001I'm Tim white here chairman of the purse of the Board of Ed Personnel Committee calling for the role Tony parody me here and Harrigan here and Tim white I'm here so we have a full we have a full committee today to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible pretty and so thank you everybody for coming here today notice weekend I think the gravity of the situation and in light of that we you know I think the idea is we need to we need to plan for for a bad situation and that's why I've asked the superintendent to give us some his plans for succession in an emergency I'm not thinking for me personally I'm not thinking about a long-term situation but you know someone people become incapacitated and go to the
002hospital a short-term situation someone I'm looking just to have an idea that we have people in place who can step up immediately have the confidence of the public the students the parents all the different stakeholders that things will that the ship will be steady and there will be continuity with our schools and with that I'll start with the superintendent wondering about succession planning unfortunately specifically for you and before you get into if you're if you're gonna share with us an idea of who you would recommend to the board before going there just are there any legal parameters that we would have to follow not necessarily short-term you know if I were to be replaced there are a lot of parameters in place for that you know the person would have to hold a superintendent certification
003and nobody currently in central office nor our building principals hold superintendent certification the the Charter indicates somebody would have to live in Cheshire within the first year my my successor would have to do that things like that short term and I I think you know I would shift from that idea of succession and probably use the term you know contingency planning I've developed a love documents to share with you that kind of indicate you know some some guidelines as far as that goes I do want to remind anybody who's watching too that they can submit any questions if they're not you know members of the board the the you know if you want to write to cps cove in nineteen at Cheshire dot k12 dot C T dot us that's the the email that we
004and I appreciate the community has gotten familiar with submitting questions through that so that we can we can respond to any questions and concerns that people have and this is no different how do we respond to that topic go ahead and submit through that email but in the board policy it does address organizationally what we would do in the case of you know incapacitation I guess so I'm gonna present you know on my screen if you just bear with me one second here some information as it relates to that I think every but he can see my screen now correct yes yes so a couple of key points here board policy two one three two addresses now this was written in 1998 so you know it's 20 plus years old none of us had any
005hand in crafting this policy and I think you know from a traditional traditional like military structure let's say where there's one person at the top making calls and there's a subordinate nature to the organization the public schools at least the treasurer of public schools are not necessarily designed that way the treasurer public schools were a pretty flat organization in terms of our leaders leadership structure at least in the way that we facilitate our leadership structure and I'll share it share our organizational chart momentarily but the board policy indicated in this case that the CEO Oh would be responsible for the running of the schools absent the superintendent oh oh and superintendent these assistant superintendent for instructional services would be responsible but I want to reiterate again I mean it's not really how we run our
006organization now in a very top-down authoritarian way I run our organization very collaboratively so I mean there are certainly many instances I'm sure you've seen where I'll defer to Marlene and her expertise on a lot of it so you know at the end of the day if I were you know God forbid permanently incapacitated or unable to put you know chances are we would for a long term we would want to probably bring somebody in to to serve as an interim somebody who holds that certification like you know like Scott Dietrich or somebody like you just kind of help coordinate things and the reason I suggest that even if say Marlene we're temporarily is the superintendent and Scott served temporarily as the assistant superintendent if it's a short term sort of thing because we don't
007have a lot of folks in our central office team so you know we have a very lean organization I've shared that four in different shapes and forms our central office team if you look at the ratio of students per central office administrators it's relevant you know our central office team sees about a thousand students per every central office administrator whereas the average Derby has you know about twice as many support staff in central office so the the upside of that is that our building principals are other folks in the organization our PPS supervisor take on a lot of responsibility have a lot of capacity and we all rely on each other so that's what I'm saying about kind of a flat organizational structure because we kind of need to there isn't a significant hierarchical chain
008like might exist in some other districts so this is an overview of our organizational chart where you can see that you know a superintendent I'm listed at the top with Marlene and then they share you know equal responsibilities you know per their their titles then handles a lot of operations all the operational stuff Marlene hands handles all the instructional stuff and I was an offshoot of that Tracy handles a special education and and we have like I said not a lot of layers in central office and because of that we also run things past each other quite a bit so there aren't a lot of major decisions that any of us make in autonomy we work together and in almost every situation so and at the bottom I indicated in terms of contingency planning and
009the in event that an individual is unavailable those above and below that individual on the chart collaborate to fulfill those responsibilities of the person that's unavailable so you know when Sean our former assistant superintendent for instruction left you know Marlene at the time she was the key curriculum coordinator worked with Donna lowness as an interim you know I was taking up more of the slack there than might typically be the case you know certainly is it's more than what is the case now with Marlene but we kind of just rally around each other around that position and support now if multiple positions are incapacitated and I gotta be honest here I feel like there's probably a greater likelihood that you know Thomaston collapsed on a day not that that's you know that's not a high
010likelihood then several of us become uncompassionate incapacitated due to kovat for an extended period I mean we should be able to work from home cover a lot of the bases things like that but you know I really don't foresee a situation where several people on this organizational chart are not available it would it would take a pretty catastrophic situation in that case if that many people on this chart were unavailable I think it would be also reflected in the community so our priorities would shift dramatically in a situation like that do you have any questions on you know either this document here with the board policy or the organizational chart that I might be able to answer thinking had a question earlier my mistaken yeah I do have a question thank you [Music] my question
011was came before you showed this but it still kind of exists which is so we we do have an organizational structure and the only remaining question I have is if you go to the first page Jeff no is this would indicate that assistant superintendent for management services would be next in line over assistant superintendent for instructional services well this is 22 years old - right right yeah I'm just wondering why it would be that that order and not the other way around the question I was thinking the same thing yeah and you know I I saw it and I was a little bit surprised myself but and I don't know that it makes sense I think that's probably something for policy to look at and I you know the thing is that the organization really
012couldn't function to the best capacity without these individuals in myself working very closely together you know and that I guess if if push came to shove then I would think the instructional side should probably take the lead because we are an instructional organization but you know I like I indicated at the outset that you know this was 22 years ago and none of us were here to even you know consider any of this information back then so you know probably something for policy to look at yeah I agree with that and and I also agree with your assessment of what you how you just explained it so thank you and the thing is you know and I know the individual players now you know I can't foresee 22 years from today who will be jeweled
013players b-but I can say that you know in the organization as we run it today but I just want to reiterate again that you know there's a a and B sort of situation where you know both people are really critical to the organization and the because both people have such different roles but they're both really talented and you know I think that's where why we are in a good position or why we're able to maintain our success with such a flat leadership structure we you know all these people that you see on this are really I mean I and that's I don't want to sound too conceited but there's a lot of talent on this page who have been well versed and we can get away with less people because of that I mean that's
014when you look at the ratios you know this is we're a lot different than everybody else in our district reference group when it comes to central office leadership I would agree with that and I would also just ask one more question in that organizational chart that you had where does care where does Carroll fall because she is and we consider if we lost her what what we would do but a lot and I'd be in trouble but you know this I don't know why and I have to try and figure that out I think when I downloaded this in PDF because I had Carol's name underneath mine with me auntie whose bins assistant and leslie dean below who's Marlene's those folks are also very key in the organization because without absent other layers of administration
015that other districts may have those those folks are really talented and do a lot of things for us to to make sure that we're on track in the download yeah okay thanks I think this is just a top level like a level one or turn it was like if it would I mean I have a person love to see Leslie its Carol's and everyone's you know admin mains the key supporters on however each one of those air areas also has another team so if we were to blow out the entire world short yeah we will see it on a PDF so I know there's more to it yeah but that that high level definitely helps before we go any further I just want to highlight Mike does it switch over the camera or stop yeah
016so I just want to say thank you Jeff for this and I want to be clear on what I just heard you say which is we are an instructional organization and in a bad situation you know stuff is happening we don't even have necessarily I mean we need to have one person to turn to ultimately and I feel like the schools need to have one person who they know because it's not just I don't feel like it's just your team which I appreciate everything you just said but it's not just that close-knit team right at the top it's set what is it seven hundred people who report to you right I want to have those seven hundred people know if something happened to you and I don't want that to happen but if something did
017happen to you who is the boss and the Board of Ed is the boss the voters are the boss but if they need to turn to someone and make something happen I want to know that everyone knows there's one person what I heard you say is that we are an instructional organization you provide instructional services and for at least you know say a few days a few weeks that person is going to be Marlene right well I want to know that there is someone one person that could be that can be spoken to and can make thing happen make things happen in and carry weight and have the weight of being the acting superintendent sure and the decision is the decision yeah and I think you know we have a variety of folks with that
018you know capacity that could run the organization and on a day to day basis over an interim period you they wouldn't fulfill certification but law provides for that short term that a non-certified could do that but the the board policy says the CEO oh you know and I as I just indicated this is a learning organization and I think probably makes sense to look at this from a policy perspective if we were gonna make an adjustment there and either equalize or reverse those okay yeah so I mean what could happen is we could you know Adam could call a policy meeting within you know 24 hours we could do something for me if we if we want to go if we want to go down down that direction we could do we could do that
019and we have an idea of where we're headed right now and I'm not talking long term I'm just talking for a short term emergency situation which is what this is we're on lockdown right now you'll have a question observation oh yes all right thanks Tommy okay thanks Tim so prior to the school closure lockdown of the building's two weeks ago if you saw the planning as I happen to walk in Jeff's office a couple times and we had a Ingles work policy at one of the meetings in the board room right you would have seen Marlene in corner working Jeff as desk and yet Benson you know a floor down below you know the three headed leadership team you know well Jeff's the cernium lead so you know just are seeing a lot of things
020yeah my meeting focus on instruction and you know working with tracing team yet Tencent who we saw there at night and our board meeting you know coronate the the management I guess opera operational aspects of the school buildings infrastructure security etc that's that's a team so I so so we want we keep seeing one Jeff gets sick we don't want to get sick so god forbid it happens but so Jeff cannot do this role I would imagine you know our policy says it's you know the basic is CEO oh and then the instructional stuff Scott but in reality it's it's gonna be you know Marlene and Vincent the single point of contact the core entire policy would be Vincent today I'll let the board aside over I posture change it but the bottom line is
021that's a team so you know if next week or week after we had initiate this I think all Tim is asking it okay do we does he email Marlene will has questions what we day or Vincent or you know that kind of thing so I think we can iron that out I think the policy should they be taking a look at and if that was done 98 when dr. Portillo was here it's on at a time you didn't break out management from his drawl it was basically him and Scott Dietrich great super fencing forget anyway so the seal broke out I think when they hired Vincent Massey Anna and that's when I became the CEO so I think was after 1998 so it may be worthwhile to look at that but I mean look at
022the arch are it's clear but you know there's got a good point you know if Betty she ate this who's the point of contact with a leader yeah just to build off of what Tony was saying he's absolutely correct and that the CFO position was created after Ben was hired but at the time we did have an individual Paul catalyst running special education and facility so they kind of morphed on the org chart and Paul was a former educator was our special ed director so things have kind of changed in that policy the two one three two there I just don't think kid has been up to reflect the org chart hey Timmy only suggestion I would make is since since policy is playing a review the access education funding account policy anyway soon I'll
023put throw this on you and just clean it up if we need to right but those are head thank you a quick comment I agree that we need to look at that policy through policy committee I don't think that it is an emergency situation we can do it soon but we don't have to do it tomorrow yeah I don't know I mean ultimately you know I don't know how you guys feel I I don't know that it needs to be done in 24 hours but you know at some point this week we probably want to put both the policy that Tony just brought up the two percent carry over that Ben mentioned the other day in our meeting and then this policy as well yeah I would do with in the next week at the
024least in just so folks know every organization prior Republic is going through a business continuity plan exercise where they had one or not they're all going through summer discussion I just stood out like my employers at work we're going this discussion and we found some gaps and you learn from these things and will correct so I don't think it's an emergency either however I would like to get it buttoned up you know within the next week along with the other policy for the budget accounts like a thought to Anna about that yes I I'm totally I'm totally fine with that I don't wanna use the word emergency and as if it's something you know emergency to me is really at least in fire they're responding within seconds it's not so much that this is more
025like Public Works emergency you know the storm is coming it's good and probably I mean ports I've seen is you know I think the Northeast is supposed to get hit really hard the second week of April I'm guessing that's you know the first week starts in a few days so yeah if we could hopefully Adam and the policy committee would be able to meet in the next in the next few days but it's not I don't mean to use it you know by definition I think an emergency meeting will be something scheduled in less than 24 hours I don't mean to say that understood that this needs to be this needs to be rushed I feel and so in the next few days would be the next few days would be fine with me I
026think that would be I think that should be adequate you're healthy right now Jeff right you don't know coughing you're okay all right any other questions from Tony you're in no I thought that our chart and posture is very helpful maybe I saw him look at the policy yes okay yeah thank you thank you for that Jeff next topic is basically your direct reports just want to know that you know I mean it could be a it could be a couple principles got incapacitated even just even just one principle do you have an idea a plan in mind for for a temporary acting principal or for your for Marlene Ervin your assistant superintendent or your CEO oh do you have ideas in mind and a plan in place at least in your head if not
027written down I'm thinking something written down probably or maybe not written down but discussion with Marlene and then just to know that there's you can act quickly sure yeah in this in this situation I mean and I hate to even talk like this let's say I'm one of our principals hit Powerball tomorrow and was gone okay just resigned tomorrow gone [Music] that's even different than in a co-ed situation where we would have days of preparation recognizing that an individual is sick recognizing perhaps that things weren't going well and you know you have probably you know four days at the short end of that in terms of preparation so the art plan would be like a kind of setting that contingency plan even at the principle level you have supports both above and below the individual
028on the organizational chart so if it's a building principle in Cheshire high school their assistant principals who would step in and fulfill that role with the support of most likely myself having been a former high school principal at the elementary level you know again I would look toward one of our two assistant principals at the elementary level to provide more leadership support with Marlene who has great experiences in elementary principals so those you know that's kind of what we do at the at the principal level in terms of PPS director that's a challenging hole to fill but we have you know two or three really capable special education supervisors and is you know in Harrigan in Harrigan and Donner II is looking at retirement at the end of this year and she will be retiring
029so those what I say two or possibly three that say this happened after and retired might and be able to support but one of the things that we've done historically this kind of a bullpen approach where we look at some folks that are recent retirees or who have tremendous experience that's why Don aloneness was the assistant superintendent last you know last year for six months so well people in done could pinch-hit anywhere and he's got the talent and capacity to do that we've had jaecheon former PBS directors that in and hold down that role for a while a time so it's a combination of you know kind of dry supports from within the organization and pulling people out of the bullpen for the record I'm not planning to apply for the Ferrand honorees job clarification
030there thank you for thank you for that Jeff thank you answer and I saw you had a comment about we have assistant principals yeah no that makes absolute sense and if it was one assistant principal in one school I could see the hierarchy where it goes straight up but I could also foresee a situation where you have and I don't know I don't even I don't know really know that much at all about the high school but I could foresee a situation in which we have a principal and we also have more than one assistant principal Jeff and I've never had this conversation with Jeff at all but I'm just saying Jeff may feel that the person who is not the most senior is the most qualified yet the principal is gone Jeff has gone
031incapacitated and then all of a sudden the senior the most senior assistant principal feels that's the role to be taken you know I I will act as the principal that is the situation I'm hoping to avoid just by ensuring that there is a plan in place I want to know that that that's really it I mean the same thing happened I think many of us probably remember Alex Haig he's the secretary of state number five in line Ronald Reagan Jacquet shot and he says I'm in charge it was not charged George Bush was or George HW Bush was the vice president of time I don't want it I don't want to have a situation like that I just want to have a I want to know that we have a plan in place for for
032what happens kind of new 'ti planning succession planning contingency planning so that's basically it any topic any any other comments or questions no I I was add that I think over the last few years me a little longer I think from my point of view that the depth of assistant principals is built up quite a bit then I think a lot and again this is not saying we ever had a bad you know any lack of qualified folks but I think there's been a lot of promotions people stepping up and I think we still have mr. Jeffries still working so a lot of people and flush them at that level I don't really have a concern there but imagine it's something that major happens and and you know superintendent would say okay it's like he's
033done in the past I would imagine whether it's a high school dad or whoever he would you know tell the board you know your situation here's I'd like to have run into him but I think there's a quite a qualified pool of candidates right now at that level if not mistaken but I think we're good there okay Micah my opinion and so the last topic what's the how did you word it the last topic on the agenda Jeff the central office staffing specifically for me the concern across my mind is we are having board meetings right now remotely and I think that's the way the rules are basically written by Lamont right well there's been relaxation of rules across the board because of the executive order so yeah we can have remote meetings we can
034I think you know we've done a great job I don't know many of our peers actually I don't know any peers that are holding online visual meetings like this streaming for YouTube but you know we we are obviously continuing to work to make sure that everything that we're doing is visible to the community to help assure them what's going on and everything is above board you know we do provide for that public comment there aren't any public comments today but at least you know as I check my email here periodically I haven't seen any come in but everything we're doing is aboveboard and it would you know venture to say leading the way in terms of what we're doing i forwarded I think was during the week when communication from cabe we learned they relaxed
035executive executive order on the on the board I think it's any public agency quite frankly right rules so as long as we're posting the doesn't mean we cannot not post an agenda I have a meeting we saw the post agenda but it's basically for board like actually almost all the boards that don't have a policy on conference call meeting or virtual meetings this helps a lot so when it all this is over which I which I hope is going you know we we come up there dialogue the future and determine if we want to have those kind of meetings you know in a non murder situation but but back reporting tonight put you off it quick question so what Mike said tremendous job he's also here if folks watching you know organizing this behind the
036scenes so you have Micro Center office working F Carol working on it so even though there's no physical meetings central office still much involved my go to you know Carol or Leslie the others you know get ill and chemo you know people they do best make us run you know pearly Falls like how's it up there you know I know you guys are kind of lean as it is so I know if Carol's audio office plan I know every kind of steps off but any concerns there we need to worry about with backup and actually well we have definitely looked at not only those positions but on the organizational chart I'll show you real quick again [Music] let's see the folks who work for VIN there's not a tremendous depth there underneath these people so
037what we've you know we're discussing and have discussed before I mean one of ins goals is here and here I'd pulled up this one because you can see like heather and Beryl and Lesley listed there and I'm not sure why they didn't show up in the download but the individuals here have such niche skill sets Luther for example our transportation coordinator couldn't easily step over and do Madeline duikers foodservice job and vice versa so what we've tried to do is is cultivate not only leadership in those areas or additional folks who could try and step in but where that's not necessarily possible so a technology there are great leadership folks who could try and step in and cover for Mike on a short-period in in most cases just like with principles and everything like that
038we wouldn't just say one individual typically oh because that person probably can't vacate their role very easily and leave a short-handed there so it's a team effort to step in but we've talked about you know if if we needed HR support there's consulting services that can come in and help with that same with with finance if you lost great gibbons it's an incredible amount of institutional knowledge and skill but we could in a short term have a consultant come in and help us in that that area losing our secretarial staff there's somebody in Leslie's office that Michelle Mills lega works very closely with her who would probably try and step up and cover it along with Kevin and Marlene pitching in in my office we have Jen who could vent rody canal could could help
039with Carroll and myself so that again on all these situations it wouldn't necessarily be an individual per se as much as it would be a team effort trying to cover the bases okay thank you sure thanks all right so I appreciate I appreciate what you've given us or shared today Jeff Tony and any other questions I don't see anything in the comments hearing nothing Jeff do you have any questions on the email address I'm looking real quick here faith ham had commented you know to possibly look at putting in a flexible flowchart to deal with simultaneous sudden loss of multiple administrators across multiple divisions you know and I think you know she recognizes that we do have deep benches and schools and there's the there is that concern in financing yeah but the I think
040again the likelihood in this scenario of losing multiple people across the organization we're a pretty young fit and might I add attractive looking work so I think you know our chances of surviving this are pretty good I mean but it doesn't mean we don't plan and that's why I have that org chart but as I said at the outset if we lost several people across the organization all at the same time the likelihood is that that is mirrored in society which at that point we're probably just shutting down school all together in trying like hell to hold on and and make our schools you know quasi medical facilities more than we are worried about providing education but that that's just I thought and by the way we are prepping for those sort of things just
041to be prepared but you know we'll look at what if there were multiple immigration I think that I think the key thing for me with regard to similar to what similar to faiths concern is that you and VIN and Marlene or haven't you you have conversations if not you know in the past hopefully the past week or two but also ongoing about you know sort of who you see in roles you know having the potential to do things but definitely having some conversations right now nothing that needs to be made public but that