

067a welcome or introductory letter. You know, I want to do something where, you know, we we send out a letter, you know, Richmond just did a nice job posting their information for example about you know, their new superintendent. And then I want to have like I want a video or name with a face. And so here's what we've noticed or here's what we're going to be working towards. So people are more apt to watch a video, a short video, right? When you think about the reels and things nowadays, people want short video updates. So how do we market that idea? And whatever that is, right? I just threw out the one Elma idea cuz I thought that was that stuck with me. As I looked at the strategic plan goals and the things that we

068are are heading towards, the idea of one Elma and what I heard today bringing the community and the school district tighter together, like that could be something that we market. Like that's our rallying cry, right? And so I think it's just those opportunities come up, how do we then capitalize on it? How do we show the classes that we're offering? How do we show our extracurriculars, our drama, the the choir? I mean, choir in middle school, like how awesome is that? That today, right? Like how do we market those things to those people that are interested in those areas? How do we continue to add to our academic offerings? And I think it's just that general approach of making sure we continue to relay all the good things that are going on. It really it's

069just got to be at the forefront of our mind and and reaching out to um media, you know, newspapers. You know, I read about the the the new board members coming in from the Tri-Times there, right? So, all those things are are just we have to use all of our outlets to spread the word about all the great things that are happening here. And and yeah, I I I just think it's just creating that plan together. Thank you. What district challenge or challenges are are you most energized to tackle here and why? Question. Um I think there's two. One is about attracting and retaining the highly the highly qualified staff. Just because we're people. We're I mean, we're a people business and we we need people who are passionate um about education and teaching and

070learning. And the one thing I will say uh two things I'll say about this in the on the tours today. One, there's a large number who went to Almont and then came back as staff members. And so, that shows that they had a wonderful K-12 experience. Right? And then the other piece is just again that love for the the community. And so, how do we just continue to build on that? I heard that they you know, we're having trouble filling some of the positions. So, how do we attract and retain those staff members? I think that is something I'm I'm really looking forward to. Um I want to know some of the recognition things we do for staff. I've got a couple ideas that I would like to um you know, ensure that that become

071part of what we do. But it's just about building that community of trust and making sure they have a voice in the process and that their opinions are valued. And that's the biggest seller, right? Whenever a person wants to apply for a district or go somewhere for teaching, they know somebody in the district and they reach out to that person and we want them that person to continue to say wonderful things about Elmira. And then the other one is the facilities piece. Facilities to me is just like it's it's almost like a puzzle as far as that process with it and we're going to have to persevere. Right? We've not been able to pass the the sinking fund or a bond and so giving up is not an option here, right? Our students deserve and

072our staff deserve improved facilities and so I will not give up on that. We can we will talk with the community. We will adjust what we're proposing. You know, ours the one we just passed is very much a meat and potatoes bond. If there is no there's no new buildings going up. There's nothing honestly there's nothing really that exciting. It's about having students safe, warm and dry for the next 20 years. And then after you get that in place, then maybe we can go for something that is a little a little nicer or a little more flashy or you build a a fine arts or an athletic complex, right? But I will continue to do that and and and adjust that plan for students. So that's those are a couple that I'm I'm pretty excited

073about. Mr. Wood, where do you stand on the balance between punitive punishment such as suspensions and restorative practices like conflict resolution? Well, I think it's just that. Uh we're required to utilize and restorative practices, right? So before we suspend a student then we need to make sure we've met all the criteria for needing to do that. And so do I believe in holding students accountable for their actions? Absolutely, right? Absolutely. I mean there has to be accountability and number one deterrent of, you know, misbehaving is consistent consequences. And so, yes, the students need to be held accountable, but I'm also not one that is a pound of flesh type person, right? If a student makes a mistake and it's not something egregious, they're going to get some consequences. We're going to talk about how we

074can repair those relationships, but I'm not going to hold that against that student. You know what I mean? We're going to move forward because that's what life is. You make a mistake, you learn from it, and you move forward. And so, I think it's a balance, a balance of the two. Thank you. This is just kind of a follow-up question. Mr. Wood, speaking on the accountability piece, what will you do to work toward achieving accountability for all grade levels? Are you talking about in like discipline? Or okay. Yeah, I mean, I obviously discipline has to be scaled appropriately, right? I had a senior, and I I I'm not a young man who was doing some cleaning because of a senior prank, right? Scaled appropriately to to the to the to the age of the student,

075right? We're not going to discipline a middle school the same as high school. And so, that's why there's always a range in the in the student handbook as far as the discipline assigned because you want to take in other factors. You know, what is the discipline history of this student? Are there any disabilities for this student? So, there's a number of factors that go into that and when you make those decisions. You would just want to make sure that the the punishment, you know, meets meets what the what the action was. Thank you. Mr. Wood. Yeah. Uh one from the community. Can you address the new cell phone law in schools for Michigan, and what do you envision for our school? Yeah, I'm I'm super excited that the state finally stepped up and addressed cell

076phones. This is something that districts have been begging for for quite a while. Um and so we went to a more stringent policy um a couple years back. And it's basically, you know, middle schoolers can't have them, right? You know, they can't have them. High schoolers, you can have them during or in between or in lunch, in between classes or at lunch, or we have cubbies that they put them in um during class. And honestly, it has not only been beneficial for students or for staff, but students as well. Like the distractions of, you know, having a a firmer cell phone policy has been a great adjustment. I feel like the state kind of stopped a little bit short of what they maybe could have done, but we also want to have some local discretion

077as well. I mean We We know that technology isn't going anywhere, but they don't need to have a cell phone when you've got a Chromebook. A parent can get a hold of a kid and we'll get them down to the office lickety-split, right? Like you you don't have to have a cell phone, and we've seen students actually say like they're glad this this is going on because they're not worried about it buzzing in their pocket and creating a distraction. So, the state finally took the right step. Um and then we just as an individual district need to shape what we believe is best policy. Thank you. Um you already answered my next question, so I'm going to go to a community question. What do you believe needs to be done to have a successful bond

078campaign? Yeah, I I mean I I think the first thing is obviously just listen, you know, listen to what what is you know, what were the reasons that the last one was unsuccessful. Um and I think it's it's just important to relay and have them understand, you know, the community understand that when you look at the buildings, they look good. But it's the infrastructure. It's the 50-60 year old unit vents that are well beyond their life expectancy that you can't buy parts for anymore. And just try to create that understanding. And you want to create a campaign that, you know, relays transparent information. And if there's a community concern, you adjust your frequently asked questions page, you repost, you invite the community in. Um we and we were contacted by the local newspaper and they

079wrote a nice article and we had pictures of lockers with bolts because the clips had broken off, right? Like the They had to see all those things. And you also have to focus on, you know, there's some people that are going to vote no, no matter what. And so, what a lot of campaigns focus on is you got to make sure your yes voters turn out and vote. You know, relay that message. You can't just say, "Oh, well, someone else is going to vote yes for me." They have to be actively sought out to make sure that they're they're the ones voting as well. And I think it just comes down to transparency, um listening. So, one of the things um that our staff continually said was they wanted air conditioning in all the buildings.

080And so, we made sure we worked that into the the plan for each building to have air conditioning because that was the one thing that came up so often in our survey, our facilities assessment, you know, air is a luxury. Well, if we're I think if we wouldn't have included those things, listening to the community, then I don't know if it would have passed. And so, I think it just starts with that. And it's it's sometimes tough for the community when they hear the dollars. It costs so much to replace and repair, you know, infrastructure in schools that you really need a sinking fund every year to do some of those projects. And then every so often, you need that big bond to come in and do the things you can't do with the sinking

081fund. And it's just it's just gaining that understanding, I think is is listening is that first step. So, you said um for the campaign, uh what would you envision as the the leadership or the committee out of the campaign to take charge of getting that information out to the community?" Yeah. Yeah, and a good point. Um so, when we we worked with Clark um Construction, and so they had and they worked with us um as far as creating that bond campaign, right? Like we had um you know, our multiple people interviewed and we posted those. We posted uh frequently asked questions, action team ballot information. You know, we had the boards made so at the open houses, they were there. And then each building after that in the community, every person that came in saw

082these specific improvements at that building. And so, you you work with a bond campaign that kind of takes you through those steps and processes, and then you create the material, right? Because we know the community, then we would say, "No, we want to do it this way because this this will have a greater impact with our community." And so, and and based on the facilities plan and that and uh feedback from the community, that's what we focused on. You know, we've got a parking lot in in one of our elementaries that's awful. Well, we were able to purchase an adjacent property, add to the parent loop, and repave, you know, that will be a significant portion of that building. So, I think it's a combination of those things, but they they will walk you through

083a lot of that that materials and and how you want to communicate with the community. That's me? The school board during the course of the search stated that being strong in finance is extremely important for our future superintendent. Um and I know you went over this briefly, but other than grant writing, what experience do you have in managing that $25 million budget at Cross Lakes? Yeah, I mean, it's it's a collaborative effort. Um you know, we look at a variety of factors there. We are expecting about a 2.5% foundational increase next year. We're still not sure on the categorical and [clears throat] then you know from there once we look at staffing, right? We've got a little higher percentage on our staffing than here. So you look at your staffing that's coming back. You look

084at contracts. What raises, what percentages are going to impact our budget next year? Do we have any big one-time purchases? We are fortunate that we purchased all of our curriculum and the Chromebooks are on a rotation. We're I think we're going to hold off on a bus for next year or only do one. And so you just look at each part individually and then you move down the line. Okay, athletics. We're looking at safety nets for cuz that's the next piece that they prioritize. So you look at that individual budget in the athletics and you say, okay, last year you did this. This year we're going to do this. Is there a difference there? Okay, where does that extra money go if if there's some in that? Same thing with tech. So you go by

085department and I'm through. Meeting with the building head, what do you need in your building? And then you adjust their budgets accordingly. Like I'm not a big fan of this rolling budget over. It's a place to start from. We know year to year those budgets are going to be different. And so looking at each piece of that is how we collectively build that that that you know $23 million budget. Thank you. You mentioned Chromebooks a couple of times. Like we're kind of in the situation of like we're kind of dealing with another lease or buy or sell. So did you evaluate leasing before compared to like the plan you came up with something something like this plan? Like do you compare that to leasing as far as cost to the district? Yeah, we we found

086that this is just better where it's better. We do a lot of our fixing in house. And so we've got a an insurance plan and then all those things too. So I mean that we just thought that was the better option. And then at the end of that time we always keep some you know for repairs, and then we sell some back. Yeah, we found that that was just a better option. Uh share your experience with the facilities management and capital improvement projects. Anyone talk about this? Um So, how would you communicate um a little bit more on like some of the bigger capital improvement like I know we talked about marketing from like just do you want to expand a little more on that? Yeah, I think the the biggest part there is, you

087know, having once you create or once you have a facilities assessment done and creating a prioritized list. Um you know, there were some bigger things we were able to do with grant money uh or excuse me, sinking fund money. Um so, we replaced both the boilers last year, and then we utilized 12E funds from the state to offset those costs and save almost $300,000. And then that $300,000 rolled over um into the sinking fund. And so, I think it's a similar approach as far as you know, when you got those sinking fund dollars, you're prioritizing those, and then as you continue to trickle down, you you want to maintain that that prioritized approach um with the money you have. Um another option that um could be something that I've done some more research on as

088far as an energy optimization bond. Um that's where you don't necessarily um it doesn't it can or cannot it can extend bond dollars or you can work with the company um to have an energy optimization bond, and that's a way that could get some money for some of those facility projects as well. It basically is a um takes your energy savings, and you recoup those energy savings up in front, and then that's a send out over time. And so, that could be an option to look at. Um I'm not saying that's an option we should do. I'm just saying that's an option, right? Because we know we've got some facility needs. Okay. Um Do you have any more questions? So, uh we appreciate your individual position. Uh is there anything else that you'd like us

089to know um about how you view Alcona schools? Are there any other questions you'd like to ask the board and any closing statements [clears throat] you'd like to make at this time? Yeah, no, I appreciate this opportunity and it's been it's been honestly a great experience. Um today was a lot, but it was as I told Adam, I forget what I was talking about, but I just said that's a regular day, right? We're working with people, we're collaborating, and then at the end of the night, we're going to have a board meeting for an hour and a half, right? So, it's it's pretty much a regular a regular type day. Um I I think, you know, as far as um for me, I think uh straightforward, you know, what you see is what you get.

090Um I'm not going to pull punches. I'll be honest throughout. Um and so, I hope I've been able to just portray that um to the board and to the community that I truly am in this for the best interest of students. You want to come in and grow and help and move forward on that continuous improvement plan with with Alcona. So, that I just I just want to make sure I say that. Um As far as questions, I've got a variety of them written down here. Um I guess one of the ones that I would like, what is one of the biggest need for students in Alcona? I I gained some of that today, but anything different from what I kind of gleaned out from my visit today? I think um our biggest one that

091I heard in the last couple weeks um is from offering us some different curriculum. So, you know, that more robotics than our AP classes. Um we had uh really neat conversations with the middle schoolers who would like uh even see Alcona um their program there. Our middle school principal and our teacher said that they may but I don't think she can do all that she is doing. But they're looking for even more options. Kids that you know are getting into stuff way younger and so they need a lot more and more options. So I think programming is great. Yeah, and we talked about that today on the visit as far as those elective opportunities and scheduling them differently which I think is a Um, I think the other ones you've asked, you know, what challenges

092were quite most immediate. I think we've got a couple building administrators talking with the union today. We've got some negotiations to get through as well. So I think those will kind of be, you know, the big challenges coming in. So I mean I think I'm good from, you know, from from my perspective. I appreciate your time. I will say to the community, the board has done a a a very thorough reference checking calls. I've gotten a message from people that I didn't think would would have been contacted. And honestly, it's great. It just shows the importance of this position. And so I I do appreciate it. The community, you know, the board is taking this very seriously. The community needs to know that. So kudos to the board. You know, if I'm not the person,

093Jordan and I know each other from back in the day. So I mean we talked today and so you're going to pick who's best. I hope it's me obviously. But no matter what happens, I wish I wish Almon all the best moving forward. So hopefully it's me and we get to meet again. Thank you so much, Mr. Wood. If anybody in the audience has feedback and feedback form, please make sure you get that to tomorrow. And we will be taking a brief recess. >> Mhm. >> Yeah? Okay, welcome and thank you for being with us again. After you give your opening remarks, you're going to do our questions in a round robin format. Tonight, board members can follow up on questions, ask further questions, clarifications, and so on and so forth. So, we're going to

094start with your presentation to the board and we'll go from there. Are you ready? Yeah. Good evening. Thank you for having me back. It's an honor to be back and be selected as one of your final candidates. Elmont is a fantastic district and I learned that throughout the day today just kind of talking with teachers, talking with administrators. Uh many of your staff had great things to say about the district and uh it's an exciting opportunity for me. So, I'm going to present to you my superintendent entry plan. It contains three phases. So, there's a pre-entry phase, an entry phase, and a development of next steps phase. This is a little different from like a a traditional 90-day plan with that pre-entry phase. That pre-entry phase is put in place there so if I'm offered

095the position, I'm going to get immediately to work. Um there with the hiring of two administrators needing to happen, we need to jump on this right away. We can't wait until July 1 to begin the process. If we wait until July 1 to start talking with people and engaging with the community, we're going to be we're not going to be setting our teachers and our students up for success once we start on day one. So, the guiding principles of my plan, every decision I will make as your superintendent will be grounded in what's best for kids. Um I will be visible. I will develop relationships with community members, with teachers, with students, with all stakeholders. Um while I will honor the traditions of Elmont and the great things that are going on, I'm also going

096to push the district a little bit. I want to take us to the next level. And I'm going to be transparent in everything I do. Communication um is it's so important to be transparent and I think that's that's one thing that can be definitely improved on. I think every district can improve on that. But, I'm going to be transparent in everything I do. So again, the three energy phase, this is the looking, listening, and learning phase. So, it's really just having discussions. I may have some remote meetings. Um I'll try to get in here. It's going to be on my own time. So, obviously, I have to finish up at Reese, and I have to give them 110% until I'm done there. Um but, on my own time, at night, on weekends, I will start

097engaging in these conversations to get an understanding of where the community is at, where the parents are at, where the teachers are at, where the students are at. And that will give me just a a basis for where we need to go. And again, I can't wait till July 1 to do that. We have to jump on that right away. Um I'll also be collecting a lot of data and going through that data to find out where our test scores are at, where the where the test scores are at, um and just our enrollment data, and everything like that. Again, just just that data gathering. And that will take me into phase two, which is entry. At this point, we'll be really having the meaningful conversations. This is when we'll start developing some plans. So,

098really this this plan is to develop a plan. Okay? So, this is when I'm going to have those meaningful conversations with each of you, um and we're going to start setting our goals that align with the strategic plan. Then we're going to develop the next steps. Um this is where we're aligning the expectations. This is where we're putting it in writing, and we're going to develop an accountability chart on our website, so people know exactly what goals we're chasing, and when we accomplish them. Um again, that goes back to transparency. I think it is so important that our stakeholders know where we're where we are heading, and when we're going to get there. Thank you. Any other questions on the presentation? Every candidate um that time will be a round robin for me at the

099end and then we'll open up the floor for questions for everyone. Our next question will be asked by Vice President Edwards. Um yes, so how do you define a healthy school and district culture? Excuse me, and what strategies would you use to support staff morale, professional growth, and retention in Elmont while keeping the district Elmont? If you encounter concerns about culture or climate in Elmont, how would you diagnose the issue and then address it? A lot of questions in there, but [clears throat] if I come back to you, I apologize, but uh you know, I think that process begins, you know, today as I was walking around listening to teachers and listening to other staff members just to try to gauge where they are at. You know, I I heard that there's a lot of

100silos within buildings um that may not have been there in the past. Um I heard that maybe maybe teachers aren't feeling as valued as they should. But I also heard some good things, too. You know, I heard that uh you know, teachers are feeling good about the the direction of their their schools, you know, the schools being modeled just the relationships they built with students. Um so, you know, listening that's the first step and that's you just understanding where everybody is at. Um you want to maintain what the traditions of Elmont are um and that's you know, by getting out into the community and being from the area, you know, I understand. My first job was at uh Roosevelt Place, so I was local boy there. So, I understand the community. I have I have

101a strong basis for it. Um but uh you know, just get everybody involved in these conversations. It can't be just uh you know, one person from each building. That's not going to cut it. We need to get multiple voices in these conversations and you know, that's how we're going to move forward together. Um I discussed a little bit in my last interview just about our our building level meetings and that's where we involved teachers with themselves for the day and they come in and they meet with our our building principals. That's where they offer up ideas. That's where they offer up solutions. That's where they offer up where they want to go and what they want their professional development to be on. And then the principals take that to our district level meetings. That's with

102me and and my team. And they bring that to us and we discuss it and if it's a good fit for the district, it likely is if it's coming from our bloodline of teachers, and that's that's where we make our moves. Did I miss any part of that question? Um If you encounter concerns about culture or climate at Alma Public School, how do you diagnose the issue and begin to address it? Um [snorts] basically if there's a disconnect between what you're trying to do and what you're achieving. Yeah, and those are honest, transparent conversations. And that's built from relationships. Cuz if you're not going to if they're not going to be honest with you, you know, you're not going to have a true grasp on where the culture is at. Um I take pride in

103the the relationships I build with all my staff members, and that's by being visible. That's by, you know, just having conversations that aren't even school related. How's your family doing? You know, what are your hobbies? You know, different things like that. Just getting to know them genuinely. You know, not not just at a professional level. And you know, I think my I have an open door policy. Teachers, staff, anybody's welcome to come talk to me about anything at any time. And uh what I found is, you know, I I get those honest conversations with people. And it allows me to act on those things right away before they become big issues. So, we need to be proactive as well. Thank you. Mrs. Webb? How do you engage parents and community members who may disagree with

104district leadership? And if they disagree, you listen. You show them you care. And you follow up. Um those are, you know, three things that I've always done as an administrator, you know, at the principal and assistant principal level. It's a very important that we listen to those concerns. And maybe we don't agree with them, and that's okay, but we better be able to justify why we don't agree with those things. And, you know, if we do agree with them, we got to have some honest conversations with our administrators on why. It doesn't mean we're, you know, we're hard on them. You know, maybe it's part of the growth process. You know, we're all growing. Um we all have blind spots, too, me included. So, it's important that, you know, we go back to the trust

105factor. When I'm working with my administrators, it's very important that that they tell me if I have a blind spot, or one of my blind spots is coming through on a decision. Um and, you know, with the administration team that I have at Reese right now, they they are very honest with me if I'm missing something, but I'm also honest with them as well. And it's not a something any anybody takes personal. It's just part of how we work. You know, everybody has blind spots. Um so, again, back to honest conversations, active building trust, active building relationships. Thank you. We are extremely proud of our academic performance while also facing significant facility needs. How would you prioritize and communicate difficult financial and operational decisions without compromising student achievement? You always leave those decisions outside of

106the classroom. Um it's most important that we're here for students, we're here for achievement, um and providing our students all their needs. So, we're going to keep those decisions out of the classroom. Um where we can help though is looking at our efficiencies. And um you know, I I discussed last time about uh that that tank hooked up to your boiler, and I did confirm today that you do have a thousand gallon tank. Um and you're only getting about 200 gallons of water per day domestically. Um and that's based on the uh you know, everybody should take showers after gym class, you know, bathrooms the students go. But, um what I'm getting at is we need to look at all efficiencies cuz you can get out in front of that before it becomes an issue

107or you're running short on money. So, that means we're finding grants to put in LED lights throughout the buildings and save money there. That means we're replacing tanks with more efficient tanks. Um you know, so we're not using a thousand gallon heating up a thousand gallon tank of water every day. Um that means that we are um utilizing any efficiency that we can. Um so, there's grants out there for these things. We don't need to necessarily pass up on to to make these things get done. Um you know, we also want to retain a a return on investment in in something. So, we have to spend some money to make some money in some cases. So, an example I use on that is like a building automation system. So, we can regulate the heat with

108boilers. We can regulate the heat within classrooms, you know, remotely. Um right now, I know in this building you don't have it. Um you know, those are regulated within the classrooms. So, um just look at different efficiencies to try to save the district money in order to get out in front of these things. Okay. Mr. Eppley, um you mentioned some of the efficiencies there everything. Um would you look to fund that through like a energy bond type thing? Would you try to do it through our normal uh sinking fund and a bond in the future? Like how would you look to fund this? Yes. Um Like the improve those efficiencies. Yeah. Yeah, and we raise some funding out of the sinking fund currently. Um so, it's on a BAS system right now. We just had

109the bids in and uh that's it. We're utilizing that cuz it's going to save us money um with our with our heating and cooling. Um so, that's the best way. But, there's also grants available for those things as well. We can, you know, we have time to put those together. You know, I wear I wear like 20 different hats in this, so it's it's hard for me to write those grants as well. Um but, if I have the time you know, I can get those things done as well. Thank you. And um thank you. can you give an example of a particular [snorts] time when you had to prioritize and communicate difficult financial decisions? Yeah, I think right now we're we're going through that a little bit. Um, you know, with the state aid formula

110being increased by 2.3% and inflation being at 3.6%, you know, that's that's kind of where we're at. You know, I communicated that to to people in Reese and we're going to have to make some hard decisions here, you know, in terms of you know, we're going to do a negotiation here. Um, so that's it's it's going to be tough. You know, we want to do everything we can to get teachers raises and and help them feel valued because they're doing hard work. Um, so, you know, that goes again to just being creative and trying to find the best way to make that happen. Um, if that means, you know, cutting some other things, then we have to make those tough decisions because we have to support our people first. You know, if we have happy

111teachers, you know, we're going to have happy kids. Mr. Ackerman, uh, you mentioned grants for facility coverage. Can you give us an example of one that you successfully applied for and got? Yeah, I applied for the scrap that and we got a grant for the energy efficient program. So, we couldn't do an we couldn't do an electric bus out of Reese just didn't make sense with the back roads and cold winters in Michigan. Um, so, that didn't make sense for us to do and then you have to install the chargers. So, it's a cost on top of that which just wouldn't make sense. But, the propane buses um, fantastic. They operate just like a normal gas bus does. Um, so, it's worked out great for us so far. Thank you. This is Mike. Um, uh,

112as you walked through the the uh, the district today, um, things that I don't know if they came up, the high school is our oldest building and it's our most efficient energy efficient. Our middle school is our newest building and it's the least efficient. Was there anything that you saw as you walked through that you could say I could tackle that and it will help with the efficiencies here? You know, just more so back to what I was talking about. You know, a lot goes with your heating and cooling, uh your boilers. So, you know, you have to get those kind of worked out. And a strong preventive maintenance program and a number would come off cost us so much, thousands of dollars to replace. So, it's just uh something like that it can go

113a long way. Uh but, you know, just utilizing those preventive maintenance systems is a long way. Uh but, you know, just utilizing those preventive maintenance systems is huge. You have those weekly meetings, we set those goals, and you are seeing what opportunities existed for these kids, what efficiencies they had. I was able to work with those teachers to make sure those kids were taken care of. And it paid off greatly for those kids. And also, we can't forget those kids who are right in the middle, those average learners. You know, we have to make sure that we're providing them the supports that they need. Um and pushing them along as well. And I think we also need to share with them. We need to be on the same page with our parents so they have

114an understanding of what these kids are learning and when they're learning it. And that goes to posting pacing guides, that goes to making sure curriculum is aligned from top to bottom. Um but just doing those little things, taking those steps. And I think a lot of times the school districts we try to set these these enormous goals and they just sit out there for years and years and years. It's It's like a like a strategic plan in a lot of ways. Those things just sit on a shelf for years, they collect dust, everybody forgets about them after a couple of years. Um so, we got to just take off two of them at once as we go, achieve little wins. Okay. You previously left education to pursue a COO role at Lakes. Can you share

115what motivated that decision and what ultimately led you back to education? Looking back on that experience outside of education, what did you learn professionally or personally that you believe makes you a stronger leader and superintendent candidate today? Yeah. Um So, before I went to Blake's, I was athletic director and assistant principal at Oxford. And um after when I took the principalship in Armada, I was 3 months into the position when the the Oxford tragedy occurred. And um I don't like to speak on it because it's not my tragedy. I wasn't there. There were many who were and you know, it's horrifying. Um but it did impact me to the point where I had to step out of education. Um It was yeah. Tate Myre specifically was a student who was in my office if not

116daily, weekly for sure. And um it just so happened that um Armada was hosting a playoff game and they didn't have a field to play on. So, I called Oxford. I said, "Can we use your field?" They let us use it and um that day I ran into Tate in the in the trainer's room just getting taped up before his game that he was heading out to. And that you know, that was my my last interaction with Tate and you know, everything I've pulled about it did. Um It just um It's yeah. It That's why I left education. And I It just so happened that Andrew Blake was on the board at Armada and uh he's the owner of Blake's. He said, "Hey, if you leave leave education, I got a vice president position for

117you. I think you'd be great at it." And I did it for a year after talking with my family. I thought it was the best move that I could have done just to step away from life and you know, find if this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. Um so, went over to Blake's and uh I took them through a strategic planning process there to get everybody aligned. They had a lot of side talk and ego going on. They were having some issues within their company. And um we we took everybody from the the janitors to the C-suite level individuals. We brought them into the room. There were about 40 individuals and we developed our mission, our vision, our core values, and we set goals for the company. And

118it was very well received, and the culture at the company was fantastic after that. And after 6 months, they promoted me to CEO of the company. Um and it was our profits were up, our expenditures were down. It was just like again, the culture was fantastic. And um you know, at that time it was it was I was ready to get back into education. I went to school for what I love, love working with kids, love working with people. And that's why I went back into it. What I learned there was a lot about business and finance. While I was raised by entrepreneurs, you know, business has always been in our family, and so you know, I know a lot about business going into place, but at the same time, the responsibilities of a place

119like me forced me to learn very quickly. And um just carrying that my number one goal, and I used to remember B. Lake saying to me, "Your number one goal is the financial health of this company." And still resonates today, and I learned a tremendous amount about finance and business. Thank you. Mr. Eckman, in our first interview, you mentioned working together with a team to lead the room together. What is a time in your leadership role where you couldn't come to an agreement with the entire team, and still had competing ideas, and you had to make a decision to go with one or the other? Um I think, you know, thinking about like hiring, you know, there have been times where I wanted to go with the riskier candidate, you know, the time where it

120kind of went against the flow of the room, where the room wanted the safe hire, but you know, I I've gone with the safe hire before, and usually it doesn't pan out. Safe hire doesn't push the program, safe hire doesn't push the classroom. So sometimes taking that risk pushes things, you know, it gives you that positive momentum you need to change the culture and to to take things to the next level. Thank you. Mr. Ackerman, how do you define a healthy school and district culture and what strategies would you use to support staff morale, professional growth, and retention in Almont while still keeping the district Almont? If you encounter concerns about culture or climate in Almont, how would you diagnose the issue and begin addressing it? Did you guys already ask this question? Yes, we

121did. I'm sorry. I can answer it again if you want. No, we don't need to get I can't ask you any questions. There you go. Sorry about that. Um describe your experience hiring school principals and how will you support the new administrators in their role as well as learning yours? So, I've been part of hiring principals before. Um you know, this would be my first as the lead guy. Uh when I was in the Reese system, the superintendent principals were in place. Um but you know, being being the lead guy on this hire, you know, I think the culture's going to be number one. You know, we want to look for for people who can assimilate to the community, assimilate to the the traditions currently here. Um but again, I I really want to push

122things a little bit, too. And sometimes that's going to be, you know, it's going to be uncomfortable for some. When you're uncomfortable, that's when you grow. Um but again, you know, someone with the experience, you know, somebody who um gets along well with teachers, who is an advocate for teachers, who wants to just develop teachers and listen listen with what they want to do with their professional development. I'm not I'm not going to hire somebody that's going to be going to be the the iron fist. That's going to you know they're going to call all the shots. I need somebody who's going to be collaborative, who's going to listen to the community, who's going to listen to the staff, but also somebody who's strong in making decisions. You know, we have to be able to

123make decisions in these leadership roles and we have to stand by them as well. Can you elaborate on um this more like your process exactly Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, so um you know, obviously we we post, we review the applications. Um and when I say when I say post, we need to reach out, you know, through as many different uh websites and people as we can. If we just post on our website and expect people to come to the Elmwood website to see the job description or we expect them to go to the NYSA site to see these jobs, that's not going to work. We need to actually reach out to these people and find them. I have a great network of people um within superintendents, uh within principals. I've already had people reaching out

124to me saying, "Hey, if you get this job, I want to work for you." And these are some super strong principals. Um they would do a fantastic job. Um but again, so I would have a student um as part of the interview committee. I would have a board member as part of the interview committee. I would have at least three teachers as part of that interview committee. And I would have uh uh one of our current principals as part of the interview committee as well. Um and then based on that, probably be two rounds of interviews. And uh definitely some reference checks and we'll go from there. Thank you. Really quick clarify. Uh so, when you do that process, uh just because I know a little part of it, uh do do the student, those

125teachers, do they all take part of that process from the first interview on, or do you like screen candidates first so that they have like a small pool, and then you bring them in? Like at what How does that work? No, I have them all review all the candidates. You know, I want them all to be a part of the process from start to finish. Um you know, I just don't think it's a good look if I'm selecting the the five candidates or three candidates. You know, I want I want our staff involved in that process through and through. Cool. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Can you uh tell me about a time when you had to optimize a district department or implement a corporate-style efficiency measure, such as a major budget reallocation or

126operational overhaul? How did you execute this shift while ensuring it did not negatively impact student learning or teaching morale? Yeah, you know, just like I talked about putting that um that preventive maintenance program in place, it was a big cultural change for Reese. Um they they've done everything on paper. Um so, you know, along with that, I've taken all their forms and everything and we've put them, you know, so they're electric. So, you don't have their, you know, their internet. So, you know, you don't have to fill out three copies and, you know, turn them in and then somebody loses the paper. Um you know, so that's like building use forms, field trip forms, fundraising forms, stuff like that. So, um but that was a culture change. At first, people didn't like it. You know,

127they didn't like that I moved their cheese a little bit. Um but over time, people really started to accept it and they now it's just the way things are and people they they're actually giving me positive feedback on it. Uh specifically with that that preventive maintenance program, that saved the district a lot of money. And uh again, the the custodians were pushing back on that a little bit, you know, and I had to explain to them and show them why not and how important it is to the district. You know, ultimately, it makes their jobs easier so we're not reactive on these things. You know, we can be proactive on these things done, making sure things are fixed before they come become, you know, $20,000 fixes. You know, we can we can keep them maintained

128for 100 bucks instead of waiting till we make it a $20,000 fix. And that's that's huge. What are you holding this district will become under your leadership five years from now? And I think it is one of the best schools in the region. You know, I'm not going to say the B wagon is it we're going to blow through the B wagon. Um but I'm talking about the region in Southeastern Michigan. And again, that's going to be a just a full team effort. That's going to be everybody getting involved. You can feel it any building that you walk into. You can feel like the climate. Um I don't know if you've ever walked into a school like that things aren't going well. You can just feel like the It's just not a good feel when

129you walk in the building. It's cold and stale. Um So, when we have people walk into our buildings here, I want them to feel warm. I want our community to feel welcome coming into these buildings. Um and we're appreciative of having the community. So, it's you know, it's just it's wild. Um And I've done it before in other districts I've been in. I've taken districts that there was that broken bridge between the community and the the program with the school district that I worked with. And I was able to build that bridge multiple times. So, it's that's my greatest strength is really uniting people, bringing people together, developing culture. If you don't have a good culture, people aren't going to enjoy coming to work. Our teachers won't enjoy coming to work. Our students aren't going

130to learn. Um So, we have to really focus on our people first. And the rest kind of will fall into place. And that's when you start passing bonds. That's when your student achievement goes up higher than it is now. So, let's focus on our people and the rest will fall into place. Thank you. If we asked your principals, teachers, and support staff what it feels like to work in a district you lead, what would they say? I think they'd say happy, uh fun. I think they would say collaborative, uh energetic, transparent, um welcoming. You know, just uh again, you know, it's back to that that people piece and that's the number one thing I focus on. It's just taking care of my people. And um and just a collaborative approach where everybody's ideas are heard.

131We work together in every method, you know, you're not going to have me making a decision, you know, from from my office on things that are going to affect the classroom without our teachers having the most to say in that discussion. And and that decision. Yeah, my people are going to they're going to say that that they're enjoying their jobs, they're having fun, and uh Thank you. Mr. Wright, where do you stand on the balance between punitive punishment such as suspensions and restorative practices with conflict resolutions? Yeah, so you know, this is uh this is often a a discussion had in schools. So, um if you're running restorative practices, which I know Homewood is, and your you know, your people are trained on it and they're running it the right way, you know, it can

132be a great tool to utilize. However, suspensions need to be utilized as a tool. Um students need to know the magnitude of their actions. And sometimes suspension is is the only way they realize that. And a lot of times they don't they realize it because it affects their parents as well. Those parents, you know, they have to find people to watch their kids or whatever it may be. They have to stay home from work because their kid is home. So, it affects them as well. So, the parents are more bought in making sure their student doesn't take part in those actions again. But, you know, with the that also there's like a peer portion of that as well. So, their peers see that, "Okay, you know, Johnny was suspended for a fight that he had.

133I'm going to make sure I don't get in a fight." But, also, you know, those restorative practices are important, too. I'll tell you >> [clears throat] >> a lot of times parents, you know, they they push for like a matrix that that A happens then B is the outcome. You just can't do that. Cuz all kids are different. All situations are different. You know, if you have a reoccurring offender on something, you know, they're going to get a different discipline than a kid who was protecting who had got bullied. You know, that's going to be different. It's just you know, not every case is different. Every situation is different. Uh follow up on that. So, how do you identify if the restorative practice being used is being run correctly? Is if if it's being bought

134into by everybody? Like how do you go through the whole assessing that? Yeah, I would have to observe what what's being done with the principals are doing and what the counselors are doing. You know, I I've been part of those those discussions when you know, say these students if they have a disagreement, maybe they got in a fight. Um having those those two students at the table talk to each other and how they affected each other. And you know, you can see you know, just based on the questioning that's done by those counselors or those principals if they're trained. You can see if it's effective with the students. If the students take it as a joke, you can tell that as well. And at that point, you know, your restorative practices just aren't cutting it.

135They're not getting it done. There's different methods you can use to ensure that it's getting done the right way. But again, it goes back to being trained properly and make sure you follow through on that detail. Uh But yeah, so it can work if you're trained and you use it as a tool properly. The suspension is a tool that you can utilize as well. Sorry, one more. But so, how do you make the distinction there? Like what's what goes into your decision-making process of whether it's a more punitive punishment versus uh you know, like a restorative approach? Oh, okay. You're saying like if you're saying like if there were a fight, how do you know to go with that suspension compared to a Yeah. Yeah, I think um you know, if there were a fight,

136I think you're going to go to that suspension. I think it's uh you know, it's one of those actions that you know, you have to hold kids accountable. In real life, you don't get a restorative practice. Okay? When when these kids are gone, you don't get to sit down in a circle and you can talk about it. You know, don't get me wrong, schools are for teaching kids and we have them taking those opportunities to teach those kids. Um but you know, I I tend to lean towards the the suspension because it supports our teachers as well. You know, a lot of times you these instances occur, you know, you you try to have a restorative meeting and then you send the kid back to class and now your teacher is trying to, you know,

137teach and they're trying to deal with this kid who's probably acting up again. You know, it's in a way we're not supporting our teachers. So, we got to make sure we're we're supporting them as well. And sometimes that kid just needs some time away to gather themselves and and take a breath. Thank you. I noticed that many of your positions have been in the one-to-two-year range. For this superintendent role, we're looking for someone who wants to grow long-term with Alum Rock and help build trust with our team and community. Can you help us understand the reasons for your previous um uh transit- transitions and what makes you confident this is the place where you would like to stay and grow? Yeah. Yeah, so my my career has been progression. I'm ambitious. My goal from the

138start when I got my education was to be a superintendent. I'm lucky because I had great people, leaders that I worked under that really helped me get my back. You know, from the start of when I started at Warner Westerville, Warner Bailey in terms of leadership. You know, he helped me understand my path and the road map helped me road map the entire thing. Um and because of my work ethic, doors opened for me. People came to me, schools came to me to, you know, offer interviews. I was fortunate enough to earn those positions. Um but it's been a progression. I have never made a lateral move. Every move I have taken has been either from assistant principal to principal, principal to superintendent. Started at athletic director, athletic director to assistant principal, assistant principal to

139principal. Um also from, you know, smaller schools to bigger schools, to larger schools. I have never had to make a move because of a controversy or an issue. My evaluations have always been rock solid. Um I've never had any evaluations that were less than effective. Um and, you know, if you talk to every supervisor I have had, you know, they've supported me in these moves. Um so they they wanted to help me in my career progression and they've actually, you know, pushed me as far as my education as well in me getting my masters, my specialist, and all of my doctorate here within a month. Thank you. Um Mr. Acton about that. So, what I can anticipate with that part of that what makes you confident this is the place where you would stay and

140grow? Yeah. Yeah, so um This is almost Well, first of all, I'm sick of making those transitions, okay? Just so you won't ask about it. Um I'm at a point in my career right now where, you know, my goal was to always kind of be at like a Pewabic school district school district um closer to home. And uh I I never you know, as far as the superintendent role, I don't have any desire to be a superintendent in Romeo um cuz that's the district my kids attend. And uh throughout my experiences, I've seen kids that a superintendent really had a rough go, you know, throughout their their school careers. And it may things tough for the superintendent as well. It tough for the uh the teachers, too. Um it's just a conflict of interest piece.

141It would always feel like, you know, you just feel like you're you're trying to push the kid along, give them better grades, or they're making teams because your kid's a superintendent. You know, it just makes things makes it quite tough for all parties involved. So, um you know, having known the Almont district really well, again, having my first job here, working down the road here the last 5 years from Lake, I'm very familiar with the the community, um many people in the community. And it's just a it's a great fit for me. You know, and as I stated to you in my last interview, this is the only only job I searched on. Mr. Ackerman, you mentioned that you are hardly ever in the office during your first interview and you don't like being behind

142a desk. As this district is bigger than Reese with almost twice the budget and staff than your current one, uh what will it look like to make sure all the desk work still does get completed? Yep. Yeah, so I I mean, we all have computers in our hands, okay? And a lot of that desk work is returning emails and communicating efficiently. Um so, you know, I'm always able to communicate via phone, via text, via email to parents. Um you know, again, I talked about the app G in my last uh interview. I mean, it's all the app G at Reese. It really allows you communicate with parents effectively. It takes more of a phone or email just from my phone. Um, that work always gets done. I mean, I I don't I don't push that

143aside, but I'm always going to put students first, too. And I want to make sure that I build that relationship with our students. They have to feel comfortable telling me what's going on in these buildings if something's wrong. Um, and that goes along with teachers, too. Teachers need to feel open to communicate with me. And if I'm not visible, um, they're not going to do that. So, I put that above the desk work, but I don't miss deadlines. I don't miss communication. Um, I'm efficient at what I do. I I really organize my days efficiently to make sure I'm taking care of those things. And uh, that's helped me be successful in this manner. Thank you. Mr. Herring, do you have any more? Um, Mr. Herring, how do you approach setting district-wide priorities that balance

144student needs, staff capacity, and community expectations all while ensuring all my state's focus on long-term goals while still responding effectively to immediate challenges? Can you repeat that one more time? Yes. How do you approach setting district-wide priorities that balance student needs, staff capacity, and community expectations all while ensuring all my state's focus on long-term goals while still responding effectively to immediate challenges? Yeah, so it goes back to the conversation earlier on. That's kind of part of the the phases here that we've discussed. And uh, really identifying those priorities of those students and the and the staff and the community. Um, so I'm going to do that early on. And you know, I'm going to be open and transparent with that by putting it on our website and making sure that everybody understands what those needs

145are, what those priorities are, and when we're going to achieve them. You know, it's not just talk, it's action. Um and you know, that goes that has to connect to a strategic plan too. So, all those discussions need to to cascade from the strategic plan, which are your long-term goals. With one of your strategic plan goals being that communication piece, well, that that's done for you right now. I can you know, all I have to do is just kind of switch over to that information, but that's a good about 6 months to build with that communication plan. Um but that gets that pretty much any school district. Um but you know, again, just connecting those to the strategic plan, making sure we're reporting out you know, at least monthly to the community and to our

146stakeholders to make sure we're hitting those long-term goals as well. But uh I really believe in score cards and just making sure that we're transparent with meeting those those priorities for our students and community. What would be your plan to get a bond passed to secure funding for the district? You know, I think the first step here in Elma is to stop talking about bonds. I think we need to really first get on the ground level and start having those genuine conversations and just learning about people and uh bridging that gap with the community. Um there was some distrust um whenever whenever the distrust occurred, um you know, again, I'm not here to point fingers or look at the past. I'm here to look at the future. Um but it would be one of my

147main priorities to just get to know people, get to know business owners. Um get to know the farmers, get to know the older folks, so I have an understanding of where they are at. Not about a bond, but about just the school district as a whole. It would be a great opportunity for me to explain to how great of a job we are doing at taking care of what we have. So, if at some point down the road they decided, "Hey, you know, you guys do have a need for this." You know, they would probably support it because they know we're going to take care of it. Um that would also be getting these people into our buildings. You know, you can't You're not going to pass it on by standing on a stage showing

148a a presentation. Okay? You're going to get the same people that show up to all your presentations and school meetings. Um those people are really involved and have the time to get over here. But, we need to really get off our opportunities to get, you know, the community into the buildings. And And again, not to just like look at the building, but if they're in here for if they're in here for uh you know, maybe a a coffee hour or walking the halls in the wintertime, you know, they're naturally going to see the building. They're naturally going to see what's going on. They're going to go into your locker room and realize one of the one of the sinks work. You know, so it's again just having just the Hold on a second here. We're

149going to grab that. I can get you that. We tried that. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Maybe trade lights. Yeah, yeah, trade lights. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, the bathroom doesn't work for us. >> [laughter] >> Hello, hello. Okay, sorry about that. >> Oh, that's all right. So, again, it just goes back to getting people in the building so they can they can naturally see the state of of our needs. And so, if they have to use the locker room, you know, they see that only one of the sinks work. And now, just that's just an example. I don't know if that's actually the case. But, uh we can't just go out and talk to people tomorrow. We just have to form relationships. Get them in here. relationships. Get in there. Once those relationships are

150established and we understand where they want to go as well, then we can usually meet on these things. So, uh full disclosure uh with our district. If you you follow through board meetings here, uh we have spent down the sinking fund as the community requested. Uh and we have discussed moving forward with the sinking fund in November. Uh how do you see yourself impacting that uh with a shorter time window than would be ideal? Yeah, sinking fund, you know, that's a great move. I think it's excellent. I think it shows the community that you want to start repairing things, get sidewalks under control, um potentially some parking lots. Um I came into a recent the same type situation here. Passed the sinking fund. We were able to do that. Um it was close. We really,

151you know, I was getting like a 50/50 feel when it was coming down to it. And I really had to put a marketing marketing plan in play. And which really pushed things to the next level and allowed us to pass that. Um but uh yeah, sinking fund is a great move for the district. And it allows you to get on those those smaller things and just kind of start cleaning up the sidewalks, parking lots, maybe some plumbing, um some fixtures within some locker rooms, bathrooms, etc. But uh yeah, definitely a great move. That's it. Um so, you said you put a marketing plan in place. Uh what what did that look like? Cuz we were probably really close to 50/50 in the last sinking fund 2 years ago. Um so, what what did your marketing

152plan look like that you developed for Reese when you felt the same situation that we were in? Yeah, um so, one area we were missing was um you know, the farmers and the older folks. Um and so, we sent the cards out to them. I think you guys are doing that as well right now with your operating much, which is people as well. You know, some are just going to rip them up and toss them in the garbage, but you know, it we also put them in our church bulletins. I had coffee chats with every Monday and Wednesday where the older folks could come out and just have conversation and ask me questions. And really ultimately that pushed things over the edge for our sinking fund. It was having conversations. It really reached because those

153older folks they don't use Facebook that much. They don't use social media. They don't go on your website. But another piece that I have with the website for those who do view it, the main thing is to just be concise and easy to read. A lot of times I did some research on this. I looked at every school district two elections ago that passed the bond and those that didn't. And I looked at each of their websites. And the ones that passed them, all their information was very clear and concise, easy to understand and easy to read. The ones that didn't, it was like pages and pages of things that you had to read through and try to decipher and understand. And you know, if you're a stakeholder and you go on and you look,

154this is just pages of of information. This this is information overload. Like I just don't get it, you know, I I can't vote for this compared to something that's quick, easy to understand, lays out all the information, is transparent. It makes things easier for the stakeholders to make a decision on whether they want to support it or not. Thank you. Um with the non-homestead operating mill, that will be August 4th. My birthday. So it should hopefully pass. What type of plan would you have as a backup should that not occur? Yeah, that's a you know, some districts are dealing with that right now. You know, in that case you're going to you're going to struggle with your staffing. You know, you're going to struggle with um you know, the extras that you have is the

155extra opportunities. You know, you're going to have to tighten the belt a little bit, but I think you know, just again, digging into your efficiencies right away, trying to to make some cuts as as far as just savings. I think that's the best route to look at first is the bigger efficiencies. Um but you know, you're going to make some tough calls. That's just the reality of the situation. You know, I think that that's going to make things tough as you go through negotiations this year. So, it's just really important that the community understands that they're not being taxed on this. This is not a new set. You know, so just be very clear on that. Making sure your yes voters, uh your yes vote team, they they get out there and they're informing the

156community as well. Uh make sure all of your all of your kiddos have the information that they're taking home to their parents. Uh it's important that uh you know, you can get one vote per student, you know, from their parents. You can ask them pretty easily. If you're not walking the information, it's not going home. You're not going to get that vote. Do you have any other questions? This This was asked though. Yes. Mr. Eckmann, in your first interview, um you had mentioned that uh you felt that our budget was a little out of whack in favor of staffing. Uh can you go into detail on that and what it would might look like in course of a year or two years to get that corrected? Yeah, so I think that um you know, what

157I did in Greece was I came into a declining enrollment situation. Um what I did was I I put a marketing plan out there where I was geo-fencing different areas. So, I was geo-fencing all the surrounding districts and I was highlighting all the great things that we're doing in Greece. And our enrollment increased 3% uh right away. And again, 5% we're looking at a 5% increase. We don't know all that so obviously it's research. We're looking at about 5% increase this year. And that's based on just kind of like getting on top of the mountaintops and yelling like, "Hey, this is what we're doing. You guys have awesome test scores." But to be honest, I wouldn't have known that if I didn't have to go through the mission data to look at. These are things

158that we can really communicate out and brag about and people are going to want to be part of it. But also, so it goes to keeping your kids or you want to keep all your students. That's definitely going to help with that situation. It'll close that gap a little bit. I think you have an opportunity to add another GSRP classroom, another section. You have three. Apparently you have two. Once you get those foundational students in there at the bottom level there, they're going to stay in your district likely. It's just going to keep compounding as they go on and have that section that intro section for the students just compounding through. So, that's another thing we didn't previously. We added that GSRP section. And so, that's a that's a huge part of our enrollment increase

159as well. But that's how you close that gap. Number one, keeping your kids. Adding sections to add more students to the district. Cuz once your students are gone, they're not they're not getting them. It's unfortunate but it is. But there's And there are so many opportunities here that I think a lot of kids in the surrounding district would be excited about. But if they're not if they don't know what those exciting opportunities are, they don't know what they don't know. So, they're not going to come to your school. I mean, one more problem. Uh and then so, in Reese just obviously it's very good that you got enrollment going up when the rest of it's declining. Did you find that you captured that through retaining Reese residents or Reese Reese schools? I don't know where

160your district is but it goes outside of Reese but and then or did you bring in school choice students in those numbers? It's a little both. So, with those GSRP students, by adding that section, we were able to bring in more recent students compared to those students going to like Carol because they had open spots. Whereas, we would fill those two sections right away and we would, you know, we would have to turn them down. So, once they're gone, they're gone. Especially those lower level students, right? So, by adding that section, we we retain those recent students. The idea is to just keep them in the district. But, you know, as far as older students and hearing about the great things that we're doing, you know, our academic achievement, our athletic programs, the different clubs

161we have, our FFA programs, unbelievable. That attracts students to us. So, that's how we brought in the school choice students. And that that's directly tied to the marketing. You can do a bunch of those areas. You're driving through Vassar and, you know, you're you'll be at home on Facebook, and our recent ads will pop up about our FFA program. So, that's a parent that's on the fence, they see that, that pushes them to us. You know, we had over 11,000 clicks on the ad itself and we had over 100 actually fill out the form to receive more information. You know, from there, we'll see what our our rate is of actually coming to the school. Thank you. Um as far as students that leave the district, how how closely do you look at that and

162and try to determine like do we you know, is there something systematic that we have that is kind of at the root of why families are choosing to leave, you know, maybe in a particular time, it's like a particular stage in our district that families tend to leave, you know, what are your thoughts? That's great data and it's a great point. I think if we can do sort of an exit interview of the students and families, or really just a an email or phone call to the parents on why, just gaining an understanding, I think we can utilize that data. Maybe they're all leaving fifth grade after, you know, their experience in fourth grade, you know. Identify what the issue is or maybe it's maybe it's the sports programs or you know whatever it may

163be. There's not enough opportunities for our students or I think you're spot on with what you're saying. I think we can identify those those areas of concern and opportunity. Is this expensive? Um over the last few years some of it in the board uh we made a concerted effort to keep our uh class sizes small as small as possible um especially at the lower levels. Um average what average class size would you have? Yeah, at the elementary school we have uh 25 at our uh our our lower level. We have about 28 at our upper level. Uh we try not to get above 28 in our classes. Obviously if we do the teachers get paid an overload based on their teaching contract um but you know you try to balance that. You look at okay,

164what's it going to cost us for a new teacher based on the overloads. Um you try to manage that because it's it's fiscally responsible but there's a point where you got to really look at the classroom too and you got to say okay, you know they have five challenging students in this classroom and you can't you know you can't play the numbers game on this one. You just need an additional teacher. It's going to cost us but you know we have to do what's best for kids and again all decisions are going to be rooted in what's best for kids. If we have to dip into the bucket a little bit, that's what it's there for. At the end of the day our kids are going to be achieving because of that decision. When you

165bring in three other students because of that which is ultimately you know helping the company. Mr. Appleton, we appreciate your taking the position. If there's anything else you'd like us to know about how you may need our non-community schools or any questions that you'd like to ask the board. You also have the opportunity to record your voice. Um what is the greatest strength and greatest opportunity of the board? The greatest strength and greatest opportunity? Opportunity. Opportunity? Uh for you or for the district? For the district, for the board as well. Um retaining our staff again. Um our new superintendent and found that staff. Um that's just easy for our students, for our parents, and our admins rave about the staff all the time. Um I would say that's our biggest biggest strength and I think

166the opportunity could be retaining those individuals here to continue on that fire. Uh I I I just appreciate your time. Um you know, I'm I'm I'm battle-tested. I'm battle-proven. Every stop I've made along my career, um I've proven myself. I've turned districts around. I've turned programs around. Um culture is is what I do. Culture is my greatest strength. And um yeah, based on your candidate profile, culture is strong culture is what you guys need right now. I feel like I'm the right guy at the right time. And I appreciate uh the opportunity to interview here today. Um excited that I got the chance to talk to you guys today. Thank you, Mr. Ackerman. Um if anyone in the audience has filled out a feedback form, please make sure that you give that to Scott from

167the ISD. And we are going to take an eight-minute break before we start. >> Mhm. >> Two gentlemen spent a lot of time with you by work and effort and they said a job well done. We're going [snorts] to say very positive what did you like? What we're working towards is consensus. It's not a vote. I can live with it. May not be your perfect vote, but I can live with it. You wanted it but we're done we want a consensus vote. It tells us that the new person, whoever it is, we're 100% behind them. If you do a a vote and it's 5-2, immediately there's this distrust going on and okay, the two didn't vote for me. So, what didn't I do and what are they going to be like through the whole process.

168Okay? When you get to a point where you're comfortable, just say it. I'm I'm good. You know, I can make a decision and you you can go. It's you guys control this discussion. It's not me. You're talking to each other not to me. I'm just guiding the discussion today. Talk to each other because actually it's like the decision is up to you. You've got a lot of information so far, but remember ultimately it's seven of you who are the ones that make the decision. You got to take all that input input you've gotten plus the input of people who haven't participated. What are they telling you? But ultimately seven of you were elected to make this decision and it is the hardest decision you'll ever ever make as a board of trustees. Paramount and so

169we all put passion into it and we all stress about it. You got to do what you believe is best for the school district in the long term. Okay? So, since Kyle Wood was first, why don't you talk discuss Kyle Wood first? What did you like? What did you see? >> Turn on. Got it. Can I go first? Don't let me jump in. All right, I'll jump in. Um something that I like about Mr. Kyle Wood was the rotation of Chromebooks. Um we talked a lot about the Chromebooks thus far, especially at the LP level, so I thought that was start the rotating Chromebooks. I'll let someone else chime in and then I'll kind of step in. I like that he gave the examples of every single question we had pretty much. He had a

170great example of things that he stuck to. Mr. Smith. I I appreciated the way he approached his his answers with the the examples and the the structure they gave. Very thorough. Quick on the side. Things very well laid out and mapped out and what to do in in the in the situation that will arise. Mrs. Smith. Um I had the great task of contacting teachers from both of their backgrounds and and Mr. Wood got like very positive feedback from teachers all all across the board. His curriculum, the way they implemented the curriculum and worked with the teachers, everything was really well received. Mr. Smith. Uh I liked that Mr. Wood was data driven, which was something that as a board we were looking for. He seemed to back all of his decisions with some type

171of data he had gathered from somewhere. And he was very personable. Already remembering people's names, you know, addressing the audience and whatnot. So Um I liked that the question from uh Burns um on the achievement gap of struggling learners versus advanced students. I liked um his AP science options. I liked that the other every other year rotation was a good idea. Um I also liked my question on what being a system superintendent, um what would prepare him to be a superintendent, and he listed everything he's done in that school. Um and I think that was a big positive. Well, I thought that Mr. Wood took time to absorb the questions that the board was asking him. He was taking notes, and he was very detailed in his answers. Um he's very organized. I really liked

172the idea that he was well-versed in extensive history with grant writing and managing those. Grant writing and managing those. I again thought Mr. Wood thought he was very knowledgeable in his body. He's very passionate about the students and I got some innovative ideas about the whole book and the different things that he's doing in the school. Mr. Smith, I liked that Mr. Wood took time to absorb the questions that the board was asking him. He was taking notes, and he was very detailed in his answers. Mr. Smith I'll add in uh I also had uh I really liked his his approach on accountability all around, including himself, us, everybody um and his uh you know, the we mentioned data driven, but process driven. Focus on the process and getting our processes in place. I enjoyed

173the presentation. I thought it was well thought out. I thought he researched well that I think he he got what we were saying. Uh to follow up with what Sherry had said with one of her questions, too is uh I I I don't feel that he lacks super experience. I feel like his super assistant superintendent role, he's got super experience. Um all the references that I called were central staff members and they all spoke that like he was right there with the superintendent for every decision that they're making, every big decision and if the superintendent was not available, he was there making that decision on his own. Um so like I I don't feel there's a a big experience gap there with uh not being the current superintendent. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Smith? Um

174I was able to talk to former student of mine from SAISD who was a student of his. Um and I think he had said what you see is what you get. And the student had said that he was very calm, collected, cool-headed um in his explanations. Um and that's what we saw um in his responses. Um the only other thing I noted I I Sorry, my heart was racing. I I felt he was very passionate about the students and about making sure that um the curriculum supported them and the staff. I like that he touched on the fact that he was quite surprised at some of the um reference checks that we did. I was tasked with reaching out to support staff, so I contacted food services and transportation departments and they too were taken

175back that I was reaching out for reference checks. I thought that was pretty neat that he Eric got back to him and he touched on that. Anything else? Um since we're all going to talk about those, I reached out to his superintendent and his other people and pertaining to the the natural gas that they had at home, he was very calm and collected, very student-focused, had had everything He wasn't waiting for people to make decisions for him. That's my interpretation of it. He was I like I like seeing that. Any other comments? All right, let's talk about Jordan. What did you like about Mr. Ackman? This is what I was saying. Um I think Mr. Ackman is is uh is forward thinking. Um you know, he he talks about building relationships and you know, all

176that stuff. I also contacted his teachers, you know, overall positive feedback from them as well. Um you know, he's also student focused and and and you know, but the the forward thinking piece is like kind of stuff like that. I like that he has new ideas when it comes to giving a fine past year in North Penn. Mr. Smith. Um I wrote uh that I love that culture was the number one strength. Uh obviously with the community there's been some uh damage that we need to repair. Um and I think that uh his voice could speak to that. Uh he was very uh people oriented uh and genuine in wanting to understand what uh what everybody uh feels and thinks and listens. And then I loved uh to follow Mr. Burns uh that he was

177proactive on issues like before they become issues. He's trying to solve problems, which was really good to see. I like that I like that he said um he wouldn't do any classroom cuts, that he would look for more efficient ways to do things. And he mentioned um the gap um the the water tanks, LED lights, and looking for grants to fund some of that. Um I'll follow up on that. The Going to find noticing the the the deficiencies in in how we process things in in terms of looking outside for for grants and the the lighting. Um how can we I think he had said in the first interview, we save a dollar it goes to the bottom line to to keep that money here so that it's it's staying in the classrooms. I think

178that's the the ultimate goal that he was presenting in this process. These are things that we have seen through our our our talks so the building side the the finance committee of what can we do different that maybe we haven't been doing. I think he's got ideas that would fit into that mold. Is this a solution? Um I like that in general Mr. Ackerman and it seems like he's very driven. He's you know, progressed very quickly I think in his career to um simply get jobs and he's he's kind of a a pusher. He's going to he's going to keep us going forward. One of the things I have on Mr. Ackerman um is very well versed in improving culture. I think that was um a preference to me. Um he's a current superintendent doing

179the role right now. Um currently in a current fiscal for the budget. Um definitely very visible and it's a priority even a big priority and and um I can tell you um the staff that I called on they were principals um in his current district and two of them um well one principal and a secretary were actually crying on the phone with me um because they said he had um you know, just done such a great job with their culture in their schools and they they were happy for us but if he were to leave they they would be a huge loss for them. So you can tell he impacts people and he takes the time to really get to know them and help them. And that's um important. Mr. Smith, I like that he's

180not afraid to step away from the desk at times and be mobile and let the students see him and show his visibility. I thought that was nice. Mr. Smith, I had the board members. So I reached out I reached out to the only board member I believe that was still on for Alameda and the Marlette. It was informative that they were pretty concise of that it building the culture. I reached out to the the Reese and I believe the first one I got back was I was hoping not to hear from you but I knew that I would with the the praise that the the board member had said. So um you could see that the impact that he had up there it would be a loss for them definitely a gain for us. I

181like that he was working on his doctorate. I think that that is a plus. Mr. I'd like to just comment to where he said you know cuz I had asked him cuz he had said I'm I'm visible. I'm out there. I'm not behind the desk all the time. He said well I I don't miss them. I said well I don't miss communications all that stuff so it goes out. And I like that he had identified a few points where you know he took the time to hear what I needed some improvement on it and you know and and he did that and his marketing seems really good. So after going through that communication part there. I know. Mike I don't know if I saw one portion of the tour as they came out to the

182the track. I saw him interact with the students out there and and and connect with them. How are they going to do these random acts of kindness, that type of thing. I was impressed by that. Any other comment? Look in your binders, you should have a copy of the candidate profile that you built way back when. Right? We gave it to you that first session, one that we were looking for this, this, this, and this. It was in our original folder. That's While while she's doing that, like I know that finance was one of our biggest things that we were looking forward to. You know, so that that's out there. And then we we've been saying for the last 6 months is this this board has gotten together that um one of our core features

183that we were looking for is data-driven decision-making uh for sure. And and uh you know, we have a lot to repair with the community. So, and and I think we're already making the right steps. Um and I think either candidate will be pleased to hear what we've done for the last year to 2 years trying to uh improve the relationship with the community. Um but yeah, I think community, data-driven, and finance were probably the top three things we were discussing today. I think that Alma had a superintendent here. So, I think you're right. It was the finance, but then yeah, if we need to find another bond in the future, announce that, send that out, and all that, and then experience, and then culture. Go ahead and read through that list. Yeah, I was curious

184if she's going to be able to find it first. All right, Jamie's pulling it up right now. Jamie's got it. >> [cough] >> Jamie's got it. All right. Uh, the Alma Public Schools Board of Education is seeking a superintendent who will collaboratively collaboratively work with the Board of Education, staff, families, and community to provide situational leadership while implementing student-centered programming and embracing the district's strategic plan that supports student growth and strengthens relationships throughout the community. Vision and leadership philosophy. Champions the district's strategic plan to create a tangible plan for attaining the district's vision and creates the appropriate processes and environment to empower others to work toward that shared vision, demonstrates the ability to think outside the box to develop data-driven creative solutions to complicated problems while being adaptable to different situations and needs. Qualifications: Master's

185degree with plus administrative certification, K-12 classroom teaching experience. Building level administrative experience. Uh previous superintendent experience preferred. Let's see the other browsers once we go up. Strong fiscal and operational responsibility including budget management and bond experience. Proven track record with curriculum development and evaluation. Experience with contract negotiation, labor relations, and human resource management. Experience with facilities management. Essential competencies. Budget and financial management. Strong knowledge of school financial matters with proven ability to develop, manage, and communicate complex budgets and bond millage initiatives. Curriculum and student achievement. Deep understanding of curriculum development with a proven track record of raising student achievement through a student-first approach and responsiveness to diverse learning needs. Communication and community relations. Exceptional communication skills across all formats. Demonstrates transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness with the school board, staff, parents, students, and broader community. Consistently

186follows up and follows through on commitments. Team development and human resources. Proven ability to develop and direct effective management teams. Recognizes values and affirms staff members and fosters professional development. Thank you. Uh that's nothing. So So remember, you put that together 14 weeks ago when there was no stress, we were just starting, and you said this is what we're looking for. So now filter the two candidates against the list you built before all this started going through, and see which one meshes those kind of criteria cuz that's what you said you wanted before all the stress jumped in and all of the voices in your head and everything you're going on. I think Mr. Wood aligns with our curriculum um uh requirements. I would agree with uh Miss Anglin that uh Mr. Wood seemed to

187uh have a great grasp on curriculum. Uh he had the teaching experience he was working for. Um data-driven decision-making on curriculum and he it was but again it was his main point of responsibility at the previous school. Um budget and financial management. I He was doing everything that the other superintendent like the superintendent was doing as assistant superintendent. He's in all the meetings, he's making all those decisions. Um we saw today communicate uh communication and community relations. Um I I really like that he seemed to already know people's names that work here, and he was working on uh stuff in the community, researching it already, and getting that involved. And then uh team development, I I thought both candidates actually did really well with that um with the collaborative atmosphere that they tried to uh

188envision in in the new district. I would agree. I mean I both candidates meet a lot of these. Um I do feel feel Mr. Wood checks pretty much everybody that we have on our list here. Um personally, I agree. I think they're I I agree with with Mr. Wood. I think he's got an advantage in the curriculum and in development there. Um I think Mr. Ackerman has a better understanding of the operational aspect of it and and and approach that with the preventive maintenance. Um his is a need here. I think kind of touching on what Mr. Reed says about facilities, I I think Mr. Ackerman has a good approach to what he could do to better assist our facilities. Um I also agree with everyone about Mr. Wood, too, and stuff. That's all I'm

189going to say right now. I think Mr. Wood would kind of come in and kind of just mesh pretty pretty easily with staff and our work culture. This is my two cents. >> [clears throat] >> Um I think both candidates have a lot on their backs, which is why this is a little challenging, right? Correct. That's why I feel like 14 weeks ago, right? So, one of the big things that we talked about at the table was our um our gap in our community and how important that is to protect. And so, I would approach that um kind of like my little bucket that we what we've about, like the finance, you know, fun or things fun experience. The culture and community experience and then um experiencing the first time in it. So, those were

190kind of the basic things I keep going back to in my head. Um I think the culture in the gap of community is is is huge. And I think that has to be addressed otherwise, you know, we're not going to keep moving forward. Um and you got people on the cast and the community and the board and whatnot. Um and I think Mr. Woodhead has a lot of experience as superintendent. Um you know, being in an assistant role. Um and Mr. Ackerman is in a superintendent role. So, I think both of them have really positive attributes. Uh they both were innovative. They both seem very student-centered. Um I don't know. They're they're both exciting, I guess. Any recommendations, Mr. Monroe? Not that I think we're moving forward. No, you guys are you're doing well. I

191I it sounds like you're getting close. I mean, I think the healing phase is huge for Almond. We've been healing or heading in a good direction. I think the last year or so. I think having the right culture is going to be the road to success for later years, too. I don't I don't think we should over sha- I do think culture is important. I think both candidates really can do well with the culture. Um but I I don't want that to overshadow students first, right? And like the curriculum, the working with the staff, all that like um you know, I I think that's where you know, that that should be the bigger focus than than the the bridging the community. And I think they're both important but >> I agree with that. I think

192Mr. White has a really good handle on you know, in the first interview we talked about the staff and the curriculum and working with the staff and what not and being proactive and the long term goal of that and making sure that the students have what they need and what not. I think they're very strong on curriculum and their first primary. I definitely agree with Mr. Burns on that too as well. Students first for sure. Any more comments right now? I think you're both strong candidates and I think they I would be comfortable with either in the majority of all our all our criteria. I just think Mr. Woods stood out in the world of curriculum. So I that's where it is. Let me find out. Daniel? If we get close, everybody's got kind of

193a name. Are we coming to an agreement? Any other comments? I just want to echo what Mr. Burns said about staff. I have pastor Fred Growling Anthony always said like it's it's the staff not the building. And it's similar here at Elmont. It's it's the staff here that work so hard to help our students achieve. And the more support we can give the staff, yes, with new curriculum would be wonderful. Absolutely. Bridging that community gap to fix the sidewalks out front would be great. But if we don't fix the sidewalks out front, we need a superintendent here that is able to work with the staff and keep achieving great scores, great test scores, and keep the curriculum involved and and that is where I I lean that way. I agree with you, Mr. Brown. Sure.

194>> [laughter] >> Freeze. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. I want to thank the sky and all the stuff that has been done in this point. We started 14 weeks ago with a survey that created this this profile. We got 18 19 applicants. We lowered it down to five and lowered it down to two. I would really hope that one would stand out. Sorry. We're sorry we got you too big candidate and I think we'll do well with either one. Um They both had in terms of what we got from the community um same concerns. But you're going to have that regardless. Um but which one will be the best for us to move forward? I think that's that's critical. Um keeping the things that we have and improving the areas that we need to um

195I think are the priorities. Find the candidate that will do that. Um I made a joke earlier that I like this process so much let's do it all over again. >> [laughter] >> Um Not so much. >> But no. Uh You can do that, Mr. Burns. No. No. Um I It's tough. I I came in with thinking one and then the interviews and the back and forth. I think we we would do well with either one. I think we can move forward from there. So I would I would I would recommend we Somebody make a motion. I'll make one. Mr. Burns, are you Where's your readable fact sheet? Um I can read the fact sheet. Uh reason for consideration by the Board of Education. The Board of Education approves the employment of all personnel. Fact,

196with the retirement of Mrs. Don Hellmeyer effective June 3rd of 2026, the district is in need of a superintendent. Hazard and Associates were hired to assist with the search. First round interviews of five candidates were conducted on May 19th and 20th with second round interviews taking place May 26th of 2026. At this time it's appropriate for the Board to discuss and select the next superintendent. Mrs. Smith. Mr. Burns. I move uh Board of Education hire Kyle Wood as superintendent of Homer Community Schools spending board approval of a contractual agreement and authorize the board president and board treasurer to negotiate with Kyle Wood regarding contractual agreement governing their Support. Motion and support. Any other discussion? Mr. Mr. Burns. Uh I just think it's it's so critical to say what Mr. Wade said is that uh and

197Mr. Farrell as well. We Thank you for bringing us more than one qualified candidate to interview for this role. Uh that was probably our biggest concern 14 weeks ago. So yeah. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Any other discussion? Mr. Smith, I'm going to do a roll call vote. Yep. Mr. Farrell, please do a roll call vote. Ms. Oakley. I. I. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Farrell. I. Mr. Eckert. I. Mr. Burns. I. Ms. Rotarius. I. Mr. Wade. I. Mr. Smith. I. We have a 7-0 vote. All right. Let me step out and make a phone call real quick. Make sure we don't have any surprises that way. Great big things ahead. While he's uh making that phone call, audience, thank you so much. Your feedback forms are great. We really appreciate that. For

198all the viewers online or anyone that was at the first or second interview, the meet and greet, the tour today, everything helped so much to be able to read and get other people's opinions, the teachers, the parents, um you know, the administration. That all helped so much in this decision-making process. So, period, thank you for all the work you guys put into. Thank you. And thank you all very much. We're very happy. Thank you. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> He wants to then send his thanks after he stops screaming. >> [laughter] >> Uh he's very excited and he appreciates the opportunities. He's looking forward to it. Um Mr. Smith, I told you he'd be in touch with them to start the discussion about contracts. That he would That he'd be superintendent until he signs the

199contract and the board approves that signed contract. So, but you have a superintendent. He's excited and he thanks you for the opportunity. I want to thank you guys. You did a wonderful job doing the search, with taking it doing the legwork. When they talk about references, there's two pages of references. I kept getting reference after reference from them to say, "Hey, I got hold of this one and that one." They really did their due diligence. They read all this background material. They really done their homework. So, I think you you couldn't get hurt with either one. And I congratulate you on on your decision. I think you've done a great job and I think you're it's exciting. We will after July 1st, 60 days, somewhere mid-August, we'll do a transitioning workshop. We'll all come out

200and meet with the board and the new superintendent. We'll see where you're at and what we can do to help keep that going. We don't want it to just go right down the wall. So, that's part of what we do in transitioning. In the meantime, I'm always available. Call him to support me. He should get a few nights off now. Kevin's stressed about this whole thing for a while. All right? >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Um as we finish this paperwork search, I want to offer our sincere appreciation to everyone who's participated. Your engagement with the process has been very meaningful for the participating community. We're grateful to the finalists for their professionalism and to Scott Merrill from NESDEC for his guidance throughout the process. With the interviews complete, the board has voted on

201the final candidate to move forward as the next superintendent of Alvord Community School pending successful contract negotiation. Again, thank you to every single staff person, student, parent, community member that was involved. We really greatly appreciate all of you. Thank you very much. Um at this time, are there any questions and comments from the board? You may I can recognize the board. Marie? I always want to say thank you for for the effort you put into this. Um this was almost like a second job for you for the past like 14 weeks. Yes, thank you. Thank you. You put in a lot of hours, a lot of time, effort, and it doesn't go unnoticed. Mrs. Smith. Yeah. Uh we'll have to coordinate schedules once we hear back from him for any individual schedule changes. So. Okay,

202yeah. Any other questions or comments from the board? Mrs. Smith, this is Don Cole. Thank you. Ed, most people don't understand the president's role takes on the brunt of the work vice president never gets his full amount of it. Um so, thank you both. Um and thank you to everybody who's shown up, given feedback. We've read every single piece of feedback, and you know, it all goes into consideration. Um so, thank you, and um Yeah. I would like to make a comment. Thank um Mr. Acker. He was uh very helpful in um saving my vital time. I know it was a pain, but I really appreciate it, and um all my phone board members, the amount of time, effort, and responsibility you all took, I'm grateful to each of you. Any other general items? Mrs.

203Smith. Mr. Cole. I move the Board of Education end the special meeting Tuesday, May 26th at 9:38 p.m. It's 4:04. Okay, Mrs. Cole, any questions? Discussion? It's 4:05. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.