Special Meeting Board of Trustee September 3, 2025

001Good evening. Um, this is the special board meeting for the El Paso Independent School District on September 3rd, 2025. This meeting is being called to order at 5:15 p.m. Our first action item, item number two, discuss and take appropriate action on consultant firm for superintendent search, RFP number 26-001. Um, I'm going to turn this over to procurement, but before I do, I want to ask, um, is this being live streamed, >> Liz? Okay. Okay, sounds good. Um, I'll turn it over to procurement. >> Good evening, uh, board president uh, Hanani and, uh, board of trustees. My name is Haiti Pñena, the executive director of procurement and school resources. Tonight, um, Adrien Salasak, the purchasing agent for EPISD, is also co-presenting with me. Before I start the presentation, I just want to go over the timeline

002and the actions that have already been completed up to date. On 618, the board uh approved the methodology and the procedure for this solicitation. This is when the board said uh that you wanted us to go out for a RFP for a superintendent search firm. On 7:22 we issued the solicitation on Ionwave. That wave is our bidding system that we use. We use that to manage all our bids uh when we publish them and also we uh use it to uh score and they it it's also used to manage the scores that are within the system. We uh went ahead and advertised on 7:22 and 7 and 728 of 20 uh 25. That's the first and the second advertisement that the Texas Education Code requires per 44.031. We held a a non-mandatory pre-bid conference meeting

003for biders. Uh no no biders showed up at this meeting. The last day for uh biders to submit uh written questions was on 86. On 88 uh EPISD uh responding responded to those questions on Nanwave. On 8:15 it was the deadline for uh vendors to submit all the proposals at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. On 8:18 through 8:22, we held uh training for the committee, which in this case is going to be the board members. On 8:22 through 8:26, the board members had the opportunity to review the the proposals that were submitted by all the biders and an opportunity to go ahead and uh score on the prelim on the suggested weights. Okay. And on 8:27, uh, we held a special board meeting and we reviewed the prelim preliminary scores. And at that time, we

004asked the board to go ahead and take a motion on how to move forward uh for further evaluation. At that meeting, the motion the the board motioned to use the publish matrix of 135 points along with the interviews adding an additional 40 points. The motion was approved six to one. Uh today uh on 93 we uh decided to go ahead and have the interviews for all the vendors that submitted all the qualified vendors that submitted uh a response to 26-001 consulting firm for superintendent search. And I want to go ahead and remind everybody that due to CH local information on this bid can only be released after evaluations have concluded and the vendor has been awarded and a contract has been finalized. Today we have uh four vendors that submitted. Uh this is an estimate

005uh an estimated uh presentation time uh schedule. Uh Texas Association of School Boards, Inc. which is uh known as TASBY, 1/4 Consult Consulting LLC, JC uh JC Consulting, HYA Corporation, and CESO Executive uh Search LLC, Ray and Associates, Inc. they declined this interview. So, I just wanted to everybody know that right now uh you should have uh three folders in front of you for each of the vendors. Okay, so sorry my my allergies are killing me. Within each folder, there's the questions, the notes, the preliminary scores, and the step-by-step instructions. I know that I had already provided this previously but I wanted you to have it handy. Okay. Uh on the notes, I do want to go ahead and advise that you write all your notes on those papers uh those pages that we provided

006or use the ion wave module. So you could uh use either or. At the end of the meeting, we're going to have to pick those up from you so that we could uh file them in our bid file. uh you have you should have already received an invitation to uh score round two from Iron Wave. Within the Iron Wayne system, you're going to find the scorecard. Each uh each vendor has 40 points allotted and also the vendor proposals. I want to go over some general instructions. Uh I am going to ask you to open the Iowa Wave portal through the invitation you received today at at uh around 4 p.m. Right. Uh just to make sure that uh you're able to access it. If you don't see it in your inbox, please uh check your

007spam or or your junk mail. Everybody has it. Thank you. Uh you'll see that there's 40 points allotted. Remember that 40 points is the best that the vendor could get and zero is the worst score. Please hold your questions and comments until the question and answer period. Note that all vendors will need to be asked the same questions. You will find these questions in your folder. Uh, next I'm going to pass it on to Adrian so he could go over the presentation layout. Good afternoon board president board members. Um, as Miss Pña said, the presentation layout, uh, we sent out a notification to all the the proposers on August 27th, and they were asked to provide a presentation that included the information that we had laid out in the solicitation itself. So, they were asked

008to provide information on the firm's proven track record as documented in a summary of longitudinal growth and student outcomes achieved by superintendent that they've select they've assisted in selecting. Um this of course will review uh the detailed results by the superintendent including their longevity in the position. We also asked them to provide information on the qualifications and experience and education of the team members that they intend to use for our project here in EPISD. We did ask them to provide resumes which you have seen in the previous um the preliminary round. This will of course allow you to see what uh qualifications these members have that they intend to use for our for our project here. Uh we also asked them to provide a their approach and methodology to providing the services for superintendent of

009school search candidates um as we requested in the scope of work. This of course will review things like their timelines, their uh milestones deliverables, things like that. Uh fourth, we also ask the respondents to provide information on their experience in providing services to districts similar to ours. uh taking into account things like our culture, um language, historical context and educational issues that we face here in the district um in El Paso. As far as the presentation layout itself, the vendors have submitted a a presentation that they will have 10 minutes to go through. After they finish their presentation, they will have 30 minutes for questions and answers. The questions you have been provided in your folders, and those will be asked by um board secretary, Mr. require to each of the of the of the

010respondents. So, they do have a total of 40 minutes. Uh we will be providing them with a with a time clock on the on the screen so that they're aware of the time that they have available. Once the time has expired, then they will be asked to to leave the boardroom. Um so, at this point, we're going to go ahead and get started with the interview phase of that. Um, the first group that will be coming in is the Texas Association of School Boards, Inc., also known as TASBY. So, I'll let them make their way in. >> And they will, of course, introduce themselves when they when they get here. >> Thank you so much. >> Yes, ma'am. Sorry. You could use the clicker or you could use the up and down. So your your

011presentation See if I can put this right here. Okay. Well, good evening. Is everybody ready? Hi. Hi. Hello. I'm George Kazanis and I'm division director of executive search services for TASBY, uh, the Texas Association of School Boards. We first of all thank you for your membership in our association and for your participation in our programming. Uh what an honor it is to be here tonight to present to you on our executive search program. I'd like to also introduce to you Mr. Ruben Cervantes. Mr. Cervantes is a field service representative uh also with TASBY for a couple of years uh calls on El Paso ISD and lives in El Paso. So we thank you again for the for the kind invitation to present to you tonight. So who are we? Just as a quick reminder, TASBY

012recently celebrated our 75th anniversary. We began in 1949. Uh and executive search services began in 1988. And the reason why was at the request of board members. Uh that is solely the reason why executive search services exists is back in over uh since 1988. Our members uh were looking for guidance and assistance finding exceptional leaders and we answered that call. Uh just real quickly again as a reminder who we are uh our our team my senior consultant that works with me is Dr. Marian Strauss. Uh Dr. Strauss uh has been uh a former superintendent and uh has been conducting searches well over almost 15 years now. Uh Dr. Robert Duron recently retired. He was with me up until August 31st. And so he was a former superintendent in San Antonio ISD and was a a

013longtime member of TASVY. But you'll also notice the different arrows there. And that is my field of uh team of field service representatives. And so recently when I came on board, I'm I'm a public school educator. I retired with 32 years of service. Uh 24 of those I served as a superintendent. I was a superintendent in three different types of districts, smaller growing suburban district, also a uh uh Witchaw Falls north of here and then in a retired district in Waco at Midway ISTD. But in doing so, uh, our field service team, I was initially hired as division director of that division, but we merged about a year later. Uh, they asked me to to lead both divisions. And, and in doing so, uh, our field service team now, uh, is calling on districts like

014Mr. Cervantes, as I mentioned to you, but also assisting with searches. And so, it's made our, uh, services much more streamlined and much more beneficial to our boards. So, why would you uh, choose uh, executive search services? And just so you understand, this is all I do. I work full-time. I work for TASBY. As I mentioned to you, I'm I'm an educator, a superintendent. I have a deep understanding of the role of the superintendent and his or her importance in the district, but also a deep appreciation and understanding of what you do as a school board member. And so, serving, as I said, 20 plus years, 400 plus board meetings, I understand what it's like to be in your shoes as well as a superintendent. But that also includes uh our experienced consultants at field

015service team who all have over 30 plus years. You'll notice the team there is Miss Cara Cook and Rick Howard. I am in the process of recent a couple of retirements and we'll have a full team within the next couple of weeks. But really uh important is Joy Rivera there with the star. She's a dedicated program coordinator. She works full-time uh for executive search services. She is behind the scenes, helps with our uh application systems, helps with candidates if they have questions, but most importantly assists the board members when you have questions. If if uh I'm not able to answer, we get those uh responses to you as soon as possible. We have served well over 800 districts. That's another reason why choosing ASS is important. We're really close to 900 now. Uh and we

016have supported uh our boards throughout the years. And just uh so you understand, our fee is all-inclusive. There's not additional charges, not for travel, not for this, not for that. When we we quote your price, it's an all-inclusive fee. One of the things that stand out in this particular side slide is that we customize each search. Yes, we do a number of searches, but no search is exactly the same because no uh community is the same, no district is the same, and certainly the boards aren't the same. And so just want you to understand that is that we really highly highly recommend after you do hire your firm that you have a planning meeting and work with us because we want to hear from you. We want to understand your wants and needs and desires

017and goals. I bet we can meet those. I bet we've maybe have a process in place or we will work with you to create that process process. We've done hundreds of these and our decades of experience certainly come to play so that we can help you find the best most outstanding educational leader uh for your district. as I said over 35 years but we do have a a proven success rate over 90% of our placements are in their same districts at least three years um our stats are about a little over 80% or five years I know the tenure of the superintendent is critical for the success of the district uh brings stability brings leadership uh and we understand that and we want to partner with you as your schoolboard association as your search consultant

018to bring success not only to the superintendent but also to you as the board. As I mentioned already, we customize our searches. That one there, there's just a picture of a smaller district. Remember, we're TASBY. We're all across Texas. This last school year, for example, we conducted a search, Mr. Cervantes led in Dell City. Uh would you say probably 110 kids attend at most in Dell City ISD, but also led the search in Pasadena ISD, well over 45 to 50,000 kids. So, I don't see that that is certainly not a detriment to TASBY. fact that we are your association and part of Texas and we have that deep experience working with all types of districts and so that goes back to why we want to customize because our search in your district certainly not going

019to look the same maybe in that particular one was in Gulf there in the Hill Country the search process we as I mentioned we already rely on our network of of folks there to narrow the pool down uh every step is intentional and it's aligned with you I want to get to know you better as your search consultant I want to know your your hopes dreams and values and so we can find that right person for you. As I mentioned, the search kickoff is critical. We want to begin reviewing a timeline. Uh uh some materials were were handed out to you in that material group of materials on one side is just a proposed timeline. Generally searches we we recommend are between 90 and 12 and 120 days, but they can be shorter, they can

020be longer. again unique to you, but we really uh just wanted you to see what it could look like uh from start to finish uh if you're working with TASBY. The other thing we wanted to do though is talk about uh the qualifications and characteristics. Another thing that I included on one side of the folder there was uh the fact that we could do an exercise. I could find out individually what you hope your hopes and dreams are, what you want to see, and we can start building that profile together. uh because what we like to do and what we will do in El Paso ISTD is customize the application. Those qualifications and characteristics are very very critical because we want to ask our candidates some some pointed questions so you can review those at

021a later time. And then finally we want to discuss community involvement. We want to understand uh of course uh getting your feedback, but we highly recommend getting feedback of both your community uh your staff uh and others uh spending a several days in your community so we can start again building that profile, learning the hopes and dreams of your community, the aspirations that they have for your next superintendent. But during the search, remember it's turnkey. We're handling it for you. So that application system is with us. We have a very robust system uh that where our candidates submit their materials. Uh we also include a video component of that gives you an opportunity uh when when you review candidates to look at the candidate to see how they respond to several answers questions. We're advertising

022though we're recruiting. Uh we certainly advertise statewide. We also have the capacity and will have the capacity in your district of course to to advertise both nationally as well because I would assume and and guess that we're going to have a a large interest in in your district and a lot of interested folks wanting to come to El Paso during the interview process too. Uh we will come back and visit with you. Uh again that's how we customize your search. You tell us. I mean, we can certainly provide you with uh top candidates that we have screened and referenced and and gotten backgrounds on uh and bring that in, but we also want to hear from you, too. Many of our boards like to look at all the candidates just to see the numbers that

023are there. That's certainly open to you. We're not going to not prevent that from happening. You have a password protected system to go in and look at all of the candidates. We'll come in, we'll talk about that. We'll uh talk about what the interview itself will look like, help you develop questions. uh we recommend a couple of rounds of interviews and go through all those details. Uh we one of the other things I think that is unique for us is that we do recommend what's called a site visit. And a site visit just could be where you name your person of interest, not your lone finalist yet, but a top candidate that you would like to see uh his or her environment where they're coming from and not the full board, but up to three

024of you may be doing a site visit. And so we we help arrange that uh as part of our process. So just in a quick review just understanding that there's the loan finalist a vote to hire and then the board the sup the board superintendent transition. It's one of the other things we offer is the ability to come in and after about uh three months four months come back and conduct a u transition workshop to be sure everything is going well in your district. Our guarantee if the person is uh not here at least two years we'll come back and work with you to conduct the search again. And I'm going to skip through these. And so this is where it gets a little tricky. Go back one. Uh just wanted to hit through the

025search highlights just to demonstrate to you that we certainly have the ability, the experience, uh and the desire to work with larger school systems. You can see from my resume there that we have worked with a number of districts. So I think I have one second left, 10 minutes. I wanted to respect your time and open it up for questions. Sure. >> Great. Thank you all so much. Um, so, um, I'm Alex Wed. I'm the board secretary. U, there's a list of 16 questions. Uh, we're going to ask, uh, all the search firms the exact same 16 so that it's fair. Okay. Um, and I guess just kind of divvy it up as much as you all would like, but I can I know I've been talking for a bit. We can give you some

026time back for that. >> Wherever you're more comfortable, sir. I know the lights are brighter right there, too. Huh. Okay. Uh so the first question um does your firm or any of the consultants have experience working with border cities like El Paso in which some students and parents coexist in both US and Mexican cities? >> Yes, my colleague to the right here could answer that. So there it goes. Yes, my colleague here to the right, Mr. Ruben Cervantes certainly has served in the El Paso area in a number of different districts. So Ruben, I'll let you answer that. Yes. I mean, I live actually in Horizon. I've been a superintendent for for about 11 years. Uh my last uh job that I had was in uh Cula outside of San Antonio, but I live here

027in Horizon. And then then I'm bilingual as well, so that that helps around this area definitely. So, um any way we can assist, I mean, we're more than willing to do that. I mean, uh, we've done a lot of searches and also assisted in some of the community meetings that they had. So, I'm willing to, uh, meet with whoever I have to meet with. And you'll notice from our resume, just as a reminder, we just recently served Sakorto ISD. Uh, we've also served United ISD and Larredo. Um, we are working with Laredo for a a later search, not currently underway at this juncture. Uh, so some of the other border towns have entrusted us to conduct searches as well as well down in the valley at Sherry Land, things like that. >> Great. Thank you.

028Uh, question number two. Does anyone in your firm have experience working in a district that has similar demographics as El Paso, uh, 84% Hispanic, 9% white, 4% black, and 2% Asian as a teacher, principal, or superintendent, and tell us about that experience and educational background. >> Okay. Laredo. I mean, I know we've done this search in Laredo. That's um I'm not sure the the number how high the uh >> but it's but you're talking about us as consultants though that we'll be working with you. Sure. Sure. I guess um not quite the same demographics, but my experience in Witchaw Falls as a larger school system with high poverty, high number of students on the free and reduced lunch more 30, you know, is really was split in Witchaw Falls a third a third a third

029about the different demographics of students. So, larger school experience. Uh, as I mentioned to you, uh, the other staff members, uh, Marian Strauss, our our senior consultant, had served in the LongV area in Pineree ISD. She had been up in the panhandle, uh, serving diverse students there. She also, uh, was in in the central Texas area. So, we do have the broad spectrum of of superintendent, former superintendents and staff members that have worked in various size districts. And I would like to add that I worked in Salario uh for uh six years there as an associate superintendent. >> Okay, great. Thank you, sir. >> All right. Number three, uh how does your firm gather community input in a diverse cultural environment? >> Great. So, we really do enjoy uh after we have our planning meeting

030with you to gather uh input from you about that of where you would like to see us gather community input. We certainly of course all of our surveys, we have an online presence. Uh we have a Spanish uh version as well or any other language we can work with if if needs to be in other languages too to post. We feel it's important to to have that offering to have the online. So many people are busy. So many people will tell you that. We do want to gather as much information from your community. But in addition to that, there's always a segment of your community that desires that face toface. There's groups of folks that desire maybe possibly to that maybe from a invited group from the board. This might be some of your other

031community leaders. We can host lunchons, things of that nature to gather their input. We always recommend though that you have a number of public meetings, at least two, um, so that it's open to to the full public. The other thing as part of the community in terms of gathering input is you should involve uh we recommend highly recommend involving your staff. So that's working not only here uh administratively and principles but also of course with elementary staff, secondary staff and your auxiliary staff. We want to hear from them too uh about uh uh their hopes and desires for the next superintendent. We ask very similar questions. We compile that information though for you. Of course uh we summarize that information. thematic through themes. Uh so we can be developing that and you can see themes.

032Uh the community involvement is often a um I guess affirmation as a board member that you probably know feel but sometimes though it could be things that may may bubble up that may not have been necessarily for example on your radar or didn't realize the community was feeling this and so it really does help. >> Thank you. Uh number four, how many superintendent searches have you successfully conducted for districts similar in size, demographics, and challenges to EPISD? And what commitments do you make if a hire doesn't work out? >> Okay, I think I've tried to answer that in the first presentation, but if you were looking at our our list, I was demonstrating to you of looking at uh United ISD, very similar. Your neighbor from here, Sakorto ISD, very similar. Um uh we've been

033in a little bit smaller communities but recently conducted the search in Waco ISD. We've been in Temple ISD. Um last uh fall and and during the winter we were in Odessa for Ector County ISD. So uh and then I mentioned to you Pasadena very diverse district in the Houston area in the ship channel. So um I feel like we have that that experience. uh we our guarantee is uh it's why the transition workshop uh as well as our ongoing support because we're TASBY meaning there are other services not just executive search there's board training types of services things of that nature but specifically our transition workshop is crucial after about three to four months and so we bring into board board development services to work with you work with your new superintendent and uh similar

034to team of a but much more pointed to be sure that we're on the right track uh two years is the guarantee we come back uh and work. We want to work though. We want uh longer than than that that three years. Uh and so we do want to continue to help and uh work and guide uh the board as well as the new superintendent. >> Uh question number five, what experience do you have conducting superintendent searches for districts facing criticism around transparency, budget accountability, district leadership, or public trust? Uh please provide any examples. Goodness, >> loaded question. >> That's a loaded question, but I think what your question reflects the the the times that we're in right now. And again, hats off to you as board members. Appreciate your service. Uh because it's not

035an easy job uh to to be a board member. Uh many of the districts that I'd already mentioned to you that that have been most recently on our survey, I think what we find out a lot of times is is that that is prevalent in terms of trust. We're trying to rebuild trust. Hiring the new superintendent is just a to me a golden opportunity to do that. It's an opportunity for the board to come together uh hopefully make the the a decision that's unanimous amongst all of you uh in terms of your next leader. It brings you more in line of the values and hopes uh and to your community. You're transparent about that. But we have worked again on our on that list our resume list of many districts like that that that have

036faced that. I think though this the search though has brought that trust back. uh of course a good leader uh you're missing one piece of the of the of the team to do that and of course that leader coming in uh we're we're transparent and we're open uh what after we learn in our community meetings after we maybe visited with you all uh we're very open I think to our again our neighbor most recently uh this the best example I can give you is Sakoro ISD working with them uh it was a a long process for their search I applaud them appreciated their method methodical uh process that they went through. But in the end uh it did all the things that I mentioned board members coming together uh coalesing coming together around a a

037leader u putting in some different processes and procedures uh opening up the district transparency helping cut budget deficits. I mean you're asking specifics. So we were there with them and and uh were part just part of that part of the team part of the uh gathering of the community input but also helping that uh board along the way with their with their search. >> Number six, beyond applicants who submit. Sorry about that. Beyond applicants who submit, how does your firm actively recruit highquality candidates who may not be seeking new positions while also ensuring that the candidate pool reflects the values and needs of a district like EPISD, >> right? That's why it's critical that we get to know you first and get to know your district even better if we are so selected. Would like

038to come in as soon as we can. After that though, we look at the size, all the things that you mentioned in the previous questions. We want to look for candidates that may have similar experiences working with the number of students that may be on free and reduced lunch, the number of minority students. Uh success though, uh we also want to be very cognizant of their past success as an educational leader. Um kudos to the to EPISD. Uh most recently your 80B rating uh certainly is a plus and a selling point for many aspiring folks looking for the next step in their educational career. So we do again the the the network of field service representatives. I meet weekly with them. We talk about our openings and positions. We talk about folks what what others

039should we contact? Uh we certainly do that through uh phone calls, emails, um different conferences coming up, taps on the on the shoulders. We take recommendations as well and from other colleagues and then we will then make make that uh contact with them as well so that they that they know that the position is open. >> Number seven. Number seven, how do you help the board of trustees reach a consensus when opinions differ about candidates? I think first and foremost we have to come to some agreement on on what you what you is most important in your candidate and hopefully we can find that from our community surveying uh from community forums uh after you have a chance to digest what you learn. Uh it is though being respectful and hearing each board member what

040they he or she feels is most important but in throughout that process again um I don't want to shoot myself in the foot but understand no one is exactly perfect and so you do have to compromise uh and I talk about that a lot particularly when we're reviewing candidates when we review candidates and select those to bring in and invite for an interview that doesn't require 70 on all of you to decide on that. You do have to give and take, but we need to be clear. You need to communicate clearly what are non-negotiables with you. Um, and so we hope we are able to to to learn that from you to to understand that from you and go from there. Just please understand though that it's your search and that in in doing so

041uh we we c we will work with you. We'll pause if there isn't consensus at that particular junction. continue to go out uh to recruit uh candidates uh that that do meet. But I do understand that it's going to be it's not a perfect science to this. Uh but we hopefully though through our process, through the transparency of the application, through the different artifacts that you're going to review, you're going to find some of those that meet the at least some minimum requirements that all of you can agree on. Number eight, uh, what methods do you use to verify a candidate's track record beyond references? >> Sure. Uh, one of the things that we're asking candidates to do, if you'll look on the right side of your folder there, it's called a candidate district profile.

042Uh, just take a look at that. What what's important we want to provide to you, particularly uh, regarding your top candidates, is their their proven track record. So yes, there's referencing, yes, there's letters of recommendation, yes, there's our background, our calls, our screening, but we also want to know what what they have done and to understand that. And so if you just quickly look at that, I think more importantly than just a test score though, is understanding the district that they're in and understanding the district's demographics. So that's why that's put there clearly in front of you so it's not guesswork. You know exactly uh the type of district they came from. Are they, for example, having incremental growth? Are they getting where they need to go to be in some of the different domains

043of the accountability system? Are they really showing student growth and they're getting close again to increasing uh the score overall rating? Those are those are some nuances that take some time to digest and learn about and and hopefully the candidates you bring in can can explain that a little bit further. But that's what this is about. The other piece is is financial data and if they've worked with bonds, if they've worked with Vader type of elections, how they've garnered support. Uh we also gather information about their budgets and fund balances to see if they're in a good financial position as well. >> Number nine, how do you balance candidate confidentiality with the community's expectation of transparency throughout the process? >> Well, throughout throughout the full process though in Texas, of course, it is a a

044a confidential, you know, process because you do protect the candidates along the way. So the interviews, just as a reminder, are held in close session. So they're not in some states they're they're actually an open session, the different interviews. Um I think the the uh ways that we can help you as your search consultant is be sure that you are fully informed along the way so you have the right talking points, uh that we work with your staff here on your website, that it's clearly shows the timeline, clearly shows the next steps, clearly shows where you are in the process. More than anything, your community wants to know that you are moving forward with this. So, uh, throughout that process though, we will coach and be sure you understand what you can, you know, say

045and not say. On the candidate side though, that it is very crucial that many of your top candidates certainly are doing well where they are and they're just looking at the next opportunity. We want to be careful not to jeopardize their current job that they're in. Number 10. How do you evaluate a candidate's ability to build consensus among diverse stakeholders to include board members, teachers, parents, community members, and students? F >> first and foremost, we want you to ask that. That's a great question of your candidate. Second thing though is look for evidence of it. So different things that I've already mentioned to you are evidence of building consensus around could be uh again success with bonds. That's certainly a huge consensus building project uh that that that superintendent and boards in the community go

046on together. Uh also looking at the Bader how if they've passed those bring in consensus to understand Texas school finance bring in additional dollars. You might look also we will gather information about the buildings of their strategic plans initiatives if they can talk that uh and and show that their involvement with it how they brought community members and key stakeholders together in order to build that overall vision for the district uh I think is very very important very critical as well. So there are a number of key different artifacts and key different milestones in a candidate's career that can demonstrate a consensus. >> Number 11. What strategies do you use to assess a candidate's ability to lead collaboratively while still making decisive student centered choices? Leading collaboratively and student centered I think first and foremost

047again uh about uh student centered is understanding how they're doing. Uh I think one of the things too that we look at is uh kind of review minutes, look at their board agendas of candidates, see if they're talking about students. Uh that's a big way to see what's on the agendas of of board meetings. Uh how are boards being asked to review? What type of presentations are they receiving? Uh are they hearing from the different groups? not only about academic performance like on a state test but in CTE programming, CCMR programming, um early childhood programming, things of that nature. Uh that's a wonderful way to determine if if your candidates um value that and have that as as an important I think collaboration and working collaboratively uh also is in terms of our referencing and

048and finding those that work with them on a day-to-day basis if they are collaborative. But it's also again the different artifacts, the evidence that they've shown. There's many things that show that they've worked collaboratively and that I've already mentioned to you that show they've worked with community members, if they've uh have strong strategic planning processes in place, if they have results, if they have uh bond elections invaders and things of that nature. Uh if they have uh strong partnerships, strong foundations, uh education foundations, fundraising of that groups. uh also looking to see what type of involvement they are they have with their community civic groups and their involvement in those areas too. Number 12, what do you expect your all-in cost to be once you account for robust community engagement that includes forums and stakeholder

049focus groups facilitated by your firm? Uh this would include travel costs and please explain what the community engagement process would look like if we engaged uh with your firm. So also on the right side of that folder there, I did show you the price and put the quotes. It's all inclusive. The community meetings again is is your search. So we want to hear from you what what what type segments areas of the community that we that we need to cover. Uh we have recommendations for you. So as I mentioned to you the different groups that need to be uh of course invited the the public at large as well as some other key leaders of the district uh to get to garner their input. Maybe faith-based leaders would be another possibility uh to gather their

050input. Of course, your staff, both your professional staff, your auxiliary staff are critical. We recommend though that uh these meetings aren't too long. People's time is valuable. Uh we are able to structure these no more than about an hour long. We want to gather again asking the same types of questions to build the profile um and build that for you. One of the things that uh we would like to launch if chosen by El Paso ISD is then a deliverable to you about the community engagement. I think one of the things maybe along the lines of your questions about back to the previous question about transparency is many folks think yes I've done a survey I've done I participated in a community form but I really don't know what happened after that. So we're working

051to package that for you so that then you may have a deliverable to put post on your website. Um there's certainly not going to be anything in my view that that the public shouldn't see. Uh we certainly are working uh to do that for you and would have something that we that you would be hopefully proud of. Uh good, bad, and ugly depending upon what information that we gather. But it' be very very critical uh that your community see that you took that step, you took that uh important step and are using that information wisely and sharing that information. One of the things that we do add is the um a survey online and we provide that for you. So we try to figure out the strength and weaknesses of the district and some of

052the uh some of just to get input from the parents and uh community members as well. >> Number 13, how do you measure whether candidates have a proven track record of raising student achievement particularly in districts with diverse populations? Yes, very similar to the candidate profile sheet that I that I've provided to you. We want to see that. Again, you'll notice that it's it is some, you know, of course, aggregate scores of of our state assessment, but also some other indicators. I think it's important to see um CCMR, college career military readiness scores. It's important to see CTE participation. Um and again, not to give away other things, but these are great opportunities to really hone in uh in your different lining of questions of different candidates, too. Uh but those are things we're asking

053as well. Uh once we learn about your district, we're talking with candidates about the expectations of the district and we're determining. I think it's clear to understand that it's it's not important the the the the quantity or the number of candidates that you have. What's important is the quality of those candidates. So it doesn't to me uh it doesn't uh necessarily serve well if you have 50 60 candidates. It would be great if they all were qualified, but I'm just saying, but we really want to hone in on those that have the skill set, have the desire, and have the track record to serve your district. So, that certainly may be a different number, but those hopefully will be of high quality uh for you to choose from. >> Number 14, how do you vet

054candidates claims of past success? What data or evidence do you seek beyond resume highlights? >> Very similar. Uh I think it's so as you mentioned to your question about about transparency most everything is very public we can easily see uh from board minutes board agendas we can see from state uh reports uh financially we can see that information as well as well as uh student achievement data too. >> Great. Thank you. Number 15. Uh has your organization or firm applied to or been engaged to assist El Paso ISD with a superintendent search in the past 20 years? If so, what was the experience and the result? >> Oh, as in I just began this position a little over a year ago and I did see before several years ago maybe >> I wouldn't Yeah, Mr.

055Cervantes wasn't working with the district but I believe one other time I think you were uh negotiations began with Tesby but then Tesby wasn't utilized. >> Great. Thank you. And last question number 16. Uh does your organization continue to engage candidates after placement as a superintendent by advising place candidates on management strategies, professional development, and vendor relationships during their tenure as superintendent? If so, how often and with what objectives? >> I might ask you to repeat that because that was qu but uh u absolutely I hope um I'm clear about this too is we we will support we support your candidate but remember we're the schoolboard association and we support you as board members. So, our job um in ESS is certainly to check on the candidate with calls, check-ins, how are things going? We

056want because we may have the resources at TASBY that you're already a member of that we can help. We can help do that. If it's board development training services, if it's something in our legal department, if it's for example trying to determine your salary structure, if you're on par uh in this particular region, we have our HR analysts, things of that nature. So, yes, we have a lot of programs and services. Uh but as your ESS consultant, I'm not pushing those. I'm not talking necessarily about other I answer questions if they have and make connections for TASBY. Uh other related type of products or services that might assist not only the the the district, our goal, remember part of our mission of TASBY is to to to help with operations efficiency uh and effectiveness. And

057so that's very important to us. Uh but but not any other outside types of of vendors or relationships. In my job as a field service, I have to um visit every superintendent in every uh school district and um in my area and I have region 19 which consists of all the districts here, the 12 districts. So I visit with them I mean oneonone and I'm and I asked him if there's anything we could help them with. We're not trying to sell anything or do anything, but if they need assistance from TASBY since we have have multiple departments, they can reach out to us or if they can reach a certain department, they can just call me and I refer them to TASBY that case. But we do assist however we can. >> But one of

058the benefits to remember is that we're former superintendent as well. So we are a a listening ear. A lot of times um it's just listening. It's just being a sounding board. And so we do offer that support to your candidate, to your new superintendent just to listen uh provide guidance as much we can from our own experiences and just listen to them. >> Awesome. Great. Thank you all very very much. Um I know that concludes the questions. I think there's still time remaining, but I believe that is the termination of the interview. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming in. >> Yeah, we appreciate the opportunity. Best of luck to you. >> Thank you so much. >> Appreciate it. It's been an honor. Appreciate your >> Next we we

059have uh JC Consulting. We're going to give him some time to walk in. Okay, the presentation is here. You can use the arrows. Sure. There's also a clicker. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Shall I start? >> Yes, sir. Please. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um, it's great to be here. My name is U. Kent Bedes Scribner. I'm a former uh actually I some people say they're retired superintendents. I'm a repurposed superintendent after 20 years uh 34 years actually in public education um teacher principal all those positions and then served as a superintendent for 13 years in Phoenix, Arizona and the last seven years of my career were uh at Fort Worth ISD here in Texas. Um I'm happy to be here uh representing JG Consulting. Uh we do uh superintendent searches but also do

060uh leadership uh coaching and uh providing support for individuals. I'm a firm believer in investing in leadership capacity. Now as as I said as a repurposed superintendent, I've always felt the the job of a leader is not to create followers. The job of a leader is to create other leaders. and and investing in in in the next generation is uh is essential. So um our our mission uh at um at JG Consulting is to support school systems and focus on equitable, inclusive and transparent process when it comes to searches. Uh so often um uh some of these decisions are are not made out in a in a transparent way and and as we say uh the best uh disinfectant is sunlight and we want to do this out in in the public so folks know

061uh what we're doing and what decisions we're making and uh we want to bring you a cadre of highly qualified leaders and we're very intentional about going out and recruiting recruiting leaders. I can speak from personal experience on the other side. Sometimes the the leader you're looking for is not looking for a job. You want to find someone who is successful elsewhere. And uh we we work very very hard to get she or he uh interested in coming to EPISD. Our our impact is um is singularly focused. Uh we're about students and about improving student uh outcomes. uh a well-run school district. We say the superintendent doesn't run the school the school district. The board doesn't run the school district. The board and superintendent make sure the school district runs well. And with 50,000 students,

062the the the importance here is you want someone who understands teaching and learning, but also someone who understands systems and culture and climate and creating uh a an environment where where where students are at the center uh of every decision that we make. And we have a well-run well-run um process that results uh that comes from from the the board. It's a our decisions will be highly connected to to your desires and um and we often refer to the will of the board. When when uh when James Ger our president um engages with the board, it is it is uh it is with deep uh relationship and uh and often uh frequent frequent communication. Uh we've we've had success uh in this in this realm uh with similar districts um some of our existing partners

063uh here uh in similar demographics Macallen Lasuses Donna uh San Antonio Lake Travis uh Alamagordo and uh hopefully coming soon uh EPISD. So what makes JG consulting different? Um, we have four dimensions and two of these are are proprietary are owned by JG Consulting. The career portal and the data portal. We're going to go into each of these four um specifically, but finding a superintendent is one of the most difficult challenges you're going to have. uh as a board again, 20 years superintendent, 34 in in public education. I know uh from experience that uh that school boards, you know, hiring a superintendent, changing boundaries, closing schools, those are some of the least uh enjoyable uh pro activities that that that you engage in, but they also are some of the most important. and uh the

064flexibility and responsiveness of our process allows us to to get in and really understand not only what your desires are but what those who have uh represent who those who have elected you are. Uh we uh have a very comprehensive process by which we we do surveying and and get the understanding the essence of what what uh what the uh school community in in El Paso ISD cares about. And from our perspective, there are two communities, multiple communities certainly, but in two two uh specific areas. One is the community as we typically traditionally think about. But also there's an internal community, your teachers, your your classified staff, your support staff, your your your professionals, your school school leaders. That is a community that we need to listen to as well. Let's go through each each

065of these four. The first is our career portal. It's on demand. um candidates, school boards all over the country can access this. Um we have all of the searches that are that exist uh uh nationwide. Uh we want to cast a wide net and make sure that we are understanding uh who the um who the potential applicants are. We advertise our position this we we would advertise this position aggressively. make sure that no uh stone is unturned and people know that EPISD is a great place to be as well as a great opportunity for uh for a leader to to transform and and make this place better. Other firms in fact use our superintendent search.com uh jgulting owns it. It's proprietary and uh something that we care a great deal about as a service to

066to to you and to all all all educational leaders. The second um dimension of of our process is the interview portal. We do um four depending on what the board uh the will of the board we can we work that with you three, four or five uh questions and we have live v interviews with each one of these u applicants. So if there are 45 people who apply to be the superintendent of EPISD, we will use our professional judgment and narrow that down to seven or eight, whatever you whatever you would like. But if you want to look at all 44, we're going to give it to you. You're gonna have the opportunity to do that. And you can tell a lot by these videos. You can tell a lot about people's um connectedness, their

067ability, the public speaking ability, their their understanding of of simple things as lighting. And we've had people do these in their car, and that that that is not typically the uh the applicant that you're that you're looking for. We want someone who is who is committed uh and um and professional and and really wants to serve the students uh faculty and community of um of EPISD. But the interview portal is is is a great great process. Um we we have a scoring uh criteria that we can share with you as well. Surveying as I said we'll be able to uh get the the understanding of your community in any language. Uh now, thank goodness with with AI, we we're a able to to to have a even obscure um ve very uncommon languages that that

068are spoken that would historically have been spoken here in El Paso, but they may exist and we want uh those individuals voices as well. It's totally anonymous. Um again, we can virtually um connect with anyone and we will track that data and disagregate it however you would like. There are some traditional ways to do that. Um, based on based on, you know, community group, parent, uh, race, ethnicity, however you want to want to take a look at that, gender, we can we can get a sense as to what people are are, um, are caring about. And these are basically questions like what what characteristics are you looking for? What are the biggest issues in El Paso ISD? Do we have issues in early childhood? we have issues in elementary at the high school graduation college

069career and uh and uh and and uh preparedness beyond high school. So that is a surveying issue is something surveying dimension is something that we that we focus on a great deal. The data portal is uh is also very interesting. Um a is the is the scorecard. That's what we call it. Um, and it provides an applesto apples comparison because you're professionals, you're busy people. We're going to provide you with a dozen a dozen packets. And sometimes, in my experience, candidates may embellish. And they may say, "My achievement in eighth grade math or third grade reading or high school graduation rates is X." And when you dig a little bit deeper, um this allows us to control for demographic um subgroups because perhaps a 55% proficiency in one one uh student demographic is actually a

070higher achieving than a 65% in a in a in a in another u more more affluent community. So, we want to be able to control for demographic diversity. And wherever these top five, seven, 10, however many applicants you want to you want to bring in, wherever they come from, we're going to be able to to access their district data and be able to understand just exactly um where these students are uh in the district that the individual has served. Uh we want to re really kind of control again for for the differences and uh and provide data that is helpful. apples to apples comparisons. And we can do this nationwide, too. So, if we're looking at Texas, we understand the Texas um uh assessment system, but also in in other states, California, Florida, Illinois, who

071knows where your your applicant may come from. Um we want to be able to uh to understand and create an applesto apples comparison as to their effectiveness in terms of student student u student outcomes. Just a quick statistical overview. Uh JG Consulting uh is uh has been in business uh for several years and has done over 200 executive searches. 67 of those are superintendent searches. Uh worked in 23 states. Um 68% of the superintendent that we have uh placed are in their current um role. We're 50/50 uh with regard to to men and women uh in our placement. And our placements are roughly I know that the that the national average is about 2 to three years uh 2 point 2 2.8 years uh of tenure and ours are just shy of six years. So

072we we want to help you make a decision that will stick. We want to help you um uh find someone who wants to invest in this community and be a part of this community and help you uh improve student outcomes for for the students of u of of El Paso ISD. the on the right side those are n those are national data and the JG consulting there is on the left side of that sheet um oops with regard to recruitment um again we we don't necessarily only look at sitting superintendent or assistant superintendents or deputies uh we we can look at traditional education leaders but we can also look in non-traditional places depending on the will of the board uh there are some some districts that are looking for for folks who have an instructional

073background some folks folks who have a who have a construction or maintenance background, some who have a finance background, other want business leaders, someone philanthropic leader, someone with higher education experience, public sector. We want to cast a wide net and you are going to define what those characteristics are so that we can narrow narrow the field down and find um the right the right individual. Um in addition to school districts, we've also um worked with a wide um variety of other partners. Um NAASA, the uh school administrators association, NAVI, the National Association of Black School Educators, NSBA, Council of Great City Schools, Alas, the uh Association of Latino Administrators, and Super. In fact, we placed Ulissista Narete there um just about a year ago. Uh they asked us to do that that search, which we

074which we did. So this is just a suggestion. Um if uh the board were to choose JG Consulting, uh you would you would determine the timeline, but one possible timeline would be to get started here pretty quickly uh either this month uh or next uh and get the planning and discussions, stakeholder engagement, uh defining the the profile uh who uh what characteristics should this individual have. Uh then we would open the portal and uh recruit aggressively. As I said, be very very intentional about inviting individuals. In fact, in some cases, encouraging uh uh sitting superintendent to to look at this as as another opportunity. Uh the the portal would might may close in in November. Um we could interview uh in December, perhaps the first part of January, and and name someone and get them

075started um um as soon as possible this spring. So, I was taught when I was younger to try and be be brief and be brilliant and be done. Uh, I know I did one of those things. I'm brief. So, and now we're done. So, two of those things. Anyway, well, thank you very much for this opportunity and uh happy to entertain any any questions, comments, or suggestions. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Scriber. Um, I don't know if you want to stay up there for the questions. If you want to take a seat, it's entirely up to you. However you feel more uh most comfortable. Oh, >> sure. I'll Thank you. Okay. So, there is a list of 16 questions. Uh some of them you may have already answered in the presentation. Uh but we're

076asking uh all three uh firms that are here today the exact same questions to keep it fair. >> Okay. So question number one, does your firm or any of the consultants have experience working with border cities like El Paso in which some students and parents coexist in both US and Mexican cities? >> Yes. Uh we do. In fact, on the um on the list that I shared with you, there are a few um border um communities there. Um we uh I love these I love u um this environment. My wife is from Ngales, Arizona. Uh I'm I'm Phoenix and my my mother's family is from Veraracru. That that's not a that's not a border. But uh but the whole kind of ambos nogales is what she grew up with and and there's a real sense

077of of of um kind of multinational and uh and uh and multi- cultural experience. And I think that uh finding a the right candidate uh you you live this and you understand it. Um we we on on our end will will provide you with individuals who also have those values. Question number two, does anyone in your firm have experience working in a district that has similar demographics as El Paso, uh, which are 84% Hispanic, 9% white, 4% black, and 2% Asian as a teacher, principal or superintendent. Uh, tell us more about your experience and educational background. >> Yes. Um I was a superintendent in Phoenix uh for 13 years in two districts and um the larger 30,000 student district I think had 89% students of students of color I think 85% were were Latino um

078at eight or nine% African-American. Um also in Fort Worth uh I think it was about 80 excuse me it's about 63% Hispanic 23% African-American. Um, another uh one of my colleagues in on this is Michaelina Hosa uh who has worked here in the El Paso region and and also superintendent of Dallas and he does superintendent coaching. So um I would say the the the the breadth and number of of individuals that JG Consulting has um um standing at the ready to to help us find the right candidate here for Elbaso is u certainly fits those fits those requirements. Number three, how does your firm gather community input in a diverse cultural environment? >> Uh, a couple ways. Um, in fact, we just wrapped up the a very successful search in Virginia um just south of

079um uh in Stafford, just south of uh actually it is Northern Virginia, but the southern part of Northern Northern Virginia. And uh the um um the surveying is is the kind of the passive way to do it. And we did that very um um kind of thoroughly. Uh but also holding um community forums uh community forums at uh at high schools, community forums at churches, community forums at the at the nonprofits, the YMCA's, wherever the people are, we will go. And as I said, our team is um is diverse, is multilingual. Um, my middle name is Paredes and my mother said, so um, so we have multiple people on our on our team who who will be able to um to to facilitate those community meetings. Um, in fact, I think that's what we're good

080at. Uh, several of us um have been um successful superintendents, but uh it's in my experience that the successful superintendent misses the principal ship more than anything because those are the two jobs that are the most similar. the superintendent is his or her job is not as similar to the deputy or the assistant soup as it is to the high school principal who's the mayor of that neighborhood. So, we we we have that um that ability in our on our team. >> Number four, how many superintendent searches have you successfully conducted for districts similar in size, demographics, and challenges to EPISD? And what commitments do you make if a hire doesn't work out? So, um, the total number was listed there on our statistical overview, 67 searches. Not all of them are similar to to

081El Paso, but I would say I mean I would I would I'm guessing we can get you the specific number, but knowing uh James Gera and um JG Consulting's history, um I would say close to half of those would be in um diverse student populations. Um we have a guarantee that if the um search uh if the individual doesn't last longer than two years that uh we would offer our services for free to come back and do that. We have not had to do that uh because of the of the investment on the front end and not only the time and investment but also the u the uh the knowledge and the and the experience and the the wi I I wanted to say wisdom but what I really mean is scar tissue. I mean

082those of us I've sat in that chair there and you know conflict is the DNA of leadership and if you don't like conflict then you need to go back to the job you had two or three jobs ago because uh uh you need to understand that that is what we're getting into. We're very very uh clear and um and intentional about sharing that with the applicants. U another district uh is uh similar in Latino population but uh but not not um me Mexican-American predominantly. Uh we did Waterberry, Connecticut. Um uh highly um diverse student population, students u uh Puerto Rico, Dominican, and African-American. >> Thank you. Number five, what experience do you have conducting superintendent searches for districts facing criticism around transparency, budget accountability, district leadership, or public trust? Uh please provide examples. Well, I

083would I would just say that, you know, ever since COVID happened and culture wars happened and um uh controversy around public schools and I would argue, maybe I'm show sharing too many of my values here, but I think that there is a movement um kind of undermining uh the traditional public school. uh and um and and so so I would say every district that we have worked in is dealing with those issues. Uh some more so than others. Uh but uh but from my perspective uh uh the leader you're looking for is someone who has the chops, who can take a hit, who can understand that that is not personal, that whoever sitting in that chair um is going to get screamed at and they were going to get screamed at six years six months

084ago or six years ago. And it has nothing to do with the name on that plate. It's the the way society is set up. You all are are get criticism and you also get flowers. And that happens. You all are probably very very good. But if you weren't there and someone else was sitting there, the same criticisms and the same flowers would be coming. So my so my my the way I would answer that is every district today is experiencing challenging um issues with regard to improving student outcomes, uh finances and and the accusations that we're not being transparent. And so all of those you have to have someone who has this is not the job for a a a rookie. This is a job for someone that that has leadership capacity and may not

085necessarily be a superintendent, but but that kind of that kind of experience. >> Thank you. Number six, uh, beyond applicants who submit, how does your firm actively recruit highquality candidates who may not be seeking new positions while also ensuring that the candidate pull reflects the values and needs of a district like EPISD? >> Well, again, the first step would be to interview each one of you individually uh to get what you you care about and what your values are and what you're looking for. And then we would um kind of combine a profile uh what what the what the ven diagram where where where your values overlap the most. Um and then really the the the great thing about our team and I think most most uh folks in who have been successful leaders is

086there's about one degree of separation from any highquality superintendent in the country. We I know somebody that knows her. Uh you know somebody that knows him. And so so from that perspective, we can get to people. Um I had no interest in leaving Phoenix. I had a great board, great situation, and um and and they kind of did not relent and talk and I figured out that my that my folks weren't getting any younger, and they lived in Dallas, so Fort Worth was it seemed like a great place. So I I know I know what it is to be persistent. I know what it is to to to persuade and not in a not in a manipulative way, but just in presenting the case of why El Paso ISD is a great place to live.

087And if we find someone who who um who has those values and has those beliefs after we've determined what yours as a as a as a collective are, um that's when we can start to really really work hard and and um and and attract. Number seven, how do you help the board of trustees reach a consensus when opinions differ about candidates? >> Yeah, I mean I that's that's just teamwork and um and hopefully at the end uh so we've had situations in which maybe one or two were not that was not the number one choice, but really talking it through and understanding the importance of creating consensus. um going back to what you because sometimes people forget what they said to us four months ago, you know, when we when we talk to them and

088interview them and you you can take a look at at at what but wait a minute, ma'am, you said this is what what what you what you were looking for. So So we do that and and as a superintendent, you know, I' I've I've served 63 different board members. Uh in this role, it is it is very very different because we kind of have a have a different level of relationship. Um, and so I can I can say things um because I don't have to live with you forever, right? I I I can be direct and be and be it's almost like grandparents, you know, you can give the kid back um to to to my to my kids. Um so so from our perspective, we are good at staying in there until the job

089gets done. And if you do your job right, it's you're not going to have a a a 50-50 split. It's it's going to be you're going to kind of know we're not going to bring you folks who are who are um you know send send send folks to the eerend continuum. >> Number eight, what methods do you use to verify a candidate's track record beyond references? >> Yeah, I think um a couple things. Uh the data portal is unique to us. uh James um hired a a a group of uh of mathematicians to put that together, which is not easy because you have to say, you know, the Texas assessment system, how does that compare to the California or the the New Mexico or the Louisiana? Um you you know that that is that is

090a challenge. So there's there's the the quantitative aspect and I think we are the best when it comes to creating a a a profile of apples to apples. The the other way is um the qualitative and uh yes I will we will call all of the um candidates um all of the references on the candidate list but then we're going to ask the candidates who else should we speak to and then we're going to ask that person who else should we speak to so you get two or three um you know networks away from the three people who I who they said hey um you may get a call from JG consulting uh uh then you can really get a sense the other piece too is thankfully in today's world of social media and uh

091and and and the internet, you can you can find out a lot about people and again our network I I've done done work in in Philadelphia and Phoenix and Fort Worth and and Michaels has been all over the place and we have we have um he actually he's now coaching superintendents for the for the council of great city schools all over the country. So, um, we will be able to get a, uh, authentic, um, dis kind of profile of of who your top two or three candidates are. >> Number nine, uh, how do you balance candidate confidentiality with the community's expectation of transparency throughout the process? >> Uh, well, we we we believe in confidentiality. Otherwise, you're not going to get you're not going to get great great candidates um at the beginning unless unless

092we're running a professional process. However, as we get closer to the end, um it really is the will of the board. Uh and so we will we will work with you. Uh and if the board wants it to be uh open toward the end, we we we can do that. I don't recommend that. Um, I think that uh that you all were elected uh by by your constituents uh based on your experience, based on your judgment, and based on your track record. Um, we will get a sense from the community as we go through this process, as we go to your high school gymnasiums and your city libraries and others to hold these forums uh to to really get a sense of of what folks are looking for. And and the other piece too is

093you got to be careful um when someone says the community wants to know. Well, maybe it's that person and his neighbor who want to know. We you know who is the community? We we want to get a sense from from from the aggregate as to as to um as to what the what the the the u the desires of the of that community actually are. I believe in confidentiality because I know that uh that top top candidates are not going to um put their name in the hat unless unless they they think that they are serious and that the community is serious and the board is serious. >> Thank you. Number 10. How do you evaluate a candidate's ability to build consensus among diverse stakeholders such as board members, teachers, parents, community, and students? >>

094I mean, I think you're going to get a the videos again are very revealing. I think you're going to get a sense of someone's ability to connect, ability to communicate. Um the values piece is different. Uh we will spend a great deal of time with with the candidates and get a sense as to what they believe in. Um I think again reputation, you can't run away from reputation in these high-profile jobs. So we will we will dig into their um their social uh uh kind of circle and and professional circle and understand who these people are truly as a as a leader and as a person because you're not only hiring a a professional to to to ful to implement your policies. You're hiring a representative of the 50,000 kids and each one of you.

095You don't want someone who's going to go out there and embarrass you. uh we've read about that too many times. >> Number 11, what strategies do you use to assess a candidate's ability to lead collaboratively while still making decisive student centered choices? >> Yeah, I think um I think again uh experience and and and track record um uh the best the best predictor of future behavior is what is past behavior. So, uh, you know, if someone tell I'm the collaborative leader and we dig into their background and that it's not their reputation, then, um, I'm, you know, sometimes candidates fib and, uh, and I'm going to, I'm going to check on that. But, uh, but again, uh, at the end of the day, someone needs to make a decision and at the end of the

096day, not every decision is is popular. We're I I I was joking with someone earlier that that in today's world in leadership, if you you all experience this here every every night, every time you have a board meeting, I mean, we're living in a 49% world. No matter what you do, a a 49% of the folks um you know, may may not may not be supportive of that. So, you have to have someone who has who has the head, the heart, and the stomach for this work. and uh and and we will work very closely to bring you candidates who have that kind of substance. >> Number 12, what do you expect your all-in cost to be once your account for robust community engagement that includes forums and stakeholder focus groups uh facilitated by your

097firm? Uh this could include travel costs. And please explain what the community engagement process would look like uh if we engaged with your firm. >> So there are no hidden costs with JG Consulting. We're not the cheapest company. Um, you get what you pay for. Um, for this search, uh, I was authorized to share that we're would be 50,000. Uh, no hidden costs, no travel. That's the number. And anything under that, all all the travel, etc., um, we will we will absorb. Again, there's a two-year guarantee. Uh, so, uh, when you hire, um, a candidate from JG Consulting, uh, she or he will will last at least that long. As I said, we're averaging close to six years. Um if it if it's not then then we can we'll do it again for free. Uh

098and the community engagement that that's my favorite part. I mean I love uh being here and working uh in the evenings working uh at the school in in in the in the teachers lounges uh getting a sense for what folks want. So based on you how many um high school feeder patterns you have, we want we want certainly uh representation from from the secondary, from the high schools, from the middle schools, from the elementaryaries, from the early childhood centers, from the from the nonprofits, from the Head Start, from the philanthropic community, from business leaders. So um it will it will be uh no one's going to outwork us. Uh it will be comprehensive because to me that's the most important part. um getting a true sense and then when it comes time as you said

099um uh earlier with regard to what happens at the end when we have not everyone on board with this recommendation, we go to the data. We go to the the qualit the quantitative data and we go to the qualitative data and say here's what your here's what your graduating senior said. Here's what your preschool mom said. Here's here's what the business leader said. and really provide provide a um a thorough a thorough picture of what the values and uh and hopes and dreams of this community are. >> Number 13, how do you measure whether candidates have a proven track record of raising student achievement, particularly in districts with diverse populations? >> Yeah, again, um I would just encourage you to to um take a look at that data portal um uh those two slides, but

100also uh on our on our website. Uh it it clearly is um is um I think you know something that's really going to change the change the market. In fact, other firms are asking if they can if they can um hire hire by that piece uh because really it it it uh it provides you a true applesto apples comparison. But the other piece too is not only do we have a um a scorecard that uh that that that controls for for diversity and and and so economic status and family income and and language minority status and all of those issues. Um, we we also, again, I would I would encourage us to also look at the at the qualitative um, interviews and and how do they how do they get there? Because you don't want

101someone to come in here cracking heads and and and increase student achievement for a year and a half and then and then everyone's angry. You want it to be a sustainable um, trans transformation, sustainable improvement. >> Number 14. Uh, how do you vet candidates claims of past success? What data or evidence do you seek beyond resume highlights? >> Yeah. Um, again, the data will speak for itself. Uh, board members um um in in in other districts understand that. I think u I'm a firm believer too and I know we get a lot of media coverage here in El Paso, but there are some folks on editorial boards who who are who are um who are uh um uh experts in in educational policy. I think we can we can look at look at all of

102those but uh but again the network of school leaders the network of state officials I think we have great reput if it's a Texas um applicant we have great great uh uh relationships at tea uh with their data people as well so we can we can get to the bottom of of of what what the achievement truly is for all the subgroups and and and and digging in deep uh particularly for for our students u who who are not starting the educational race at the educational starting line. >> Number 15. Uh, has your organization applied to or been engaged to assist El Paso ISD within a superintendent search or with a superintendent search in the past 20 years? If so, what was the experience and the result >> in the past how many years? >>

10320. >> You have five minutes left. Okay. >> Um, I I I don't know. My sense is no. Um, but um James James would know that. Yeah. And last question, sir. Uh, does your organization continue to engage candidates after placement as a superintendent by advising place candidates on management strategies, professional development, and vendor relationships during their tenure as superintendent? If so, uh, how often and with what objectives? >> So, say could you repeat that because the the vendor relationships makes me nervous. >> Gotcha. Does your organization continue to engage candidates after placement as a superintendent by advising place candidates on management strategies, professional development, and vendor relationships during their tenure as superintendent? >> Definitely not vendor relationships. That's your business. Um, our job is to make sure she or he is successful. Uh, I have

104um phone calls with um a couple superintendents who we placed over the last couple years. Sometimes those are on Sunday afternoon uh when when when he has a chance to to to come up for air and and take those calls and u and talk it through. Uh you know, it's it's it's really about creating um a safe space for leadership is lonely. the superintendentship is is a lonely lonely job and and you can't necessarily um ask folks within the within within my team. I don't know how to do this because that that that is not uh um looked upon sometimes um positively. That's where we come in. Uh again, several of us have have had long careers um of of successful leadership and and and we've also made mistakes and stubbed our toes. So, so

105we know that. But but yes um uh we we stick with the candidates uh we want them to be successful uh we help them we coach and coaching is not giving advice. Coaching is is listening. Coaching is is assuming positive intent. Coaching is providing reflective feedback. That's what we do. Uh and and providing uh ideas because because they they know the answer. It's it's either this either go left or go right and and and they just need somebody to talk it through. Uh but uh but but I I think from from a perspective of of integrity, I think anyone who who places a superintendent and then then pivots and says, "Oh, by the way, you know, I'm selling student achievement." Um that's u that's not good. That's not that's who that's not who we are.

106>> Thank you, sir. That concludes the interview. Uh I just want to say thank you and I'm sure on behalf of the board, thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming in today. Thank you all. Appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. Okay, next we have H YA. We're going to go ahead and give them time to get up to the podium. >> Miss Pñena, can I ask you a question real quick? Sorry. Thank you. I I just wanted to make sure. I didn't know that. I'm assuming they were already told it was 10 and 30. >> Yes. Okay. Yes. So, what's going to happen is that uh like for example this vendor, he reduced his question and answer period. Okay. So the people

107that are going to start if they start if they finish the presentation uh sooner then they gain uh more time for questions and answers. >> But the but the 40 minutes is the mark that we're timing. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Can you see arrows for the clicker? >> Tell me which button. This button. >> That one >> to advance. >> Thank you very much. >> I did tell you about the 10inut presentation question. Yes, sir. Okay. >> Okay. Whenever you want to begin then. >> All right. Thank you very much. Good evening board members. On behalf of Hazard Young and AIA Atia and Associates, I want to thank you for the opportunity uh this evening to present to you. Um we actually Okay, do you all see? Okay, there it is. Give me a

108second to acclimate here. Uh we know that this is probably the most important uh job of the board to hire a superintendent. Um, and part of that responsibility is making sure that you're listening to your community in this process and then also looking for the best match uh for based on what you hear from your community. Um, we know that that uh this is a very high-profile position and um your community is going to be watching, the media will probably be watching. Um and we want to make sure that um you have uh a partner that will stand with you through this process and that can defend the process um from start to finish. This is your search team that would be uh working in uh in the district if you select Hazard Young AIA

109and Associates. You have bios on most of them. You don't have my bio. I was invited to join um the the u the team after the proposal had already been submitted. And so I'm I'm grateful for the opportunity. Just a very quick um bio on me. I spent 31 years in public education. I retired in 22. Done just about every job including superintendency 10 years uh in Elgenist just uh east of Austin. Um I um I'm an El Pasoan and I'm a proud to I'm proud to um have been uh raised here. I grew up here. My family is here. Uh, I'm also really proud of my sister who just retired uh this year, 34 years at Ornado as the orchestra teacher. So, I'm really proud, but this is my home and I'm happy uh

110to be able to be here with you guys. Uh, just a little bit about our firm. Uh, we've been in the business uh for a long time doing searches for over 38 years. Um, we've done over 1,600 searches. Um, I think what sets us apart from other firms is our national reach. uh we have 130 associates nationwide doing this work and that is a that is a large network that we can reach out to that can help us find a very diverse uh diverse group of applicants for this job. We also do a very thorough vetting uh of candidates and then of course we have the infrastructure and the staff to help support us as we do the work on your behalf. Um, very similar to other firms, we have a signature process that includes

111four phases. And I'll talk about each one of these very briefly because I know we have just 10 minutes and I want to make sure I cover all of the slides. Um, but we'll talk about the engage phase, recruit, select, and transition phase. I think what's important to understand is this process will take probably a good three months. Uh, and and I think you're starting at the right time to have somebody in place by January 1. So the timing is is absolutely right. Uh with the engage phase, this is very important. This is probably one of the most important pieces of of uh of our search. Um and that includes engaging the voice of your community and your stakeholders and your staff. Um but all of this starts the engage phase starts with you the

112board with a planning meeting. Uh and that's where we will sit down with you as a board and define uh for the what will occur over the next three months. and we'll be very specific. This is a customizable search and we want to make sure that it meets your needs from start to finish. Uh we will do as part of our engage we'll do individual um interviews with each one of you. Um we will also do individual interviews. We generally do like the cabinet um maybe some elected officials that you all recommend. We will ask you all who do you think we should interview? Uh we'll conduct focus groups um community forums. We also have a researchbased survey that we will um have available for stakeholders to uh complete for a two-eek period. Uh so

113we want to make sure we have ample opportunity uh to collect voice. We take all of that information that we gather over those uh over during the engagement phase and we create a leadership profile uh to assist you all in identifying the key characteristics of your next leader uh and what you're looking for. So that leadership profile is really key. Um but it it stems from the information we gather from our stakeholder meetings. Uh the meetings, how we conduct them. Um I'll just tell you, we we do it any way we need to do it. Um in person, uh we're flexible with time. When we come into the district, we will be here for several days at a time doing meetings all day uh in the morning, in the evenings. We want to make it

114easy for families who are interested in participating in person uh to be able to do that. Um we can also do Zoom meetings. We can do um um various uh different configurations. But again, we'll define all of that in the planning meeting uh with you all. During our recruit phase, um we do what most firms do. We're going to advertise. We're going to post, but we're going to actively recruit. And when I say actively recruit, we don't wait for people to come to us. From day one, we start looking. We start to spread our networks out to say, "Hey, we've got El Paso ISD. This is a great job. let's start talking and and thinking about who might be a good fit. Uh what's really going to guide that fit is what comes out of

115that leadership profile. So we'll start the process of recruiting immediately, but then we'll get to a screening phase which I'll talk about um briefly. But again, in this phase, we'll do some reference checking um background checks and and so forth and keep you up to date. I won't spend too much time here, but I what I would say about this is um 90% of our associates are retired superintendents. We've done the job. We have the networks, not just in Texas, but statewide. Um, two of two of the search folks, Dr. Ibata and I, um, are both from Texas and the other two are from out of state. So, again, um, we we want to make sure we spread our our net very wide to get the best candidates for you all. I think we're also

116very proud of the fact that 95% of the superintendents we place um, stay in that job for an extended period of time, and that's really important for stability for a school district. Um again diplomacy I I think this process what's extremely important is confidentiality and and we hold ourselves to a very high standard and we would expect the same of of the board and we'll talk about how we can communicate uh uh with our board with you all as the board um and provide you the information you need uh but still be able to main confidentiality within this process. This is our select phase. Uh during our select phase, I anticipate because of the job, this is a pretty lucrative job for somebody. And I I anticipate you'll get anywhere from 40, 50, 60 applicants,

117which is pretty uh pretty significant. Um we don't expect you all to screen all of those. We do that work for you. Again, we're going to take your lead and and uh based on what you want from us, but we our job is to make it easy for you. So, we'll do an initial screening based on criteria you all set. If we know that you want a sitting superintendent to be an applicant, then we're going to screen out the ones that aren't. So, we do an initial screening right off the bat. Uh, and then we can present a tiered slate to you all. And that can be as many as you want, eight, 10, 12 of the top candidates that we have screened that we feel meet the profile that has been established from the

118stakeholder feedback and engagement. um we help you through that whole entire interview process. We'll schedule the interviews for you. We we will um help you create the questions. We want your input in the questions. We want but we'll make sure that they are worded so that they are legal and appropriate for an interview. Um and then we'll help you coordinate those final interviews until you're ready to name your loan finalist. The transition phase, I think this is very important. We don't just end when you hire your superintendent. We want to be here with you to help through that transition. Uh and so we recommend that after the process is completed, your superintendent is in place, we meet with you and your superintendent to de debrief the process. Um look at the information that we gathered

119during the search. Um and then map out activities for the transition. This is also a really good opportunity for your new superintendent to start building relationships with you as a board, with your community, with your personnel. This transition phase, the board portal, this is what is is a I think a piece that separates us from others. We will communicate with you. Each one of you will have a login um super confidential. Um we will upload everything that we do will be uploaded. any documents that we prepare will be uploaded and it'll be uploaded in an organized way so that you can look for something if it's in the engage phase you can go to it and and find it. Uh but this is where all information will be stored for you uh to review and

120go back to. This is a draft timeline. And again, let me just be very clear. During our planning meeting where you see week of week of, we would sit down with you and we would define what the exact dates. We want to make sure we calibrate our calendars and make sure everybody can be available um when the board needs to come together and um that we've that we've identified those dates and then of course getting us to that January 1 date uh um to make sure that we hit our targets and our our mark. If we don't make it by January 1, if we if we need to extend it because we haven't found the right person, that's the plan. That's what we're going to do. We're in hit we're in this for the long

121haul with you. Just some guarantees that I want to point out. It was in the proposal, but I'll just mention it. Uh fixed price, we we're going to be here until the job is done. Um there are some there are some added uh options for you that we can talk about in the planning meeting, but as far as just the the standard work that we do, we're not going to stop until you all have selected the right person for your district. And again, client satisfaction. If if that superintendent departs in that first year with the majority of this board still in place, uh we will conduct a search at at no cost. Um with the exception of course travel, advertising, due diligence, and then of course price match. If um HYA will agree to match

122any price of any competitive bid as long as the service they're providing is comparable to what we are offering in terms of the work. So why HYA? Um, first and foremost, it's about kids and and every one of us. That's what drives us. Uh, and I believe that's what drives you as a board to find the best person to lead your district. I want to make sure you understand that we work for you. And so, we want to make sure as we go through this journey together that that this search is is exactly the way you want it done. It's customized to meet your needs. Um, and quite frankly, our job is to save you time. we're doing the the work and then we want to make sure you are informed every step of the

123way and you're giving us feedback and guidance on anything that you need us to do differently. Uh but above all, I would say we are a firm that you can trust. Um according to market research, we've completed the most searches and have the lowest superintendent turnover rates of any of our competitors and that's something we're very very proud of. Um I will stop there and I know we have some questions and I think I probably went over my 10 minutes. So, thank you for allowing me that extra time. >> Thank you. >> All right. Great. Okay. So, Dr. uh Dudon the first question. So, there are 16 questions. Uh we've asked all the the two firms the exact same questions. Uh some of them seem to be somewhat repetitive but if they are you can

124just let us know. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Question number one. Does your firm or any of the consultants have experiencing working with border cities like El Paso in which some students and parents coexist in both US and Mexican cities? >> So I'm from here and I worked in Eastleta for three years 2003 to 2006. um my colleague from Texas um Dr. Ibara, Sylvia Ibara, she was a superintendent in the Rio Grand Valley. Um and so we we are very familiar with what it means uh to to live and be in a border town. Um and just those nuances um that make this place really special. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Number two, uh does anyone in your firm have experiencing working in a district that has similar demographics as El Paso? uh 84%

125Hispanic, 9% white, 4% black, and 2% Asian as a teacher, principal, or superintendent. Uh tell us more about your experience uh your experience and educational background. >> Yes. So, I can tell you about mine. You've got the bios on our our colleagues um in the proposal, but yes, um Isla, I would say like El Paso is very similar across all all of the districts. Um Sylvia, Dr. Baram she again Rio Grand Valley demographics look very similar um to El Paso um our our two other colleagues um I I would say um ones in Arizona I can't speak to their I actually cannot speak to their demographics so so I won't um but but yes at least two of us um have have certainly served in districts similar to El Paso in size and demographics. Thank

126you. Uh number three, uh how does your firm gather community input in a diverse cultural environment? >> Yeah, so we talked about the engagement phase and um again this is a very important um piece of our puzzle. Um we we want to we this is a very large district and so as we as we're talking with the board, we want to we want to make sure that we structure it in such a way that we're hitting every uh part of your um district. um and and how we do that. It it could be feeder patterns, it could be however you however you see is the best way to do this, but we want to give as much opportunity um both in person and um obviously through our stakeholder uh survey uh which by the way

127will be translated in English and Spanish. Uh so that's that will um that will hopefully reach a broader audience especially for those that may not be able to attend in person to one of the events. The focus groups are very targeted and again we'll talk with you all as a board who you would want to be included as as in a focus group. So we typically would see something like um you know a teacher group or your stu a student advisory group. Uh, so we would we literally would either do several across the district or we could u bust them in for a single one. So there's a lot of configurations and ways we can do that. But but the bottom line is um that's our sweet spot. We're going to make sure we reach

128uh your your community um ac across the district. We want to make sure everybody has a fair chance to to have voice in this process. >> Uh question number four. Uh, how many superintendent searches have you successfully conducted for districts uh similar in size, demographics, and challenges to EPISD? And what commitments do you make if a hire doesn't work out? >> Yeah. So, um, so I've completed two. Um, I would I would tell you that the demographics are not necessarily the same. Judson ISD, um, in central Texas, it is a larger district. Um but de uh different demographics. Um Georgetown ISD is another search that we did. Again, very different demographics. A little bit smaller, much smaller. Um um but the process is the same. How we conduct the process is is key. Um Dr.

129Ibara recently um did a search in Mesa, Arizona. Um and I'll be honest, I don't know the demographics of that particular search. um our two other associates um one from Arizona and one from Washington state. They've done numerous searches and again I can't speak to the the demographics or size of districts that they've done and I apologize for that. >> Number five, uh what experience do you have conducting superintendent searches for districts uh facing criticism around transparency, budget accountability, district leadership or public trust? And please provide examples. Yeah, the two I just mentioned, uh, Georgetown and, um, and Judson very, um, those were both very, um, um, not controversial searches, but it it the eyes were on, uh, those districts for sure. Transparency was an issue certainly for um, would say Georgetown. Um and um

130they've hired an amazing superintendent that has uh and you can don't take my word for it, call the call the board. Um but uh has done a complete turnaround of that district, which is really amazing. Um I uh Judson ISD um they have struggled financially and are continuing to to work on that. And I will tell you, I mean, that's a that's a st that's a statewide issue that we hear right now with financial challenges. Um, but the key is how transparent are we in dealing with this? How are we showing our community that we're trying to resolve it? I think that's the key and I think they've got the right people in Jetson doing that work right now. Number six, uh, beyond applicants who submit, how does your firm actively recruit highquality candidates who

131may not be seeking new positions while also ensuring that the candidate pool reflects the values and needs of a district like EPIST? we we go find them like our networks are are very broad. So when you think about so of course Sylvia and I are two uh of the 130 uh associates but there are other Texas um HYA folks that we can lean on if if if we're looking specifically in Texas if we're casting our net broader. We have two of our our uh consultants um that are outside of Texas and have that national reach. the the two searches that I did um I did in partnership with a gentleman out of Illinois. So, we've got connections all over that we're going to reach out to. But the the bottom line is like 75% of

132the superintendent that we recruit and are hired are are the ones that we've gone out to to actually get, not the ones that we've just found because they applied. Number seven, how do you help the board of trustees reach a consensus when opinions differ about candidates? >> Uh, so again, I think it's really important that that board members all have a voice in this process that everyone is heard. when when we get to the final um six or three or however that configuration looks, I think that's when it probably gets really um critical to be on the same page. have a great process um that we use uh deli process to to narrow it um to help really um identify who you know as we start to identify who the top candidates are when we

133compare them candidate to candidate by board member to board member you know each individual board member doing it it is such a smooth process that um I I think it will um it'll be it won't be as painful as it might seem Um, but again, I think again as as a board um um you just working together through this process, I think anytime that you have questions of us, we want to be available to be able to answer those questions and support you all uh in the best way that we can. >> Number eight, uh what methods do you use to verify a candidate's track record beyond references? Well, the internet's quite the quite the tool these days, isn't it? And um uh we also one of the searches that we or one of the

134um background checks that we use, it is a third party and and it is it is an added um probably an add-on. You know, we we certainly do our our due diligence with reference checking and background checks, but if you want to do a deeper dive, we hire a firm that will go a little bit deeper and they'll do internet search, they'll do social media, they'll do financial, they'll do a much deeper dive. We and in fact, we do recommend that that that the district or that the board um um use that service um at least at least for your finalists, your loan finalist. Some boards have opted to do their top three finalists and I we can explain that more when we're if we're selected and and we're in a planning meeting. We can

135talk more about what that looks like. >> Number nine, how do you balance candidate confidentiality with the community's expectation of transparency throughout the process? >> Yeah, I mentioned confidentiality in in my presentation and and that is probably one of the most important things. If you want a top candidate to come to El Paso ISTD, they need to be assured that that their name is not going to be disclosed. Um, particularly those that aren't looking to be moving uh to another district. So, we try to like we will really want to honor and so all of the information that we give you is is um contained in that board portal. Um but also we ask for you we want to be as transparent with the community as possible but understanding that we just can't disclose names

136of of board members at some point they've got to trust the process. I know that sounds so cliche but there there is a you've got to trust the process and and every board me that we have um they will be able to watch and see um our process in action. So we have nothing to hide but we do have to secure uh the names of the people that are that are participating because we don't want we don't want things if they are not selected um whether for an interview you know they may apply but they don't get an interview or whether they're a top six or a top three and don't get the job we want to make sure that we preserve that confidentiality up to the point that we no longer can if you

137know what I mean like when they're the finalist that should be that should be the that should be the moment Number 10. How do you evaluate a candidate's ability to build consensus among diverse state uh stakeholders such as board members, teachers, parents, the community, and students? You know, I think that's a question that we ask the candidates directly, but I also think um when when you get to your final final three or your final one and you want to do uh we typically recommend that you do site visits for your top candidates before you make a decision. And and the best people to ask about how they manage are the people that are they're working with and for now. Um, and so we will help we will help coordinate that um those connections for you.

138>> Number 11. What strategies do you use to assess a candidate's ability to lead collaboratively while still making decisive student centered choices? >> Say that one more time. >> Sure. >> What strategies do you use to assess a candidate's ability to lead collaboratively while still making decisive student centered choices? Yeah. Well, so we we will screen applicants um and we have a set of questions that we'll ask them. We'll develop those questions based on the leadership profile. Uh we want to make sure those are aligned. Um and I I I think again that might be a question we ask of them. But I think also when we're talking about um we have access um not just in Texas, but in any state, we can pull any kind of data related to their current district. if

139we want to go do a deeper dive on student performance uh finance financial um um you know um and and operational efficiencies within their current district. Those are things that we can look at uh ahead of time, but also I think hearing from them. I think that's going to be key and I think if those are important questions that you all need answers to, I think those need to be included as part of our interview process. Uh, number 12. What do you expect your all-in cost to be once you account for robust community engagement that includes forums and stakeholder focus groups facilitated by your firm? Uh, this would include travel costs. >> Please explain what the community engagement process would look like if we engaged with your firm. >> Okay. Well, I've talked about the

140engagement piece. We'll do the the focus groups, the forums. We'll be in on site in district. Um the the individual interviews, we can actually do those by phone or Zoom. Um we don't have to necessarily be in person unless that's a preference. Um but we want to be as efficient as we can be. Um both Sylvia and I are in Texas. We're not here in El Paso, but we are in Texas. And so if we know uh in advance what days we are going to be here, we can plan our our schedules appropriately. I get to stay with my mom while I'm here. So, no hotel expenses. Um but but all in expense um our fixed prices right now you for the the search is 35,000. Um with um with travel I I haven't done

141the travel in my um I I would say it's probably not going to be more than 30. I would say all in it would it would be less than maybe 42,000 all in. And that's a that's just a strong guess. And that might even be with the addition of the the um criminal background check if you do that extra deep dive layer. So that would be our target. >> Number 13, how do you measure whether candidates have a proven track record of raising student achievement? >> Yeah, >> particularly in districts with diverse populations. >> We have access to all kinds of data that we can look at. Um, of course, TEA, the taper reports. Um, you can they've got a it's pretty sophisticated system now, the Texas Texas educate teed gov. I don't remember the

142but it's I mean it tells you everything you want to know about that district. Uh, we we work with a third party firm um out outside of uh Texas. Again, that's that would be an additional fee, but we can do a deep dive on on outofstate candidates, too. in their um actual student performance data and trend data. >> Number 14, uh how do you vet candidates claims of past success and what data or evidence do you seek beyond resume highlights? >> Um again, we just look at we look at data that you know I think that's that tells the story. um we we we often will ask them to submit a a portfolio or some sort of a um something that we can share with the board that shows and I'm talking about the applicants

143that we screen to the point that we're ready to present to you what what can they show us that illustrates that they've they've moved the needle whether it's in academics or finance or um engagement or whatever the the the you know issue or concern concern is um that that you want us to be looking for in your superintendent. >> Uh number 15, has your organization or firm applied to or been engaged to assist El Paso ISD with a superintendent search in the past 20 years? >> If so, what was the experience and the results? >> Wow. Um I've been retired since 22, so I don't know the answer to that question, but since my tenure here, I would say no. And I don't believe hya has has engaged um in a search in El Paso.

144>> Doesn't mean you can't start now. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And last question, uh does your organization or firm uh continue to engage candidates after placement as a superintendent by advising those candidates on management strategies, professional development, and vendor relationships during their tenure as superintendent? Uh If so, how often and with what objectives? >> Yeah, absolutely we can. That's the transition plan, that 100 day plan. And and even beyond. I mean, once you've made a connection with um a superintendent or or a you know, one of one of us that have been in that job um they can pick up the phone and call any time. But during that 100 days, we want to make sure not just the candidate, but also the board. I it is that transition is a is a um it's

145it's a it's a partnership. It's a relationship and we want to help you all navigate that um in in those first 100 days. How so however we can be of a help and support to you um that's our that's our primary goal. >> Okay. Uh Dr. Dudon, I believe that's the end of the uh the interview process. I >> have nine minutes left. >> Yeah. Right. Do you want to hear the rest of my life story? No. >> No. Uh, thank you so so much. Um, and I know, um, you know, thank you on behalf of the board. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate Thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Mr. Miss PA, do you have further instructions for us? >> Yes, I'm trying to put this on the Okay,

146so in today is the end of interviews. I hope that uh you were able to gain a lot of the you know a lot of the details that you need to go ahead and score the the interview at this time. Uh I we do have some instructions that we're going to go over. Uh you could go ahead and discuss as needed. After you discuss uh we're going to go ahead and ask you to finalize the scores in Ion Wave. Once the scores have been uh submitted and everybody agrees that you have submitted the scores, uh we will go ahead and tabulate those scores here. Uh print out the results and hand them over to you. After that, we're going to ask that the board of trustees call a motion, which I'm going to go ahead

147and and show in the next slide. And then of course we're going to go ahead and collect all scoring materials a at the end of the meeting after you make the motion. >> I'm gonna actually take a very brief um question break and if anybody else needs to take a just a quick five minute recess. Sorry about that. >> So, Miss Manuel, we can um begin the discussion at this point. Just anybody who has questions or concerns. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. Yes, at this time we could go ahead and uh start discussions. Y'all could discuss the proposals that that were uh submitted. You could also talk about the interviews at this time. Uh after that time, of course, we're going to go ahead and um ask you to go ahead and rate them in

148the ion wave portal. And after that, we will go ahead and take that time to tabulate. And of course, we'll go ahead and show you the scores before you call a motion. Thank you, Miss Mania. So, um I'll go ahead and open this up for discussion. Um I'll give us um some time to score and then we'll take a probably a quick recess to allow procurement to um aggregate our scores as well. So, at this time, I'd like to open the floor for any trustees who have questions or comments about any of the applicants or any of the interviews um that we've seen here today. So, let's start with um Trusty Sutton. >> We'll alternate to make it fair so that we're not I don't think I have any questions. I have a question about

149the scoring. Should I ask that now? >> Yes, you could ask me. >> So, the last time we scored there were it was kind of specific on what to score, but I don't see that. So at this >> we're just scoring based on what? >> Yes. So you're going to go ahead and score the overall um the overall interview uh how well they presented and at the same time how they were able to answer the questions that were posed to them. >> Okay. Um I think that's it for me now. >> Okay. Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and be around. I'll alternate back and forth so that we're trying to be a little fair. I know we always go one way. Um, so let's go ahead and take trusty calls questions, comments. >> Uh, no

150comments or questions. >> Trust um, trusty. >> So these are just questions or comments about the interviews. So, at this time it's really open for discussion. Any um any feedback you would like to give about any of the applicants? Um this is an open discussion about any of the applicants or anything that we've heard today. Um really it's just an open form. >> Awesome. Thank you. No, no, no. Um questions. I think that we um heard a lot of great things about these candidates and looking forward to seeing. >> Thank you. Um, trust >> no real questions or comments beyond just thankment for facilitating the process and I hope we can land on that prioritizing students data. Um just I think one point of clarification my memory I think when we were originally given the

151packets right from the four different vendors uh for J and G which is also 14 I might be wrong here I know that today they stated that it was $50,000 I think an allin cost is what they gave was the amount different in the materials that we were given was like 35. >> No, on on that one I believe that it was the 50,000. Yes, on that one it was 50,000. >> Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure because and I know Mr. stated something he said you know I was authorized today to offer 50,000. So I was like when he made that comment I was like maybe it was different but it was from the >> Yes. Can you um confirm the amount to forum HYA? I think also I heard a deviation

152from what was one second. Okay, let me we're going to get the information >> depending on what it was up to,000. Yes, that's what she had >> 35 >> and with the clarification they set up to 42. >> Yes. So it was 35,000 what they originally submitted and then with the clarification of the question that we asked it went up to 42,000. No more than 42,000. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Who who else was the price match? I know Hya. No, not Hyatch. I think in JNG and also they were priceatch. >> No sir, they didn't. Thank you. Any other questions um from anybody? >> Okay, so at this time um I'm thinking 10 minutes to give everybody a chance. Is that sufficient or does anybody 15? Okay, so let's do 15 minutes. Uh if

153you guys finish earlier, then just let me know and we can go ahead. take as long as you all need uh to tabulate the scores. Um let's assume that we're in about that time frame. And at that point, um how long do you think you need Miss Haiti to aggregate the scores? Print them out for us. >> Uh we we're going to need anywhere from uh 7 to 10 minutes to tabulate. >> Okay. So, let's go on the high end of that. Um so, after we tabulate and everybody's comfortable, please take as long as you need. Um we'll take that 10-minute recess for the scoring and then we'll bring the scores back. We can um continue after those motions are presented to continue to have discussions. I do want to make that. >> Thank you

154so much >> and thank you Miss Maya and M for all your for all your work today. Sorry, I just want to make sure we don't have any conversation. >> I think I'm close to 120. Call the meeting. Is there anybody else still working? Apologize the longest. Thank you for your patience, everybody. At this time, uh I'm going to allow us uh to recess. Um to 10 minutes as soon as Miss Penny is ready to reconvene or reconvene the meeting. Says Miss Collins, do I need to recess the meeting? >> Yes, please. It's uh 7:55 and do a recess. >> Okay, we'll recess at 7:55. >> No, it is 7. It is 7:55. >> Yes. Yes. Now we'll recess. We're recessing now at 7. Yes. Then 7:55 and we'll reconvene um as soon as you

155come back and allow us to. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. It is now 8:08 and this meeting is called back into open session. Call back to work. We already have the uh the prelim the I'm sorry, the prelim the preliminary scores and the interview scores. We had uh we already tabulate them. At this time, we're going to go ahead and pass them out to each one of you. motions here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I move to award request for proposal 26001 consulting consulting for superintendent search to Texas Association. >> That is a motion by trustee call. Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. That is a second by trustee love. Um we'll go ahead and take a vote and I'll start on this side this time. Trusty call. >> Yes. >> Trusty.

156Yes. Trusty Qu. >> Yes. >> Trusty leverage. >> Yes. >> Trusty Oster. >> Yes. >> Trusty Sutton. >> Yes. >> And that is a yes from me. >> That motion carries. 70. Next. I'm going to go ahead. Next, I'm going to go ahead and just uh go over next steps. I do want to remind everybody that we're still under the KONA silence. So, uh we're not able to um to do to talk about the scores and anything until after the contract's fully awarded. Uh so, please keep that in mind. So, what's going to happen is that we're going to go ahead and start uh contract negotiations. The final board approval on the contract will be September the 16th, 2025. Once it's approved, we will go ahead and issue a purchase order to um to to

157the vendor and uh then we'll go ahead and have the board the board will work with the vendor to carry out the contract. Okay, that concludes the interviews for today and the process um for this section. Uh if uh I want to go ahead and thank every every one of you for your collaboration. >> Thank you so much for um your input in this process and for guiding us through this process as well. We appreciate it. At this time that will take us to the next item um adjournment. The time is now 8:11 and this meeting is