7/23/25 Special Board Meeting - Duarte USD

001Good evening community. Thank you very much for joining us either here in person or uh online. I do want to just quickly announce that we do have translation services available here if you are in need of those. I'm sorry I don't have the beautiful Spanish language to say that uh as Vice President Diaz always does, but uh it is available if that is needed um here in person. So, we're going to go ahead and start with a we'll call this meeting to order. Sorry, it is uh 5:34. Uh we'll do a roll call quickly. Uh so, uh I'll start with myself. Uh, board member Finlay here, board member Oolgin >> here, >> board member Hasso >> here, >> board member Reyes >> here. >> Excellent. And board member Diaz is not here with us uh

002this evening. Uh, next we'll go to the flag salute. And I would like to go ahead and do that. So, please stand and place your right hand over your heart. >> Ready? Begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. All right, we'll move on to the adoption of tonight's agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Yes. So move. >> Second. >> Motion by board member Reyes, second by board member Gin. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> That passes 40. Uh, do we have any requests to address the board? No request to address the board. Thank you very much, Mercedes. All

003right. Uh, we can now go ahead and move on to the interview portion of this meeting. So just I guess so the the public knows um what we are going to be doing here this evening is uh interviewing uh a total of five superintendent search firms um and we have allocated 30 minutes to each firm and um we'll in that 30 minutes they'll be able to present to us uh and then we will be allowed to ask questions. Uh the board has been provided with uh questions that they can ask. Um if those questions were answered during the presentation andor in the packet that was given to us last week, uh then you're you don't need to ask that question necessarily, but if you want some clarification, please feel free to uh to ask. Um

004but we don't have any set or required questions that we must ask. Um but those questions were provided to sort of guide us as we make this decision. Um so after the interviews are concluded then we'll move on to um uh the point in time when we will actually select uh a firm. So uh I guess we can go ahead and move on to the interview portion of the meeting then. Dr. Helman. >> Thank you Dr. Finley. At this time we'll start with the Costco group and I'll let the representative introduce himself. Good evening sir. You have 30 minutes with us. Thank you. Uh, first of all, thank you for having our firm. I do want to let you know that my partner, uh, Joel Shapiro had knee surgery on Monday >> and the doctor

005forbade him from putting any weight on it, so I'm running solo tonight. Um, and can use this, right? Okay. Uh, we're the Costco group. Uh, in the 20s some odd years since, uh, Dr. Costa founded it. Uh we've spent a lot of time and perfecting as best we can our process for select for selecting superintendent. So I'll be sharing that with you today and hopefully these will be the highlights of the proposal we sent you. So we like to say that KUAS the TCG stands for trust, commitment, and guidance. And that's those are three pillars of our search. uh we want to make sure that you trust the work that we're doing and that when we're out there maybe conducting forums be the face of of the board as you seek a new leader for

006for your district. Uh we are we are completely committed uh as I will share with you later. Uh Joel and I will not be doing any other searches during the time if we're selected as your search firm. That's our company policy when we're assigned when we when we get a search. We only do one search at a time. We never do multiple searches. and guidance. We try to provide you with the right feedback, information, homework and background checks on everything on everyone so that you can make the right decision or best decision you can make and in seeking uh your next leader. Um, I do want to spend a little time on this because as I was going through uh your in your your instructional program, I was really impressed and uh and and just

007really tickled me to see how many options you have for your families in your district. I mean, you've got basically everything that could be offered. You've got a early college program, you've got IB, you've got a STEM, uh you've got uh the school of the arts. Um, and I just thought, wow, what a great way to set up your district. Every school has kind of a signature program they can use to discuss and share with families what they're about and how they go about educating the child and the choices you gave your families. You know, it wouldn't matter which your kids are all different, right? But some kids would pick one program, some kids would pick another. That's just I thought a really wonderful way to provide options for families. Um, and and I was

008really impressed with the city of Hope STEM partnership. I thought that was that was high-end and uh really next level information. Um, and I'm a big fan of Project Lead the way we had it in our district for several years. And I think it's a great way for kids to learn how to get a the skills to move into a career right right after high school or right after college. Joel uh is my partner and uh Joel has uh was a education for 42 years. He was superintendent of South Pass. He was an assistant soup in Burbank and he served as elementary and secondary principal and along the way he's done some professorships at accidental and sea sun and uh Joel uh uh enjoys mostly uh the workshops that he does with uh the governance

009team after the search is awarded to us. We provide a free governance team training to help uh the board and the new leader uh get on the same page right away. and and that's something he really likes to specialize in. Um I'm retired from Newport Mesa. Uh I did uh serve a couple years as the Lennox School District Superintendent. Uh my roots are in secondary. I was a middle school and high school principal and also an assistant soup for education in Anaheim Union. Um and really uh my focus was always to make sure we were in educating the whole child. You know, it's kids learn different things in different in different uh uh curriculums. Okay? Even the word frequency is different in science than it is in math or even in music. But kids need

010to know there's multiple meanings for those words. You know, I always thought they had to have a music background. They had to have access to athletics. They had to have access to any of the of the uh extracurricular programs that we had like Young Business Leaders of America and so forth. So that's where I spent most of my time. I wanted to give our kids opportunities. To me, providing kids opportunities was the key. And why choose us? And first of all, I think you need to know that we have a very respectable percentage of uh stability when we place a superintendent. 95% of our placements over the 20 plus so years have stayed for a minimum of five years and many more than that. Uh we also um are selective in the districts we choose

011to work with. Um, not that we don't uh accept uh uh uh invitations from many districts, but we like to choose districts that demonstrate stability and and have cohesiveness. Uh you know, it's it's uh it's something that we we we really strive ourselves in finding the right match for districts and and having the right match for the soups as well. Um, we've also done recently in the last two, three years, we've done uh the Monrovia search, the Temple City Search, the Rosem, House Path, and Bonita searches in the in the San Gabriel Valley. So, we kind of have uh been hanging around your neighborhood for a while. Uh, our our focus is uh that we tailor the the process to to your needs. Okay, you have our basic proposal, but there's a lot of room

012to make modifications and changes and alterations to the direction we go. Sometimes there's information you learn and you always the board may want to choose a different little bit of direction this way. Other times, most of it is, uh, have you talked to this group of people? We'd like you to have this group. Oh, we didn't have you talk to the mayor. We'd like to have you talk to the mayor. So, we tailor it to what your needs are. Uh, I know I have a a u a um timeline in the proposal, but I guarantee you that's the first thing. If we were get the search, we'd be talking about because maybe the timeline, which is our best guess, isn't what you're hoping for. Okay. Um, and uh and and we also uh believe in

013full disclosure. We do not uh hide anything from you. uh we will conduct research uh and and background checks on every applicant and we will provide you with a a report of every applicant and we will provide you the application of every applicant for you to review. Um and it's that report that we can share with you things that we find out that maybe isn't so clear in the application process so that you're getting full full information about each applicant. Um, our services include pre-recruitment. Uh, again, we customize this to you. Our first meeting with the board is to discuss your recruitment and what you're looking for and what you believe the skills, the uh the the the knowledge and the experience is has to be in the in the person you want to hire.

014And that gives us an opportunity to put together the brochure for you. Brochure that goes out throughout the state and through our uh partners at the National Association of School Superintendent. Um, so we will customize the brochure. Um, we'll our first initial assessment is with you, but we'll also do uh as many community assessments as you want as well. The forums as I mentioned before, we go out with three questions and we ask everybody to give you feedback because as we explain it to them, it's important for you to hear from the community what they're also looking for. And sometimes when we come back with that information for, oh, we didn't think about that. Maybe you want to look at that. So it's uh really uh an organic process. Um so we do uh the

015stakeholder meetings in person but we also do them online so that everybody can have access and we do them in the languages that you need uh for your district. Um, and I said, as I said before, we review the assessment of all the applicants with you and uh and then uh work with you to identify uh the uh applicants you would like to to interview after all of the search uh all the research has been done on on each of the applicants. Um and uh we do uh put out uh the like I said the brochure but we also do an electronic brochure that we send out to all districts and across our partners at the National Association of School of Superintendent. Um we advertise and promote uh we basically go through all of the

016traditional ones. will go through the AXA uh uh um advertisement. But our really our big one is uh we uh we put our network together and we make sure that all our superintendent coh colleagues across California are sending out information and contacting local superintendents to see if they're they're interested or if they have uh budding superintendents who might be interested in applying. So, it's a little bit of digital, a little bit of u uh of of uh advertising in certain uh markets and then a little bit of personal re outreach with our network. Um and we maintain the files. We set them up for you so that at some point you'll be you will be able to access all the files and see every application and see uh and review it prior to your selection

017of who you want to interview. Um and uh we do all the communications with the applicant so they don't communicate with you. Uh and so that uh everybody everything is clean and we keep everything highly confidential. We do not share the names uh and uh and uh we make sure it's it's uh we were protecting all the applicants. You never know. They may not want their their information to go out yet or they maybe they've only to the told the board president. So it's really important to keep the applications as confidential as possible. Um, and I've covered most of this. One thing I didn't mention is that we do take our partners and we also have them help us with the, uh, ranking of the applicants that you have. So, it's not just Joel and

018me thinking who's, you know, matches your profile best. We actually bring three or four of our partners in to second guessess us and and consider how we might move one person up or move one person down. But we do that as a group to make sure that uh we're not we're not exhibiting any bias towards anyone. Um and um we do facilitate at the end of this process the interview process for you. We'll be there uh to welcome candidates in and introduce them to you and walk them out. We're also there to help you process the day. Uh the two days basically what it takes. There's a first interview day and then there's the finalist and to help you process and rank order or however you want to uh identify who the strongest candidates are

019and who you really want to bring in for the final interview. We usually recommend seven, eight for the big day and then hopefully three for the final but again that's negotiable. Board wants to do other things. Uh and we do help we do have a series of questions which you can choose from to use for the application. We do uh ask that whatever questions you select we give to each candidate so each candidate gets the same questions. Um we can upon uh your request provide you with a compensation study so that you can see what the other superintendents are earning or what their contracts are like as far in your local area so that you're competitive because I'm sure uh you know that you want to make sure you hire someone and that you retain

020them as well. So we can do that for you. Um, and then, uh, we'll help you again with the final day of of ranking who you think is the best candidate. And sometimes we'll even add another day if the board would like to see two candidates one more time. So, we're very flexible. Um, and uh, and uh, we really try to make this as much your search and help you find the person that you want to have that you believe will be the best leader for you as the board and for your district and your students and your families. Um and then we do pay for an indepth professional background check on the on the finalist. So uh while we do our homework, we're not professionals. So we do hire an investigator to do a

021final background check. Um if you wish to visit a district, not all districts uh do the final do a visit to where the employees currently uh working, but we can arrange that if uh if a site visit is something you want. Um, we do communicate with all the applicants. You don't have to worry about telling someone whether they made it or not. We take care of all those communications and we do it right away so that nobody's, you know, out there wondering what happened. Uh, we can if the if you need help in the development of your contract with the with the employee, most districts choose uh to do that with their attorney, but we can we can also assist in that process. and then we will help uh provide uh the publications for your

022announcement and distribution of who you've selected in the end. Um one of the things that's important is that uh when we sit with the governance team we like to talk a little bit about the evaluation of the superintendent but our baseline as the Costco group is evaluations are to help build the capacity of your employees. If you can help your employees be better employees, you're going to have a better better organization. And that's true for superintendents as well. So, we can assist with setting uh some performance objectives. We can assist with uh developing a format so you know what the objectives are and what goes into what the superintendent will attempt to do and then come up with uh a tool that will develop interrator reliability. uh you should all have an idea of what

023is acceptable, what's satisfactory, and then what is excellent. Okay? And uh you shouldn't you shouldn't be all over the place because then statistically it's difficult to rate the person. So we can help with that tool as well. Um and then uh part of our package is to provide two years of mentoring to the superintendent at no cost to you. And uh we do that uh we meet with the superintendent beginning twice monthly in person and then of course always available via phone call to the superintendent. Um I think uh one of the things that makes a difference and why we have long the longevity we have is because we do provide that support for two years and uh it's nice to have somebody you can call in right away and ask questions and Joel and

024I would be be there for for person. This is the proposed timeline our our only option uh and we we just tried to put something together that we thought was on the time range uh you uh you would uh you would uh sketched out in the in the in the proposal. Uh the pre-recruit is uh a long session. Uh that takes a while. It takes us time to uh develop brochure and send it out and uh it it's almost about three weeks that we do do that kind of work. um we bring the brochure back to you to make sure it's what you want to send out and it's not something that we've editorialized or made any changes in, but we want it to be your voice, your representing you as the board uh as

025to who what who you're looking for and what skills and knowledge and experience you're looking for. Uh the recruitment is about a month. Um, and I'll tell you that uh while we start off at the month, uh I will tell you that the last two weeks is when everybody seems to apply and and there's good reason for that. They uh your best applications come in the last two weeks. People are taking their time doing it well. So that's not a surprise to us. It just means we do make a lot of reference calls those last two weeks to get to make sure we're meeting your deadlines. Um the um uh selection of the of the candidates is over a a a three-day period. We'll come in on a Friday. We'll provide the questions for you.

026We'll provide you the ranking or the information we have on every applicant. And uh at that time, you'll select the interviewees you want to meet with and you will also select the questions you want to use for your interview. Uh and then the last day hopefully is your finalist day and we can uh we you'll identify the person who's the right fit for you and the right fit for your district. Uh the appointment can take any going to take place anywhere between the 20th of October to November 13th. It's all based on when your board meeting is because you have to do it at an official board meeting. And again, the post appointment support we provide your superintendent is for up to two years. Um there are no additional costs. Our our our proposal contains

027all the costs that we will uh request from you. Um you have unlimited consultant time. You will each get uh Joel's phone number and my phone number and email his email and you can uh email us and ask us questions any time. We do ask to work with the board president and one other person in case we have questions on process or procedures. Uh and uh it's not something that the whole board needs to decide but sometimes just a little bit of help we need on what on how to move forward on some items. Uh however uh if you're going to make any decisions as a board that that would require a close session and for us to be in in that uh but unlimited uh time with the consultants, unlimited meetings with the boards

028and with the board and stakeholders. We'll do as many uh uh stakeholder meetings as you want. Uh when we were in Pomona, I think we saw 3,000 people over three weeks. Uh and uh it was uh it was actually a lot of fun. Uh but it was a lot of work too. Um and then ancillary support of all partners. If we need somebody to come in and help us, we call our partners in. Uh especially if uh we have two or three forums at one night and we can't be at all of them. We'll pull in one of our partners to help with the third forum. Um the search is a sole consultant assignment. We that's we're not we're not doing anything else at that time. So we're pretty much tied up for about a

029three to four month period and won't be doing anything else. We have a two-year guarantee. It doesn't work out, we'll go back and do a search again over two. Okay. And uh and that's up for up to two years. Okay. And I think if I'm correct, that's only happened twice in the TCG history. So, we're like again, like I said before, we have a a really respectable uh tenure rate for our for our placements. Um and if you don't find a candidate, we will do a whole search again. no additional cost to you. And uh one thing I think one of the things that helps keep our tenure rates so high is we don't come back and cherrypick our placements. We don't come back and try to hire a superintendent for another school. Say, "Hey,

030here's a bigger school. Come right and he's only been there one or two years." We don't we don't recruit our superintendents. That's not to say somebody else won't. We don't. Um again, it's an all-inclusive fee. Uh all of the I've listed here is just a review of all of the uh services we provide. Um and then our guarantee uh we want to just be very clear. These are our guarantees to you. You're going to make every decision. Okay? We will give you full disclosure of all the applicants. We won't not share with you any any information or any applications. Uh you will determine the interviews. You will identif you you will determine who you're interviewing and you will determine what questions you'll be asking. You all will make as a board make the final choice

031and that will be solely your role and your choice and we will not be influencing them. Now if you ask us about their backgrounds, we're happy to provide you the information we have. But that does not mean that we are trying to influence you one way or the other. We're just providing clarification and maybe some information that may have not been clear before. uh selection will not be recruited, a free repeat repeat search if the suitable candidates not found and free a repeat search within two years if needed. And I' I've covered all of that, but those are our guarantees. We stand by those and uh you know, I think uh one of the things that Dr. Costa uh made sure is that u we're really here to support the board in this search. It's

032the most important task that you have as board members and you need the most supportive process to make sure that you're finding the person you feel comfortable with, that you feel confident will be the next great leader for your district. We understand this is a big task for you. We understand the importance of this task and just know that we are committed to doing an excellent job in all facets of the of the search and uh we'd be honored to be your search firm. >> All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate uh all that information. Um we do have about 8 to 10 minutes, 10 10ish minutes um to go ahead and um allow the board to ask any questions that they may have. So board, I will open that up to you all to

033go ahead and ask some questions. >> Dr. Navaro. >> Yes, trust. You mentioned um uh the background check for the finalist. Okay. Who's going to cover that cost? >> We cover that cost. It's all included. >> Okay. I was just I didn't I didn't hear you when you spoke about it. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. Sometimes, you know, I'm assuming that you understand that that everybody understands we cover all the costs in our proposal. We don't add anything. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I think um Dr. Navaro and the estimated time is two to three months. Yes. Uh in in uh 3 months is basically uh the target. Uh but to be honest, sometimes it goes into four months and it can be a lot of things. It could be um contract negotiation with the person

034you select. you know, they may not be able to leave on the dime. You may have to set up a contract negotiation and you won't be able to point till a certain point. Uh but sometimes it's also uh to be honest, most of the things that the time that that's involved is on the stakeholder meetings. Uh if a district asks us to put in four or five stakehold uh you know or two or three can be another week. So there are variables in there that we want to give you latitude to use if you want more information or if you want to get uh if you want to get more input um that we can do but I'd say three months is the target but don't be surprised if it goes to four. >> Thank

035you. >> Uh Dr. Maro. So, um I think mo most of the board up here, um you know, we we this is not our full-time job as you probably know. Um so, I mean, a lot of us are are very busy during the day. And so, how would we go ahead and communicate with you, meet with your team, all that kind of stuff while we are simultaneously, you know, working normal lives? >> Yes. Well, we're uh we'll work around your schedules. Okay. Um we can do I mean obviously if it's a if it's a meeting with the whole board and we do it on Zoom you have you have to do the this the required you know meeting agenda and all of that. Um but we're available to you via phone calls. Um and uh

036we can set up meetings with you in person whenever you're all available. Honestly I' we've done meetings before board meetings. you know, they come as we get a an early close session meeting with you so that it's on the same day you're already here. Um, sometimes we've been asked to stay after uh because of the agenda that it might be. We've also come in on Saturdays. Uh, we've also uh, you know, come in on uh, student free days uh, when so we're flexible. Uh, and uh, we're available and like I said, Joel and I will only be doing this search. So we're going our our our time is really uh as flexible as it can be. Um again we like to have the board president and one other be our point people on it so

037we can have that kind of communication. Uh but we're you know we have to be very conscious of your of your open meeting regulations and uh follow all those properly so that there is no violation and there is no uh misinformation going out. Um, but I I don't see I've never in the last four years I've been around, I've never had a problem arranging a time with the board to meet about something. >> Okay, great. Um, anyone else have any questions for Dr. Navaro? >> Okay, great. Well, thank you very much for your presentation for your time. >> Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. I'm really impressed with your educational programs. like I said really tickled me uh the opportunities and the and the and the programs you're offering and uh I

038hope that uh we are selected. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh all right. So I guess >> we'll just take a minute here. We'll be asking um Mr. Crosby will bring in the next group that's the McFersonson and Jacobson group. >> Okay. Good evening, sir. >> Good evening. >> I know you'll introduce yourself. I just want the board to know this is Mr. Ben John, Dr. Ben Johnson from McFerson. >> I was going to say LeBron James from McFerson and Jacobson. >> Okay, I'll let you go from here. You're on. boy would say, uh, yeah, you're I'm going to give you I know you have the presentation, but I want to just give you copies of the packets, too. There should be one for each board member and then if

039you select us, we have one for whoever would be potentially our point of contact. Um, thank you for allowing us to be here. My name is Ben Johnson. I'm with McFersonson and Jacobson and um, I know you have we have 30 minutes. I'll try to not talk so much um, and kind of do a high level overview, but really kind of give you time to ask questions of me and make sure this is productive and not just reading slides because no one wants anyone to stand in front of you and read slides. Um, that's who you are. You'll hear this from all every firm and I know you know this that this is the most important thing that boards do. um but like you and like your mission and what drives you, it's really making

040sure that there's a lot of great candidates out there, but what's the best fit for you? So, as we go through this, our our lens um is just like yours, what's best for students and for your community and making sure that fit is there. And and part of that is um that fit piece ensures that if there's good governance with you and the superintendent, right? It's not the board and the superintendent, it's the governance team working together with great leadership. Um great things happen in the classroom. When that piece is not connected and not functioning at a high level, it just doesn't work. Um, and so we really make sure that on the front end when you're doing your criteria, and we'll I'll go through this in a little more detail, and on the back

041end, as part of our search process, goals and objectives, that those things are always at the forefront and helping you not just at the with the search, but continuing that ongoing connection. Um, we are a nationwide search firm. Um, but the consultants that would be working on this project are California consultants. One of the things that's unique about McFersonson um and one of the reasons why I joined McFersonson is that they try to have a board member and a superintendent on all their searches. There's just a different lens. So I'm a board member. Um I was in Alvard Unified which is in Riverside 23,000 students with decoding enrollment. There are roughly about 20 now. and I stopped being on the board for a while and then one of my colleagues um who was on the

042county asked me to run for the county. So I've been on the county board now for a little over three years. Um so almost 24 years of board governance and it provides a different lens, right? That any of you can can any of you go to the grocery store and be home in 15 minutes? No. Because you bump into people all the time. And so your lens and having that perspective um and when we're doing searches by being a board member um I have conversations that my colleagues that are superintendents don't have. And so we have 130 um consultants across the country, 25 of those in California. Um I've done searches as small as 125 not thousand but 125 students and as large as 71,000. So really good perspective. I think I'm up to 25

043um 26 searches now. And about 95% of those superintendent candidates that were placed are still in those districts now. And yes, some of it is luck. It's not all this magic piece, but a lot of it is because we spent a lot of time on criteria and I'll go through that in just a second. Um so this will be the consult team. Ida was not able to make it down today, but um we have um two of us working the search, but we also have a home office that takes care of 90% of the other stuff. Mercedes does not need anything else to do, right? You don't need the consultants calling you, asking you for a lot of work. Yeah, there's some things logistically that we would need her help in, but we have our

044own back office that takes care of all those pieces as well. Your staff should be focused on you, not not on us. Um, so we have a process that we recommend to you, but every search is different. We we we don't have a cookie cutter process that we take to your district. We spend a lot of time talking about what do you want as a board? What's most important to you? Um, how much? So, I'll give you an example. I believe stakeholder education partner engagement is important but anyone can say engagement is important from your community but what does that look like it looks differently so some people will do like a town hall meeting here and you'll have everybody here and you may do one in another side of your district and that and

045that's fine but I I personally think that every voice is different so hearing from your teachers that voice is going to sound different than hearing from your classified that's going to be different from site administrators. That's going to be different from um all of your groups if you have you DAG groups. All those voices are unique and different. So we spend a lot of time understanding what are those education partners. What how do you want them to find and then we do as much as we can in person but being direct like from a from an equity and inclusive perspective. Some people work imagine that right? So they can't always do it. So, how much can we do virtually? How much can we do in person? Um, and then we also have an online process

046where people may not feel comfortable talking in public about these issues. Um, but we're able to do it to best suit your community's needs. So, it's a big part of what we do. Um, it's great information for the board because as you're making your decisions, you're also getting able to hear from your community as well about what's most important. um we advertise everywhere like everybody else does. That's not how we really find candidates. We we spend a lot of time with you at the beginning. Um and that engagement with you and understanding um from a high level with the survey potentially what your committee is looking for that helps build and define that criteria. But that that's all the board's decision. Um we make as much of the process transparent and open as possible. Um

047the only thing that we are really protective of as candidates before they are your finalists because their careers are at risk when they interview. And so we want to make sure for us to recruit and identify great talent. um they need to feel comfortable that if they don't get the job right that their current employer is not going to find that out. So we navigate that really well. We make sure before we bring you anybody, we've done thorough background checks and we call it going three deep. So we not only talk to people they gave us because they're going to give us people that are going to say wonderful and great things about them, right? We go three deep and we ask tell us about this candidate and then tell us somebody that what do

048you know about that candidate and then we talk to our network and as mentioned because we're a nationwide search firm we have these national connections but because of our uniquest and our consultants in California we have connections through every association um through different universities and those groups to understand um who those candidates are and of course we all do all the reference checks and Google searches in in those issues. Um I I mentioned our our retention rate. 80% of our candidates, this is our corporate um are in place at 5 years. I'm a little boastful. Mine's 90% actually like almost 95%. Um 60% at 10 years and 40% at 15 years. And those numbers are um higher than the average. the average superintendent used to be uh 3.2 years across the country. That number has

049dropped to 2 point a little over 2.3 years. And so we um are pleased with how we're doing because um the last thing you need is for someone to come here, start making things happen, and then two years later they're looking for another job. We are so confident in our process and what we do. If your superintendent leaves you for any reason before that 2-year period, we come back and do the search at no cost to the district um because not that it hasn't ever happened, but because we know our process works. We don't hire anybody. So that's your job. Um, with all due respect, we don't have a cadre of candidates that we move from district to district because they're in our program or they're in our network. Um, we have a strong database

050of candidates, but we have candidates. We don't have a pool of people that we p pull from and just move them around once they've been someplace for a couple years and now they're ready for the next larger district or the next larger district, right? we make sure that we are driving um candidates and then looking for candidates based on your criteria. So let me go through our five phases because I'm probably pontificating a little too much. Um but let let me just kind of drive you to the big pieces and I did cover some of these but really want to make sure I have time you have time for questions. So, we talked about criteria and that's where we sit with the board and talk about what are those criteria you want, who are the

051educational partners that you want to be included in that process. I I know it says in our documentation that that includes one day of onsite um stakeholder meetings. That may not happen, right? It may not be one day. May it be two days. So, whatever it is, we do that. That's included because in order to do it right, we need to be here. I don't think online always provides the kind of connection that you need with people and um and because my Spanish is not even close to anything to positive, I would do um those meetings in Spanish, I would do some of the ones in English, but we would make sure from those groups and in talking to those groups, what do they prefer, not what do we prefer? Um I talked about advertising.

052Um I I think when you look at phase two, so once we get the search, we start recruiting people immediately once we have that criteria piece. Um we it's in your packet, we can do a brochure. Candidly, I don't think that has if you want to do it, we'll do it. Most people don't need a brochure. You have a great website that provides all those details and it's just providing additional work and time. Um, you know, I I think most people when they want to learn about the district, they go to the district's website, look and see what those that information is and most of the information is is um it's dup duplicating the same information. Phase three I is where we do our background checks. Um be so when we bring candidates to you,

053we'll we'll take a let's I always ask boards to think of it as a funnel, right? Think of your process as bringing as many candidates in. Um there was some there'll be some things I'll say make it a required but not too much. So for example required that the person has cabinet level experience. You you need at my mind you would say that would be the requirement. People put well doctorate preferred this preferred. You can always do that later. There's no reason to put that in in an advertisement right. The main thing is you want someone that's been at least assistant superintendent or superintendent. And so that would be the requirement because as you learn more about candidates, there could be candidates that you if they read an article, I mean, excuse me, an advertisement

054that says preferred, most cases, they're not going to apply. So you want to control how you bring candidates in your process. And so think of that funnel and then as you draw people in, then we can do that. You'll get, my gut is you'll probably get 25 plus people that will apply for that job for this job and some of them won't be qualified. We'll take those out and then we'll bring you a list of roughly 10 to 12 candidates, what we call our short lists. There'll be candidates that meet not only the qualify but also meet your criteria and then from that list um the board will select who they want to interview. Um our interview process again is not cookie cutter. Um, some boards include a community panel, for example, which includes usually

055representative from each one of your bargaining units. Um, each board member usually picks a person. Um, and then there may be somebody that's from your cabinet or whatever, but a small group that will also, if the board chooses to use, it's not required, um, use this group to interview candidates, but they don't rank candidates. They don't say who they thought they liked, right? Because that is in conflict of what you're doing. They just say, "Here's what we saw as the strengths. Here's what we saw as potential opportunities." Um, and that's part of that can be part of the process. Um, and there's other things that we think that are valuable outside of the standard. Here's a list of questions each board member goes around and ask questions from because some people are great at answering

056questions, but you want to see the most well-rounded process so you get a picture of who your candidate really is and who the fit is. The other thing that you the board we give to the board before um be that short list we talked about that 8 to 12 people is they do a video of um usually three to four questions that kind of talk about whatever the board wants them to ask. We have some questions that we recommend. So now you know now you've got a copy of their paperwork, right? Their background, their history. You've got um reference checks that we've done some high level reference checks of that 8 to 12 people. You've got videos and so before you interview, you've got a pretty well-rounded picture of who these candidates are and not

057this just myopic view of what what's written down on paper. Um the board interviews candidates. If you choose the panel, they would interview candidates and usually in a pretty quick time the board's able to identify without further steps who they want as your next leader. Um and then what we call our phase five is usually about a month later once the person gets settled in. Um part of our process is goals and objectives, right? What how are you all on the same page of who how you're going to evaluate your next leader and what does that evaluation process look like? What are you going to evaluate them on? And that is a collaborative discussion between your next leader to ensure that um that shared vision you have as a leadership team and as a and

058as a governance team um is in alignment, right? And that's that helps that person get off to a good start. That helps you make sure you understand what the expectations are and then everything you're driving to for at least the next couple of years is based on those goals and objectives. Um so we were really aggressive in our um in our um search fee. This is all inclusive. It does there's the only thing that would be more is if you said we want to advertise in some other journal or whatever. You don't need to do that. That's not how we're going to find candidates. We we pick the best places to advertise. Um it is again, not the way we're going to find candidates. We're going to find candidates because we're going to we're going

059to identify people that we think would be a great fit for your district. Um, and I'll stop talking and see if you have any questions. >> All right. Thank you very much, board. Um, any questions for uh Mr. Johnson or I guess and how much time we've got about we've got about 15 minutes for questions. >> I thought you were going to say >> two. >> I try to do the 155 like we were direct >> Mr. Johnson. >> Yes sir. >> So um you have this uh 60 days of advertising on edge joint. Can that be reduced down to 30? And why is it so long? Why is it 60 days? Maybe there's a reason why I don't. >> Yeah, absolutely. We tr So here's what I would say to you is the process

060important and there's a balance between a sense of urgency and making sure we have enough time to do that. Um I think 60 days is is just kind of our average point of making sure they the way Ed join publishes that they get both um rounds of publishing from Ed Join in case they miss the first one. That's all. >> That's the only reason. >> That's it. That's the only reason. >> Okay. And and and the big question that's that's how are you so inexpensive compared to the other firms. Um so I'm a board member. Um and you know I lead the search. Um I think ADA is an important factor and that's what we also consider. We don't treat every search the same. So, um, I'll give you an example without giving you a

061dollar amount, but when I did Fresno, we didn't charge Fresno this amount because they're a larger district, right? And so, your ADA and your resource in your district are important. Um, it doesn't take away from the work that we do. Um, but if you have more students, it means you're having more meetings, you're having more groups to meet with, and so that's part of that time and effort and expense. Um, but I believe in being a good steward with our students resources and um, no matter what search we do, no one's hitting the I don't mean to be disrespectful, no one's making a lot of money when we do a search, but I think considering this the ADA of this of the district's an important factor in determining what we charge as a fee. Even

062though I get push back from our own office about it, I think it's an important factor. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. You're welcome, sir. >> I had a Oh, no. Go ahead. >> No, please go ahead. Dr. Houseo, >> I had a question just on timeline. Um, so those five phases. What is uh that timeline look like? Two months, three months? >> I I would so I would ask the board ideally when do you want your your leader to start? But on average, it's three to four months to do to do the search properly. And people ask, can you be more aggressive in your timeline? Of course, we can. I wouldn't recommend it. I I I I would I would recommend that even if you had someone come in as an interim for a month,

063right? or or if you have someone inside that could do that or whatever. But I would not overly rush the process um because the long-term damage potentially is greater than the short-term gain. That makes sense. >> And I had one more question. Oh, as a consultant. So, you'll be partnering, you would be partnering with ADA, Ida, and how many districts would you be working with at one given time? >> Um, no more than one other. >> Okay. It it's it it it's difficult anyway to do um one fair but because of the timelines we're not doing a whole lot at of um overlap and our team we identify myself and Aayita as at that team but sometimes we bring other people in just because um of scheduling and timing and that's why it's nice to

064have the number of consultants we do in California because they we all I I've And I've helped my peers on searches where I'm not officially on the team, but because they needed someone to come in, for example, and do stakeholder meetings, then I'm like, I'm closer than you are. It's just as easy for me to do it as as one of my colleagues. >> You're welcome. >> I have a question. Um, what's distinctive distinctive about your company and why should we pick you? >> Well, that that's a great sales 101 question, too. I I I think there's a couple of things. I the one I mentioned um the way we approach the surge process um everyone says it but I think when you look at how we go about including community members and the intentionality

065of making sure those unique voices are heard they're important and um parents and communities feel they're given a a lot of talk, right? People are told, "We want to hear from you. We want to know what you think." But but the way it's done doesn't reflect that. And I can go into detail about our stakeholder report, but that report identifies every group. So not by who was in the group, but like if it was DAC, that group, CTA, CSEA, whoever the groups are, we list that feedback. And then even on our online survey, we we list where those responses came from as far as how they identify themselves in that community and we provide a document with all that information. We tell we asked the board to put it online. So I think that really

066a high level of um stakeholder feedback which is one of the things that differentiates us. Um I'm I'm obvious going to be biased about the next one. I think as a board member, our voice and our our lens is different. Um, and I respect my colleagues that that are superintendent. Um, they are the educational leaders. They're the ones that implement that vision, but most of them have never run a campaign. Most of them have never dealt with what we talked about a minute ago, right? Showing up in the grocery store. And that level of um accountability when someone just walks to your house and this one guy used to come to my house whenever he felt like it and would just knock on my front door like I'm like dude you got to at least

067give me but he would just come by the house I need to talk to you. I'm like that that's a different lens. And so that that provides insight to what you're dealing with, right? If if you've never dealt with that as a as a board member or those kind of things, you can theoretically know, but you don't know. And so I think that's why I know it's important about that fit piece in a different way than um my colleagues that are the experts, right? They're the educational experts. Um there's just a different issue that you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis that helps kind of define what you're looking for in your next leader. I would say that's the second piece. Um, and I like our video interviews. I I don't know if

068anybody else is doing that, but I don't think a lot of people are. And I think the ability to see that video um social media and being on camera is something that every leader could have happen just like that, right? CNN could have a and how does somebody respond to that and that level of pressure and um you know superintendents are dealing with things that they've never dealt with before. We know districts that are handling things well and those that aren't and and a leader to be able to to deal with um especially postcoid the quite frankly the craziness of how things that aren't about students are impacting that leadership role. It takes a different kind of leader and and making sure that just because you have the a title um we are looking at

069all those things in a different way than I think a lot of people are. So those would be the the big three. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnson. >> Thank you. >> Um yeah, and Mr. Johnson, so first of all, I I do want to say um thank you for talking about the grocery store example. when you said who can run in and out of the grocery store in 15 minutes, I thought, well, I can't because I don't know where anything is, but I liked where you were going is because people are talking to me. And that's that's 100% uh the truth. I I agree with that. Um, you know, I I I really do uh appreciate this this board member perspective that you would bring to a search like this. I think that is really

070important um for us because um I I think it's um an often times overlooked perspective despite the fact that that we're we're making the decision. I think sometimes that that gets overlooked. So I I really do appreciate that uh a lot. So I I did want to um go into a little bit more detail about these video interviews. These these are interview questions that you and your team would ask And then those videos are sent to us as sort of like a preliminary introduction or is this taking the place of an interview that we would have with the candidates? >> Oh, that's a great question. So the short list before you would interview people, the 8 to 10 people that 8 to 12 usually what we bring to a board that would be um a

071preview. So you would have that video the videos of the short again the short list not who you're going to interview but those candidates we should say look at these determine who you should interview they would all have videos >> okay and and you know I I realize that there's uh a lot of importance that is put on confidentiality um as you mentioned that that's really important how how do you square that are they do do you transmogriphy their voice and put them behind a shade like how does that We we we trust the only people that see the videos are you. >> Okay? >> So we they're not public videos. Um I I know you'll you'll get feedback from the public that we want to be a part of the process. We want this,

072we want that. And there are appropriate ways like the stakeholder meetings. If you use the community panel, there are appropriate ways to engage the community. Um and there are ways that the community should not be involved, right? To maintain that confidentiality. Some districts like to do public meetings for everybody. That that's disrespectful. Who who wants who would want that for their own career, right? To go for a job and then everyone know you're going for a job and then you didn't get it. But and then you put your other career risk with your current employer. So, um I I I probably over answered your question, but I but I the videos are I think they provide a great insight of a lot of things and I'll give you a couple examples. The videos can be

073it's not a oneshot deal, right? We give the candidates a link. They can they're given questions. They can answer and redo the questions as many times as they like because the first time you do it right, you're not going to be perfect. So that people redo it and you can tell who spent the time to do it right and who didn't. And so that to me gives some things away or some candidates that the tape not the tape gosh I'm old. um the the you know that time runs out and instead of going back and redoing it, it runs out midthought and so those provide the board maybe not complete pictures but it provides more additional information and sometimes the difference between two candidates is is this but it's like it's like the Olympics this

074makes a gold medal or a silver or bronze. So, it's it's a to me it's a another way for you to see what's um strengths of potential candidates. >> Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, that's that's unique and I think that sounds pretty appealing actually. So, um I think we only have about a minute left. So, board, any other last minute questions you want to get? >> Quick question. Um it says the proposed cost >> um the proposed cost for the um Georgia Unified School District search is not to exceed. That means it will not exceed >> the like I said the only thing that would be additional is if you said we want to advertise someplace that's not identified and I don't think there's any place that we haven't identified that would be good. So

075that's that's everything. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Thank you very much Mr. Johnson. We really appreciate Thank you for your time too, board. Thank you. >> Um yeah. Yeah. I think it' be uh so >> yes a fivem minute bio break sounds good. All right, welcome back uh people that were on a break there. Uh so Dr. Hillman, do you want to introduce our next uh candidate here? >> Be happy to. At this time, I'd like to introduce um Dr. David Verdugo as well as his colleague Rich Tome. Mr. Rich Tome from Leadership Associates. Good evening. >> Good evening and thank you. I want to begin by expressing our thanks to the trustees for the opportunity to present our leadership associates superintendent search proposal. As mentioned, my name is David Verdugo

076and I wanted to go ahead and turn it over to Rich for his introduction. Then I'll do a little bit of introduction myself and we'll get started with these slides. Good evening and thank you very much for allowing us to present our search firm to you. Uh Rich Thome Chavis is my name. 1964 Darty High School graduate >> a few years ago. That's my prop right there. Letterman's jacket. But yeah, I went on to Mount San Antonio College, then LA State, became a teacher, principal, coordinator, director, and finally a super assistant superintendent Capistron Unified, and then I wanted to be a superintendent in two districts in um San Diego County. Um, I've been with Leadership Associates since 19 uh, let's see, it would be 1990, oh, I'm sorry, 2006. I started doing searches in 2002

077with the county. Uh, and then I joined leadership in 2006. So, kind of one of the veterans on the team. Thank you very much again and look forward to your questions and I'll do my part of the presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rich. Um David Verdugo, a retired superintendent from Paramont Unified School District where I spent 10 years as the superintendent there. Following retirement from Paramont Unified School District in Los Angeles County, I was selected as the executive director of Kalsa, the California Association of Latino Superintendent and Administrators. I spent six years in that position. And also I worked in Washington DC for ALASS which is the uh American Association of Latino Superintendent and Administrators. I was the leadership academy director which was responsible for mentoring and coaching aspiring superintendents throughout the nation. An

078educator for about 47 years and approximately 65 searches that I've completed and I've been a senior partner with leadership associates now for about the last 10 years. Uh prior to going to the next slide though, I thought it was important to mention to you that um I did want to inform the board that Leadership Associates happens to be the only silver affiliate uh search firm that's recognized by CSBA and we're very proud of that of that fact. This next slide, I think, is particularly important and very critical because it displays kind of the unique and outstanding specialist support during the search that we at Leadership Associates provide. Um each of the search support specialists that you see on the left of the screen there are former superintendent secretaries or executive assistants and they do provide

079highly qualified very specialist assigned to this particular search. In fact, in this case, it will be Linda Harter, the young lady that you see at the top of that. She is the former Fullerton Joint Union High School superintendent secretary or executive assistant, providing very comprehensive, very much on call support, personalized written guidelines. She'll provide templates, sample documents, checklist, and I think one thing that's particularly important is comprehensive Brown Act assistance because it's so critical to understand and realize those things. Very responsive communication. And we believe as we do these searches that this is really critical in this case for uh Mrs. Ruiz to have that kind of assistance and also for technology to have that kind of assistance as we begin to develop the surveys and so on for your community during the stakeholder input

080sessions. And I like to think of this I think it's going to I think I need to push all of these. I apologize. I like to think of this as our why if you will. We like to refer to this slide as our why. And this is really who we are. We're a partnership of active uh California educator leaders. We're committed to improving the quality of education for all California students. What we believe is that a highquality public education, committed to providing excellent and equitable education for our children is really the foundation for a democratic society. That the leadership of this school district will have a huge impact on the success of all of your staff, your students, your families, and your community. and that every student and every staff member certainly deserve a passionate,

081caring and inspired, focused leader. U we certainly uh value uh very much so integrity, equity, excellence, diversity, inclusion, accountability and transparency. And we obviously know that um you desire a great leader who can and will continue to create and sustain uh meaningful innovative progress here in the district. accordingly. This next slide, and again, I think I'm having to push all of these buttons at the same time here. We understand the critical importance of partnering you with you in the future of this position by conducting a highly professional executive search tailored to your needs. This is your search. It's not ours. We will follow, of course, your recommendations and advice. by providing uh challenging engaging professional growth opportunities. We do that now with a number of cohorts that we work with. Uh we do provide a

082complimentary 90-day plan or a 100-day plan um for the newly placed superintendent here. Um and they are registered for a summer institute that we maintain. This past uh June, we had at our summer institute approximately 130 superintendents from throughout the state that attended our particular function. And of course, it's very important to be engaged with boards and superintendents and the leaders that we support accordingly. This oh let me go back. I apologize. This slide displays our leadership associate partners. And I say partners because we are not and we don't consider ourselves consultants. It's across the state of California. Each of us has a very very ve vested interest. We are located in California. Although we do have a national reach. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, we've placed more outofstate superintendents in California than any

083other firm um in the state of California. twice a month all of our partners on a Zoom call in which we have a meeting to discuss, review, recruit uh placement references and positions that we are taking that are taking place. And in so in essence, you not only have myself and Rich, you really have our entire team as we begin to break down the best fit and certainly the best match for uh Dwarte. Uh Rich and I are both bilingual and so as a result, we think that's going to be particularly important with stakeholder input. As I mentioned, our reach is national. Uh, in fact, two of our partners are board members for U school districts currently um that you see listed there. Then, if I may, I just wanted to mention that we are

084very proud about the fact that we have a long and proud history of successful searches, over 750 searches. If I'm not mistaken, about 65% of the searches we've been responsible for in the state of California. So we're certainly California savvy as you know whether it's not the whether it's the financing or the legislative aspects of being a superintendent are critical in the state of California and this is a small sampling of school districts in the general or immediate area that we've been responsible for and of course Dwarta is on that list as a result of being very proudly having the responsibility of doing that work previously with uh your boards of education. So, Pasadena, Norwok, Lam Marada, Bellflower, and Dwarta of course is on there as well. And then lastly, in terms of turning it

085over to Rich here, I wanted to bring to your attention our state and national connections. Many of these outstanding organizations that you see on that list, we have been responsible and they have been they've relied on us for the searches of their CEOs and their executive directors. um whether it's the CSBA, whether it's AXA, Kulsa, in fact I just finished up in San Francisco about a month ago, the new Kulsa executive director. I've worked with Kappell, we provided them our bylaws, as a matter of fact, and of course the national group of alas. So that provides us a tremendous network. Um, since we don't have a stable, we don't have a pool, it's not as if we have people waiting for this position, but rather working with you accordingly to make sure that it's the

086unique and right position accordingly. Rich, there it is. Thank you very much. Uh, and we're not trying to bore you with our PowerPoint, but uh, we want to get through it quickly so we can get to the questions and answers. Um, certainly we uh, as you look at the circle, it starts and ends with the board. Um, you'll make a selection tonight. You're going to hear a lot of similar things from all the companies. Um, we're probably the oldest company and we have a lot of uh, traction for all these years. I personally have done about 110 superintendent searches, about 150 total searches, including executives. Um, and I'm only 44 years. I'm just kidding. But anyway, so it starts with you. We do a a lot of work with your community. We believe that's really

087important. Um, with the size and scope of your district, we will make sure that every neighborhood is represented somehow or another. Definitely the Spanish speaking people will be Spanish speaking population will be included. We're both fluent in Spanish. Um and we'll outreach your employees as well to get everybody's opinion. All that comes back to you and then you decide you know what of that is going to be in your minds when you select candidates to interview for you. Um all the communities we're going to ask you for a list of partners and we want to be very inclusive. All of you have different backgrounds in Dwarte and you all have different uh contacts. We'll make sure we get all of those on the list. So, David covered a little bit of our recruitment. All of

088those people you saw in that California map are our partners. So, they are the ones that help us recruit. We do the work, but we're on the phone at least once a week, sometimes five times a week, talking to them about that's good for this particular district after you've given us what you want to see in the in the district in terms of a profile. They help us a ton because they're up and down the state of California. As David mentioned, we also get a lot of out ofstate people. Uh, and finally, we bring the candidates to you. You choose who you want to interview. you interview them and then hopefully we get we find the right match for Dwarty Unifi. Put this to the right. Oh, good. One more thing. So, we do a

089lot of work with superintendents with which heightens our pool. Um, we've had over 200 superintendents in eight counties take our training. Um, I don't have to read all these to you. You can kind of look at them. We do all kinds of work with superintendents, adisement, cabinet's leadership, audits, strategic planning, all of the kinds of things you would expect consultants at our level to do. Um, of particular note is our leadership series and networks. We have networks going right now. All of those people have potential candidates for Darty Unified. And since Dwarty Unified is very very personal to me, very high on David's favorite list, we're we're gonna find the best person for you. So all these things you see down below, uh the leadership series networks, 45 districts in California, 44 districts. Um in

090our leadership networks, we have our instructional leadership series, a lot of assistance soups, uh in San Bruno County. We actually talk to a lot of assistant superintendents everywhere and we advise uh and do workshops in 27 districts in California. Next, why us? Well, I think for one, you know, for starters, to bring it home, you know, we know Darty. I've David, I've been briefed on Darty. Um, you know, everything from Dwarti Road and Mountain all the way to Fish Canyon. We know where the schools are. We know where the communities are. We know where the people are. We have a good sense after working with with uh many of you in our past searches. We have a good sense of what you want. Um we want to find the best and brightest person capable that

091really meets your requirements and that's what we do. So we're going to give you a broad pool of candidates. Um as we mentioned, we have a big kind of a big network. 1500 people are going to get the announcement if we get the job uh immediately. Um David mentioned that uh we have we do about 65% of the searches California. Of those twothirds of our finalists have been candidates of color or um or women, one of the two u and sometimes an overlap obviously. We're California based and California savvy with over 750 searches. David mentioned, we're not hired consultants. This is what we do for a living. We own the company. It's ours. So, we're not like picked out of a hat to work for a company that's based in Nebraska or some other place.

092Um, and we offer um leadership development for superintendent and the boards. Part of what we'll offer you is a board workshop, a couple months if we're chosen, uh, governance workshop to make sure that everybody, you know, really it's role definition. How's it going? We'll do that for free. Um, so that's who we are and we really uh we're excited for the opportunity. We hope that we get to the finalist here. And uh, with that, we're ready for questions. Thank you. In Spanish or English, whatever you want. Great. Thank you both very much, um, Dr. Verdugo and Rich. Um, all right, board, I'll go ahead and open it up to you for any questions that you have for our two guests here. >> We've got about 15 minutes total. So, >> you have a very impressive

093resume. Um, why should we pick you besides because it's impressive? I think we're gonna what we know from the people that we've worked with, you know, you're only as good as your your past and what you've done. And we've brought more candidates from more places to boards for them to choose from. Uh we have a tremendous track record. I think we've only had maybe three or four people really not work out out of 750. We've had people had that had to leave for other reasons, health, etc. But we have a great record of people being here for more than five years, being in their jobs for more than five years. So, we really appreciate that. Um, we really are going to listen to you. It's your search. Uh, there's no hidden cost. We There's one

094fee and that's it. We're not going to say, you know, we had to stay at the days in across the street, so, you know, we'd like to have reimbursement. No reimbursement, one cost, that's it. Um and we mentioned about the uh leadership co ass associates women and persons of color. Um we're passionate committed to this work and like I said um all of my key years in my life were in Darti. All of my friends are Darty based friends still. So there's a whole lot of people out there, you know, hoping that we get the job and hoping that that that we carry their voices to you, the alumni in Dwarti Unified. Uh I graduated in ' 64. We hang out together, we golf together, a lot of friends of mine, and a lot of

095them have passed, but many of them are still around and and we want to bring that voice to as well. David, >> and if I may, Mr. Simply I think I'll take a word that uh Rich used and that's the passion for the job that we currently do. Certainly the experience factor is a major player with respect to this. Uh many of course of our superintendent selections have gone through a vetting process that's outstanding. We know who has baggage out there. we know who you don't want, of course. And I know that sounds semi assertive, but the point is that uh that vetting process, that comprehensive reference checking is really important as well. And we take a lot of pride in that. But I think the passion that Rich mentioned uh is really very very

096important and what we believe in and what uh those leaders should be like for a school district accordingly. >> Thank you, Dugo. >> Other questions from the board? All right, I will if if they're still thinking. I I do have a couple of questions here. Um, so you had mentioned a little bit, you touched a little bit about the 750 searches uh that you've done. Um, do you do you have any data on sort of the longevity of these individuals? I I um I haven't been on the board that long. Um, I've I've been on since I the sort of the end of 2019. Um, and you know, I I mean, in in in my my day job, you know, sometimes I do have to hire people. It's a lot of work. It's a lot

097of stress. And and that's part of the reason, you know, that we're that we are entertaining the idea of having a search firm is is to sort of take on some of the load of that work. And and this obviously is an extremely important decision that the board has to make. Um so you know that's all to say we don't want to do this on a regular basis and and it's something that um you know there are circumstances that come up that require it obviously um but do you have any data um about those 750 searches that you've done about who's stuck around? >> Absolutely. I think the one thing that comes to mind is the impression that we provide to superintendents on how important longevity is. Uh the research obviously says that between five

098and seven years is what's required in the seat in order to really get the job done accordingly. In terms of some data, I would say um from my reflections and information about 85 to 90% of the superintendents that we have placed remain for a period of at least five years. In fact, we have a general rule, if you will, and that is that we will not recruit or attempt to ask someone who uh we would not recruit somebody, I should say, who's uh not been in the position for at least 5 years. Uh we think that that's very important. Uh that visibility. We also think that u and most of our partners believe in this and that is that the relationship between a superintendent and his board of education is the closest thing to a

099marriage. I think it's certainly the closest thing that I've ever encountered and I've been married for 53 years. So the point being is that it's it's really a combination of effort really a collaborative effort when it comes to that. But the data that I would share with you is approximately 85% a little bit higher have remained in their positions accordingly. >> Okay. Agree. And and sort of uh tangentially related to that uh do is there any sort of guarantee that is offered about you know if somebody is placed and and doesn't work out for whatever reason? Yeah, we we will uh and we've had to do a couple recently because of illness of the of superintendents, but a two-year guarantee and we'll do it uh basically for free. Maybe expenses if you would like to

100help us with expenses, but you know, we're both close by, so there won't be any hotels or anything like that. It would be, you know, whatever you require. if you required us to be somewhere somehow. But other than that, no costs at all. And we've done two recently. I did one in Gmont because the poor superintendent unfortunately got brain cancer. >> And then one in uh >> Culver City because the superintendent there's sister died and he had to go back to Florida to take care of his his mom. >> So yeah, two years and uh and it's just the same search. I mean, we did the same complete search in both those districts. Same advertisement, same everything. Those would be expenses that if you want them, you can do that. You don't have to advertise

101as we did. But yeah, as far as our fee, nothing. >> I think the only expense that we incurred was for our executive assistant of the secretary. That's right. That was the only Rich and I did not receive any compensation for the city position. >> Okay. And um what was I gonna ask? Um I I guess in in terms of um placement, you know, the of the superintendent after they're they're selected. Um you talked a little bit about um you know, a 90 or 100 day sort of onboarding assistance. Um sort of some post hiring support. Um can you talk a little bit more about what what that is like and and um the successes you've had with that? >> Yeah, our founder uh came up with a saying that we service what we sell

102and for a year for sure we're going to be at the side of the superintendent to make sure that any questions or confusion or whatever we will be there for them. It might be Zoom. It might be here in Dwardy. Um, and it might be on the telephone, but we're going to make sure that that superintendent is successful by being with them for a year. David, >> yeah, with respect to the actual 90-day plan itself, it is it actually is a strategic plan of sorts as to how best um integrate into the community, with the board, with your staff, with the employees. And it's more than being a thought partner. I think the key there though that I would mention is that it's always done in conjunction with the board. That's really the collaborative effort

103that takes place. Um it's easy to say we'd like you to have 90 contacts in 90 days. But there is a goal there and the idea is to really immerse themselves in the district accordingly. whether it's uh families and visibility in the classroom with employees with your civic leaders, different kinds of organizations, we think that that's part of the kickoff, if you will, or the orientation that's particularly important. And we are there to help. In fact, if there's a board retreat that's required nowadays, um we don't even call them retreats anymore. We call them board advances. So, it's a little bit more proactive than just being a thought partner or being on the phone, but we would be here. Uh, I'm close by. I happen to live. My residence is in La Habra. So, as

104a result, didn't take but 25 minutes to get here should that be the need. So, we're available. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. I think that's all my questions. Uh, yes, Dr. Hassel. >> Yeah. Um, in terms of the candidate selection process, um, could you provide an approximate number of how many people will you provide to us just kind of that first round and then how many interviews are we looking at and then, um, what's a typical number of finalists? >> Yeah, we believe that you'll get somewhere in the neighborhood in terms of qualified superintendent 20 to 25 highly qualified people. you're going to get more than that in terms of people making inquiries, right? Because sometimes it's a chemist chemistry teacher from Alaska that decides that Dwartney is a good place to move to,

105right? Um, and so it's it's it's about that many. You will see all of the applications, everybody that applied, then we'll tell you who we believe is the highest uh or the most qualified based on what you gave us in terms of what you want to see. So, we'll give you that. You decide who gets interviewed. Typically, we like to interview max seven, somewhere in the neighborhood five to six is always good, right? Period of time can be a one-day interview process or if the board selects a two-day process. It's totally dependent upon you. As Rich mentioned, you'll see every single applicant. You'll have the opportunity during our candidate selection meeting that usually is two hours, two and a half hours or so, where you can ask us questions regarding any particular candidate and what

106we have found out or vetted. The application process requests that there be five references, three letters of recommendation. We also have a question on the application that literally asks the applicant, can we go beyond that? We do. If they check off no, that's an indicator. It's a little bit of a red flag, obviously. But beyond those references and letters of recommendation, I mean, I've never seen a bad letter of recommendation. So, we go way beyond that with respect to our references. So, the tiers or the people that we feel are the best match and fit are brought to you in a tier format, tier one, tier two. And that sometimes there's a slight differentiation between a tier two and a tier one, but you'll have the opportunity to ask a little bit more comprehensively. Tell

107us a little bit more why this person's a tier one and why this person is a tier two. So that examination is available for you folks to ask of us. >> Thank you. I have uh one follow-up question kind of on the same topic. How long will you typically fly the position, whether you're advertising that or posting it on Edjoin? >> Great question. Um, our estimation right now is that we would begin as early as um we could possibly begin to advertise as early as September 1st, but most likely prior to that, sometime in August. The time frame that we've developed or drafted provides an opportunity for Dwata to have a new superintendent begin again dependent upon the board's wishes by December 1st. Um there are some advantages to that uh the fact that school

108has already started that it's already uh kind of moving in a certain direction that type of thing. But all of that being said, our predictability is that you would have a deadline for applications right around September 22nd and then we would get started on our comprehensive checks and vetting process, a variety of meetings, but prior to that, of course, stakeholder input. One thing that um was not mentioned is the executive summary that we provide. So all of the information, it's almost like a WASK accredititation format or document that provides you all the information of what we've heard from a variety of languages by the way on the survey as well as all the stakeholder input for you to see. We ask the question of what are those characteristics and experiences that you'd like to see

109in a superintendent? But we also ask what are the strengths of the district and sometimes more importantly what are the challenges of the school district that gets placed into the position profile of course and that again is a wonderful roadmap for the new superintendent to review and have available to them again in conjunction with the board. >> Thank you so much. We want to mention if we can mention a few things here in with regard to why I really believe that Darty is on the verge of a big change. You you've you've gone down some enrollment. It's a little stable the last couple years which is great. But you have great programs. This board has put together some tremendous programs, opportunities for children. You know, we believe that with in our recruitment, this is a

110a choice district because of all the changes you've made recently. Now, some of them weren't so popular with the with the community, the closure of a school, etc. But bottom line is that you've got opportunities for children. So, when we talk to a superintendent candidate, we can say this is where they are. They've gone through a lot of change in the last few years, but it is a great opportunity to come in and make these programs well known throughout the region because, you know, when I when I first did a search here several years ago, um, in talking to students, they believe that they weren't going to go to anywhere except for possibly Pasadena City College or Rio Hondo or or Mount Sack or something. and they they didn't have the opportunities that these kids

111now have because of the changes that this board has made. So now it's really an opportunity district as I see it. So again, back to the why. I think that's a major positive thing for our recruitment as we move forward. >> Great. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments, board? >> All right. Well, thank you both very much for your time this evening. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Now, take care. >> I shall retire my prop if that's okay. >> Yes, that is just fine. >> I'm impressed that you kept it this long. >> Still looks pretty good, doesn't it? >> Looks pretty decent. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Uh Dr. Gentleman, if you could introduce our next group, please. >> So, good evening and welcome to

112Dr. Steven Keller and Dr. Lillian Monta Mont I'm sorry. >> I'm tired. Um, Maldonado, French. I beg your pardon. These um these folks are from the educational support services group. Welcome. >> Thank you very much. And you are you are great people. Thank you so much. Am I clicking? Who do I talk to back there? I'm gonna assume I'm the clicker. Good evening. I'm Stephen Keller. Nice to meet you all. Thank you for inviting us. Uh Stephen Keller, retired superintendent. Uh 16 years, retired two years ago from the Redondo Beach Unified School District. Uh one place as superintendent for a long time. There you go. >> You have you have the same problem I do where I'm above the microphone. So yeah, we have to take a extra >> I won't take it personally. >>

113Great. Thank you. >> And I'm a little sensitive about microphones sometimes. Uh, and for the last two years, uh, ESS has been my home as a consultant and, um, I've conducted, uh, been involved with five searches, just to let you know, and, uh, very successful searches. Uh, and I'm here to talk to you about the great things we do here at ESS. Joining me tonight is Dr. Maldonado, uh, who is going to be speaking in a little while. We didn't want to do this stand up, sit down piece. Um, and just a little bit more about me, former superintendent, um, director, principal, actually worked in, um, Balden Park down the street, uh, in the late 1990s for some of you people that are closer to my age. Uh, and I went to college right down

114the 210 freeway in the lovely, uh, Claremont, the Claremont Colleges. So, love the 210 corridor and thanks again for having us. And I just want to tell you one person who couldn't make it here tonight. U, Mr. Richard Tower. he is on vacation, but he would be our third person um in this process, just to let you know. So, we're we're bringing we're bringing a big team to this search if we are the selected group. Uh and Richard has plenty of an experience with um superintendent searches. So, let us begin. The biggest difference in ESS, you know, you all these folks we know and I'm sure they're sharing having some great stories back here. Um, but I I really want to point out one of the most important pieces of our service. And I think

115if you talk to any of the the boards that we've worked with, I've worked with recently, whether it's Riverside Unified School District, where we just concluded a search, South Pasadena concluded a search about four months ago, is they feel, I think that the analogy they would make and we like to make is we're the Trader Joe's of search firms. We're very concierge level. We take this very personally. We do not have a one-sizefits-all. we meet the needs of the Dwarte Unified School District. There's there's absolutely no one-sizefits-all. Every search is different, and I've learned that uh personally, and I learned it as a superintendent as well. Um and we really look, and you'll hear this from um uh uh our team, all all three of us, which is that we really are looking for people

116like you that are going to stay a while. And that's one of the data pieces we'll share um in a moment. Limited number of searches. We don't need to do a lot of searches. We like to do a few a year. I don't want to do personally more than three searches a year. Searches are hard. They're intensive. You're talking to a lot of people. There's a lot of work involved. There is a lot of detail involved and it's representing you and we don't want to get that wrong. So, juggling multiple searches at the same time is not what we like to do. Um, we have local, state, national search reach. One thing I like to say is Lillian and I have recency. We we're both were retired, arguably successful, longtime superintendent. We not only know

117some of these people, we've worked alongside some of these people. So, that's very helpful for us. And in some of the searches I've been involved with, the very people I've either worked next door or worked with in my in my uh duration as a superintendent are people that wound up being superintendents. and they see hopefully uh that uh being a truly successful superintendent is remaining as a truly successful superintendent for a long period of time, not just three or four years, go find a new job. Diversity and superintendent placements, approximately 50% of our superintendent placements are underrepresented uh folks who wind up securing the position. um if you if you include women in that percentage, it's about 80% are either women or underrepresented groups. So, we take it very seriously in our searches. We're very

118proud of that statistic. The other statistic I'd want to share with you is the transparent retention data. 94% precisely, and it's in our proposal, 94% of our superintendents that we've placed since 2019 are still in their position. Again, longevity. We want people to come to Dwartain State provided you agree and you want them to stay. Um we have no uh you know predetermined outcome or stable. We don't have the same people coming to every interview and every uh search of ours. That's just not what we do. And I think one of the underrated pieces that we bre bring to you um and I think our board members in previous districts would tell you this is we serve as your ambassador and your advocate. Um, when you have a parent or a community member that may

119want a little more information or may have a little concern, we ask that you send them to us. We will handle this. This is why you're contracting with us. And so, that's very important to us. We follow the east uh search process. East meaning e, you'll get the idea. Engagement. We if we were the selected group in a few weeks, we'd come back and we'd have a a board planning session and get you ready. we call it board readiness for the search. That would be the first thing we would do. We would it would be an open session and then close session we would talk about what are the parameters of compensation contract and things of that nature. We get going and we get going quickly. uh the bread and butter of what we do

120and I think really sets us apart of all the things one of the probably three things the most important pieces to our work and Lillian's going to come up and I'm going to just briefly talk about it is the educational partner uh input piece and the online survey which then leads to the last bullet under the E is the leadership profile. That's basically a summary of what the voices in this community are validating that you're looking for in a superintendent. The leadership profile is your everything because it summarizes what you're looking for. It gives a roadmap for the for the new superintendent coming in. And it provides folks applying for the job very clear information whether or not they're a fit or not. You don't want people applying for this job that are not a

121fit. And we're not people that want to run up the score and say we have 150 applicants for the job. We want people to know what Dwarte is all about. And Lillian will go more into that. And then we'll provide you a compensation study as well under the engagement likes like size districts, local um comparison districts. The A in activation, we post it like all of our friends do, you've heard from so far. Uh we know where people are looking for a superintendent job. We do candidate outreach. We have people that we all know, but the majority of your people are going to look at the uh leadership profile. They're going to see if they're a match, and then they're going to call us. That's really what you want. Um, we certainly have people we

122know. We may tap a few people on our on their shoulder, but the majority will come from people saying, "I always have been intrigued by Dwarte or I wanted to work in Dwarte years ago and this is my chance." We do the applicant screening. I would argue this is one of our top three pieces. We are hardcore about this. You want to make sure your candidates are vetted, not just because they I met them once they're they have an, you know, and so I know they're a good person or on their resume they stated this person's name and so I called the person, the person said they're terrific. They called the person's mom, terrific. Um, you really want to do a deep dive on this and we have a lot of connections, what I call

123backdoor connections to ensure we're we're getting accurate and objective information. We even do a soft early on we'll do a soft thirdparty social media review because you know social media footprint is significant these days and as this newer generation comes through a lot of people are using uh social media more today than ever before. The S in selection will determine you'll determine the candidate slate. What ESS will do for you will put them in tiers. Tier one will be the group of candidates that have applied for the job that meet the leadership profile of Dwarte and their references are impeccable. Tier two will be maybe they don't check all the boxes of the leadership profile, but they check most of them and their references are impeccable. So consider them. And then tier three, you can

124fill in the blanks for tier three, but what you do is you look at tier one, tier two, tier three, and you as a board are the are the ones that decide who you're going to interview. We do not decide that. We are not your sixth board member. Make that very clear. We are not your sixth board member, sixth and seventh and eighth board member for that matter. These are your decisions, but we will facilitate that discussion and certainly give you our objective information on each of them. We interview however many people you want on the first day and the next day the finalist or finalist will come back. You will create uh based on the leadership profile the interview questions um for for round one and round two are really more followup on your

125part based on the first interview. At that time for the selected candidate uh you have a choice of doing a validation visit to ensure that everything works out for or is accurate and authentic as you as it was presented to you. Uh I have yet to do a validation visit in any of the searches I've done. The board has been very happy with the due diligence that has been provided to them. But we're willing to do that to uh for you um at no cost. It's included in the cost. And then we do a third-party um background check that looks at all all of these items that are very important and validates the information that we're getting from the candidate. Um we will work with you although it really will be your district your school

126district attorney and your board president who will really lead the employment contract process but we are involved. Uh I will be involved in that process as well as much as I am needed. And then ultimately the board approval of your uh of your of the uh selected superintendent candidate at a regularly scheduled board meeting. If you look at our proposal, it is indeed at a regularly scheduled board meeting. And then the transition phase, which is a workshop uh with the board, new superintendent, basically going over the leadership profile, saying here's where the community wants us to go, how do we get there? Let's talk about that. And then we will serve as a mentor and thinking partner for your selected person for two years. And with that, I'm gonna have Lillian share a little bit

127more about engaging your community's partners. >> So, I can reach the mic very nicely. Good evening everyone. Uh, as mentioned, I'm Lillian Maldonado French, uh, superintendent recently of the Mountain View School District down this down the road. So, I um Do is a little bit of my heart. I I know you all well and especially um partnership with SULPA and uh during COVID our districts did a lot of things together brought the community together did a lot so um that's an important thing about me the other parts are um I did all the teacher principal um assistant principal assistant superintendent uh superintendent and what's I think a little bit unique about Stephen and I is that we are uh we've been superintendents for 16 and 17 years. That's a long time. I was in Mountain

128View for 13 years. So I know the value of having uh someone who's going to stay who's who's going to really be part of the community. So that's one thing I wanted to mention. So engaging your community partners for ESS. We believe that this is a very important part of this process. We want the community to have a voice. We want to hear from all the voices that you want to hear from. So the first thing we do is we have um a meeting with you all so you can tell us who those people are. Some districts it's um they might be a foundation, they might be a particular parent group, uh of course your DAC and um your labor partners um a number of different focus groups. So we'll will you decide how many

129of those we do? In addition to that, we have communitywide meetings and we plan on two of them. Anyone who wants to come is is welcome. Um those are bilingual if that is appropriate. Uh English and Spanish um and any other language. So we will work with your staff to see which languages are appropriate and how we can facilitate that. And then finally, the other groups is those individual um contacts and and conversations that we have with important leaders in your community and you tell us who those are. Uh some districts it can be the mayor, uh chief of police, and others it might be a particular businessman or business person or uh a group let's say um that you feel has uh valuable um thoughts about who the next superintendent should be. Um the

130important thing for you to know is um with all those really ask three questions. The questions we ask is what is the best thing about DHY? What are you most proud of? Um what do you what is the one thing that you want to make sure that we keep and what do you think is are those attributes that's going to help that superintendent be successful? And you would be surprised. you think that you get the same kind of answers and you do and you have uh similar information but every group has a unique uh perspective that's very important. So in addition to all those interviews and focus groups there's online survey and we get the online survey out right away. Again you saw in the proposal um we have something a template that we can

131base it on but we want you to feel comfortable. We want to give you the opportunity to consider maybe a question that you think is important for Dor and then um on addition to that we take all that information compile it all together and as Stephen mentioned we do that leadership profile. Leadership profile is really important not only to you but also to the community. the comm that is something that we can upload uh to your website and the community can see that their voices were heard. So we feel that this part is uh truly an important um piece. So again we look at the the things they love most about the community. What are those challenges that they feel um might be something that they need to think about? And then finally, what are

132the qualities and characteristics of a superintendent that you feel is important? So, we think that's going to give you the best possibility to have those candidates uh apply. And as you're going to see from Stephen, um there are we have wonderful um testimonials and compliments about our work. What I would share with you is I remember the first time I did the search um I read those three questions that Lillian just shared and I thought these aren't great questions. Um I really did and uh after I asked them for the first time it was it was very surprising how um much information you can glean from those three questions uh and from different groups. Um, and so I will tell you, having done this a few times, uh, those questions will, um, provide you a

133lot of information that will be helpful in in your decision of selecting your new superintendent. Um, with that, uh, I do want to share with you, obviously, we have testimonials. I won't read to you, uh, but I can, we can make this claim. We just finished a search in Delmare, um, down in San Diego County. We just did Riverside. Um, before that, I told you South Pasadena. I think you will hear this from everybody. Don't mean to brag, but we are uh very very um um focused on delivering all the surface services you ask and may not even be in the contract. We talk to everybody uh that wants to speak to us. If somebody can't make a meeting, we'll make the phone call to the person. If you say, "Hey, this is person very

134important in our community. They're traveling. Can you please take their phone call?" No problem. We don't um think twice about it. And then one of the things that I would share with you as a superintendent, probably one of the most important things that I would say this to you and suggest this to you um whether you select this or not is the most one of the most important things for me as a superintendent was I'll be honest with you my line is 85% of your budget is consumed by things that eat people. There's nothing more important you do than hire people. Period. And so as people come into your district and interview for the job, as this candidate did in Central School District in Cukamonga, that's where I started my career in Cukamonga. Um, it's

135very important that every person that touches the district, whether they apply uh and don't don't receive an interview or they apply and do receive an interview, we want to treat them like they are, you know, high quality um um parts of the family uh of the Dwarte family. And so, not only are the um the the winning candidates, if you will, saying nice things about us, but all the candidates that go through our process thank us. We are, as as Bnee Brown says, we are clear yet kind to all of our candidates as you will be with us. And so with that, uh we're here to answer any questions you may have. >> All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate uh that presentation and the clearness and the kindness that was associated with that.

136So uh board, any questions for our guests here? >> Yes. How do you see our timeline? I see the timeline. We see the timeline is absolutely doable. There's not been one timeline we have not met. So the timeline that we presented um I will tell you we just did a search in Riverside. The timeline was um very aggressive and we exceeded it uh because the board was ready uh to to move forward. And so if you if our synergy is such that that timeline works for you, we can make it happen. If you said, "Hey team, can you bump it up a little? We will figure it out." >> Because you have, I believe, the middle of October, correct? >> Yeah. >> On here. >> Yeah. Your regularly scheduled board meeting. >> Thank you. >>

137Other questions, board? All right. I do I do have a couple of questions here. So, um I I fully agree with you about the importance of engaging with the stakeholders. uh in our community because they they do provide some really valuable input. Um I will uh couch that a little bit by saying um I think I think we all remember, you know, being in grade school and when we were um having school elections, you know, you had a fifth grader that said, "I'm going to go ahead and have soda come out of all the drinking fountains if you vote for me." So how how do you how do you deal with with feedback from stakeholders that is just not grounded in truth? >> So very good question. One of the things that we do is

138our community meetings are um interactive. So it's not people just raising their hand or having to respond. And actually that's pretty intimidating to get someone to to be able to feel comfortable in speaking in a large group. So rather than do that we um have some beginning uh introductions and then there's uh information throughout posted throughout the um room where people can get up talk walk. So as a former teacher and uh a curriculum person uh I really believe in facilitation in a way that makes uh people feel comfortable and people feel safe. So that usually will preclude someone from you know being the person who takes over the meeting or so we have ways of making sure that every voice is heard and I agree very important. >> Excellent. Thank you. Um, and can

139can you talk a little bit uh more about the hiring profile that um you mentioned and and from from what I'm understanding that that hiring profile comes from meetings with the board and with stakeholders and sort of saying this this is what we want. So is it is it sort of like um I mean a a glorified job description or what what's kind of more the feeling of that? >> This would be themes and trends we we secure from you and the community. So do for example you'll hear you know is there a preference if as an example of somebody that is bilingual or conversion in second language you can we what we look for in that leadership profile by the way to ensure that you're getting a nice synthesis of that because you'll get

140plenty of voices about the soda and the in the drinking fountain. Uh those typically the one-off comments are not included. It's the it's the themes and trends that make it in that document. Uh you'll you'll hear people say sometimes we'd like somebody who who is more local, is aware of Dwarte. They don't necessarily have to live here, but you know, at least know where it is on a map. Uh maybe there's a preference to have a sitting superintendent. Sometimes that comes up, but that ultimately these are kind of um you know, pie in the sky what they would like. Job descriptions, more mundane details of the job responsibilities, show up to work on time, show up you know 240 days a year, things like that. So this is kind of pie in the sky what

141they like to look and typically it's a lot of the soft skills that you hear somebody who's empathetic kind listens not quick to j you know judge people doesn't have you know uh favorites you kind of get the trend that you you get typically but it varies from district to district but I will say the hottest word that comes up recently for me I've seen empathetic is probably the biggest word we hear and and and I've heard it in every search I've done >> okay thank you and Um, one one other question I had um was about the validation visit. Um, so I'm I'm a relatively new board member. Um, and so uh we've only hired one superintendent in the time I've been here and she happened to be very internal. Uh so there there

142there was not necessarily a validation visit that was required and and so uh you had said that in in the searches you've done that really hasn't been requested by the board. Uh so what what is that validation visit like if we did have something like that? >> So I can share because I had a validation visit uh when I was hired at Mountain View. Um, basically the the a couple of board members, it might have been the whole board came to my place of work. I was the superintendent of Los NTO school district in Whittier prior to this and they came to make sure that what I said was what they saw basically. Um, was there uh collaboration? Did they um um see what I had explained? And so it's a way of making the

143the board being able to validate that this uh occurred that that and um they also met with our labor leaders and so it was it was a very positive experience um and our board in from in Los Nettos felt very um well treated and proud. So it isn't we're going to take your person away. It's um look at how we're going to work together and we want to hear about the wonderful things this person does. >> Yeah. Just I had one too, but I' I've never conducted one as a service consultant and mine was two board members came to the school district to validate so they didn't have to post the meeting and you know was more informal. Uh and it was I mean did I set the table to make sure they met with

144the right people? Sure. You know soda in the the drinking fountain type thing. Uh but you know you all are savvy if you wanted to do one you know where to get the information if you have we can make it work whether it's the whole board or just a representative to you whatever works. >> Great thank you very much. >> All right board any other questions for our guests. >> Okay. >> Good. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, Dr. Hillman, we have one more to go. >> We We I suppose we can take it. >> I'm just kidding. >> Oh, we're 10 minutes ahead of schedule. You can actually have two minutes. >> You can have two minutes. >> Can I take this? All righty.

145And we are back. So, Dr. Hillman, would you like to introduce our next group here? >> Yes. I'd like to introduce to the to our podium the educational leadership services group that are going to be uh sharing with us. And I'm sure you'll all introduce yourselves. >> Thank you very much. And good evening, President Finley and members of the board and Dr. Hillman, district staff, and members of the community. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and share who we are and how we can support you in your search for new superintendent for Dart Unified School District. We are the three that you will work with if you are selecting education leadership services. And so we are all here tonight and would like to give you a chance to meet each one of

146us. So start with Catherine Gross. Good evening. It's nice to be in the neighborhood again. I had the privilege of serving as the superintendent in Monrovia until uh just a few years ago and had uh the opportunity to witness the incredible change in uh direction and bold decisions that Dwarte made in order to really take some of our students. So thank you for they were good decisions but it has been interesting to witness uh the growth and the changes in Dwarte and uh it would be nice to be able to work here to place somebody who we believe will lead the students of Dwarti through the next few years. And with that I'll pass it along to Dr. John Garcia. Thank you, Dr. Oian. And good evening, everyone. My name is John Garcia. I am

147currently for eight more days uh the superintendent of Downey Unified School District. Um I'm retiring July 31st. And so uh very uh honored to be here this evening to share with you. Actually, we just recently went through this process uh in my very own district to find uh my successor. And so, uh, I look forward to the opportunity to potentially, uh, serve all of you. Uh, I've been in education for 33 years, about the last 12 and a half, uh, as the superintendent of Downey Unified School District. So, thank you for having us this evening. And I'm Rob Vores, and for uh, 2010 to 2020, I was a superintendent in Glendora Unified School District, just down the road. Uh, have a lot of connections in Dwardy. I had been a a teacher and coach in

148Temple City when we were part of the Rio Hondo League with the wardy. Um had a lot of uh interactions with your previous superintendent prior to Dr. Helman and um really looking forward to getting a chance to potentially work with this search. Um, with our extensive state and national contacts, our team of over 20 educators have a wide network of potential candidates to fit the need for Darty Unified School Districts and the community of Dearti. We're extremely well connected throughout the educational community in California. And when you select ELS, you get the whole team. Even though you work closely with the three of us, our entire team helps in the process. You can see some of the associations that our members have not only been participants in, but presidents of and continue to support. And

149these organizations all provide us with contacts and connections. AXA, AASA, SSDA, the small schools division. All of them help support us and all of our members are current members within them. Two of our team members uh also lead the superintendent academy for AXA where all the new and upcoming uh rising stars superintendents of the future are uh taking Friday and Saturday courses. Um, and they do that every four to six weeks throughout the entire year. And that's where a lot of the new superintendents come from. And two of our members run those those programs. Several factors make ELS different. clear understanding of today's educational landscape because our team members are currently in the field as John just mentioned or they're recently retired and connected in the San Gabriel Valley and throughout California. We have current

150experienced team members who have recently lived or are currently in the superintendent role and collectively we have over 700 years of educational leadership experience. We also have higher education connections specifically through the Claremont Graduate University and the University of Southern California. We will lead a search tailored to the needs of Darty and your community. And we know that we work for the board, not the individuals who are aspiring to be superintendent. We don't bring a list of those who weren't selected uh to other districts. And we don't feel we have any uh obligations to those who work with us. We don't have a stable of potential superintendent like some uh firms do. So, DHY is a unique district as evidenced by its diversity of offerings uh to its community and its students and we want

151to help you find your next leader. I'm going to walk you through the search process and you will note many similarities between all the firms because there are three discrete sections of the search. The recruitment uh there's the uh engagement and then there's the selection. So let's start with our engagement process and that really is when we engage not just the board but the larger community getting input into the qualities of your next superintendent. Uh these are in-person sessions as well as through uh surveys surveys and uh our goal is to get many many uh individuals involved so that their voices are heard. But we begin with an engagement session with the board individually as well as collectively in order to ensure that we have a common understanding of our cadence of communication throughout the

152process and are available for any questions that you might have throughout the process. We also will work with you to develop a timeline. We've provided one, but it really is something that's flexible and something with which you need to have some input to have some tight uh guidelines and parameters in terms of the process. In terms of all the information that we receive through the input sessions, we will uh bring them all together and summarize them and develop a leadership profile. superintendent leadership profile to identify the perfect person for the job. And while we know that the perfect person must exist for Dwarte, we also know that there are some qualities that Dwarte will be looking for in their next leader. We want to make sure that it's a match through the profile and that

153profile becomes public so that we would uh communicate with potential candidates to make sure that their strengths match the needs of this district because everybody wants your next superintendent to be successful. So that is information that is uh pulled together into a package that is also distributed so that you everybody sees then hears that their voices have been heard through those engagement sessions. Next section is the recruitment and then following that is the selection. So uh Dr. Vors mentioned our extensive network. We will not just advertise, we will also uh call people who we think might be a match. Again, that leadership profile will help us identify in terms of the strengths that you are looking for in your next leader. Uh we will also do some thorough reference checking. A large network means that

154we know people who know people. So we won't be just be calling those who are listed as references but those who we know uh have worked with uh the the candidates in order to identify the very best for district. Uh they may be great candidates but they may not be right for Dwarte. And so we want to make sure that we call everyone we know to make sure that we are getting exactly who you need. Following the the reference checking, we will go through the selection phase and based upon all of that information and using that leadership profile as a touchstone, we'll identify the best candidates and present them to the board. Now, the board will also have access to every applicant and all of the information from every candidate. you'll be able to go

155through and in a a very confidential session be able to ask questions about why this person may or may not have made it onto the list. And that's where we provide you with some candid um off thereord conversations that we've had with our colleagues and uh make sure that you have the background. The list of interviewees is the list that the board develops. We will come in with our recommendations but at the end of the day it will be the board identifying the candidates in not just who but the number of candidates to be interviewed and the interview process. While I know that you've been through this a couple of times and I I know that it's difficult, but we will walk through the process with you and uh prepare you with just some sample

156questions as well as some worksheets so that uh the many various candidates stand out in their own section so that you can refer back and identify perhaps questions or follow up queries and we will help then with the just not just setting up the interviews but the debriefing and uh process so that you make the very best decision. I'd like to talk a little bit more about the support and the mentoring as well. We want to make sure to provide your team, those who are currently on staff with the support they need. We will be working. you have an excellent uh executive assistant who already has a very full plate. Our role will be able will be to help facilitate some of the burden, take some of the burden off and prepare some identif. Uh

157uh we will help prepare whatever we can so that we're lifting the burden from your current staff and uh making sure that we have all the engagement and uh every information is properly disseminated. Finally, we are committed to making sure that your next superintendent is successful, which means we won't leave Once that person is uh selected, we're going to stick around and mentor the next superintendent for the next year. We want to make sure to provide the support. Being superintendent is is a difficult job and uh even if you've done it before, having some support and and a a critical friend and with some guidance about how to handle certain situations is always helpful. who will be providing some mentoring and coaching for the year following uh in order to assist with that transition and

158to help uh the next superintendent succeed. >> Thank you Kathy. So let's talk a little bit about timeline. Um just kind of backward mapping um from October where the finalist is announced. Um interviews obviously will take place prior to then uh but really the process will start ASAP. Uh once ELS uh is selected uh the three of us will hit the ground running uh and start the uh recruitment phase um start the uh the information sessions to look at the characteristics to create that profile that Dr. Terrosian talked about. will go into September obviously is the paper screening reference and background checks again which are very extensive and it's not just what people put on the application. It's what this is where our networks come into play and the people that we know because you

159want to get that back channel information as well based on folks who are maybe not on the paperwork but we know somebody who knows somebody that we can get kind of the real uh understanding of what this candidate is truly bringing to the table and then obviously the interviews uh at some point in October and subsequently the finalists announced the there's a question mark by the date because obviously that's up to the board of education and then depending on the candidate um there's obviously the timing with their uh their releasing district etc etc. So again without having any firm knowledge and understanding they got a little bit of a question mark but right around Decemberish uh is what we are uh what we're projecting uh and then moving forward it's all one inclusive fee everything

160Dr. The roian talked about uh $25 or $25,000. Uh don't quote me on that $25, please, but $25,000 to conduct the search. >> It's recorded. >> And then uh and then the subsequent uh coaching and mentoring for the first year as well. And again, uh we're very committed to enhancing the leadership of Dwarte Unified School District to be the best it can be for every student by having the best possible leader uh in place to uh succeed Dr. Helman. So, um, thank you so much for your attention this evening. I know it's been a long one. I know we're the last ones and you are all still, uh, none of you are nodding off, which I truly truly appreciate, but, uh, thank you so much for the opportunity to share with you this evening and

161we're happy to take any questions that you might have. >> All right, board. With that, we'll open it up to some questions and comments. So there there's a board member who's not here and she was concerned about this time of year and is there ever a bad time of year to look for a superintendent? Uh in my opinion and I'll invite uh Dr. Gors and Dr. Terrosian. I think when you're looking at superintendent positions, I think the key is the notification piece that generally it's either a sitting superintendent which again talks about that question mark in the release time or an assistant superintendent who is ascending to the superintendent job in which case it always becomes a negotiation about how soon can we get that person out of their current district. Uh and so it's

162kind of a an ongoing thing. I don't know that there's a good time. I don't know that there's a bad time. There just is the time and it really depends on that person's situation and where they are in the district and how soon we can move them out of there or we can get them out of there and into Darty. >> Does that answer your question, Mr. Re? >> Some somewhat. Okay. So, what the other question is, >> yeah, >> you know, she was kind of negative on that we weren't going to get a good pull of candidates and and I was saying we are going to get a good pull of candidates. >> Yeah. >> Uh it's not a bad time. you know, someone's always looking to move move up. >> I would agree

163with that. So, >> yeah, I would your opinion. >> Yeah, I my personal opinion is uh I interviewed for my position uh in Downey in January. Um that's when I interviewed uh February. I was appointed by the board. Uh took about six weeks and I started in April. Um and so again, I I don't know that there's a good time that I don't think it's a bad time, I guess, would be a better answer to your question. Uh, and again, it's kind of a year- round cycle when you're looking at superintendent positions. So, I think we'll get good candidates. I think we'll get outstanding candidates, quite frankly. >> Thank you, board. Other questions? >> Why should we choose your firm? You know, it's it's interesting in the room back there. We know all all of

164those folks and their are colleagues of ours. We've worked together in the same districts or worked in neighboring districts and so truly we all know each other. Um some of those folks have been doing it a very long time as I'm sure they told you. Uh I know one of them when I was looking for a superintendency back in 2010. It's one of the people that I met with and he's been doing searches since 2002. So if if those folks are good um and they but they don't have the same connections, we're kind of the new kids on the block. And I'll tell you what, we we're hungry. We know a lot of folks. Um like like you just met John Garcia, brand new. John John knows quite a few people in Southern California. We

165have a network throughout California. Um, we have USC folks that are teaching in the the doctoral program that are meeting all these superintendents and assistant superintendents coming up. We have folks that are running the superintendentmies. Um, and so we are the hungry younger group that's uh trying to make a name for ourselves and have done some searches already. We've done uh Marino Valley, which is almost 30,000 students. We've done smaller districts. We did uh Sanz Valley Union High School District, which sounds huge, but it's 800 students. Um and we've done charter schools. We did uh Sage Oak Charter School, which is about 5,000 students. And all of our folks that we've worked with are extremely happy with us. Um you can uh we've we've got a long list of references and we we haven't had

166a negative experience yet. We've been very very u well received by the boards and and so we're we're batting 100%. That's why you should choose us. >> Thank you so much. >> Uh I I guess I'll I'll put out a couple of questions. Um so you mentioned kind of being the new kids on the block, which which I I think there's a lot to be said for um you know, having fresh ideas and and everything. Um, in terms of I I guess do you have any data on the longevity of superintendent that you have placed um in the past? We're a firm that was established in 2022 and 100% of the superintendents who we placed are still in place. Moving backward though, we do have members who conducted searches prior to the establishment of ELS

167and our success rate there with those individuals is is also uh in the high 90s. >> Okay, great. Um, so this there uh I'm sure you're you're familiar with um something that I was not familiar with until a couple years ago, the the Peter principle in which people ascend to the level of their incompetency. So how how do you uh select against that when when you are identifying candidates? I think I think the issue is one of the things uh that I shared about it's really digging deep into uh backgrounds because uh one of the things that that we know generally along with the Peter principle is that the best predictor of future success is prior success and even folks if they are not a sitting superintendent if they have been highly successful in their

168assistant superintendent role in their principal role in their director role whatever it was if they have been successful in the past then obviously that becomes becomes the best predictor. The way you get to truly understanding uh the essence of someone and their levels of success is by not just looking at the things on their paper. Certainly work history and trajectory, the jobs they've had along the journey play a big part in that. If they've got a nice progression in their jobs, if they spent a good amount of time in their jobs and then they've ascended to the next role, all those are good indicators. But really, it's getting to the folks around them who are not on their paperwork, who will really kind of give you the real skinny, if you will, off, you know,

169uh, just kind of on the back channel. And that's really, I think, where the rubber meets the road, uh, is getting to people who we know or people that we know, who know someone who can refer us to somebody who's worked closely with this person and can give us the real understanding of what this person is all about. Because we all know anybody can put anybody on any any they can put a reference on a piece of paper and they're going to talk positively or they can turn in letters of reference and they're going to be glowing letters of reference but that's not really where the rubber meets the road. It's getting to people who are not on those who work with them in this district or maybe their prior district, right? What do you

170know about them? Uh, and I think that is the way that you really filter out uh where who what who someone sorry what someone really represents uh and what their true potential is especially in something being as demanding and as sensitive as a superintendent will. >> Okay, great. And uh I think my my last well I have two questions uh remaining. So number one, um do you anticipate or will you have simultaneous searches going on while this one is happening or what's sort of your workload? >> While ELS will have other searches going on, the three of us will not. >> Okay, great. Um, and then my my last question was uh about the uh reaching out to stakeholders in our community and making sure that their um you know their thoughts about a new

171superintendent are shared. How how do you uh how do you do that? How do you find that that serves I guess us as the board and as we're making a decision? You're the winner. >> It's nice to have a sweeper in the back. >> There we go. >> So, we begin with inviting specific focus groups in for smaller group uh input sessions. And uh that outreach will help with the the larger community sessions that would be uh publicized throughout the community and people will have already heard about those smaller input sessions and we'll ask wait I want to give them a piece of my mind too and tell them my thoughts about the next superintendent. Well there's an opportunity for everybody. There will be not just those uh individual sessions with each board member but

172also uh sessions with cabinet members current uh you know with your foundation with the PTA really in those initial sessions with the board we'll be identifying a list of stakeholders with whom you would like for us to connect so that we make that initial outreach for those uh smaller focus group sessions and then send out uh widely inviting uh all of your community to come for uh the general input session and those would be in person. We'd have two of those community sessions inviting uh parents, students, uh you know uh sister organizations, uh partners in the community to join us. >> Sorry. And when when you do get that feedback from stakeholders, how is that then presented to the board? >> All of that input connected with the survey information. And by the way, the

173survey would be publicized throughout as well. So if you can't make it to one of the community sessions and haven't been invited specifically to an input session, you can still provide your input with the survey. All of that information is really kind of triangulated and presented to the board in a a superintendent profile report. And that report is the one that I referenced saying that not only would you read it, but uh it would also be posted on the website and shared with candidates so that they can really check to see if they meet some of this criteria. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Uh all right, any other questions from the board before we wrap this session up? Okay, great. Well, thank you very much for your time and uh your presentation. We appreciate it.

174>> Thank you very much for the opportunity. >> All right, let me scroll to the top here. So, I think that now concludes our uh interview portion uh of our meeting. Uh so now we'll be I guess moving on to item number seven which is the selection of the executive search for firm for uh our superintendent search. Uh so uh board uh I guess um we have to have a motion to start a discussion on this. Um, so I guess historically is the motion usually. >> Okay. So we don't have to have a >> Gotcha. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Well, thank you very much for for that input. So, um, or we are now free to discuss. I know there's a lot to digest. If you want to go through your notes for a

175second and and look over things, that's that's totally fine. But um if uh you have any comments or things that you'd like to make as we begin this discussion. >> Well, I personally would love to save us some money. >> All right. >> So, you know, I'm going for the least expensive one, which is McFersonson and Jacobson. >> Okay. All right. I I don't I don't think any of us would disagree with saving money. Um, thank you. Anyone else have any uh comments? And I I mean I'll I'll I'll be more than happy to share my comments while you guys are kind of gathering things. Um and and I I do um agree uh with Mr. Reyes about um you know the importance of saving money especially in a district the size of ours uh

176and you know while while they're um I I think that is really important I I personally also very much enjoyed uh the McFersonson Jacobson presentation. Um, in in particular, I I liked um the the video interviews that would be part of the the process, you know, before before we had like an in-person interview to get a chance to see the candidates to to hear what their thoughts are um in in sort of a a less formal environment. Um, so I thought that was that was kind of an interesting approach to to doing that. Uh, additionally, um, uh, with with, uh, Mr. Johnson being a board member, I thought that was special. So, um, yeah, I, uh, I agree with that. So, or other comments? Yeah, I would just uh second I the video interviews I

177think would be really helpful just to start getting a sense of how these people present themselves uh not just on paper but um on screen as well. The fact that um the board member experience um definitely um is helpful. The only concern I have is the 60-day adjoin flying of the position and you know we don't want to rush it but I also feel that the right person is going to be there in 30 days or 60 days and so you know what connections what networking is out there so that we're not spending two months just trying to find um you know that that initial sling >> but we can make that decision. Okay, >> we can cut it. I mean, that would be my my only concern. >> We can make it 45 days.

178It's up to us. >> Okay. >> Yes. Yeah, I would I would agree with that. Yeah, I think that um I think we we all agree that this is an extremely critical role uh in our district to have a superintendent. And I think we we would like to get one um in here as soon as possible. um because you know I I I've worked with a couple of superintendents now and uh they're they're very very critical individuals um and so it would be nice to have uh that seat filled sooner than later. I would agree with that. >> I'm next. >> You you can be next or not next or whatever. >> I agree as well. Well, um they were I had my top three and they were my number one and um I like

179the board member perspective of the of um what they were talk what he was talking about and um I think that's really important um to have somebody who gets what we have to go through as well. So yeah, I think that's valuable and and I will I will say this. I'm I'm looking at all of the candidates out here in the audience and um I I suddenly am having a very large amount of respect for um what what what was the show where they give out the rose? >> You you know what I'm talking about, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. I don't know what it is. It's it's um >> Well, I'm married. Um, so I I have seen a show or two of that. But but um anyway, it it is um I always

180thought to myself, I thought, "Wow, you know, what what is that, you know, that the camera would always zoom in on the one and the other and the look on their face?" And um so with all that in mind, I I do I do just feel like I want to say um I thoroughly enjoyed all of the presentations. Uh I I was um I'll just say I was uh in in my my day job I do prepare and endure a lot of PowerPoint presentations um and I was prepared to uh you know go through death by PowerPoint um for a couple of hours here but I really did not experience that at all tonight. uh which which I think is a testament to the presentation that all of you gave uh to the board up

181here and uh so thank you very much for what you prepared for what you put together because it was uh it was very engaging. Um it was great for me as a relatively new board member who's never gone through this process before to to see I mean what that was like. Um I I found a lot of comfort in in seeing the similarities between the presentations because to me that that sort of signified that hey there's there's sort of a known pathway for doing this. This isn't you know um you know this isn't um something where where you know one firm has something totally different than somebody else. Um everyone's got their their own little flare to it and everything. Uh but but I I really did feel that there was a great amount of

182preparation that went into this and and I will say for the the community that may be uh watching this online uh we didn't give you guys a whole lot of time to prepare this. I mean I I think the the letter went out was it beginning of last week or something like that. Yeah. So it was I mean th this was a very very tight turnaround. Um and uh I I I was really impressed with with what everybody came up with. It was uh very excellent. And so I do want to say thank you as as we are uh getting into this this selection process. Um so thank you very much. I wanted to make sure I said that. Um any other comments or questions from the board? >> Quick one again. Um, thank you

183so much. I know how hard it is and it's, you know, everybody was somewhat similar but yet different. And yes, it is a very difficult decision and it's like what do we do? I mean, we want you all, but thank you. I appreciate it. >> All right. So then, um, if if there's no more discussion, then do I then entertain a motion? Okay. Okay. So, I guess based on our discussion, I'll I'll make a motion then um that we select the McFersonson and Jacobson group um for our superintendent search. Uh do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. So, motion by me uh James Finley and then a second by board member Holine. Uh any discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. That then passes. Uh for

184Oh. So yes, I do have that. So let me move over to that. So uh with that uh done, we can now move on to the adjourment of this meeting. And we are adjourning in memory of I believe it's Dr. Rakenusi's niece, nephew, excuse me. So this is Emanuel Annayia, I believe. >> Annayia Annayia Annayia Ou. Annayia Ou. Uh who um passed away at a a young age if I'm not mistaken. So our thoughts and prayers are with uh Dr. Aanusi and her family. Uh so do I have a motion to adjourn? So move >> second >> motion by Mr. Reyes, second by Miss uh Hin. Is there any discussion? None. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. >> Thank you.