001Hi, we just wanted to let you know that we are waiting a couple minutes for our chairperson. We'll get going on in just a little bit here as close to 5:30 as we can. >> No worries. Thank you. >> Thanks. All right. Hello everybody. We're going to get this started. We're um just informed that our chairperson is on his way. He'll be here in about 5 minutes, but go ahead and call this meeting of the um uh school board meeting work session to order at 5:30 almost 5:31. So welcome everyone. Um um the goal of this work session is to build a foundation of search by defining the qualities we want in our superintendent, establishing a fine timeline and in determining how we will engage our community. Um our mission statement is motivating and preparing
002all students to reach their greatest potential. So I welcome all the millions of people out here in the gallery and everyone at home that's listening to our wonderful work session. Um, and if we could have the attendance, please. >> Chair Lacatur. >> Vice Chair Miltonberger >> here. >> Director Plet >> here. >> Director Cole >> present. Director Habberly >> present. >> Director Posegate >> here. >> Director Pemlot. Thank you. Okay. If we could have uh Tom lead us in 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. >> Okay. Um, so we have a recommendation of approval of the agenda um for March 9th. I'm seeing if there's
003anything on here. Okay. Um, >> uh, sure. The board of directors has requested this. No, that's agenda. Yep. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing here. Hang on. >> Oh, I'm doing good. The board of directors requested to hold a work session to discuss a limited number of topics in keeping with the concept of work session. No formal action or resolution is on the agenda for tonight's meeting. Recommendation administration recommends approval of the agenda. Get a motion. >> Uh vice chair, be it resolved the SCAW school district board of directors approved the agenda for this work session as presented. Resolution number 030926-1.5. Approve agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh motion was made by director Paul and seconded by uh director Poscape. Um any discussion? Okay. All in favor? >> I Oh sh. Hi.
004Okay, at this point I'm going to turn it over to our people on the screen and let you guys introduce yourselves and and uh start the work session and our chair will be here in just a minute or two. So >> well uh wonderful. Thank you very much. Um, uh, my colleague Heidi and I are very pleased to represent McFerson Jacobson Executive Search Firm. We're very pleased and honored that you selected us to, uh, work with you to, um, find and hire you, the successor to your current superintendent. uh we're going to become really good friends over the next 11 months and hopefully after that because we'll have a very successful search and uh you'll be very satisfied with the person that uh you select. Um because our resumes and um anything about us was
005not in the proposal, we thought we ought to start with who we are so you get at least know know who who you're going to be working with and who you've hired. Um I'll let Heidi introduce herself first and then I'll follow from there. So Heidi, go ahead. >> Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Heidi Cyp. My day job is a superintendent of the Umatillaa School District where I have served for the past 19 years as superintendent. And I started doing consulting work with McFersonson and Jacobson a few years ago because the thing I noticed after years and years of mentoring new superintendent is that the reason so many of them weren't successful is they should have never been in that district to begin with. Sometimes the right people and the
006right boards are not aligning. And so it's really important to me that we find the right fit for Susula. That's what I want to see happen. That's very important to me. And I've really enjoyed working with Doug for a number of years now. We've had a number of successful searches under our belt together. And we really spend a lot of time getting to know you, getting to know your community. So that then when we start reaching out to candidates, we are very specifically reaching out to people who we believe will be a good fit for your community and for what you're asking. One of the greatest things that I have access to for all of you is because I have served as a suit for so long, because I have mentored so many people, I
007have really good connections not only in Oregon but nationally. I've served on the American Association of School Executives um AASA's executive board for the number of years as well as the governing board for them. So, I have connections across the nation as well as in Oregon and that's been very helpful as we've done this work in the past. I look forward to working with you all. >> And don't forget, Heidi, you also were served at uh assistant superintendent for the state of Oregon. So, you have correct >> people all over the state. So, great connections. Um, my name's Doug Nelson. I um I'll be the lead and uh working directly with with Heidi. like she said, we just just finished uh a search and we uh try to uh and finished one last year. So,
008we work well together. Um I've been doing this work with McFerson Jacobson now for eight years and I've done about 25 superintendent searches uh from very small districts to large districts. Um I'm a retired superintendent. I retired from the Ben Leine School District about almost 20 years ago now. Um that I think that's about right. Um but uh since I retired um I've done a variety of things uh including I was president of the Oregon School Boards Association in 2016, served on the High Desert ESD board of directors and I currently am the board chair for the Columbia Gorge ESD. So I'm still involved um uh on kind of on your side of the table. And as Heidi said, we work really hard to find that match. Does the person are the people we're bringing,
009do they meet those qualities and characteristics you and your community are looking for? Because when there is that match, then we have that long-term commitment. And our firm prides itself on the fact that uh almost 80% of the people that we help place are still on the job after 5 years. Average tenure of a superintendent n 2.8 to three years. Um um and so when we do when we follow our recipe as we like to call it, we get that match. And after 10 years, 60% of those people we've helped place are still on the job. And I know everything that school boards and school districts want people that will come and will stay and be in the district because when we know there's that long-term leadership, student achievement increases. And that's what we're all
010about is helping districts have the right leadership to ensure that students are very successful in the long run. So that's who we are very briefly and we thought the board would just kind of go around real quickly and who you are and word or two about yourselves and I'm not sure if chair look uh if if the chair has been uh shown up yet if Brian's there if he's wants to get started and then just go around the table and and folks on um online. >> Yeah, I uh decided to skip that part since I had a phone call with you already, but the real reason is I just don't know how to look at my watch. Um, so I'm I'm glad that uh that Moren can get things started without me because this is
011not the first time she's had to do it. Um, so, uh, I my name's Brian. I'm a local contractor here in town. Um, uh, my wife and I, uh, we moved to town before we had any kids, so all of our kids are born and raised here. Uh, we came to we came to Florence in 2002. Um, and it's been a it's been a great community for us. Um, uh, I don't know how long how long have I been here? four years, five years, four or five years on the board. Yeah. Yeah. She Come on, Moren. Hook me up. Um, so that's um that's that's who I am. Um Moren, >> you're up. I'm up. >> Okay. I'm the vice chair. I'm Moren Miltonberger. Um I moved here in 2010, but I grew up in
012Newport and was born in North Bend, so I've kind of got the Central Coast down. Um done a lot of uh teaching, educating, been retired for several years. um ran some agencies that helped out with uh clothing and that kind of stuff for years. Um this is the beginning of my second term here. Um I'm real involved in OSBA as well. Um and right now I'm uh volunteering for first grade and doing a lot of other things around the community. So really good to be here. >> Uh hi, I'm Adrien Plet. Uh this is my uh my first year serving on the uh on the school board here. Um oh jeez, let's see. I am an independent music teacher. Um I am the president of SC Law Childare Friends. Uh we're a organization that is
013opening a child care center here in town. Um I'm a parent representative with the United Way of Lane County. um uh both for their uh family leadership council and also as a grant scorer and grader with them. Uh a zillion other things I think would be the best way to put that. But uh yeah, mostly uh mostly just uh very involved in the community, very involved with early childhood care and uh love teaching music. >> Uh hi, I'm Tamara Cole. Um I've been on the board for three years. Um, we moved here. I grew up in Eagle Point, Oregon. Um, we moved here. Oh, >> we just finished the Eagle Point search. >> It was a great community. We loved it. >> I love Eagle Point. Um, my husband was a sus. He he went
014to sus law from kindergarten all the way and graduated. Uh, we moved back here in 20 or 2005 and my four girls went through school here and um very involved in the community. We have a business here. Guess that's about it. Thank you. >> I'm Josh Habberly. Um I graduated from SUS Law 2000. Um my uh my dad was a teacher here for 18 years in the district. I've got my kids uh have gone my daughter's now a junior and my son is in middle school. 've all gone to Suslaw since they were um kindergarteners basically. And yeah, I'm a local contractor as well. Um I guess that pretty much wraps it up for me. >> Um my name is Tom Posegate and uh I'm also a new board member at the from the last
015election. Um I am a stay-home father to three daughters. My oldest is in second grade and the other two are in preschool. And uh we my wife is a nurse practitioner. She was recruited to work at the hospital here in 2016 and she now works for them but remotely. Um and the same as Brian, we moved here before we had kids and started to decided to start a family here and this is where my kids are from and we love it. Um I volunteer in my daughter's class once a week and I did that last year and and I'm doing it this year and that's about it I think. >> Okay, >> sums it up pretty well. >> Do you want to go next? Yeah. And >> we're just introducing ourselves to them. >> Yeah.
016Doug, Heidi, uh, uh, Director Pimlot. Diana joined us as well, so so she's up. >> Hi, I am Diana Pimlot. This is my, um, second term on the school board. I am been a resident of Florence for close to 30 years. I am the director of pharmacy services and pharmacy infusion services at the local hospital here. I've been doing that for the for 30 years. Um I have uh two children that went through the situs schools. Um second child I volunteered every week on Fridays for a number of years um in the school system which sparked my interest in participating on the board. Um I guess that's it. That's all you need, right? >> Yeah, it's pretty much it. Can I ask a question really quick? Tom, go ahead. Heidi, um, were you at the
017Oregon's OSBA small schools meeting? >> Yes. >> Were you the Were you the presenter there? >> I have presented there. I don't know which one you mean, but yes, I have presented a number of times for OSBA schools. >> The the November one, like the most recent OSBA conference. I'm trying to remember if there was a a >> Yeah, >> I did present there. Oh, I is that what you're referencing? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. And you had the you had the um >> the family dance thing. I remember that was in school. That was a really cool presentation. >> I just pieces together. All right. Cool. >> Yeah. No, I'm very passionate about school leadership and really dedicated to the idea that if we have strong board superintendent relationships, if we have positive leadership in
018place that students win. And when I first um was contacted about doing this work, I thought, "Oh gosh, I don't know if I can pull that off." But thankfully Doug and I are a really great team because he takes the lead and then I fill in behind him and it's just been wonderful. I have loved doing this work so much and has given me such great perspective on so many different areas. It's just been great. So thanks for going to the breakfast though. I appreciate it. >> Yeah, Tom, I thought your question was going to be if she's uh ever considered living on the coast. That's a >> We get asked that on every search we do together. No doubt. No doubt. >> Um >> but you you uh Doug, you still have that retired
019status, so we're not asking you. >> Thanks. Because I let my license lapse a few years ago. >> Oh. Oh, okay. >> Be a catch, though. I'm telling you. >> Yeah. Well, there's been professional sports players come out of retirement and do good things. So, so Doug, have you ever considered living on the coast? Um >> every day. Um I live in the Dallas and our favorite place is the Oregon coast. So um we as a matter of fact last uh last August we were camping at Honeyman and we love uh bringing our trailer down and uh we've got good friends who uh live in uh Florence, so we hook up with them. So it's uh uh something we really enjoy. Um you never know. You never know. to follow up on um your thumbnails.
020Heidi and I want to get to know you all a little bit better. So Heidi's gonna uh get a hold of three of you and I'm going to get a hold of three of you. I've already talked with Brian just to dig a little deeper about why you're on the board, what your hopes and dreams are and whatnot about the school district and about the search. So, uh we'll get an email out to you and we'll set up some phone calls over the next few weeks. Um, as we do go about the search, um, one of the our communication is very important. My our main point of contact will be Brian and Debbie. And Debbie and I have already spent quite a bit of time talking about the search and um, different responsibilities as we
021go through. Debbie's got a long checklist of things she's got to do to make sure the search goes well because we need to work very closely together to ensure um we uh we do have a successful search. But it's also important that if you have questions as board members, you can get a hold of us. And um I we both have our cell phones on all the time. superintendents can't afford not to and I do all the time even though my wife tells me to turn it off. Um, we'll always have it. Um, uh, we'll make sure that Heidi gets that to all of you, excuse me, Debbie gets that to all of you. Uh, so that if you need to get a hold of us, please call. Um, you know, you may have that
022burning question, a a patron asked you a question and wanted to know something and you needed to get back to that person immediately. um we're available and um we'll always then filter information back through Brian and Debbie so that all the entire board knows um what's uh what's being asked and what's percolating out there. Um and so that's just kind of just some of that housekeeping housekeeping kinds of things. So one of the things I didn't quite hear from the board and I'll just go around. What do you expect from the search? We've got 11 years. 11 years 11 months to uh by our proposed calendar that we'll take a look at from when from today until when you appoint a new superintendent. And um um I don't know who wants to jump right in,
023but um um someone you know maybe Diane Diana since you were the last one to speak, maybe you could and you've been the most I think the most senior on the board. Um uh what is it you hope and what's your hope and expectation for the search? >> Don't forget your microphone. >> Um well, I I'm hoping for um that we can locate someone with experience, someone who is who shares the same mission. Um uh someone proven um be nice to have someone who might have some longevity. So someone not not necessarily on the doorstep to retirement, although I'm right there. um someone who is politically neutral and really has um intent to focus on the the kids, what's great for the kids in the school system. Um someone who is um willing to voice
024a sound opinion. So, someone who's going to do the research, bring to the board a um a a a body of evidence, and then present a recommendation for consideration. Um >> all right. >> So, that's what you want in a superintendent. So, we're looking for just kind of the hope for how the search goes. A little bit of that conversation. We'll come back and talk about those qualities and characteristics you're you're uh addressing, and those are important. So, make sure you've gotten I hope you have them written down. Tom, what >> I took notes? >> Nope. >> Tom, how what's your hope for how the search goes? Um, my hope is that we find ourselves with um with great candidates to the point where we get to pick the best of several great options. And
025um that we and that when we do so, we find someone who is a good match, who is somebody who wants to be on the coast, who wants to be at this pace with this size of school, and who um is going to embrace the unique quirks of our town and our community. And um and I I I hope I totally agree with Diana that we um we need somebody who's going to um just always have the well-being of the students at at the top of their mind the whole through the whole process. So I hope that we um and I hope that we have guidance as to um just more expertise. Um I know some of us have been here a while and some of us haven't been here that long. So, uh, definitely,
026um, I I ask a lot of questions. It It bugs some people, but, uh, somebody who's going to be patient with, uh, with my questions and everyone else's would be really helpful as well. >> Okay. Um, Josh, how about you? >> I don't know if I can add too much. I I agree with with with Tom. I I expectations for the search. I like to see, you know, multiple candidates would be awesome. We'd have a, you know, something to look through and not just, you know, have be limited in what what we're looking at. I don't know much more that I could add. >> Okay. >> As far as the expectations for the search, but to echo, you know, both what my uh colleagues here said. Okay. >> Moren, >> hi. Yeah. Um I would
027really like to have not just us involved. I want to have a lot of the community members and teachers and administrators and other people involved at least get the get infant from them. So it's not we all have expertise in different areas but it will be administrators and teachers and and those and parents that will be working as well with the superintendent. So I would really like to have those people involved as well. And I'm I I'm hopefully timewise we're doing okay because when we went to the last OSBA thing seemed like everybody in the state of Oregon is looking for a superintendent. So I'm hoping that that wave gets over with and we still have lots of extra other candidates that are available and willing and and wonderful and willing to come to the
028coast because our timing may be not really good. And we're also very spoiled because we've had the same superintendent for 10 years. So we haven't had to think about this. So thinking about it as like getting the gears all back greased up again and re regoing someplace that a lot of us haven't had most of us on the board haven't had to do before in this category. So >> you are well ahead as far as your planning the fact that you have a plan for this coming year. you are a rarity right now. And so just take a deep breath and know that there's always a lot of searches going on. And the fact that you're starting as early as you are shows your commitment and also um your forward thinking. You're good. >> And
029we'll get back to that um as we go through the calendar. Um Tamara, >> um I I agree with everybody else. Um those are kind of the same concerns I have. Um, I was just going to say I don't want to just have to settle for somebody because we're getting close to um the end. Um, that to me is not okay. We should never just settle. Um, so we need to hopefully hopefully we can get a bunch of applicants and um see which one works best for us. Um, but pretty much what everybody else has said is what I'm thinking as well. Right, Adrian. >> Uh, yeah. Uh, I'll I'll echo a couple of things. Uh, the first I think everyone has kind of touched on is, uh, the idea of having some choice. Uh,
030making sure that in the end we have a few different people to look at. Uh, I'll echo what Moren said about having some kind of community involvement in the process. Um, and making sure that we're really looking at that input and really using it to make decisions. Um and I think um I I think going forward uh working our ability to work together as a board maybe from this process some increased cohesion between our board um and maybe uh some increased well-being working together. I think uh would be something that I'd like to get out of this. You know, if I can just reflect on that, it's been our experience that boards come together um and they come together because they basically you have to you get to choose this is choosing the superintendent is
031your number one responsibility and it's the most important responsibility because you're hiring the CEO of your uh school district and the board working closely together to come to that decision really is a natural process for you then to uh create that cohesion going forward and I've seen that in every research we've done. So I I think that's a good point. Brian, you get to finish get to uh back clean up here. >> Yeah. Well, you know, of course to steal Adrian's term, I echo um everything that everybody else has said. Um, and then one thing I'm looking forward to with with having having hired your firm is is to the streamline and productive meetings. Um, you know, I think with with the the the age and experience of all of us in the room, uh,
032we probably could have gone through this ourselves, but it would have been quite clunky. Um, and and there would have been quite a few deadends that we that we went down. um well that we could have presumably gone down. Um and so just having the the streamlined of your expertise and and you know with both the resumes that we have on paper and your introductions I think that's going to be a a pretty clear clear thing to have these have productive meetings you know all throughout the process. >> Oh well thank you. I think one of the things to as we go through the process, our job is to gather as much information as possible to take care of the details so that what your job is to make the decisions. You don't have to
033do the all the I'll call it the shuffling of papers for lack of a better term. We will do we will dig deep and bring you a lot of information so that you can make good decisions. And that's our job. That's what we're you hired us to do. So, let's start talking about the calendar. Uh Debbie, I think, put a new calendar in front of you today. And I want to get that calendar up. This is our standard um planning calendar. And I've added one thing to it since we've talked. Uh Debbie and I talked, but as um um and can everybody see the calendar, the draft calendar? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um this is um a draft and we have a lot of between now and when we when you would make the final
034decision to select your new superintendent. There's a lot of things that will happen, but this will guide us throughout the process. And I'm just going to talk through this um and this will answer some of your questions I believe. But tonight, obviously, we're getting started. We'll set the calendar um more or less because it still needs to be there are still some things that'll need to be filled in. We'll start about identifying the selection process, what that will look like, where we would advertise, and when we would do that. That'll be part of the calendar. How you want to involve your community. And I saw I think um Marine talked about that and I saw head shaking. Yes, you want to involve the community. We'll talk about how that can happen and we'll start to
035talk about compensation because you'll be going into a uh budget set session. I think um you have your budget hearing next a uh in a month and you're going to need to be thinking about what kind of a placeholder you want for a superintendent salary. So um um just I think these are this is a timely conversation to start that process. So that's what you know we'll there'll be a lot of you'll have a um a good sense coming out of tonight about how things will fit together. If any of this you want to jump in and ask a question, please stop us because we can we can go right through it. Um, part of the selection criteria will involve a little bit of homework for you folks uh between now and May 13th. And
036what we're going to ask you to do is to uh weigh in on what you're looking for um on the uh for the next superintendent. And in talking with Debbie, um your next board meeting is really about budget and I don't want to get in the middle of that. So, we're thinking we're coming back May 13th with a proposed criteria that you would want to put into your position description. And so, we'd bring forward a draft position description for you to take a look at and confirm. Yeah, that's pretty much what we that fits our needs. That's speaks to me because that's what uh we would want to uh put forward to potential candidates. So, that's kind of next step. I'll come back to that. Um, when do we start the process? We're thinking we
037want to start the process right after Thanksgiving this coming fall. Um, this timeline puts us almost if it's not the first district in the marketplace, it will be one of the first. most uh if somebody if a a candidate is out looking for a position, they aren't often tuned into openings until about Christmas time. And the way I look at it is if I were a superintendent, I was kind of thinking I might want to look for something else. Christmas is a good time to sit back and reflect. Don't have a lot of things going on and oh, let's see what's out there. Well, we're a little ahead of that. That's still a good um a really good time to be. mentioned that we just finished Eagle Point. This is about the same time we
038advertised Eagle Point and we had 24 applicants for Eagle Point. Um and so we this is a time that uh people who are looking good quality candidates are looking and um it's a good time to advertise. And where do we advertise? We'll come back a little more specific, but uh uh school boards associations in Oregon, particularly in Oregon, will be uh we'll identify the administrative associations in Oregon and Washington. We'll hit that in a second. And then our website, and I'll talk about what else we do uh as a firm to advertise the position. Then um this gets to one of your questions. How do we involve stakeholders? and we recommend what we have what we call stakeholder meetings and we're looking at the week of November 16th and we thought that'd be a pretty
039good time to really start the whole process involving the community. It starts to build the momentum uh with you and with the community to start the whole to get excited about the process of hiring um Andy's successor. And so we recommend stakeholder groups involving building level administrators. Another group uh district level administrators and district staff. Some way to involve the classified staff. It gets a little dicey with classified staff because their schedules are so different from bus drivers to custodians to EAs to clerical staff. So we'll work with Debbie on trying to figure out how to do that. We like to involve high school students, particularly the leadership sta uh um class, and they're always a lot of fun when you start talking to them about the school district. So, we always like to involve
040students, want to involve certified staff in this process, and then community members. Usually, we like to have at least two groups. One of people you as board members have identified. You want to make sure they are involved in providing input to you. And then we have kind of an open session. So that's kind of the generic way we go about doing stakeholder groups. Those um groups are without any board members present. Like to emphasize that because soon as you as a board member walk in the room or get online, uh if there was an online um stakeholder meeting, the conversation changes. People start to talk to you as opposed to trying to go through the process. So these would be hosted by Heidi and I. And we ask those stakeholder groups four different questions. What
041are the good things about uh Florence? Why would somebody want to move to Florence? What are the good things about the Susla school district? What are the what are the uh issues that the new superintendent would face walking in the door? And then what are those qualities and characteristics you want in a new superintendent? We compile those into a complete report, give those back to you so you see everything that people have said. We'll do a summary, but then we like to have as me much um and I don't call it verbatim, but um ver not verbatim uh transcript, but uh as close to verbatim as we as we can type. And we will then we also recommend doing an online survey. This is all part of what you paid for. Same four questions. We
042usually do those for a week and we fold that into a report. When I did this for the first time I did this with a district, I had a 75page report. Very involved community. People want to let the board know what they're thinking. Um most of the most of the reports range in the uh uh around 20 to 25 pages, but you get a lot of input from your staff and from your community. So, uh going back to what Meen said, this is how we would recommend involving your community at the beginning of the search. And I guess um because you brought it up, I'd like to get some feedback. Does this make sense to you? Um it takes a lot of effort and this will be one of Debbie's jobs is to organize this
043but um get a sense of what if this starts to be what you were thinking to involve the community and to involve your staff. >> Yeah. Um uh I'll I'll take the answer first and then it looks like Tamron's got got an answer as well. uh the it it's I hadn't considered that that would not include members of the board, but with your explanation, that makes sense why why it wouldn't. Um and um I think I saw most of an email that uh our certified staff union rep is requesting to be part and I got a phone call from the classified union rep kind of wanting the same thing. And so so you beat me to the punch of a conversation I wanted to have with everybody else as far as you know what what
044an involvement would look like there. Um so that's that those are my thoughts on it. Tamara you were going to hit your >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> I was >> Brian if I could come back to you on this. >> Sure. >> We especially when we get to interviews we want the union leadership at a minimum represented. So you know that's their request is very consistent. I'm sorry camera. Go ahead. Oh, no, you're fine. I was going to say the same thing um about I didn't realize we weren't going to be there for that, but I think that's a great idea because with your explanation, it makes perfect sense that >> and it's one less meeting for medeed. >> I I know board members always want to be involved, but I did this with one
045district. It was it happened to be during CO and um we we're having a great conversation. a board member signed on and I can tell you that the conversation immediately shifted and it was not as product and it was with a community member so it wasn't as as um productive as it could be. So we just ask that you respect and let let your community have their say because um they feel a little more they don't feel as feel constrained. So um is this getting to where we want to be then? and we'll we'll get it laid out more as we get closer. >> Directors, any other comments on that? Diana, your mic's on. Do you have comments? >> No comment. >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. And Marine is the one who I want to
046hear from Marine. >> I just had one comment, too, about um I hadn't really thought that much about students, but um you'll love working with our students. They're very opinionated. Um we have great students who have really amazing ideas about what should be happening. So, I think that'll be a real plus involved there. So, I I Yeah, I'm going along with all that. It all makes sense. >> Tom, the students never disappoint us. No, >> it's one of my favorite ones. Every time they are full of great wisdom, and it's always entertaining to me and reassuring to see how spot-on they usually are with the rest of the community. They know what's up. And we we have uh two student representatives as well. So they're part of all our board meetings all the time. >>
047Three I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Three student representatives. We only see two at the table at a time, but but they're always very involved in our meetings. So >> I have a I have a question I guess for everybody primarily for our board. I'm I'm see uh if November is when we're expecting to reach out to union reps. I just um I'm personally wondering if maybe we could involve them earlier. Um I'm looking at the the like the selection criteria. I I don't like I don't know if that's has to be a meeting or just asking if they have any additional input. Um not we don't have to do that but that's just a thought on my mind. Board >> um what I will say is this. Um this is a board decision. Whenever you
048reach beyond the board for input, it has to be very clear. It's only they're only providing you input. >> Yeah. >> You have to be very careful that people don't believe they are they have a vote. >> And so, um, this is your, like I said, your main responsibility, who you want to reach out to and say, "What do you think?" That's your call. Um, and we go with whatever the board says they want to do. But, um, that's up to you folks. But I just always want to emphasize it really is your decision and people don't get the wrong idea that they can tell you, "Oh, this is the way it has to be and you have to follow what they say." >> That makes a lot of sense. >> One of the things
049to keep in mind on that as well is there's two real opportunities for that stakeholder involvement. I think it's really important that they know both of those. Well, actually three. So one are those focus groups, the other is the broader communitywide survey and they can do both. There's nothing the survey piece is anonymous so we don't know if they've done both. And then the next one is during that interview process time. And the way that we handle that interview day, I think you'll find very helpful because each candidate will be cycling through interviewing. And at that point, we are collecting all of the feedback from those and condensing it down from their observations of each candidate and getting you a final report for you to consider when you're making your decision that has okay. So,
050the following strengths were found in the teachers, the following strengths in this candidate were found in the classified staff. Here was their concerns. So, then that way you're knowing if you see trends throughout those various stakeholder groups. So they have a lot of um I should say a very large role in providing you the information that you need to make a decision >> which does that >> does that answer what you were concerned with. >> Yeah I I appreciate the clarification on on additional ways that um that we can get input. Um, does does anybody else have any opinions about like involving at this stage involving any of those groups or are we fine with that being something that happens later? >> I I would defer to the the expertise on this laid out calendar.
051>> That works for me. Fine. >> Okay. >> Doug, I think you were you were about to lead into something. >> Yep. Going to December 14th is a nice segue into we will plan then in the middle of December. Um after you've reviewed the uh input, stakeholder input, you'll have a chance to read through it. Be make great reading over Christmas so you can get to know what your um what your community thinks. But at that point in time, we'll start the whole thinking about the interview. We'll talk about how we developed in the interview uh packets and the interview questions. We don't need to get into that right now. The interview procedure. As Heidi said, we recommend full days for candidates. They meet with all the um stakeholder groups. They have an extensive interview
052with you. They get a tour of the district. Um and they get a chance to uh present some skills to you as part of that interview process. And then it's also to make sure you finalize the uh you may have to finalize the compensation package. So that's getting ready. And then the position will close either the Monday after uh I'm thinking maybe Tuesday, January 5th, in case there's any questions um looking at the calendar, but close it January 5th. And that'll be probably the first if it isn't the first superintendent position to close, it'll be one of the first. And then uh we would bring to you on Jan the week of January 18th um the candidates that we believe are the we call it the short list and it's usually about six five to
053six people depending um and from which we would that you would select and up to that point uh we will have done a deep dive um on those candidates. Not only will we do a deep um internet dive, we will have done extensive um reference checking, we will have each of the candidates that we'll bring forward will have done an online interview uh where they record themselves responding to three questions and then Heidi and I will have another follow-up interview with them so that we can get to know them and present them to you and those help to give you a lot of information on what to make a decision. And usually we recommend you choose three candidates um uh to interview. Sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three. Every once in a while it'll be
054four, but three is usually a pretty good number. We'll also finalize questions, finalize the schedule, and um and that'll all be done in January. And then you can interview either the week of January 25th or February 1st depending on when you interview. Um if you >> I have a question real quick. Sure. Um >> which I hate to bring up but just you know to do it. Um what if during that time we don't find the right kind of candidate or after you've gone through we don't have is it possible to open that back up again or how does that process work if by the horrible chance that doesn't work the first time? Yeah, I had the same thought. >> Yep. Well, hopefully it won't happen. Uh, but you've hired us to um get you
055a new superintendent and we're with you until the end. We will reopen. There's no additional cost for our services. There may be a cost if some a we will reopen it, repost it. If one of the sites for which we repost charges us, we'd have to charge that. Um so for example um um if we have to reopen we would recommend go putting it on uh the Confederation of Oregon uh super uh not the Confederation >> coalition I always forget the new name Coalition of Oregon school administrators. They charge $300 for a month um posting but that would be about the only additional cost. Um so yeah we're with you until we get it done. It's very important to us that you never feel like you're settling. So, don't hesitate to speak up and voice
056those concerns if they exist once we bring you the short list. Um, Doug and I usually have done some serious amounts, well, not usually, every time, some serious amounts of vetting by the time we're bringing you a short list. And someone's not going to make the short list if we don't believe that they could potentially be a strong finalist for you. If not, you're not going to see them. We are not going to waste your time with people that we have reservations about. We will tell you if you have a specific name that you're curious if we haven't brought it forward. We'll tell you exactly what our concerns are, why we didn't, and then you can always decide to go with moving that person forward anyway. But we are always going to share that type
057of information with you. >> Yeah, we will share with you the entire list of applicants, uh, a thumbnail of their background so you know who didn't make the cut, so to speak. So, give you as much information and you may have heard of a candidate you thought, well, I heard about this person and we'll tell you why that they aren't on the short list. We'll tell you why we didn't bring them forward. And um we've had people in the past say, "Well, we think they need to be included." And we include them because it's your search. We can only bring forward what we have. >> I have a question. Um, it's hard. Sometimes it's hard to get a feel for somebody if it's if they're not in person. Do you guys do in-person interviews? And
058will we do in-person interviews? >> Yep. >> Perfect. Okay. Um yeah, we um we I don't think we would ever recommend doing unless somebody's um international, but unless uh we would recommend they always are in person in the district >> because logistics the logistics of the interviews are rather interesting and um they need to be able to navigate it and that's just and you're uh all the stakeholder groups need to be able to get a good look at who these folks are. >> And we try to structure that day to be a bit of a marathon day for them. But the reality is superintendency is a marathon. And so if they aren't showing their best at 7 a.m. and 700 p.m. and you're not comfortable with that, that's not the person you should have. >>
059It's an interesting aspect. I like it. So, okay. >> So, that kind of Doug, that kind of brings us to the end of that calendar. I think we we were to the selection of the new superintendent and the starting date for superintendent. But, uh, what else what else do we have to consider on that calendar? >> Nothing. Just if that looks like a good way to go, then we'll just start working down this process. Um, and it's going to it'll uh it'll flex a little bit because we're going to have to pick the exact dates as we get closer. I'm sure uh as I talked to Debbie this morning just trying to get through this year let alone setting calendar for next year. So uh once we get the uh once we get into the
060fall we'll set those date we'll have a better idea of your board schedule and we'll set those dates exactly where we have the week of kind of thing. >> Cool. And I'll work directly with Brian and Debbie to I I um I well whether or not Brian is still the chair after reorganization in July, but whoever the board chair is. Okay, I'm going to stop that. One of the other things we've talked about going down the agenda, one of the we talked about the stakeholder groups. Next thing I just want to hit very briefly, where do we advertise? And that we talked about advertising. So um these are the advertising venues that uh what we do included in your fee that you've paid for are the McFerson and Jacobson sites. So we have a Facebook
061site, a Twitter site, a LinkedIn fi site, and an Indeed site. So we will always post on those. They're you don't pay anything extra. Um um and I I see we I see the searches that we're doing on LinkedIn all the time. We will also as part of the fee do Oregon School Boards Association, the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, and then the Washington Association of School Administrators because sometimes we're able to snag um a good person out of Washington. Um I was a superintendent Washington 11 years before I came to Oregon. So, um um um you know, you never know who might want to show up. Um when we put it on the McFersonen Jacobson website, it is automatically a national search. Whether you uh and the reason is we have um people from
062all over the United States looking to us for uh positions that are open. Our website, we're told, gets about 250,000 hits per month. So, people are looking at our site. We also have 130 consultants nationwide that we inform um all the consultants of the positions that are open and um we ask them to recommend anyone who might be interested. So, we get a broad reach both within the state and nationally. In the proposal, it listed um a whole bunch of other national sites that you could spend money on. Uh and I think particularly the AASA, American Association of School Administrators, and that fee would be 400 bucks for 30 days. My recommendation, and I know the head office says, don't do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I I recommend you don't do
063it. It's I I don't think you get any return on your investment. Um, I was asked by a school board member um, and another search we did, how many people say um, they got the information from AASA? And I think, uh, out of the 25 searches I've done, I think I can probably count on one hand the number of people who indicate that's where they got the information. So, my recommendation is we basically go with the people that are or the sites that are included in the fee. You know, 400 bucks is 400 bucks, but I think it's um um I think you're getting a broad reach any as broad a reach as you possibly can. Um I don't know, Heidi, if that even though you're on the executive committee of AASA, it goes against
064it, but >> No, I think you're right. The other the only consideration I would give you to consider that would be perhaps be contrary to that is Florence, Oregon is God's country. It's absolutely stunning there. And you may be able to attract someone because of your location and that national awareness may be helpful because of that. That said, I think you could probably do that same thing between the people Doug and I know across the nation too, as well as with the Indeed and the LinkedIn and Facebook posts. If somebody's really looking to go somewhere else and is wanting a location that's stunning and has a lot to offer from a location perspective, they will already very likely see that. But that'd be the only thing that I would consider that you're a bit more
065unique than many other places. Great. That'll that makes sense to me. >> Okay, we'll come back in the fall and and see where we stand on that. Okay, next part um we'll get started on is um I want you to take a look at what a typical position description looks like. Um, I'm right now with another consultant in the middle of doing the search for the Riddle School District just over the mountains from you folks. And this is what a typical one will look like. We try to give a, you know, a general description of the district, um, kind of where it's located. Um, the district description was actually written by one of their board members. So we uh we take uh as all input uh on that and then what's really important though are
066what we call the qualities and characteristics. These qualities and criteria are really important. And Heidi, do you want to talk to this just a little bit? So this is what the riddle board chose to advertise. So >> this is where the biggest part of the fit piece comes from because as you start really identifying your key characteristics and we'll have some support available for you to do that. The key is to make sure that you're not describing what you see as the general role of a superintendent that you're describing the role you see as your superintendent. That is going to be absolutely critical. And so in the riddle example, one of the things that stands out to me right away is the bond and the school facilities piece, you are going to instantly, if that's
067a priority for you, you're going to want to call that out early so that you're getting candidates that do have a strong track record in those areas. Somebody who does, in this case, understand the level of facility maintenance and um supervision they're going to have to do. You're going to want to make sure you're identifying those key pieces that you think are very unique to your situation. Everybody who's looking for a superintendency knows the general work at play. What they need to know is what's specific to you, what's specific to your district, and what's a top priority. That's going to help them self- select the right places to apply to, and it's going to help us tremendously in making sure that as we start to see your list, we start to think of people we
068want to reach out to. And we have some very good examples of this very recently that it made a big difference for because as soon as I saw a few of the things that a certain district was looking for, I pictured a person like that and that's the person that I contacted right away to encourage to apply and ultimately that's who they selected which was exciting. But I do think that you will um have some work to do to really refine this, but it's important work. >> And we'll come back to how we get to that point uh just in a little bit. But did you notice those are all characteristics and there are some things that are requirements. They're just a musthave. Um and so this is what we typically um put in. You
069can see the requirements. um they have to be licensed or be able to get a license in the state. Um you may or may not want uh most people want to though a person who's sat in what we call sat in the chair has been a teacher, a principal, an educational leader at the district level. Um do you want them to be uh how organ specific do you want them to be? And that's why we have the ability to know and understand applicable Oregon education law. Oregon's unique. Um, do you want them to be able to live in the district? Um, and anything else um that you might want to make sure it is uh they have in their resume, so to speak. So, that would be something um that we would want to put
070in. And then um compensation, we'll come back to that. And what we've been doing with some districts lately is instead of doing a salary range, we've been talking about total compensation because superintendent contracts are getting a little more complicated and there other benefits beyond just salary. And we'll talk about that at the after we're done with this because we sent you uh contract analysis to show you what other like-siz districts are doing. but it's usually salary plus um some other things such as a travel allowance. Technology is probably a misnomer. It's probably more a cell phone allowance. And some districts have a supplemental retirement or other kind of compensation, a retention bonus, a bonus for living in the district. And then on top of that are the typical insurance benefits such as health insurance uh
071and so forth. So, that's what this would look like. Um, and we make it, this is just the the kind of the rough draft, but it'll get spiffed up a little bit for uh marketing to get to the qualities and characteristics. What we like to do instead of spending a lot of time on it tonight because you're just getting into it. What we'd like to do is send you um a a few uh other districts qualities, their qualifications and criteria of what we've been what other districts have done plus I'm going to stop this one. plus what um your job description is. Um so you know what um you have in your policy book right now. And I asked um Debbie about this and she said, "Oh, that was probably from 10 years ago when
072we hired our when we hired uh um Andy." So you can look at what you've put in as well about those knowledge, skills, abilities, and so forth um that were important to the board at that time. And um I just put that up so you know that you already have something in place. Quite frankly, um this doesn't make for a good um position description to go out and find people, but it's important for you to know that's what you have. And so what we we'll do is we'll send you an email with the job uh qualities and characteristics from a variety of districts, some instate, some out of state, and ask you to select and send to us up to seven of those that you as an individual want to see in your qualities and
073characteristics. We'll combine those into a single list and that's what we'll come back to you on May 13th. And we try to keep it to about a dozen. So um some things will fit together but that'll there the trends will emerge as you individually then start to work with the board with your colleagues and that way everybody gets a chance to have an input equally. Sometimes if you do this in a open meeting some voices tend to dominate. We find this tends to bring everyone into the process. So, so does that make sound like a um step forward for all of you to be uh involved with? Does a little bit of homework, but it'll give you a chance to really reflect on those things you individually want for the superintendent and then it'll be
074put into a document for you then to discuss with the rest of the board. >> Yeah. And as I look around the room, Doug, I'm I'm seeing head nods from from I think everybody. Not Diana, but she's in agreement. >> Okay. All right. We'll go forward. One last item then. >> Uh and that is uh S compensation. We work with a consulting firm of couple retired superintendent. Um you can see their names on there. Uh Randy Shield who is a retired superintendent out of Tamok. uh Rob Saxton who was uh one time uh superintendent for the what's the title not he isn't the superintendent but he's a state he's a state superintendent but he's been a superintendent in uh uh Tiger Twalatin uh Northwest DSD so he's been around the district a lot >> he
075was deputy superintendent for the state of Oregon >> yeah so but you know we all told we always called him the superintendent the governor of the state of of Oregon is the um superintendent of of the state. >> Um what the way to read this um um uh chart you are district 85 by um size. So you can see you are right between Jer and Sisters in terms of size. So we're comparing um Susla with the districts that are five above and five well I guess this case four below. So um because we may not have all all the districts but you can see it's from you have seasides Brooking Harbor and Coke that are basically uh um coast um um districts. You've got Winston Dillard which is just over the hill from you. um
076Creswell in Lane County, Rogue River just over the hill too, Banks up in the Portland area. So, it's a um people that are uh somewhat competitive uh in terms of looking if they were looking for a superintendent on this fir on this list. Um Rogue River just ended up just hiring a superintendent. So, um uh uh just this past month. And what the f what you have in front of you is this the low and the high salaries. We don't know which ones are which. U we aren't provided those data but you can see the average compensation for these districts is about 170,000 and right now sus law is a little bit below that. And then we do the PERS adjusted salary which means some districts um uh in some districts the employee pays PERS
077but in all of these districts the district pays that 6% pers so the per salaries are all the same and again um uh Susla is not the lowest but pretty close it's ninth out of 10th and then you can see that what districts provide in terms of um different parts of the contract a travel allowance and in uh the case of Suslaw SUS law apply uh provides $6 uh,000 for a travel allowance that was probably negotiated with Andy and the board but you can see what some of the other districts do and and the average same thing with a district paid TSA or a supplemental retirement account susl does not provide one. Some superintendent want that in their contract, but you can see again what some districts are providing. And then a tech and it's
078probably more, like I say, a cell phone stipen again what um districts are providing and some districts just uh don't put it in the superintendent's contract. They just, you know, they provide cell phones to administrators and it's just part of the budget. And then what other and then there's this other comp which can be a whole variety of things and there's some other comp that uh the uh uh Andy is receiving with uh in negotiations I'm sure with the district but that other comp can be a retention bonus they have a doctorate uh more retirement and evidently you provide in this case uh health services uh account for Andy but again you can see that the um your average the average for the districts is 191,000. You right now with your comparative districts are um
079the lowest your 10th out of 10. So that's why I suggested you think about uh as you go into setting the budget for superintendent compensation that you think about a placeholder. And you may want to do something as simple as saying, "Well, the average comparison is $191,000. Um, we'll put $190,000 as a placeholder for superintendent." I, you know, I I can't tell you what to do, but you do want to make sure you've accounted for it in your budget. And we know this will all change in the fall. By the fall, all of these contracts will change. Compensation will change. Typically, the superintendent salaries will have some kind of a um uh cost of living adjustment. Uh they may negotiate additional uh aspects of their contract, but the comp total compensation, my guess, will go
080up. Heidi, you're a little closer to it than I am. You want to jump in there? >> I think you're right, Doug, especially with what we've been seeing in some recent hires that boards have made. And so I think Doug's spot on to get you thinking about what number to budget for as your total compensation. So that way you're ready for it. And then we'll ask Rob and Randy to update this. And then if you have any particular districts that you're curious about recently, I was able to reach out to superintendent within a certain geographic region of a district that we were doing a search for. I was able to get their exact contracts and um people are usually pretty willing to share. >> We lost you. >> Oh, am I back? You're back. >>
081Yes. Okay, >> I'm gonna go video off just in case. I know you probably understand the joys of rural internet like I do. Um, so, uh, sorry, I don't know which part I left off on, but basically we can also, as we get closer in the fall, if there are certain, um, districts that you're curious about for exact differences, I can usually reach out to those superintendents directly and get their um, exact contracts to give you some specifics when you get to that that close of salary negotiation to make sure you have the very best numbers. But budgeting for a range is going to be important. I think that's a great idea if you could do that. >> Yeah. As we get closer. Yeah. Next fall. Yeah. >> Yeah. We'll probably we'll probably want to
082meet again in October um to uh chat through this finalized salary because we'll want to put that into the position description for when we advertise at the end of November. So, we'll shoot for an October meeting and we can probably do that um uh as part of your regular board meeting at that time. Good. Tamar, were you asking another question? Nope. Okay. >> Well, that's what we have to get you started. Um, and uh any questions, any thoughts? Uh, anything more you want us to take away and um um be prepared to respond to? >> Directors, any anything else for Heidi and Doug here? Tom, go ahead. When When are we meeting next with you guys? May 13th. >> May. Okay. And we will not know the result of the bond by May 13th, right?
083>> No. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> That'll be in 19th. May 19th is the >> Okay. And I I imagine that will affect this process, >> whatever happens with that bond. >> Yeah. >> Um and then I definitely we we need to have a competitive salary if we're talking about a pretty competitive market. I'm sure we'll feel that. >> All right. I really appreciate this. This was super helpful. Thank you. >> Yeah, I agree with that. Uh Tamara, anything. >> I was just going to say thank you both for giving us your insight and helping us out. >> Anything additional? >> Absolutely. >> Just excited to work with you guys. Thank you. >> Well, it will be. We have we enjoy this. It's it's uh energizing for both of us to to meet with board
084uh boards around the state and we look forward to meeting with all of you. Like I said, we'll be reaching out to you. Heidi will be reaching out to three of you and I'll be reaching out to three of you and then I'll get an email out to all of you uh to get feedback on the um qualities and characteristics. So little bit of homework coming up and look forward to it. >> Thank you very much Heidi. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Directors, anything else? >> Nope. Okay. Well, uh we'll go ahead and call that then an end of the work session and uh Doug, Heidi, thank you for your time this evening and enjoy the rest of it. Thank you.