001one and welcome to this special call board meeting of the public schools of Robson County on June the 16th, 2026. At this time, I'd like to have a moment of silence and if you would please remember Miss Mary Grace Hester, a teacher that passed from East Robinson Primary School. So this time, let's have a moment of silence. Thank you. Next up, we have the pledge of allegiance. So, if everyone would please stand. Mr. Cole's got the flag for us. And let's say the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I'd like to make note that we have Miss Crystal Monroe, Dr. Terry Lleair, Mr. Henry Brewer online
002with us as well. Next up, we have an adoption of the agenda. Motion by Miss Melissa Oceans, second by Mr. John Simmons. All those in favor say I. Anyone? Oceans second by Mr. John Simmons and that was a 10 vote Christy. All right. Next up we have information items. Superintendent search. I'm gonna turn it over to our board attorney, Mr. Richards. First of all, I want to apologize again for being late. Um, hit a couple of accidents on I40. Traffic was backed up. Um, got here as fast as I could. So, um, uh, is it okay if I move up to the podium here? >> However you need to do, sir. >> Okay. All right. So, you've got uh some materials that have been handed out. And for those of you who are online, um
003m uh uh Miss Freeman is sending the information to you. Um what I want to do tonight is go through with you some options that you have for um the superintendent search process. Some things that you should consider um when you're going through this process. And uh before you even get into a superintendent search process, one thing you should consider is whether or not you're going to need an interim superintendent. And um if you're considering an interim superintendent, you should determine whether or not you've got an internal candidate or candidates and whether or not it would be advisable for you to go with an internal candidate. Um and um then you should also consider whether or not you want to go with an external person. Um there are a number of experienced former superintendent who
004um have served several times as interims and um who I could recommend to you would do would do a good job. Um uh if you have a qualified desired internal candidate um to consider for superintendent, there are pros and cons to whether or not you might want to consider them as an as a as an interim superintendent. Um, one of the pro some of the pros are that you're basically trying them out um and uh giving them an opportunity to show what they might be able to do as superintendent. Although that's a difficult role for many. Um, if you're uh in the running for superintendent and you are named as interim, um, it may it may have a lot of of uh potential negative impacts. For one, if you're doing a superintendent search, it may
005dissuade other people from applying. Uh, they may look and say, well, you've got somebody who's an internal candidate who's applying for the job and who's also at the interim right now. um and they're probably the favorite person. So, I'm not going to throw my hat in the ring. Um if you've got more than one internal candidate, um that kind of puts it may put a thumb on the scale um for one candidate over another. Um so um while some people look at the possibility of an internal candidate becoming an interim as being a good opportunity to try them out um it's not the same as being the superintendent. There are things you can't do or won't try or might not say um as an interim that you uh you know would have to make a
006decision on if you're the superintendent. So, um I don't generally think it's a good idea to um take an internal candidate, especially if you might have more than one internal candidate, and try them out as inter room superintendent. Uh but it's an opportunity, you know, that you may or may not want to consider. And then another alternative to doing a to to doing a superintendent search is um some boards go out and target somebody and say, "Okay, this person's a really good superintendent. If we can get them to come here, that'd be a great fit." Um and instead of doing a search, you go out and actually target somebody. Um so I've had u situations where I've been that I've been involved with before that. Well, that's worked and it's worked out pretty well. um
007in uh in some instances. So now I want to move on from those considerations of whether you go with an interim or not, an internal candidate is an interim or targeting somebody and um going to what most boards do, which is a full-blown superintendent search where you search for the best person in the universe to come be the next superintendent of the public schools of Robinson County. Um, and the first thing for general I want to deal with here are general rules to follow when you're doing a superintendent search. And the first thing I'm going to tell you about that is confidentiality. It's the most important thing I'm going to tell you about it. It's the first thing I'm going to tell you. It's the last thing I'm going to tell you with regards to
008the rules for a superintendent search. You've got to keep the process moving along and you've got to be you got to keep it confidential with regard to potential candidates. If you don't, you'll lose candidates. Um you'll lose you'll lose candidates who don't think they can trust you. You'll undermine trust with um your folks internally and externally. Um and um you'll diminish the pool. The goal for a superintendent search, for any superintendent search, is you want to find the broadest, deepest pool of candidates you can if you're doing a full-blown superintendent search. So confidentiality is extremely important. Second is if you hire a search consultant firm, the board is in charge and you get to make the determinations that the board should be making. So you're hiring a consultant, not somebody to take your place in
009this process. And this is the most important decision you get to make as a board is who is the superintendent. How many of you have been involved in a search before? Okay. Vonte, Craig, Dr. Emanuel, you must have, right? And John. Okay. Um, and I don't think any of the folks online. It was Henry. Henry has been. Yeah. >> Okay. Um so the board is in charge. It's a really important choice. And um then the next thing is unity. Uh once the process is determined and choices have been made as to what you're going to do with a superintendent search, follow that process and be unified in that process. Do it together and do it well. Even if you disagreed with the process that was chosen. Once the process is chosen, get on board the
010train and move along with it. Next is throughout the search process, be on your best behavior. Keep in mind everything you public and any candidates who might apply or might consider applying are going to be watching your board meetings. They'll go back and watch your board meetings online. They'll try and figure out what makes you tick as individuals and how you operate as a board. Um, and so be on your best behavior because you're selling yourselves and you're selling the public schools of Rockingham County to the candidates that you hope will apply, which gets us to the next point, which is good salesmanship. Um, you want to convince people that this is a good board to work for and with. And you are a good board. You operate very well together. Um, you're a big
011board. uh one of the biggest boards in the state if not the biggest. And so uh that creates different dynamics and it's something that any candidate is going to be looking into is how do you operate with an 11 person board? Um do you work well together or not? Do you communicate civily and respectfully with each other? And so people are going to be looking at that. Candidates will be looking at that. The other thing you need to be doing is another thing you need to be doing is selling the community, selling the positive things about the community as a whole and what kind of place this is to live uh to live in. So selling the community is also very important. And then selling the school system. You've come a long way in the
012past five years. You've made dramatic progress. You've got an incredible facility that you're getting ready to open up right now. That should be a lighthouse facility. It should be a beacon for other people from across the state. Um, it should attract people from beyond the state. Um, it is really something to sell. So figure out, you'll need to figure out the important things to sell about the school system. Okay? What kind of progress are we making? What kind of progress have we made? Um, are we set up for future progress? And [clears throat] um, uh, so those are all things that you need to sell. location is something that you'll have to deal with and sell um as well. And quality of life here, uh people are looking for quality of life and location if
013they're if they're applying from outside of uh Robinson County. Um so, um stability is another thing. Uh the fact that you've had uh Dr. Williamson here for so long is a really good uh sign of stability. Um, the board has been stable and I think you've got a lot to sell there. And when you're recruiting, keep in mind that families matter. If you're recruiting somebody or somebody is applying here um that you're interested in uh and they've got a family with kids, they're going to wonder wonder, you know, what are the schools like for my kids going to be? What's quality of life going to be for my family? Um, when you get into the search process, don't try to micromanage the search process as a board member. individually or as a board. Don't even
014think about it. Um, don't get into the weeds. If you get a search consultant, let the search consultant do their job with regard to um, all of the things that we're going to talk about in a few minutes that the search consultants will deal with. Another thing that I recommend is if you've got warts, acknowledge them. All right? If the school system has problems, deal with them upfront and demonstrate the board's willingness to understand and acknowledge that you do have issues, you do have warts, you do have concerns, and a dedication and a willingness to work on any deficiencies. and invite the candidates in and present your warts or your problems or your difficulties as opportunities to problem solve jointly together with them. Present them as an opportunity for them to present solutions to you
015and how they would go about dealing with trying to fix whatever the problems or deficiencies might be. Um, but don't try to cover them up or ignore them. You should have one board spokesperson throughout the process and that's usually the chair of the board. It's sometimes the chair with the board attorney. It's sometimes the chair with the consultant if you hire a search consultant, but it's one board spokesperson and defer everything to that one board spokesperson or the spokesperson and the consultant or the spokesperson and the attorney. If you decide to do a search, then don't sponsor or endorse any particular candidate at the outset. Okay? If you do a search, let it be a broad search where you're inviting in the the deepest pool of candidates you can get as opposed to declare your
016allegiance to one person up front and then that discourages other people from applying or it sets up a bad dynamic with the board where everybody else is looking at the pool of candidates and you're advocating from one for one person from the start. So avoid that um please. and um and be a good board member. Um favorite sons, everyone every sometimes you have a favorite son candidate and that can be somebody who's internal. It could be a favorite daughter too. Um but um it's a a a favorite son candidate can be somebody who's internal working for the school system or it can be a hometown hero who has moved off elsewhere and thinking about coming home. Um, so if there's a favorite son candidate, again, um, avoid advocating for that one person if you're doing
017a search and then refer any inquiries about the search and about the process to the search consultant if you decide to hire a search consultant, and you're not required to hire a search consultant. Um, once you get into this process, there will be rumors. You can count on that. There will be rumors that so- and so has the job. There will be rumors that this person is coming in from out of county or out of state and they're going to get the job. Uh there will be rumors that um uh these three board members are supporting candidate A. There will be rumors that um uh there may be a racial divide and the folks of one race are supporting this candidate, the folks of another race are supporting another candidate. Um, so count on there
018being rumors and please don't contribute to them. Okay? Don't be the source of the rumors and the best way you can do that is not talk about the search other than in general terms and describe how the search is being conducted and what we've decided to do as opposed to who the candidates might be or who we hope will apply or who I'm supporting. All you got to do is say, you know, well, we're hoping that so and so might apply and then the rumor will be that that's who you're supporting and that's who's going to get the job. Um, so avoid saying anything like that. Um, and keep in mind also that if your spouse says something like that or your best friend says something like that, it will be attributed to you. Okay?
019So, be careful about talking about this with your spouse, your best friend. Um, I always recommend if you got to talk about it with somebody. Um, talk about it with your fellow board members. Give me a call or take your dog for a walk in the woods and talk to your dog about it and or borrow somebody else's dog if you don't have one. Um [clears throat] uh the process will speed up towards the end of the search and we're going to look at a timeline um in just a minute. But towards the end of the search, it really speeds up and it becomes an enormous time commitment for you as board members. You will have meetings to narrow down the scope of the search and select candidates that you want to interview and first
020round interviews. You'll have first round interviews that will take a long time to get through. And then you'll have another selection usually for finalist interviews and then finalist interviews and then a decision and then contract negotiations um at the end of the process. But at the end of the process it's a big time commitment and it's extremely important that all board members participate. Now with an 11 person board that's difficult getting 11 people to make that kind of time commitment for selection first round interviews another selection second round interviews uh or finalist interview finalist interviews excuse me and then um a decision. So you'll have to get out your calendars if you get a search consultant and mark them down and then keep certain dates absolutely protected so that all of you can participate meaningfully
021in the process. There are a lot of meetings and attendance is vital. And then finally the last um last thing I want to tell you again uh with regard to general rules to follow for the superintendent search is confidentiality is vitally important. especially when you're getting down to the selection process and who to interview. Um, keep in mind that you may attract candidates who really can't afford to let their board know that they're under consideration or they're a finalist for your position. U, might make it very difficult for them back home. So, you got to promise to maintain confidentiality and keep that confidentiality. And if you don't promise confidentiality, then they're you're going to lose candidates. People will not apply. All right. Um, and the people who won't apply might be your very best people.
022Some decisions to be made early on in the process. And, uh, for those of you following on the outline, I'm on page three right now, Roman numeral three. Um, first, determine whether or not you're going to use a search consultant. If you use a search consultant, there's staff support that's usually needed on the part of the board of education. Usually that's the person who is the administrative assistant to the board, Miss Freeman. Um but not always. And you'll have a specific contact person for the board. Sometimes that's the board chair, sometimes it's a board attorney. Um but you'll have to select a specific contact person. You'll also um for any of these search consultants, you'll need to determine the extent of community participation, surveys, forums, etc. All of these search consultants that um that do
023this sort of thing will offer to do surveys or have community meetings or forums or send out letters soliciting uh community input for what are the qualities you're looking for in the next superintendent for the public schools of Robinson County. And that will be what all of the surveys and meetings and forums will be about. And then they'll usually compile that information that they gather from those sources and give you um a uh a candidate um um uh a candidate outline um for what you should be looking for. um they almost all come back and say um you know we want somebody who um uh can walk on water and knows a lot about curriculum and human resources and facilities and uh gets along well with everybody and is an outstanding leader. Um but make
024sure that walk on water thing is in there. Um so that's what you you'll get you'll get a lot of that back, but you'll get input from the community and you'll get buyin from the community. um and people feel like you're listening to them and hopefully you are listening to them if you go about and uh do that process. Um you establish early on in the search process job qualifications and characteristics and again you have choices to make. You'll have to consider the length of the contract and in the current market um really in order to attract the kind of candidates you want, you're going to be looking at a four-year contract in reality. That's the maximum length of contract you can offer in North Carolina. And a lot of folks are not interested in
025uprooting their families and moving someplace for two-year contract. Um so if uh anything less than a four-year contract, um you're going to not be attracting the kind of candidates that you want to attract. Um and then you need to determine a budget for the search and you'll need to leave some flexibility in the budget. Most of the search consultants out there will you can get it you can get them for between 20 and $35,000 um for the consultants fees and uh some associated advertising. Um we'll talk about the advertising in just a little bit minute but um uh there's a lot of value that you get uh for that money. You'll need to determine a timeline with target dates. And if you turn to um page uh seven in this outline, I've got a draft
026of what the timeline usually kind of looks like. And if you look on the left hand column under date, there's nothing filled in there. So those are dates you'd have to fill in. And generally you work backwards from when you'd like employment to begin. So, for example, if you wanted employment for the new superintendent to begin by December 1st, um that's where you'd start and then you'd work back from from there. Um at the outset, you're determining whether or not to use a search consultant and what search process you're going to you're going to employ. And then you establish the timeline. Um you select the consultant or you could select a consultant and then establish the timeline with the consultant. Those two can be flip-flopped. Then you advertise the vacancy um with an application deadline
027that you will have selected. So for example, if you have a December 1st um desired start date, you probably need to have um uh an application deadline of sometime in September. Um then you have a meeting to choose who you're going to interview. That's a close session meeting. You'll have meetings for initial interviews and to select finalists. Then you'll have a meeting for final interviews and decide on terms of an offer, contract discussions, and then an announcement of the superintendent. Keep in mind that once you select a superintendent, um they may need two or three months to uh get out of a current contract. They may have to provide 90 days notice, for example, um to their current board of education if they're currently a sitting superintendent. So that's just an example of some of
028the things to consider in a timeline. Um you'll have to approve an application form and um in that application form you will have an authorization and release to obtain information um about their background and to do background checks. And at exhibit D in these materials, um, beginning on page, uh, 14, um, we've got a sample application from a search I was involved in previously, um, where the school board did most of the work themselves, uh, rather than hire a consultant. So, that's just a sample. Um, it's just there for you to peruse and take a look. Um uh but it's in there. You might want to mark that um as exhibit D beginning on page 14. Um you part of the process is advertising and announcing the vacancy. And again, your goal is to get
029the deepest broadest pool of qualified applicants that you can get. Um you don't want somebody applying for superintendent. you know, you don't if you get five people who are, you know, one's been a bus driver their whole time and one is a substitute teacher, um they're not qualified to be your superintendent, but you may get an application from them. So, you want a a deep pool of really qualified applicants, and that's what you're going for. Um there's no need to limit qualified applicants. Um uh and there are potential legal questions if you do. Um but you can set um qualifications. So the board will approve an advertisement and you should determine with before you do that you'll determine whether or not you're going to advertise a salary range. Um it could be commenurate with experience
030and state salary levels or you can advertise a salary range that might help you attract candidates or establish clearly for certain can you know for the candidate pool that um you know this is as far as we we're going to go and um you know no need for you to apply if um you're going to be asking for a lot more than what we're advertising. you should determine upfront whether or not a doctorate is going to be indicated as required or desired or whether you're just not going to address it. Um some boards want somebody who's got a doctorate and some boards um say it's a you know it's a non-starter. We've got to have somebody with a doctorate. Other boards say well we we'd like to see that but it's not a non-starter if
031you don't have it. And other boards say we're not going to address it one way or another. We'll just [clears throat] see what we get. Um, sometimes boards uh put in the advertisement that uh candidates from non-traditional backgrounds are invited to apply. Um, and what you'll tend to get are uh folks who have been CEOs or folks with a military background. Um, if you if you put that in there, um, sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't work well. Um, but you get to make the decisions one way or the other once you get the candidate pool and see what you've got. Um, so whether or not you put that in an advertisement, uh, is up to you. That, but that's something you'll have to consider. Um, another thing to consider in the advertisement is
032whether or not you will require prior superintendent experience or prior central office experience and whether or not you'll put that in the advertisement. Um if you uh you know if you if you're going to make up your mind that if people don't have experience at least uh or beyond the level of principle, we're not going to consider them, you might want to cut down the applicants that you get. Um so that you don't get, you know, 10 candidates who've never been anything beyond the level of principal. Uh for a school system this size, that's something you might want to consider. But again, all of this is up to the board and these are some of the choices that you'll have to make. Um, another thing to consider is whether or not you want to uh
033have a printed brochure. Um, and uh just to give you an example of that, if you'll take a look at uh page 10, exhibit C, you'll see uh this is a uh a um uh front and back brochure, but it's a a print out of a brochure from a search that I was involved in several years ago um in Dare County um where they had a search consultant, McFersonson and Jacobson, and they were they had printed brochures and they were going to a national convention uh where superintendent candidates flock to superintendent search consultant booths and they could hand these out. So, having a printed brochure is something you might want to consider. And uh if you want to take a look at it, that's uh that's on uh on page 10, beginning on page 10.
034from page 10 to 14. Um, uh, I meant to mention exhibit B as well, um, at page nine. Um, and this is, um, just a posting, for example, of, um, uh, what the, uh, uh, of a, uh, a job for, uh, this was Canapapolis City Schools several years ago. And if you look at exhibit B on page nine, it tells you that we're seeking a superintendent. Um it tells you what the uh requirements and the minimum expectations are for this one. It was a doctorate degree or progress toward a doctorate degree is preferred but not required. Multiple building building level experiences are also preferred. A successful candidate would be required to live here. Um it talks about the demonstrated abilities that are you're looking at in uh in paragraph B. The third paragraph describes the
035community um and the population. Um the fourth paragraph sets forth some unique things about living here and um the fifth paragraph is about the school board and then the last paragraph is about how to apply. So that's a one pager um that is an advertisement for the vacancy. Um the online uh information and posting usually includes both the advertisement for the vacancy and a brochure online. Um the consultant if you use a consultant solicits candidates and different consultant groups have different approaches to this. So, for example, some of the national superintendent search consultant groups have an online application where you submit an application and you're on file with them and then you let them know the types of jobs you're looking for and then they'll match up as they get job vacancies. They'll match up
036with the folks they've got on file. All right. Others have a number of different jobs that are vacancies that are on file that they're doing the search for and you submit your application and apply for those different jobs. Um, most of the search consultants will also have a a network nationwide of people that they'll um contact who are a lot of them are retired superintendents and [clears throat] they'll send a a blast notice out saying, "We just got this new superintendent search for Robinson County and here is um some information about the school system and about the job. do you have anybody you would recommend um as somebody we should contact who'd be a good person or good fit for this job? Um and then other search consultants just send out the vacancy notice or
037put it on their website and wait and see what happens. So different approaches. Some of them have they've already got fish in the net. Um others of them cast the net and see what happens. and um uh some of them go with a direct contact and outreach and others less so. So um different search different search consultants have different approaches to doing this. Um the uh but it's the consultant who should be soliciting candidates and not the board members out there soliciting candidates. If people come to you and say, "I'm interested in the job." And you've got a consultant. What should you do? Refer them to the consultant. Okay? Don't tell them, "I'll take your name and give it to the consultant." Okay? Tell them to go to the consultant. Now, you can still call
038the consultant and say, "This person came to me." Um, you might want to be on the lookout for them. Um, so refer all applicants to the consultant or the search coordinator. Um I usually recommend two months for advertising. Um take advantage of free and online media and the consultants are good at doing that. Um and also spend some money to advertise uh nationally and to do it effectively. Um you can you know post the notice on any number of uh of job sites. Uh but you can get uh free posting from the North Carolina School Boards Association whether you use them as a search consultant or not from the national the uh uh North Carolina Association school administrators will post it. Um and then you can get uh national groups posting as well. Um you'll
039be screening the applications. The different consultants have different approaches to screening applicants. Um, some of them will tell you, we'll screen the applicants down to a top 10 or a top 15 and then we'll present those to you. Others will tell you, we'll show you everybody that applies and we'll make recommendations and we'll put them into certain buckets. Okay, this is a group that's got these candidates all have doctorates or they're ver, you know, all but dissertation. They're right right there getting their doctorates or this is a group that has prior superintendent experience. um where this is a group that has central office experience. Um and so they'll divide them up and u categorize them for you. Um but different consultants have different ways of going about it. Some will just present you with the
040top tier candidates and others will let you have you know say we have access give you access to everybody if you want it. Um the board should make all decisions in that regard and you can consider um that approach with the superintendent search consultants as you go along. [clears throat] When you get to the point of interviews, that's a private process and um you need to be able to protect the confidentiality of the candidates at that time. So, um, if you've got people standing around trying to figure out who's coming in the building, who's going out of the building, you need to go someplace else to do the interviews, um, and make it a private place so that you can conduct the interviews, um, without revealing, uh, who the candidates are, um, in that process.
041Uh, so that usually requires a secure location. You've got to consider logistics and timing. Um, but it can be done. It's still a board meeting, so you have to post it as a board meeting, even though the whole thing will be done in closed session. Um, but that's something you work out later on. Um, the interviews are structured interview interviews. You should prepare open-ended questions in advance. Um, you're trying to elicit information about the candidate, their background, their biographical information, and some stuff that may not be in the application. Um, you want to solicit information about how they view board superintendent relations. Uh, information about management and administration, finance, community relations, instruction, leadership, leadership styles, facilities planning and management, goal setting, and what their career aspirations are. Those are kinds of a a rough outline
042of the kinds of things you're trying to generate information about. In the interview process, you need to be careful to ask things professionally and politely um and be civil in that in your tone um throughout that process. Um entrance and introductions are important. Um stage the entrance and stage the introductions so that everybody gets a chance to find out who you are and you introduce the candidates as opposed to you sit them down and start talking right away. Um so um especially with an 11 member board that's important. Um you should do this in a comfortable setting. Um and uh uh you should have time limits. So for example, if you're doing a 90minute interview with the candidate and you've got 19 questions, you let them know up front we have 19 questions, we have
04390 minutes, we'll be timing this. um at at a certain point in time, we'll interrupt you and tell you um you know, you've got uh 30 minutes left and you still got 12 questions left. Um so, if they're being verbose in their answers, you might want to prompt them earlier, but um you'll uh you'll have time limits and make the applicant aware of how many questions and in the time that you've got. Um it's very important to listen actively when you're in these um these interviews and listen carefully for what's being said as well as for what's not being said. Are they answering your question um and um and responding or are they skirting around the issue? Um interact appropriately but sparingly in the interview process. And remember, you're interviewing them. Don't try to dominate
044the conversation, especially with 11 11 of you. Um, you don't want to waste time or waste interview time telling the candidate what you think about something. You're trying to find out what the candidate knows and the information they can give you. Um, taking notes is important um, uh, so that you can remember what's being said. You can keep track of what's not being said as well as what's being said. Um, and you can remember at the end of the day, if you've interviewed six candidates for 90 minutes each, um, you can remember what candidate one said 10 hours ago. Um, and, um, uh, I usually recommend having a scribe there, um, designating one person to to take notes in addition to the notes that you're taking so that you've got somebody who can go back
045and say, "No, that's not what they said. What they said was this." or yes, they did say this and they also said this, this, and this. Um, you when you're going back and talking about what what the candidate said and um what you thought about it, [clears throat] I usually recommend taking a few minutes to briefly summarize or discuss um each interview right after the interview while it's fresh in your head so you can get some first impressions, but not go into great detail about it. um but just share some general impressions from the interview um so that you can recall things later on. Uh some things to watch and listen for in the interview. Did the candidate answer the questions directly and to the point? Um second, does the candidate talk too much and
046tell you more than you know than you want to know? Third, does the candidate express a sense of humor and humility? Fourth, does the candidate give realistic answers? you know, if their answer to everything is, well, throw more money at it. Um, you know, A, they didn't do research on Robinson County. Um, and B, that's not a good answer. Okay. Um, so, did they give realistic answers? Next, did the candidate ask you any insightful or meaningful questions? There'll always be an opportunity in these interviews for them to ask you questions. Um, did they put any thought into that? Um, are they asking you superficial questions or or questions that seem to reveal that they've done some research on you? They've done their homework. Next, does the candidate make you feel comfortable or make one feel
047comfortable in the answers given and the leadership capacity displayed? That's important. Um, does the candidate appear to have done their homework before the interview? Um, I was in a in an interview, just to give you an example, an interview session with a school board um within the last couple of years and the candidate was there for their second round interview, their finalist interview and had no idea how many schools were in the school system or what the budget was in the school systeming that he hadn't done his homework. Okay, next seem to have knowledge about the school system and the community it serves. And for you, that's going to be really important. Um, you've got some some real uniqueness in the community that you serve. You'll be selecting finalists after the first round interviews. I
048usually recommend that you select up to five or six finalists, but always at least three. um if you have if you have only three candidates and one drops out, you know, then you're stuck with two, that's not a good look. Um and so I usually recommend up to five or six finalist candidates. And then one thing you have to consider in this day and age is pension pension spiking considerations. Um depending upon uh who you might get as a candidate um you may be looking at a big pension spiking bill at the end of their employment. Um so that may be a consideration um when you're making the final selection. Um but it's at least some information that you should have and consider. [clears throat] Um, you'll be conducting background checks on the finalists and
049a search consultant will do the background checks for you. Um, and you'll need to deter determine the role of the consultants and the attorney in doing the background checks. When you do the finalist interviews, it will be a new round of questions. They'll be more detailed usually. And then um lots of times for finalists you'll invite them to give you a presentation and you might have a couple of prompts that you'll give to them in advance and say we'd like you to prepare a 15minute presentation showing us um you know what you would do in uh uh to improve curriculum content for example um in public schools Robinson County or what you would do to um save costs or any number of different prompts that you might come up with. Um and that's something that
050a lot of school boards like to do. Um don't just have one way going with questions, but give them something to problem solve. And this is a good way to deal with your warts that we talked about at the beginning of the session. If you've got problems or deficiencies or areas that need to be addressed, present them as an opportunity and say, "How would you address this?" and give us a 15minute presentation on it. Um, so that's a way for you to determine how they problem solve, how they would put a plan together, what their presentation skills are, give you some idea about their leadership ability. So, it's um, it's something a lot of school systems are, a lot of school boards are doing now. And then when you do the finalist interviews, you might
051want to determine whether or not a site visit is warranted or desired. Are you going to go to their community and poke around a little bit and ask questions about them? Um, I've got u um I've got one board where they did a couple of superintendent searches and one board me they did they did site visits and one board member focused on the barberh shops. Said that's where you can find out more than anything about your next superintendent candidate. Um so that was just uh that was just his thing, the barberh shops. Um, and you might want to wait until you select a top candidate and then decide whether or not you're going to do a site visit before you make an offer. Um, when you get down to ne negotiating a contract, the board
052determines the parameters with the advice of council in closed session. Um, and um, there's a specific provision in the open meetings law um, allowing you to do that in closed session and then the attorney negotiates the contract. Um what I usually recommend to a board when you get down to something like that is um give me a pot of money within which to negotiate. Um you can uh you can determine the salary or you can and certain perks and benefits or you can say here's your pot of money work within that and then I can make that money more meaningful to the selected candidate based on what their needs are and where they are in life. So, if um for example, if they've got um three kids and they've got to put them through college,
053they're going to have different interests than if their kids are grown and gone away and they're getting ready to retire in a few years. Um uh if they've got a wealthy spouse, they may have different interests. Um uh they may be more interested in finance a vacation home. Um, so, uh, different there there all kinds of perks and benefits and we'll get into that later on um, when we get around to discussing contract, but um, there are tax benefits, there are tax implications um, and uh, some things count towards retirement, some things don't count towards retirement. Um, and so there are different ways to structure contracts, but uh, I usually recommend, um, giving a fairly wide birth in terms of how we'll apply whatever resources you're putting towards the contract. And then you get to
054the end of the process where you get to announce the new superintendent. Um, you have an open meeting in which you elect the new superintendent and approve the contract. Um, you usually have a a press conference, a reception, and then community meetings. Um, some boards consider um uh having community meetings when you get down to the three finalists. And um you have to let people know upfront that you're going to do that if you're going to do that because can again [clears throat] some candidates won't apply if they know they've got to go public if they're in the final three. Um, but some boards say, "No, we're going to, you know, trot you around the community and take you to different meetings and see how you do in the public setting." And you need to
055know upfront that we're going to do that for our three finalists. Um, but that's something you should consider um with the advice of a search consultant if you decide to have a search consultant. Um, so, um, if you decide you want to have a superintendent search consultant, there are about a half dozen of them that I would recommend, um, that you consider the North Carolina School Boards Association. If they haven't already reached out to you, um, we usually send an email out saying, um, you know, we're your schoolboards association and we do search consultant work and we're happy to work with you and here's our price. Um, and have you gotten an email from them yet? >> I have not. No, sir. >> Okay. Usually they send an email out as soon as the superintendent
056announced >> I have. >> Okay. >> Oh, some of you have. Okay. All right. Um, uh, if one of you would forward that on to me, I'd appreciate it. Um, and then there are, um, you know, national search consultant groups that, um, I've worked with all of them over, you know, the course of my career at one point or another. Um some of them do a better job than others. Um and the price range will be again anywhere from 25 20 to $35,000 22,000 to 35,000 roughly. Um they'll you know they'll they'll all provide some variation of the same kind of service. Um but again their methods and and methodology are going to be a little bit different from one to another. Um, [clears throat] so, um, if you're interested, I can gather proposals from
057the different search consultant groups and then put together a summary of the proposals and present them to you. Um, uh, and that's something you might want to talk about tonight. Um, and, uh, I think that is the end of what I was going to present to you. Oh, exhibit A. Um uh if you take a look at page eight in these materials, exhibit A is just an example of selection criteria that results from um uh either the board having a discussion or from the community forums um that a search consultant might consult might might uh conduct for you. >> All right. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Schwarz? Go ahead, Dr. Man. >> At what point obviously it takes two months. If you look at number four where you page four where you said
058that it would take two months to advertise. At what point will this board need to get an inrum? you know, we do not have but two months, >> right, >> with our superintendent presently. >> Yeah. And um you need an interim beginning September one. >> Yeah. >> Um so um getting an interim is you don't need to advertise for that. Um >> and I I guess what I'm saying so we don't need to to get an interim until that date to the day the superintendent leaves and we need an interim. I'd usually recommend, you know, building in a few days prior to September one for some overlap and handoff uh some transition. >> So, we don't advertise for interrum. We just say, "Hey guy, you want to come in to be an interim?" >> That's
059one way you can do it. Um, you know, I could, if you want, I can, you know, we can gather up a few names and present them to you. Um, but I think we're going to talk about some of that in close session. >> Oh, okay. [clears throat] >> Dr. Secretary, >> that was going to be my question. Um, Mr. Schwarz, what are your thoughts on the timeline um in terms of where we are right now versus being able to hire a new superintendent with the um you know, giving them plenty of time to get out of their current contract or whatever. What are your thoughts on the timeline? I think >> would would December be uh would maybe having a December 1st or January 1st start date be uh out of the out of
060the question? >> No, I think I think that's about what you're looking for. December 1st start date. Um you know that's a difficult time for people to move um uh you know between Thanksgiving and and uh the new year. Uh January 1 might be you know another potential start date. Um, but uh that's usually a target date. It doesn't have to be an absolute deadline date. Um, you'll be advertising that as a target date, but uh depending upon who you select and what their circumstances are, they may need, you know, 60 days, 90 days, or even longer to get out of a current contract or to give notice. Um, so if you were to start the search process relatively soon, um, and advertise for, you know, 6 to 8 weeks, um, then you'd be in
061that time frame. You you'd be with within that time frame. >> Are you good there, Dr. Terry? >> Yeah, I was just wondering if um if that limits uh our potential pool. >> I don't think it does. I think if you, you know, if you advertise, if you start advertising, you know, around August 1st for two months, um, you're giving people an opportunity to get their school year started if they're elsewhere. Um, and, um, you know, that that'll that give you enough time. And then if you had, you know, for example, an October one or an October 15 application deadline date, um you could start narrowing the you start narrowing the field in October and then um start doing your interviews in that same month. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. If there's no
062other questions, I'd like to go into close session, >> Miss Melissa. I move that the board enter into close session for the following purposes. To consider confidential personnel matters as provided in North Carolina general statutes 143 through 318.11 A1 and A6 and 115C through 319 and to consult with the board of education's attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in North Carolina general statutes 143 through 318.1183. >> All right. I got a motion by Miss Melissa Oceans, a second by Mr. for Vonte Leech. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Eyes have it. We are now. out of close session. Motion made by Miss Melissa Oceans, a second by Mr. Craig Lowry. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? >> I have it unanimous there, Mr. Schwarz. 10. Board discussion. and
063superintendent search. >> So, as I as I presented in the uh in the workshop that we had earlier, one of your options is for me to gather options from different superintendent search firms and bring them back to you if um if that's the board's uh preference. >> Mr. Bradley Phillips. >> Uh I make a motion to allow the school board attorney to find some alternatives and and bring them back to us for board approval. >> All right. I got a I got a motion made by Mr. Bradley Phillips, a second by Mr. Henry Brewer to allow the school board attorney to reach out and bring back to us that information. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it unanimous there. Mr. Schwarz 10. >> Okay. >> Next up, we
064have personnel. >> Motion's made by Miss Melissa Ocean, second by Mr. Vonte Leech. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. 10 on personnel there. Mr. shorts. >> Mr. Vonte Leech. >> Um, I would uh I would like to make a motion to name Dr. Bill Harrison the intern superintendent start September the 1st with contract terms prepared by board attorney for later board approval. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Vonte Leech to name Dr. Bill Harrison as interim superintendent starting September 1. >> I got a motion [clears throat] made by Mr. Vonte Leech and a second by Mr. Bradley Phillips. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Eyes passed 10. Mr. Schwarz unanimous. Dr. Bill Harrison as the interim starting September 1. >>
065I need a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to >> motion's made by Mr. Bradley Phillips and seconded by Miss Melissa Oceans. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Eyes have it. We are now adjourned.