001e e call Mee to order you join me for pledge of allegiance Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all desate Angelina Barn as the secretary for the evening and Mr st's absence Angel could you please do roll call certainly uh Angelina Barnes present Anna Carpenter present Dwight handspike present Jason hman here Brad stod John Trana here and Brad we here we have four thank you we have a motion to adopt the agenda so moved support Mo the supported any discussion all in favor please say I I any oppos we have an agenda Dave ready for you ofeducation like to to Kevin Kevin is superville schools before we I just want to just review a couple
002of pieces you've got the questions that you're going to be asking um as we talked about before modify them as long as they're the same gr of the candidates uh we will not deliberate until all of the candidates are done and I'll bring each candidate approximately an hour with that mine Kevin toet you well thank you for being here with us tonight we we did we took a little bit different approach than we took the last time we replaced our superintendent we sent some take-home questions handful of take- Home questions and then we have some that will not take home questions so I'm going to kick things off for us with one that I know your no is coming already tell us a little bit about your personal background on your history how you got
003to this point to apply for the dit superintendent position and if you could tell us a little bit about what drives and motivates you as an educational leader yeah thank you for that question please let me know if you can't hear me so the first thing is I'm a family man um you know my wife Michelle is here somewhere so and she's my best friend she's my biggest supporter um I couldn't do this job without her we have two kids my daughter's Izzy my son Luke uh both great kids involved in activities um they're what drives me every day to be the best I can be I earned my bachelor's degree from Spring Arbor University uh in a Family Life Education was my major uh earned my master's degree from aquinus college and that's where
004I earned my teaching certificate as well earned educational specialist degree from the University of Michigan in that was a lifetime goal of mine um I I grew up as a foster kid I might get emotional and so I Liv on the streets the first six years of my life and with my birth bone and I was taken away and I was put in foster care and I can say unequivocally and the co but teachers save my life and that's why I do what I do that's why I've committed my life to education that's part of why I've been a coach special education teacher assistant principal I've been a principal and now the last six years I've been a superintendent but every day I get up and I try to be the best father best husband
005best superintendent I can be I truly committed and motivated to kids but also the adults in our in our in our buildings I really look at at a school district like this we do have a bunch of buildings but without without the people in those buildings it's just a bunch of buildings in my opinion our community is why we're here the kids are why we're here and so I'm completely motivated every day to try to inspire and try to help kids and staff in every way that I can so if you you're asking me like what is my motivation what is my drive I want to help kids achieve the dreams that they they want to achieve whatever career pathway that might be that's my goal great thank you thank you Kevin uh question to
006you another one of the take-home questions what are the things that really stand out to you about the dit Public School District and what are the areas where you think there is room for improvement or change well first of all I I talked to a lot a lot of people that um I've crossed paths with that live here in dit or work here in dit you know try to learn more about dit I've interacted with dwit in numerous ways uh especially in athletics and so forth as I came from Portland um but the one thing that kind of stood out right away is just the high performing the it is as far as Athletics academics and arts I think that's a stand out right there the amount of programs that dit has is extraordinary uh
007a district that is committed to um being an inclusive environment or district is huge so the dit the dit Community Partnership looking at that I thought that that that really stood out to me the Strategic plan not every district has a strategic plan I think that really helps moving from superintendent to superintendent um and then the other piece that really stood out to me other than you know I went back and looked at some of the bond processes that you've followed I think maybe about 10 years ago you kind of restructured your district and now you're at that facility piece where you're kind of going and fixing things along the way I think you have a bond the next three years um that that intrigued me as well as we're in the middle of our
008bond process uh but at the end of the day I think What attracted me most to do is the pride that this community has in this District it is apparent anyone you talk to uh they will mention yes we have our challenges but we have a lot of pride in our district and so I thought thought that really stood out as you know you search the website and look through the Community page and things like that I also what stood out to me was you have plenty of boosters and Foundations ban Athletics you know Creative Group that are there to support the district and so I think that really stood up to me as well as far as improvements or change um I took this question to heart but as I thought about it you
009know I thought about how how would I learn more about dwit to know what those challenges are and I think that's kind of a journey between the superintendent the Board of Education and the staff um I know that regionally there has been an issue with behaviors in the classroom you know we can blame Co we can blame lots of things but the behaviors are um not what our teachers are used to seeing and so as I approached that I said well how have I approached that as a superintendent and one of the things I've done is put some internal and extern internal supports in for our teachers Behavior coaches academic coaches things like that to be able to support our teachers the goal is to keep our students here but our goal is also to
010retain our staff and so we have to support our staff and so having those Behavior coaches academic coaches provided clear concise and consistent messaging for home um and then the other piece that I've done as a superintendent is I'm part of The Optimist from the state level and that's looking at creative ways to address disruptive behavior in the classroom and we're not done with that yet but we're meeting as a state organization AC cross um across the state to be able to come up with these ideas and be able to push those down to the districts and so that that's one of the challenges that I came up with that probably is going to hit has hit W just because regionally that has been the conversations across our region thank you bullying both online and
011in school has become an issue in many school districts what is your plan to combat bullying in our district how would you how would you develop a districtwide plan and how would you implement it thank you try to make sure I'm not running out of time here it's a challenge so the first thing is you know Step One is identifying what is buling you know having a good clear concise definition of what bulling is um I did look at your B board policy 55701 you know it states what board what that or what that bully definition is um I don't I'm not here so I don't know but you know it is always important to know that the board policy is going down the building level and that we're all using that consistently across the
012board um this the step two I would take is look at the data review which I did I looked at your data over the last four years on what amount of Bing was occurring now you can't break the data down by building from my school data but I was able to look at what amount of bullying was occurring or at least what was um coded as buling I so step three is then how do we develop a plan right and and then how do we Implement that plan what whether it's bowling or any other mean Behavior I think at the end of the day this is about climate and culture how do you create a climate and culture where students are safe and feel included and connected to the school and so that that would
013take some research with my team as far as are we going to put are we going to put in uh PBIS across the district uh what type ofcl lessons would we have such as character lessons so that students understand what empathy is uh having our Counselor come in to show hey we're not bullying today this is what a bully looks like this is what we don't want to do um Second Step is another one that they use towards an elementary level that you could use capturing kids' Hearts is another another program that you could use so I think you have to determine what program would best fit into DET you know because the program could fit into Portland OR Potterville or W godre Lee or any other District but we have to make sure we
014know what's going to fit best into it but I really think it comes down to a climate and culture um issue part of that is the lowest accepted Behavior becomes part of your culture we know that and so having a clear and concise way of handling bullying across the district would be important meaning how do our teachers address it they need to be trained in that you know are are we you're not just doing those character lessons but we also are trying to stop that from happening in the classroom in the hallways in the cafeteria all those things and so having that program and having that clear and concise messaging across the District of this is how we're handly Bing you can suspend a kid follow the seven factors that you need to you could
015suspend a kid but when that student comes back you got to have a plan how are we going to help that student be successful in the district how are we going to make sure that student is behaving appropriately in the in the classroom and in the hallway and in the cafeteria I would have sever several sub substeps within um within my cabinet meaning I would meet with my cabinet and say okay we we we see that buling as an issue we've talked about how we Implement that plan you know what program are we going to have you know I would want to talk to the Board of Education about that here's here's some different options that we could take and figure out what's best for towi uh once you implement that plan and you implement
016it across and you I always think of it a three stool like the schools got their responsibility we got to be able to teach the students what to do but we also got to connect with our community and not leave them behind and we got to make sure that the community understands what we're trying to attemp and I think having the community the school and the students all on the same page you know creates that team approach so I look at identify the problem why is the problem occuring so that's looking at your data develop your plan and then check to see if that plan worked so then we're going to have to check after that plan's implemented does our data indicate that bullying is going down I'm going to continue even though I shouldn't
017with minute wives capturing kids Hearts this is exactly what I did in Potter we brought capturing kids hearts in but I didn't just bring it in and say okay teachers here it goes I brought my board president a few of the the union president some teacher leaders across the district we went and we attended the capture and kits Arts one just ourselves and as we went there once that whole training was completed it was two-day training we said is this what we want to bring to PO because I never want to be that superintendent says this is my thing this is what I'm going to do this is all about me you know and so as we discussed it we're like yeah we want to bring this on we want to do this well that
018was able to help Empower that program teachers wide because I had teachers invested had the the the Board of Education invested had the union invested had everyone invested and so that program there's lots of programs out there that work and that are great but the question is can you implement it in a way and can you Empower your teachers and will your teachers Embrace that plan and now I can say that they they won't go away from capturing kids Arts they won't they've been they're five years at the elementary they've been a national showcase School two years in a row we've been a district National showcase district and and that has now not become about something I brought but something we brought as a team so I'm going to stop there because I've used up
019a lot of but I want you to know that I have experience implementing that um how should technology be used in the classro and throughout the district and how do you see technology changing in the next 5 to 10 years and how would you handle those changes as a superintendent yeah so I noticed that near bound you had some um tech technology in there and I think technology in the classroom is important um that's one of the things I've done as a superintendent we're a one to one District I was able to pass the sinking f uh for instructional technology uh you know technology is tricky because it engages students but it can also cause students to not be engaged so once again you have to be have a clear and concise approach uh the
020one thing that really is on the radar you know I recently attended a professional development in San Diego California it's the asug GSB conference and it was really around Ai and the impacts AI um and it they had these CEOs demonstrating and showing what AI is going to be like in five years six years seven years and so we got to see some products that aren't even out yet U so AI is a little scary but we also know that we have to start preparing our students for the world they're going to live in and so we have to be mindful of that I think in education sometimes we try to limit technology because it's just easier it's you know let's just limit the phones let's limit everything but we have to be careful that
021we're not hindering our students and that we're preparing so I talk about digital citizenship making sure that that's our focus our job as a school is to educate our students and to prepare them for that Global society and so that that's where I think a AI will become a useful tool in the classroom especially as we begin to hire teachers that are younger that have lived with technology their whole life it's been in their hands since they were young I think that will change a little bit I think the big issue is making sure the kids aren't plagiarizing and things of that nature I did look through the handbooks and you're similar to us you know so I don't think we're there yet but I do think that the education environment's got to got to
022got to stay focused on this subject and make sure that we're prepared okay I've got the next one this is another one of the take- home questions how will you be a superintendent for Learners at all levels how will you work to provide more opportunities for gifted Learners and how will you provide necessary additional support for those who may need extra instruction yeah so one of the first excuse me sorry no you're when I look at this question and I looked at this one really deeply it really comes down to put good mtss framework in place and making sure you have your tier one tier two and tier three in order uh one of the things we did is create a resource map so we know what our tier one tier two and tier three
023are okay uh you cannot tier two yourself out of a problem meaning just adding additional supports is not the issue you need to make sure that your core instruction is solid and robust that being said I'm more special education teacher I understand students need support that's why you need to have your tier 2 and tier three resources available at the same time at the elementary level if I'm working on tier two and tier three at the time I should also be mindful that might be a really great time to work my with my gifted and talented student to be able to extend their opportunities at the middle school and high school I really believe that comes down to what opportunities do they have so AP courses dual enrollment all those sort of things um robotics
024you know whatever it might be um so those are the type of things that you're going to want to put in place we have obviously as they get to the middle the high school level it becomes about credit attainment right and so we have to make sure that we have a credit recovery program so that and I noticed you have really solid graduation rates and that's awesome but we don't want to even at 99% I'd love to have 100% of our kids graduate you know to make sure that we have those credit recovery opportunities uh as Middle School principal um you know I remember at Portland we had two students that were really high level students and I was able to convince uh the superintendent at the time to accept the gate uh MSU gate
025as a dual enrollment program so we paid for our students to go to that they had to take care of their own transportation but that was a really great opportunity for those students and so those are some of the things that you can do for the gifted and talented uh but I still believe that you have to take care of your core first you need to make sure you have that robust curriculum and I would say just add one other thing is let's not leave those gifted and Talent kids Behind let's allow them to keep moving forward through sometimes it's just easier right but let's make sure we can push them through so thank you all right I have the next question as a district we're always looking for ways to improve how we address
026diversity equity and inclusion talk about how you assist us with this yeah good question so I've taught in coaching Multicultural um learning environments um in Grand Rapids I taught and coached well I coached for 15 years before I became a teacher so that being said I think it's really important to understand this is a journey this isn't this isn't like a landing place this is always a learning opportunity um I've attended the Dei Network training I've attended um Beyond Equity through Masa and every time I learn something uh but I do believe it starts at the top how do we treat people from the top um I also believe that we need to be mindful of our curriculum how are we selecting our curriculum when we have our curriculum adoption process are we considering diversity
027equity and inclusion in that um so that's one piece that's in in um one of our adoption processes to make sure that we're considering that um I think I would like to meet with the uh Community Partnership to kind of understand what their true goals are but also meet with the Board of Education and understand what the board of education's goals are for that that group I think it's really important to understand that um sometimes it it it's tough conversations and sometimes un comfortable conversations we can't leave our community behind we've got to involve them in that conversation uh but I think we're trying to create an environment where it's inclusive and everybody feels welcome and everybody feels part of it and that kids are connected at school you know that they see themselves in
028books and see themselves in in the curriculum I think that's extremely important um and then I would just end with you know it's about students feeling emotionally and physically safe and last I know he said this but they have to feel connected and recognize that school thank you I have the next question um in this question I'm going to ask you to talk about sensitive issues in working with the Board of Education what strategies would you use to work with the board of education on and I'm going to list three uh areas of partnership recommendations that you provide to the Board of Education make public statements on controversial issues and assuring all board members are heard yeah so for the recommendations you know I think the biggest thing is to make sure that the board
029has all the information they need to make the decision so pros and cons making sure they understand all sides to it so that they can make a healthy decision um as far as public statements uh it's different in every District but you know in my district I'm responsible for that but in other districts the board president is so it just depends on how you how you function here um but as far as public statements you know I always looked at and I even noticed on your website like your decisions are kind of like the statement for whatever you're deciding in other words whever you vote or no that's that's the position of the board um now if you talking about public relations or anything like that you know then then we're talking about me talking
030to the board of President and talking to this group to make sure that I'm communicating accurate information and information that we're we're trying to communicate I think all board members should be heard you know sometimes that's a closed session sometimes that's an open session but I do believe that all board members should be heard because Allard members may come from different facets of the community and that's important that we're we're considering that all right got the next one uh so if if offer the position you'd be new to to do area I'm curious how do you see yourself being or getting involved with the community and if you could talk a little bit about how you would introduce yourself and maintain create and maintain visibility and accessibility in the community as you as you come
031to it that was a lot um so first of all introduce myself you know you know welcoming letter but I want to do a meet and greet you know I want to be out there um I I don't know it how to do it any other way for me it's about being connected to people and so I'm going to you know we'll do a Mee and degree we can do a welcome letter those sort of things but I want to be active within the community you know ingrained in the community that means I'm getting my haircut here I'm eating dinner here you know I'm going to going to Student Activities uh not just Athletics but arts and all those as well you know obviously as a superintendent you can't do all of them but you
032have to you have to show that you're connected to the community um what I would say is as you start to do those things and you build relationships it doesn't even really become part of the job it just becomes part of what you do and you enjoy it you get to see the kids when you see the talent that these kids have it just may puts a smile on your face you know and so I think being connected in the community is extremely important I'm a I'm a really easy person to talk to so I find those events really fun because I also get community members coming up to me and asking me questions or talking to me about a situation that might occurred things of that nature and it's it's kind of a a
033soft for way to talk about things versus oh I got to make an appointment with them I got to go see them you know well they see in an athletic event or an arts or you know um anything in the community oxfest whatever Ox R sorry um and I think that's just an easier way for the community members to connect with you um as far as maintaining that I think it's extremely important that you know I'm visiting the buildings that you know that the staff see you the students see you at at all levels now you can't do that every day but you have to do that as much as possible because it's really important that the staff and the students know that you're there to support them I received an email about three years
034ago and I was really shocked because I went to a I went to a choir concert and those they sent me an email thanking me for that and I I didn't really think anything of it because I had been gone from them a couple years by then but it was just really nice that that that young man that email you know and uh so those are the things that I do um I think being open to conversation having an open door policy is really important but not everybody feels comfortable coming to the superintendent's office and so that's why you have to in my opinion be out there and be connected as far as consistent and clear communication you know I follow the protocols that you currently have in place um I think you got school
035messenger for emergencies you know I'm not sure sure what you use for that um the day-to-day communication or week to week communication uh but I would want to make sure that I know what the community is expecting from me so that I'm providing that I do want to please I don't want to be that guy in the tower like that's not me I need to be out there I need to be part of things that means me putting out cones for the football game then that's what we're going to do sorry tell us about a challenging situation you've experienced in bringing a diverse group of people to a consensus on a difficult issue how did you personally provide leadership in the situation and what was the final outcome so I would say our bond was
036the toughest one um the reason the bond was so difficult is when we began the bond process we there was so many ideas on what we should do and what we shouldn't do and our our facilities were neglected for a really long time and so we we could have gone for a smaller amount of a bond but what we decided to do is take some of those sinking fund dollars give them back to the community make it a zero um millage increase and so it was a little confusing we had to make sure we had clear concise consistent messaging to the community but I do remember a conversation as we were in a bond committee and I do remember the conversation being about well that looks too nice for pover and at that moment I
037really had to kind of take a step back and try to say okay how do we raise the bom like how do we get to that next level because when we're looking at our district we were between Charlotte Grand Ledge and Hull we're kind of bottled between three larger districts and so how we compete and our goal is never a School of Choice our goal was to keep poville kids in you know and so as we brought those groups all those different parents and uh Community groups together as we kind of hammered out those details I should say blend out those details what we wanted you know one of the things that we weren't sure on was an auxiliary gym that was a really really battled conversation some people felt we didn't need it other
038people felt that we did at the end of the day it ended up on the bond and we passed it by almost 7 % so we probably made the right decision but you know there are people that are very academic focused there are people that are very athletic focused you know Arts focused so we had to kind of combine that all together one thing that we did with our auxiliary gym is to make sure that we included a piece on their for our band and our choir as well so just clarification on that one is that used by the community too or is that is that just for so the auxiliary gym will be built next year okay so yeah summer of next year but yeah that'll be used by as well yeah thank you
039I'm next uh one of our guiding principles is to implement research-based teaching and learning practices to increase student academic performance if superintendent how would you go about implementing and pursuing this principle can you say that one more time sir sure sorry about that no problem one of our guiding principles is to implement research-based teaching and learning practices to increase student academic performance if superintendent how would you go about implementing and pursuing this principle well the first thing is I would look I would work with the curriculum director and our building level principles and teachers that determine what we need like what what's the whole right now what's the Gap uh like for example for us we looked at we brought in Connie Hamilton and she brought in we do collabora of instruction feedback teams so
040that's kind of like teacher learn from teachers you know those teachers giv each other feedback on their instructional practices you know are there are there assessments connected to their learning targets and things of that nature and so that I would before I brought in something I would want to touch base with the curriculum director I would want to touch base at the building level and make sure that we're bringing in something that is going to address their concerns sorry back to me so soon okay um guiding principles include maintaining our facilities and infrastructure our community has supported us in our efforts for infrastructure improvements tell us about your experience in campaign and project management with Bond proposals which you've touched on a bit tell us how in a project that you have been involved in
041explain how you assisted in creating a safe School environment within that Bond yeah so as I stated before recently I passed the mil and that was a three it's a three series Bond the first thing we did is build an Early Childhood Center added that onto our elementary building um we we end up demolishing a 1950s building that was just a mess and you know and that was a challenge I had to bring in people from the community we did we did an open house um I connected with the trades individuals in the community that do trades every day and had them walk through that building and so our concern was if we remodel that building you know what what we're going to find Behind the Walls right and so they were able to come
042come with a consensus that that building had to go uh part of when you go out for a bond you better have a relationship already with that community and if you're just coming to the community to ask all the time without giving back back then that's going to be a problem it's obvious that dit doesn't have that issue because you've been able to pass bonds pretty easily and so I think that that is a positive for this District when you're when you're going out for a bond I think it's also important that you have a very clear and concise and consistent message for what's included in that you also want to involve all stakeholders on what you're going to include in that bond in the beginning process and then the next part is you know
043like for example for me I would do anything to pass that on I went to the gizard Fest and I made sure I had my Boards out that showed everything you know I had people coming up to me that um senior citizens coming up to me and saying hey what's this about and that allowed me an opportunity to be able to you know you go to the city talk to the city you know make sure you have that information out there connecting with those that might not be connected for the school every day is important as far as you know maintaining that Bond you know it's important have a bond committee that kind of sees those things through um and then I noticed that you know here that I believe you have GMD and Clark
044which is who I've worked with um and then I think you have plant Moran right um as your owner's rep I would have loved an owner rep because I do a lot of work without the owner rep and so I think as as you take care of your facilities when I look at the security side we did a few things we put boots in for the classrooms and then next year we have a secure entry going down on at the high school um and then obviously across the board um all of our doors are being replaced with appropriate locks and um sensories so thank you right I'm up next tell us about your involvement in collective margeting in general describe the most challenging negotiation you've conducted what was challenging about it how were you involved
045negotiation techniques that you used and the resolution I'm happy to read that one again no I'm good got okay I got that one so the most difficult part of negotiating at the beginning and my current District was that there before there was a really not a great relationship between the superintendent the administration and those uh and the teachers University uh so the first thing I did is obviously when I came along is I build a relationship with them made sure that they that they knew I cared about them and I want what's best for them one of the things we talked about all the time was how do we lift up teacher morale what do we do that being said about two years in I had gone to a training on interest based margain brought
046to my union president and said hey I think this this is something we should try and so we we kind of went through what what is interest pay bargain what does that look like and so we decided to give it a Tru so initially it was difficult because everybody had to be trained it was a whole new beast and then part of that interest based bargaining is hearing the stories so you hear the stories on both sides from the administrative perspective and the teacher perspective and so hearing those those stories the teacher on how they felt neglected how they felt not valued things of like that were really difficult obviously to hear um and then not knowing what we financially could do for those teachers at that time was a very difficult part of that
047negotiation process fortunately I have a really great Union president that worked alongside with me and we were able to come up with a a fair contract for them but also a contract that allowed the district to remain remain viable and that was important uh there were tough conversations during that time but part of Interest based bargaining is listening and so I I value that time to be able to listen to my teachers on what what they needed to be successful um I think anytime you're bargaining if you're doing position based bargaining which I'm I've done position based bargaining um you know even as a teacher being part of that Union um but when you're doing position based bargaining well can be effective at times I believe that interest based bargaining is really really beneficial it's
048not for every District but a lot of districts are going that route now because it allows you to look at a situation and how are we going to address the situation as team and the last part I would say about that is it's really important to know from the board's perspective on what they're expecting from that negotiation process awesome thank you yeah I have the next question I'm just with words I have more a little bit of a longer question how do you decide when it's appropriate to involve others such as teachers other administrators students parents or the board in decision making in in hindsight have you ever concluded that you should have had more involvement by others before a particular decision was made Gathering input is good but at the same time someone needs
049to make a decision and go talk about how you move or input to to move a decision by you do you need me to repeat no no I think I got so thank you for that question so that's a tricky question but I think at the end of the day when you're looking at curriculum those types of things you have to involve the teachers you have to involve the staff you also have to involve your community you know when it's come to be adopted you have to make sure that that comes to the board and public comments allowed and things of that nature um when it comes to board policy though that's the law of the land you you have to as a superintendent know that and sometimes that's communicating that down and saying no
050this is this is the law of the land this is what we have to um as far as a situation that I would have included somebody in let me think about that for a second yeah so like when we created our technology plan we had no technology plan we don't have a tech director so that lands on my desk a lot of the time and so we created a technology plan within our our admin group but we really didn't include the teachers and so one of the things that we left out and we we didn't include in our plan was replacement of projectors so we we were there for Chromebooks teacher computers you know document cameras all those things it's a little thing but it got missed so I had to go talk to the
051union president and say okay we need to add this in we're going to have to push you know these Chrome books back to this date and that sort of thing but I really wish I'd had that conversation earlier because then I wouldn't have had to go and adjust my plan but that was one where I I had go talk to the union president and let her know hey we missed that and uh she of course was great about it and worked well with me on it but you know that was something that we missed for sure I have the next question um think back to a time when you were faced with a problem or challenge that required outside the box thinking to come up with a solution what was your solution and describe your
052thought process that you went through to come up with that solution or approach what was your solution and why is it out of the box so I think the the one of the problems that I had in year two after year one was watching the pickup and drop off and for me it just looked unsafe it didn't look healthy it didn't look safe I was concerned that students weren't getting to the right spot and that that I have to be able to lay my head down at night and I couldn't so in year two I changed that now I met with my team we looked at different options that different districts were doing around the area we went and visited the schools to see what it looked like um we did have to think outside
053the box because obviously our pickup drop off or our parking lots look different than DS look different than Portlands look different than you know other Regional Schools and so we had to like figure out like okay within our system how are we going to do that like what is that going to look like at the elementary level Middle School level and high school level knowing the middle school and the high school are combined but kids exit out different exits you you know so the biggest thing that we did at the elementary level is really created um a number system there's the numbers that went along with the student's backpacks and so forth and that's how we knew what car was coming in and that connected the car to the student the the community wasn't extremely
054happy about that now part of me looks back and says could I have done a better job of communicating that that was year or two for me but I did stand strong because I felt like it was the best thing for our kids and I wanted to make I didn't ever want to get that phone call where's my kid and so that that is a change that we made and I can say now that it runs very smoothly we've made adjustments along the way each year and it seems to work better every year uh but that that is something that wasn't necessarily popular all right can you tell us about a time when you failed or something didn't go as planned and how you responded to that situation I'm pretty sure I fail all the
055time I'm just trying to figure out and I'm always learned so you know I really think the best one I can think of right now was when I was a middle school principal and I we did the we we moved to a different discipline process and then we moved towards PBIS and I kind of left my teachers behind for a moment I was very student centered and that was a really really large learning moment for me as an administrator is that you can't leave your staff behind you got to make sure that you are helping them understand and that you're providing them not only professional development but the compelling why what you're doing so I think that's the one that kind of resonates with me and that's always stuck with me okay you can't don't
056leave your staff behind don't leave your community behind make sure that you know that you have that compelling why like why are we doing what we're going to do does that look like you know those sort of things so how did you fix that so I had to go back to the staff I had to sit down with them and we had to like look at it and I had to tell them like from my heart why we're doing what we're doing like it all came down to we're going to discipline students we're going to hold students accountable but at the end of the day when they come back I got to have a plan for them I can't just kick them out and be done with them you know um and then when we
057looked at um our classroom matrixes we kind of worked on those together and said to make sure they made sense um class year references just basically gave it the expectations for the classroom um but that did come for me coming back and saying I'm sorry I didn't do this as well as I should have I should have included you more on this conversation I should have been I should have in my opinion I should have um had them from Step One um helping me develop that plan so touch I'm going to say that teachers staff people aren't always going to be happy with your decisions and that and I understand that but I don't want to ever go back and say I didn't communicate well enough so that's I what I learned from there thank
058you we have discussed this a little bit but please describe how you create a campus environment that is welcoming inclusive and increasingly diverse in terms of different needs of students or staff or whatever that may mean to you well as I said before it starts from the top so how how I treat my principles how I treat the teaching staff they're watching every day and so I'm a True Believer that how you treat your staff how you treat treat your administrators kind of falls down on how they're going to treat kids and so I think you have to have a safe environment number one meaning not just physically and emotionally safe but for your staff they got to be psychologically safe they got to be able to feel safe that they can share their ideas
059their thoughts and their concerns um that comes pretty natural for me um I think that's something that throughout time I've growing as an administrator and understand how important that is uh as far as you know diversity inclusive being an inclusive environment you know I think you have to also look at all levels like you got to look at your hiring practices you got to look at everything go how are we going to make sure so part of that is posting not just your job here posting it all over the state you know um making sure that when when you do screeners you know things of that nature that you you know you try to keep your bias out of that um I really think that climate and culture is everything that is something I've done
060well at both at Portland and potero if you go and ask say what does Kevin do well it's climate and culture that's my strength and I think that's because I value people and I care about people people and I'm going to show that through my actions every day now I always V you know I always believe I'm a humble humble leader but I think that sometimes people say because you're humble that you're not strong that's not true we're strong on results but we're soft on people it's just like when when you're with a student you know if you're disciplined a student you have to discipline that student with dignity they name to remain and keep their dignity that's just kind of how I look at it thank you all right Kevin I think this wrap
061starts up for the evening is there anything else you want to share with us that wasn't covered in your answers to other questions I did better than I thought I thought I was over talking so I do have one question for you if that's okay are you guys accepting questions toight so I would like to hear from you imagine I'm your superintendent a year has passed and someone is asked you how I've done let's say you give me a glorified review what would have I have had accomplish to deserve that glorified John you said you want to take that right I'll start everyone I mean for me I I think a community and consensus Builder right uh you know and I've told people in the community who have asked me these last few weeks about
062what I'm looking for uh you know this district is really a center point of this community and I want to be able to bridge the gap between the district and the community I think that's really important uh so someone you know who's who's good at relationship building who can do those types of things um who is making himself or herself available I think is really important and who listens you know I I think that's important um you know not not necessarily to us but but to the team team to staff to students to parents um community in general I think that that's important we do have a lot of different perspectives on a lot of different issues out there and uh you know I did you know you know appreciate one of the things that
063you said uh you know in terms of at least not being able to communicate effectively that that there won't be surprise and when you reach a decision that people are going to be aware of why that is and so I think you know being able to solicit the input necessary for that decision and then feeling empowered to make that decision I I think that would be something that would that would be successful I just think that ties up a lot of I know it's broad answer but it it solves a lot of potential issues I would say perfect yeah I mean I'm going to Echo that I think you know having that Community consensus that involvement that visibility the you know regular communication so that the community is aware of you and they know you
064and they feel comfortable asking a question sharing a thought and that you're going to listen and want their thoughts I think that's really important and I also you know just to add a little bit I loved when you talked a little bit about like you know emotional safety as well as physical safety I think it's very easy for a school to focus on you know the academics but kids are more than the academics I have really little kids so knowing that they feel emotionally safe and comfortable at school is really important so you know I think that that focus on children as a whole and not just you know what are their test scores look like is really important as well thank you um you know I I also support the idea that um you're
065making yourself present and you're hearing from the community and people feel comfortable um but a highlight for me would be that our educators are um you know if we were to go out and talk to them they would they would say that they're heard that their ideas are valued that they are getting the resources that they need and have requested um and that those things aren't languishing and that um our teachers are given every possible tool to be successful in the classroom uh with our most valuable resources our kids thank you I mean I just to kind of echo with Angelina said I think that looking at where we are and saying that's not good enough like how do we get to the next level with our students and while doing that and raising enir
066and creating stronger students that walk out of the doors like you talked about higher graduation rates and supporting them at all levels I think it's also important to make sure that we're supporting and lifting and moving our teachers in administrators for as well making that they feel valued that they do feel heard that there's opportunity for growth for them and as we're going growing them like we talked about that whole shift and connect as we're growing them they're growing our students and we're moving along and doing it well as a unit like there's no question about what the plan is everybody is on this team to move it forward thank you so I'll tell you one thing that is one of my initiatives for the next year is to address bullying in our district we
067hear about it almost every board meeting in public Comet there's clearly an issue here that we haven't addressed so to the extent we could make Improvement that's one of the goals I would love to see for the next year love it yeah thank you thank you anything else you want to add yeah I just if I if I got time to just say a few things I know Dave's starting to play the piano over there got break so this won't take long I just want to make sure um you know the biggest thing is I am a relational leader that's just that's just who I am if and I would I would encourage you to ask around ask around Portland ask around Potterville on how I how I'm a relational leader I'm very collaborative I'm
068a coach at heart you know I've coached every sport um I've been involved in I also see myself as a multiplier like I don't know if you've read that book the multiplier it's a great book and it talks about multiplying leaders and how do you do that you know don't don't um don't diminish ideas and that that's kind of my goal you know what I can tell for you is that you know this I've done a lot of research before I even applied to do it you know there are other jobs that I got calls on that you know I didn't touch this is a great place I know it's a great District yes this District just like any other district has its challenges uh but you know I have 12 years left before I
069I even think about retiring my son is 10 years old so we got a ways to go but I would love to this is the district that I'd love to be at and find myself retiring TR if get that opportunity great thank you very much you e e e it's kind of throw you off people Board of Education I'd like to introduce you to Christy Taylor thank you I appreciate that I miss you too thank you well welcome tonight I see you got the whole crew here it's nothing more fun on a nice uh sunny Monday night to watch interview I'm sure yeah yeah the boys actually didn't know they had a sit here and I said do you know how many games I've sat through or rainy track meat so I like it it's
070okay all right so I know you've seen some of our questions the first six are kind of provided in advance so I'm I'm going to start off for you tonight okay tell us a bit about your personal background and history that got you to this point in your career to apply for the superintendent position here and do and also tell us what drives and motivates you in education yeah so a little bit about me personally is I grew up in a town very similar to dit it was a small rural community but it was right outside of Toledo Ohio just inside the um Michigan border very similar to dit grew up with a lot of multi-generational families third fourth fifth generation very similar to what D has people would move in with their families because
071they valued the values that they had but they would work in a city like Toledo or place like Lancing also personally I've been married for 24 years yesterday we celebrated our 24 year anniversary so um Matt is here thank you so much um and so he actually grew up in Lancing and so he went to Waverly and so he told me a little bit about the rivals between Waverly and dit and I won't tell you what he said but he knows the area very well and so um we also have four teenage boys with us the oldest is geves and he is um he plays football in California so I'm super happy that he's here um our next is Davis and he is um a senior just graduated from high school with honors and um
072then we have Pearson he is um in eighth grade and so he's ready to tackle high school next year and then Brock is in seventh grade so next year he'll be in eighth grade um we're a big Sports family um our sons play multiple Sports and have learned a ton about character and development um from being athlet professionally I value education I grew up in an educational household My Love For Education came from my grandmother actually who was a teacher here in Lancing my father taught mechanics at our local community college and owned his own body shop in town he was constantly working with his hands and that's why I value the trades is because of how I saw benefit of my f family for him being an entrepreneur and then also teaching at our
073local Community College I have three sisters that are also all in in education I have two principal sisters and one counselor sister um and my aunt retired from Detroit public schools and my cousin still works there so we have lots of family um in education I actually have four college degrees um I have associates of science I have a bachelor's in Communications with a minor in advertising public relations I have a master's in business and then my PhD is in educational leadership because I always wanted to be a leader in education I began my career in teaching I taught at the local Community College the University of Toledo and the high school that I grew up in which was Ida when we moved to the west side of the state because of my husband's job
074I became the Middle School principal and then they asked me to be the high school principal that high school had about 820 students and after that position I became um the director of curriculum and instruction at a neighing District um after the curriculum instruction they asked me to be an assistant superintendent and so um I know I've never had the superintendent title but the assistant superintendent role gave me a lot of experience with the K through 12 and then also allowed me to work with five different schools be over five principes and work with this those teachers and students th those that District had about 2400 students um and so that this experience was very unique um in that I was fortunate enough to work with the students from not only Western Michigan Christian but
075mosan public um gr Haven Public and Norton Shores public um so my experience in the central office from K through 12 all the way to higher education to Middle College all the way up to the trades I have a variety of experiences I really think that's a strength and an asset if that's something you're looking for here at dit I can really help with every situation for our students from every building as they go from elementary to Middle School to high school into college or if they want to start the workforce that's my experience what are the things that stand out to you about us the dit Public School District and what are the areas where you think there's some room for improvement and change so I feel like the dit Community is supportive of
076growth and being the best school district academically and co-curricular outside of the classroom in in the area the greatest example is this of this is your most recent bond proposal which is very impressive as you decide on the next leader for the district having someone who can take the bond projects across the Finish Line um as we continue our improvements is imperative from my prior experiences with building Renovations the three most important items when leading a school renovation or projects are highle of effective communication with with you all as a school board the community and school leadership the accountability to clear goal settings and timelines for completion with all stakeholders and the flexibility to adapt to a time and solve problems that were not planned for I do have prior experience in building Renovations I
077have led a $9 million renovation um at a middle school and athletic upgrades the this experience emphasized the critical need for highly transparent communication between all stakeholders and in a consistent and timely manner some of the ways I effectively communicated to to the stakeholders were weekly emails things like the blog um social media platforms I also had high accountability with Schoolboard members and certain community members that I gave frequent tours through the buildings on the projects that we were doing and working on the daily contract with the general contractor or the firm um sometimes those individuals don't always have the same timelines or the same time in the day the Educators do so many times I would have to go um in the evenings to meet with them or on the weekends um I would
078meet with my team which was um the facilities director um the ad and other principles um or sometimes just by myself if they didn't have that time um a second area that stands out to me um and yet I can see improvements is with the ex academic Excellence dit like other school districts is competing for students and families two areas for improving our standard um our state standard tests and sat tests scores when we look at the most recent high school test scores for example dwit is scoring in the top 16 percentile in the state for most communities um in other counties that would be amazing but in this County specifically um it it there's nearby schools like okus Haslett east landing Holton meing that are scoring higher um it puts us at a competitive
079competitive disadvantage for families to move into or to stay in in our community a second testing measurement and educational result that will open more doors for our students into the College of their choice is through the SAT exam in 2023 dit did score on an average better than HL and Mason but did underperform in reading and writing compared to East Lancing in okus as a superintendent I would work really hard with the our director of curriculum Brian doer am I saying that right sorry sorry Brian okay sorry okay I tried I tried um I would work really hard with Brian um being exploring with um what East laning okus are doing specifically with reading and writing to better prepare our students for the SAT this is something that I've done in a prior district and
080I'll give you an example um at msan I um I re reworked the whole um math curriculum K through 12 and so I went to the ISD and I asked them for their top performers their top three performers in that county for their math scores so the ISD provided me that and what they were using and so I collected that data and I gave it to my teachers and I asked the teachers to look at that curriculum and to use that um curriculum um for making a decision for what was best for our district and so I've actually um done that that was just a small example while serving um as the curriculum director at missan I leted our district through several new and innovative ways to incorporate SAT prep into the classroom which resulted
081in the 31st best SAT scores out of all schools in the state um for Michigan in 2019 my prior priority would be to provide leadership and support towards a clear plan with um Brian and his ability to incorporate the improvements from our learnings academically excelling in our testing is important for several reasons one is students College preparedness and the creation of opportunities for colleges preparing our students that immediately enter the workforce as the most marketable and with becoming more marketable than the local schools to grow enrollment and not lose good families in our district thank you yeah I'm next um bullying both online and in school has become an issue in many school districts what is your plan to combat bullying in our district how would you develop a districtwide plan and how would you
082implement it that's a very good question Mr Weaver so this has been a problem that I've seen in every District that I've been in bullying is something that I really do not like hearing students come to school and say I don't want to go to school I have anxiety because I'm being bullied so that really tugs at my heartstrings a lot um but one of the um but uh when I was the high school principal I implemented a system um the PBIS system um and that actually stands for positive behavior um intervention support it's a program designed to teach respect responsibility and safety at the school Ed to it we hope to encourage students to continuously make good behavior choices by implementing this program PBIS provides principles and teachers and other school staff with information
083to prevent behavior problems and support ongoing efforts to maintain a safe learning environment research shows that the use of PBIS in schools has resulted in increased time for instruction in addition it increased positive behavior schoolwide therefore decreasing disruptive behaviors many of these dis discipline issues are situational for our students right we have some really um tough home lives for some students and they come from some pretty tough backgrounds and so it's really important as a superintendent that I work with principles to see what the needs of these students are to make sure that they feel well taken care of that they feel safe in the school and that they um want to um continue to have um this these goals of learning so a couple of examples are small that I've used but it is
084um you know as simple as a student at the end of of the week being able to spend lunch with with his or her friends because they have met those goals for the week because they have had the behavior plans put into place we have collected data on them we can see what happens and we're constantly watching these students to see what they need um so those are just um something you know that I would work with the principles to make sure that all of their kids in their buildings are taken care of that their needs are met and that they're they're needing they're getting what they need so um that is that's my than you all right I'm next up um how should technology be used in the classroom and throughout the district how
085do you see technology changing in the next 5 to 10 years and how would you handle that change superintendent thank you Dr burn actually technology and education drives instruction and we all remember Co I know some things we want to block out from Co but um during covid I was the director of curriculum and instruction and so I had to prepare the the whole K through 12 curriculum online and no one knew what that looked like and so I was actually simultaneously going through the Horizon program which is where I got my admin certification through and so I met with all um District leaders um from the state and um two people actually asked me what my plan was so I shared them with our K through 12 curriculum online learning during Co um they
086were very appreciative I don't know if they shared that but I know for sure at least three districts use um my plan that I came up with it was like I don't even know how many pages of documents it was it was so many documents that I prepared um but first I had a um I had to have a plan for um getting the technology right because everybody was needing the technology at that time so we I actually found a a place in Grand Rapids that we use the technology and then I had to go to the board and I had a let them know this is the technology that we need because our students are going to be at home and the teachers are going to be in the classroom and we need this
087certain technology and then I had to prepare um professional development for those teachers and so that looked very different usually we had professional development in a huge like Atrium or Auditorium and in this case we had to be spread out because of Co so there were several different rooms for the teachers so I had to go around and make sure everybody you know got what they needed that the plan was um you know all the online learning they understood it um and then there was just questions upon questions so technology is continuing to morph constantly and um I'm not sure what it's going to look like you know in the next 5 to 10 years but I do know that we have to change with it like it's imperative that we do that um a
088study from um Reef actually says that students retain 10% of what they read 20% of what they hear 30% of what they see 50% of what they see and hear 70% of what they say and 90% of what they say and do so this just shows that every student learns differently and that we need to um adapt to that and make sure that we are um and making sure that we have technology and you know technology is so much different the generation Our Generation is so much different than the younger generation you know we were on we we were on our way here and I um showed um the boys I said hey I was like you know there was some tornadoes there and my um youngest son goes oh that's primary succession I said
089I have no idea what that means but sure enough that's what it meant of the you know the ecosystem of of that so we we he Googled it to make sure that he was saying the right word and he was and so it's just it's at our fingertips constantly you know and that is um great and then of course you know I work with the director of Technology um David and I'm probably going to bch up his name too SOA is that it the direct what is it heing okay never mind question okay ready for the next one all right that will be me how will you be a superintendent for Learners at all levels how will you work to provide more opportunities for gifted Learners and how will you provide necessary additional support for
090those who may need extra instruction yeah okay well thank you so much Mrs Carpenter um what I've learned throughout my educational achievement is whether a student is gifted or not really is determined by two things um their individual personal drive and grit to persevere in their environment of opportunities that are available to them and our job as a community is to help support both factors so this past week I sat and watched our second son go through honors night at Dexter High School um it isn't unusual to hear students there um committed to any of the I League schools like U ofm or Stanford Etc I have personally experienced how Dexter school is an example of how to create the best environment for students to get accepted into schools that have a very low acceptance
091rate foundationally dwit offers SAT prep and a good variety of AP classes but to continue being prepared and getting accepted into many of the most difficult schools in America are just the beginning there are 34 schools in Michigan like Dexter who also offer International baloria or otherwise known as IB to come alongside AP class offerings I highly encourage us to explore IB for our students so that they have the opportunity to earn an IB diploma and even further in an IB scholar with distinction International baloria is a 2-year course of study that provides a clear road map for students to excel in the classroom while also working on more intensive essay work along with the community action and service projects second being able to offer IB to our students gives us a competitive Advantage as
092there is only one other school within an hour of us who offers IV and none of the schools that are in direct competition with us we also need to provide an environment that celebrates publicly and often communicates um communicates opportunities to learn and Excel outside of the classroom some of the results and goals that I would encourage for students to strive for which would help support their college application our national Honor Society International fesan Society National speech and debate National Merit finalists Michigan International press Association and the Michigan competitive Scholars when I was assistant superintendent I worked with all the principles every level I hosted District PDS that supported the teachers collaborating with one another for a transition from grade level to grade level so what that looked like was back in the big Atrium
093or or Auditorium um you know there was tables with little table tents that said you know first grade to second grade and so the seamless process of what are we missing what do we need to concentrate on what do we need to do differently and then third grade to fourth grade what are we doing what are we missing what do we need to do differently you know to make sure that those processes from grade level to grade level are are all taken care of um and then lastly to concentrate on the students who need extra instruction um I Rely heavily on the mtss process I think it's a really great process um you know the tier one process their tier one phase is that the teacher identifies that student in the class room that needs
094a little extra help um and then the tier 2 students are identified um and the parents are usually notified at the tier 2 process and then tier three during monthly data or the sa meeting determine need for tier three intervention supports and then finally you get a referral and so most students then will be com in in the special education area um and and then usually they will receive like an IEP or something that they need to support them um for more support and then again I would work with the director of special education Kathy G that is thank you all right I have the next question as a district we're always looking for ways to improve how we address diversity equity and inclusion talk about how you would assist us with this okay yes
095I would love to do that um my experience has been while I've been as an administrator and then also so per personally and professionally right we all have our own experiences of what we've um had in the Dei area um so when I was an administrator um as an admin team we all had Dei training through a research-based company up in Consulting Group otherwise known as ucg out of Grand Rapids um this was a really great experience they came into our school um and they they talked with all of us administrators and we became all certified um and then we held a districtwide PD so we did like the whole trainer training the trainer type thing and so we um trained the teachers um and so then after we did that um as a small
096example I did a breakout room for the curriculum and um when I was in Holland it's a really big Hispanic population and so I gave them all like a packet of stuff to the teachers and and you know it's really easy to say we want everyone to feel included and special and you know involved and um but but how do we do that in our classrooms how do we make sure that they feel that in the classroom and so with this packet I gave them you know a lot of times historically we've always heard um like a Jane or a John Jane or John you know when when people give examples which are very white names right Jane Doe or John Doe and so for this example in Holland for his Hispanic names I I
097asked the teacher I said I want you to rewrite this every time it says Jane or John I want you guys to say um Juan or Berita and so they uh they actually took that and they rewrote it and I said how does the story look different right and so then I talked about how that might make those um Hispanic kids feel and just by the different names changing those to talk about that um so very similar to when I worked in mosan um I use the same exercise but in mosan there's a very large africanamerican um population and so I I use that same exact example of of the curriculum um except for you know when I talked about my cousin that works in in Detroit you know she's a biracial cousin so I
098used her kids names to change the names from John Doe and Jane do to um Malik and drq and so everything got changed so it sounded different so I just wanted the te we wanted the teachers this company showed us that the you know wanted the teachers too our language needs needs to make it culturally different it needs to make it culturally better it need we need to strengthen that a little bit that everybody doesn't look the same they don't act the same they don't have the same names and so I thought it was a really great example um it was a really great exercise um same with uh with special education you know at every District I have used uh Special Olympics I love Special Olympics I think it's such a great day we
099just had it at my school a couple weeks ago and you see all the general education students making signs for those kids who are walking down the hall who they're supporting and saying I want to be part of you I want to make you feel included and part of us and so it's a beautiful day it's it's just amazing and um I I just love that part and so now we have peer-to-peer programs you know and we have we have all of that so um I think you know Dei includes all of those things right and then according to your website it says Mr handspike is the leader um in Dei initiatives um here at dit so along with his educational training it appears that he joined the dwit Community Partnership for Dei Comm committee
100and most recently was the chairperson so as a superintendent I would rely on him and the committee um to see what they've already done and to collaborate with them and to see what we need to do um to stren to strengthen Dei for our future right um now I'm going to ask you to talk about sensitive issues and working with the Board of Education and the strategies you use to work with the board on three specific issues if you had to give a recommendation um that you're providing to the board of education or if you're a superintendent making a public statement on a controversial issue and how do you ensure all board members are heard okay so the first one was recommendation right and then how our board members are viewed or heard and then
101what was the second one so it was the recommendation that provided to the board of education and then a superintendent you're making a public statement on a controversial issue Y and then assuring that all board members are okay so um so I've worked with boards on several occasions right one is that I've actually been a board member and so that I'm very unique in that situation because not many administrators or superintendents have been a board member but um recommendations that I have provided I gave you one example when I was in um M geegan for the technology right so I had to work with that board to get the technology I to work with that board to say I know this is a big price but we really need this for our teachers and so
102really just kind of allowing them to be aware of what our kids needed and so I think it's really important to have that open transparency um and and the second thing was for public statement um I think the less that you say to a very I think you Ed the word critical I'm not sure was it Dr Burns it said um you're a superintendent of making a controversial a statement on a controvers right so anything controversial is um the less that you say the better right the bullet points of this is where we're trying to go with this this is how we're trying to handle this I think it's really important to say we're working on this as a team we're working on this together um and and trying to make those bullet points without
103going way too far and giving all the things um because sometimes you you can't take those back and um I think it's really good to say at that time if we don't have comments to say I don't have a comment at this time to make sure that we know that what we're talking about as a team and so I would I would go to you guys as a board and say what do you guys think I do realize uh this goes to the third point on how everyone feels heard is that all of you guys are different and and you should be different right and I should be different and we should all have different opinions and we should listen to each other because you guys are the people who are have been in this
104community and everyone behind me actually knows you guys more than me right so I think it's really important that everyone is heard because you all have a different voice and it's a good voice right and so as a board member myself I really loved that um that people listen to me and and you're you're voted on you know when you see your name on that ballot and you're like oh my word I wonder if people really like me and so it's it's one of those things that you realize oh people do value me in this community and your voice should absolutely be heard thank you all right I've got the next one so offered the position you'd be new to to our district and the community so how do you see yourself being or getting
105involved in our community working with our community for future planning and if you could talk a little bit about what you would do to introduce yourself to the community and how you maintain that visibility going forward well thankfully I I love to be with people like I'm a very people person um I I actually when I interviewed for my current job somebody had said we just need somebody who's not in their office all day and I love to be out I love to be with the students I love to be with the principles I love to be with the teachers um I'm actually like the opposite I'm like no you're going to have to like rope me in and say you've got to work on this report or your board meetings tonight like you got
106to do the board notes and so um that's what actually fills me up is being with people I have always been visible in every single District that I've been in um whether that is in the buildings to visit the principles like I said you know Missy and I was with five principles and I went to them to make sure that they visibly see me I think it's really important um when I'm a building when I've been a building principal I am out on the sidewalk sometimes I've been the the rain with the umbrella or the snow um it's really important for parents to to see me in that role and then and I will always stand by that it it's just what I desire to do and and I love to do that so tell
107us about a challenging situation you've experienced in bringing a diverse group of people to consensus on a difficult issue how did you personally provide leadership in that situation and what was the final outcome yeah can you repeat that one more time sure sorry tell us about a challenging situation you experienced in bringing a diverse group of people to consensus on a difficult issue how did you personally provide leadership in that situation and what was the final help yeah I think the one that uh Pops in my mind the most was when I was a high school principal there was um some I would say kind of debate about uh the bell schedule which was um block scheduling so block scheduling was not ever done at that school and they came to me when I was
108first in leadership there and said well here's the survey that we did and we want to make sure you know that you have all the facts before you you know you you do this and so I read over the comments and it was exactly like 5050 split of what people wanted and so I'm like oh my goodness like no matter what I pick here like half of the teachers are going to hate me already you know and they didn't you know but in my mind I was thinking that I'm like oh my word um and so I I basically just took um the data I'm I'm very driven by data and I look at the data and I think that it's really important to do that and then I I made the decision I had
109my two secretaries telling me you can't do this because this will change this and this will change that but I had teachers um we decided to go with that and halfway through school year had teachers come up to me and say oh my word I really really love this um and so we we kind of changed some of their minds but that was probably the most you know and I talked with the teachers I made sure at a staff meeting to say I know this is going to be challenging but whatever you guys need for me to make those changes we're going to move forward and um it turned out beautifully so thank you thank you next one of our guiding principles is to implement research-based teaching and learning practice practices to increase student academic
110performance if superintendent how would you go about implementing and pursuing this principle um so I I think you know I I stated a lot with the data for the test scores right so this is this is a real thing and I think in approaching this principle I think I would give my own examples of also being a principal and also being a teacher right so people like to hear my teachers love to hear that that I have been in the classroom and teaching you know the teaching experience so just my experience of all the years I've had in education really helps um I would just walk through with the principle of why there is so much resistance against this and then I would also walk them through the data and what we're trying to achieve
111together I think it's really important to be goal oriented together um instead of just telling people what to do like I don't like to tell people like to do I like to come um as a te approach to say what is the best angle with this so they would get to actually think about why they should be improving those and um and so if if not you know then we have a different conversation which I have had really tough conversations of people you know growth plans and principles that should be they they have been on growth plans and you know we need to to improve this but my first approach is very much like let's think about this together um and and explore this together there thank you our guiding principles include maintaining our facilities
112and infrastructure our community supported us in our efforts for infrastructure improvements throughout the years tell us about your experience in campaign and project management with Bond proposals and tell us how in a project that you've been involved in uh first of all explain to us how you've assisted in creating a safe School environment within that Bond so um I've kind of mentioned already the um the $9 million renovation that I did and the the bond proposals um I feel like kind of they they don't kind of they they people have to trust the superintendent if they're if they're willing to put their money where it is right so that comes with good communication that comes with allowing all the people to see what you're actually doing so I would do a lot of late night
113meetings I would do a lot of um parent you know parent meetings of people that have questions of what is needed to be done with that um I have spent I kind of highlighted this a little bit earlier but I've spent numerous hours walking people through um the buildings of what needs to be done to walk them through the project of what needs to happen to give them the vision of what is happening um with that Bond or what needs to be happening because a lot of people get very uptight about well why are we putting our money into this you know I was in a district once where they um were trying to um improve like a Health Center and a lot of the community members were like why are why are we doing
114a health center like where where's the extra Bond money like who's paying for all the extra people and the extra upkeep and and all of that like you have to think of all the things you know and so that's where a lot of my my my Masters in Business comes in is because I I think that way you know I've done even some Consulting with businesses and so you have to think through all those details um for sure so thank you okay that makes me next all right so tell us about your involvement in collective bargaining in general describe the most challenging negotiation you have conducted what was so challenging about it and talk about your involvement in it negotiation techniques you used and the resolution okay this one's fun um so I have been
115very involved in negotiations and one has been mostly my most challenging has been where the teachers didn't agree with the percentage that they should get right and so you have this budget line and um you know I would work um a lot with Rob and just his um leadership of what's already been done with the history of the school with with percentages of teachers and stuff but in this case when I did this in another District it was very we finally came to a consensus but it was like a week and a half of this back and forth you know I want this percentage I want this percentage and it got a little testy and a little ugly thankfully I have had really great relationships with our Union president president always um and so I've
116always gotten along with them I think they're very valuable they are really there for the right reasons of um being there for the teachers and sticking up for the teachers I guess and and saying we're here and we're working hard and teachers give countless hours right and so to make sure they feel appreciated even though we can't give them the percentages they want you know of oh we can't really give you like a 20% raise but we really would love to see you eye to eye and know that you're valued and there's other ways to Value them besides that but that was my most hardest one you know um I've actually taught negotiations and at the University level and it was you know the strategies of win-win and all those different strategies so it is
117it's it's not fun by any means to negotiate but there are ways you can walk away with everyone feeling good about it all right I have the next question how do you decide when it's appropriate to involve others such as teachers other administrators students parents or or the board in decision making in hindsight have you ever concluded that you should have had more involvement by others before a particular decision was made Gathering input is good but at the same time someone needs to make a decision and talk about how you move from input to a decision by you if you need me to repeat any yes please okay they're kind of linky yeah how do you decide when it's appropriate to involve others such as teachers other administrators students parents or the board and decision
118making in hindsight have you ever concluded that you should have that you should have had more involvement by others before a particular decision was made Gathering input is good but at the same time someone needs to make a decision and go talk about how you move from input to a decision by you so I always like to make decisions as a group because I think that it's really important to get multiple opinions just like I said for you guys as a board you all carry very unique attributes to this board which makes up the board the DWI board and so I like to get a lot of different perspectives I learned many years ago when I first became an administrator that I would make those decisions pretty quickly and then I was like oh I
119forgot to include x you know or and and so I've learned that over time that I have to involve everybody and even now when I'm writing emails about a decision I try to think of any am I forgetting anybody else is anybody else that would have um an idea or input into this you know um decision so I don't think I ever make decisions on my own I always like to ask my team and that's why I listed some of the people on your team like Rob and Kathy and Brian and David like those people are the people who are going to be making decisions with me and and relying on those people to say these are your areas where do we need to grow where do we need to strengthen and what needs to
120happen with these thank you all right um think back to a time when you were faced with a problem or challenge that required you to think outside the box and come up with the solution what was that situation and describe your thought process you went through to come up with the solution or approach what was that solution and why did you consider it to be outside the box well I would I would go back to my masters of business because I do think outside the box and a lot of times in education um things are very checkbox check you know check marked and um one example that I will give you is um in a district that I was in um it actually you know we were losing a couple families because you know they
121worked there and they wanted to um maybe just get insurance at their job you know like all I need is insurance and so I was like well why can't we just give them Insurance you know like we're losing these families and that's x amount of dollars and we need to like actually strengthen strengthen that so um I feel like I really like to think outside the box because that is where school districts win that is where you gain the competitive advantage that is where you um gain being better and retaining people and so um I gave you the example of the IB program at Dexter and I really feel like you know I don't I don't know if um that is hey we'll do this the first year or you know we'll do this the
122third year or whatever but you have to continually just like the technology you have to continue to say how are we doing this the best that we can how are we getting the kids where where they need to go and be the best that we can be and so I think sometimes we have to think outside the box and we have to not do um the check boxes that have always been done that's one of the the strengths that I said to it holds is you guys always you guys want to grow you guys want to get better and so with those things you can't always do what we've always done you have to think innovatively and and differently than everybody else all right can you tell us about a time when you failed where
123something didn't go as you plann and how you responded to that situation yes I have several examples um I would say once um it was it was while I was um the assistant superintendent working with the principles and getting the end of the year um schedules in and I kind of It kind of goes along um Dr Barnes with the the outside the box that that you just asked and I kind of flip-flopped it of how I had them get their schedules in for the for the year um they had always done it one way and I said can you get the schedules in this way um and they came to me and they literally were like Dr Taylor I think that we don't ever do it this way and so I'm not sure I
124would call it a failure but I felt a lot of resistance and I said well let's talk that through you know and so I kind of just talked them through of um what does that what have you guys done and what would that look like if we did it this way way and so they they tried it my way um in the end their way one so I would kind of say that was a failure for me but but I learned a lot but we talked it through it wasn't like well this is what we have to do we kind of just talked it through as a group so um I feel like in the end it was fine but I would say that's probably one of the failures that I had can you describe
125how you would create a campus environment that is welcoming and inclusive among an increasingly diverse population um well just like I said in the Dei I think everybody should feel included and it pulls up my heartstrings when people don't I mean when kids or parents call and say I don't feel like I belong here um I think it's the little things I think it's very like detail things um when I met Tracy in the front you know she's like oh you're wearing our colors and I'm like that's a small thing but it's it's the details you know what I mean so if a new family is coming in you know do we give them you know a panther cup or do we give them a panther t-shirt or you know like how can I make
126you feel comfortable coming into our environment and um especially if they are um from a different area or whatever and so you know Tracy made me feel amazing and and we're brand new you know and she introduced herself to my family and I mean that's that's what you want right is to feel warm and welcoming to everybody no matter who they are no matter where they come from um no matter what their background we want to make sure everybody feels that way so I think that wraps up our our formal questions is there anything else you want to add um that we haven't covered you didn't didn't discuss any your questions earlier today um what have a final conclusion would you like that now closing statement yeah sure okay that's good that's good all right
127um uh well first of all I just want to thank you all for inviting me into this process and the community for all of you guys being here it it's really um nice to see everybody um but in conclusion your trying to determine the right fit um I've been there I've been where you're at as a school board member and I've walked away from interviews wondering in an hour hour and a half did I really learn who this person is and do they really fit our community I provided a document for each of you that was the homework you felt like you got what that is um I know it's kind of lengthy but what I did was I took the 18 page survey from the community which I love that you guys did that
128by the way that was sent out to the community and then um looked at our at your recent bond proposal that was passed in 2021 and really tried to align my experiences and my values with that um I did it first off to take a look to see if it was the right fit for me and my family and then secondly to communicate with you my stories and experiences because I know as a former board member it's really hard to see who they are and what they value and what their experiences are I believe I am the right fit I believe my family is the right fit I play High School sports and college sports my husband played High School sports and college sports and our sons play multiple Sports my one spent son spent
129years in the band he actually played the tuba and he um won States um at their District um and one son was in theer for several years it's no surprise that DT isn't good in many of these areas this is very important to us and to a community that I am leading I believe that Sports robotics band Music Theater and co-curricular are extremely important to the extension of the classroom I am a unique candidate and I recognize that as I said earlier when I first open I have experiences in every single building all the way onto college if you're looking for a candidate that wants to help to become a top 10% in academic Excellence if you're looking for a superintendent that wants to help lead um to Greater sa SAT scores or higher standard
130testing scores then I'm your candidate I understand what it takes to create a culture and community and I'll say that again I understand what it takes to create a culture and a community that supports and enriches our students so that they can have the best opportunity for them to me it's all about being a superintendent that creates an environment for our students to transition from every building all the way into the rest of their life and then hopefully they come back to D because that is what dit is known for it's multi-generational they come back Lancing is a place that needs a school and a community like to like to it to to help with the educational Endeavor and that's what I want to do lastly and probably most importantly I can talk about all
131these things that I've done for my experiences and how they can correlate with the plan and vision for growing dit and the best we can in this community at the end of the day you're going to want to know who I I am as a person my values are extremely important to me I try to live out those values as best as I can in the survey there were several things that the community talks about and that is one of the many things that excites me about this position the survey states that the community wants someone who is honest responsive that gives feedback and is a clear Communicator one thing that you will find about me um when it comes to communication is that is how I'm built I was born in a rural communities
132so I'm not sure if it was because I sat a local Diner and heard the local farmers or because I was an athlete and I like to be successful in a to be on a winning team you have to have clear and honest communication but to H but to have to do that in a way that is empathetic to all and that means to me we have to be good listeners I am someone who listens well there is no way I could be where I am at today without listening to others because I definitely don't have it all figured out thank you again for listening and most importantly go Panthers than you thank you thanks for coming guys thanks [Music] guys e e e that day went it's a long story they cut each got
133Facey nice to meet you that's part of the test obstacle course too anything out of socket and I stayed ight well welcome um you know we gave you some of the questions in advance so we have the first six questions we're going to uh I know you already seen I'll take the first one here tell us a bit about your personal background and history that have to this point in your career you apply for the do a superintendent position if you could tell us a little bit about what drives and motivates you as an educational leader as well okay one over the the most important job I have as a husband and father um that's the one two that I take the most pride in but uh been married 27 years got two children my
134youngest I got the hand her diploma last week um which is kind of led me to the point of wanting to try something different um just ready for new challenges that uh started off I taught in the Middle School level um while I was a teacher I ended up being involved coached football basketball baseball new principal came in got me involved in a lot of committee work which I was never going to be a principal um took six years for me to realize that I was ready to try something different and ended up taking the job as a middle school principal uh ended up at a small District that was having some budget crunch issues and as a middle school principal I came back from spring break to find out they were laying me off
135uh it was Under One Roof for the high school so they went with a adap and eliminated Middle School principal position uh but while I was there I got to learn a lot about the budget and ins and outs of how did that how the budget works and also how to deal with people when you're dealing with budget reductions and tough budget decisions landed in Eaton Rapids spent four years there and loved it uh was a middle school assister principal uh Middle School ad for three years and then took a job up at the as a middle as a high school assister principal uh my family moved up with me uh the last two years I was there however as my son did kindergarten in first grade there it became harder and harder on the
136grandparents that lived in Napoleon and in Brooklyn so a little over an hour away everybody cried every time they left or they missed something and um that led me to take a job in lesle where I ended up being a 58 Middle School principal which was unique there because our fifth and sixth grade was ran like an elementary school and the seventh and eth was ran like a high school um so a little bit of a blended environment there um however lesle differed than Jackson County on spring break and Christmas break time so when I was enjoying my Spring Break by myself while my kids were in school um I was there for two years and I took the job as a high school principal and uh H Horton went to lunch in March of
137my second year there and the superintendent asked me uh if I wanted to be superintendent by Christmas if she was ready to retire kind of laid some ground work I was named in room superintendent in March or I started in January in March they did a full evaluation on me raed me highly effective and offered me the full contract and it's been 11 and A2 years since I uh took over um in that time I have ran to gamut uh in a small District house I had spent time when I was in eaten rapid there were 250 students in grade so it was pretty similar in size for where you guys are at now um I know they're not there now but they were and it had kind of split my mind on the fact
138of how many people it takes to run a district this size um my office consists of two full-time staff people uh business manager that we contract through our ISD and myself so all those directors and assistant offices are would be on my door um and that is something I'm looking forward to is just trying to learn new things take all this stuff I've dealt with and be able to help another District um just keep doing the great things you guys have been doing um that it really I've dealt with a lot um I took over from a superintendent that is considered by most people that have been around there for their entire life the best superintendent the district that ever had and I got to jump into her shoes and I'll never forget my son
139was halfway through a sixth grade year my goal was to last until he made it to high school before I had to move um so I was uh I'm definitely happy and proud of where we've been able to go what we've done and uh you know I said just looking forward to New Challenges thank you so John what are the things that stand out to you about the DWI Public School District and what are the areas where you think there is room for impr M will change well your guys' reputation down State's been awesome um you know part of that maybe as the football player and me watching all the uh Fifth Quarter stuff from laning always showing that flamethrower going off the top of the scoreboard um and did that survive the renovations to
140the football field I figured it would but you never know um you know that was one of those things that always kind of caught the eye and you know they were always covering you guys and as I've gotten into the professional realm and I run across different administrators from different districts and names come up and everything else I've never heard anybody utter a bad thing about you guys um I'll be honest I was very impressed um I caught some of the live stream uh of the last meeting when you guys were selecting people and would have been nice to have known what numbers you were discussing but um would have made it a little less stressful um but just watching how you guys interact with each other um I don't know if you guys are
141aware of how rare it is to see a board be able to sit together and have good dialogue and it appears that everybody was getting along so unless you guys were putting on a good show um that says a lot about the community and about the district um you know academically looking into everything you guys are doing a really really good job athletically you've done a great job uh your campus looked beautiful on the internet and we got here early I didn't know how bad ples and construction was going to be to get through drove around and uh your facil this whole complex campus is just beautiful um so this one when you're looking at District when you're looking for a challenge you want to look for a challenge that's not going to be um
142a go in and gut everything um just kind of go in and maybe do a little tweak here and a tweak there and build on the Traditions that are in place um one thing that did jump out to me was seeing all the bonding information on the website and digging into that a little bit I don't know as if I've ever seen anybody be able to pass a 10 mil Bond at 71% that is unbelievable I don't know how you guys did that but you should write a book on it um but that you know from somebody in a superintendent position looking to go somewhere and plant new Roots having a cohesive board having a supportive Community behind them the rest of the stuff becomes a lot easier when you're not fighting those battles um
143and that you know it's hard when I look to try to come up with something to be able to come in and say this is the first thing I would look and give as a suggestion of where you can improve that'd be awfully tough to do based on the information that's out there um you know I I did not take over at hmer Horton with the intention of making any major changes it's kind of come in and just get your feet settled under you a little bit most of the changes I started implementing were just more Smiles around the office things like that nature tried to be more visible than my predecessor was um but not knowing enough about your guys' District at this point to say where the improvements go that would be the
144conversation um to have with you guys after the fact um I really you're a strategic plan listed a bunch of information but it's one of those it's hard to know the only I can think of is in a couple of years when the bond you just passed they're going to tell you you need to reduce your millage rate my suggestion would be to look at a sinking fund uh those are phenomenal assets that have allowed our district to keep a lot of money in the classroom rather than the general fund and what you do we passed one in um 19 and they're telling us now that it's over collecting based on where the forecasts were when they set up all the bond payments and everything so they're telling us we need to start looking at
145reducing the millage rate well once you reduce that rate then it's an increase then you time you want to pass anything else so if it's when it gets to a point you get you're looking at a 3/4 point or a one point reduction you pass a one mil sinking F and then you capture that same amount of money it doesn't cost anybody anything else but that brings it for us and I didn't have an opportunity to do the math through everything but one mil for us a year is about $300,000 now for us the we did a 2 mil bond for 24 years and it raised just under $5 million so if you think of years at 66 however many years you were doing and all you know math isn't that tough but I got
146to believe for you here be 4 500 at least a year that could go right into building repairs but that would be the easy one on the outside looking in that say this might not be a bad thing to think of thank you that's me bullying both online and in school has become an issue in many school districts uh what is your plan to combat bullying in our district how would you develop a districtwide plan and how would you implement it okay first thing I would look is two major points of data one to be your school's disciplinary histor uh what kind of you know are we seeing repeated issues you know just kind of doing a deep dive into the data that's available and then the other thing we' be looking at the perception
147data surveys what you know do we have from student viewpoints what do we have from parent viewpoints and it is one of those were unfortunately when it comes to a lot of surveys the people that are thrilled and happy don't take the time to fill them out so it kind of gets waited toward the negative but at the end of the day people's perception is a reality whether we agree with somebody's take on you know this child bullied my kid well in reality it wasn't really but they still feel that their child was so you still got to figure how to deal with it uh so look at those data points and see if there's anything that is there that points to some easy fixes or at least what people feel is the issue um
148then you go to look and it be a matter of figuring out what systems are in place you know what's being done now are those effective you know is it effective in the eyes of the teachers and the administrators and the parents students you know just getting in and um digging into those bits we did put a system in place in h Horton several years ago um it was a K12 system where we put in um it's called an aggressive behavior rubric where it broke down just real simple rubric first consequence second consequence Right Down the Line laid it all out we did two separate rubrics for the elementary we did a K2 and a 35 the middle school has one and the high school has one and we modify and adjust it pretty much
149annually just as kids start to get to a point you know where they're realizing okay if I do this I only get this out of it they start playing the game so we change you know change it up a little bit um and that really did help uh we did a had a facilitator came in worked with all the staff K12 worked with all the support staff administrators uh then they came back in and they trained the students and one of the big things was is to not be a bystander you know if you see somebody doing something you know picking on somebody saying something to speak up for that person um you know at the end of the today it's trying to work with people to just be nice to each other be you
150know it's too bad that's such a complicated thing for some but and it goes back to again when people come in they're complaining or they're bringing you know a complaint or an issue to you is making sure that you hear them um and make sure that you follow up and make sure that whether you agree with their assessment of the situation or not that you deal with it in a respectful manner and that they feel that it's being taken care of and then you just constantly analyze and keep evolving it that I've never seen a system come right out of a book be implemented and stay perfect forever um there's always got to be an adjustment based on the staff that are implementing it as well as the community and what they expect and expectations
151thank you all right and next up um how should technology be used in the classroom and throughout the district and how do you see technology changing in the next 5 to 10 years and how will you handle that change as superintendent my view on technology has changed quite a bit over the last few years um I I thought the electronic textbooks would be coming be held off purchasing new books for a couple of years on a couple of our subjects uh partially budgetary needs um but also the fact that I kept waiting for the ebooks to kick in and then my son took a dual enrolled class and had an ebook and I ended up spending the 50 bucks to buy him the textbook because it was too hard to use um I think it's
152to a point where it's going to continue to expand it's just a matter of again how do you utilize it and we've gone with we purchased iPads for um kindergarten and first grade second grade is kind of hit or miss the rest of the grade levels we've got uh we bought Chromebooks we had a few classroom sets that were could be checked out at the elementary level out of the library and teach take it in to do research projects um however when the pandemic hit I remember placing a $180,000 order through Best Buy to get Chromebooks in a hurry actually had three different $100,000 orage place just waiting to see which one shipped first so I can cancel the next one um fun times um but they're not the end all be I think if
153anything else coming out of the pandemic we learned that the value of a teacher in front of kids and we had some teachers that were relying heavily on the um textbook curriculum and the online resources there for instruction and I got to watch my daughter really struggle um that we had a long-term sub that ended up in her H for two class and um the preal teacher that also had to group this year for calculus talked about how they were so far behind just on that one year and you everybody thought we were going to be in great shape because we got this brand new curriculum they got all the lessons online it's so easy anybody can do it not quite um you know and I look at it with a lot of the technology
154bets is it's kind of compared to the fact of I've got about 10 different types of hammer sitting in my toolbox at home every one of them can just about do the job that I need it to but that specific one I need and part of teaching these children today I think is teaching them when to use the different forms of technology for what they need it for you know I don't think memorization of data is nearly as important as it was for us when we were growing up I think now it's more of a matter of how do you find the information you need how do you apply the information that you found and how do you assess whether or not what you found is accurate or relevant to what you're trying to do
155um you know it's a fany hard catalog it's a World Book Encyclopedia and their palm of their hand um but it's all a matter of teaching them how to use it responsibly uh we had a lot of kids that it was amazing when they were doing their uh math homework at home all they got raise came back in and started fing math and they couldn't figure out why well they did all their homework they scored great on everything when they were home and then my daughter sat down one day and she's like Hey Dad check this app out you know popped up I think it was photomath take preal problem to finish and all the steps are right there on the screen for him was jealous for a second but um you know those kids
156are struggling now and you know we used to be able look in the back and get an OD answer or they were able to get everything including the work um so there's a lot of De programming to kids and I think as doors continue to open for a small school it's been beneficial for us because we can open up doors for dual enrollment opportunities to take classes from colleges that they never would have before um as well as be able to have kids take classes that they want to take that it's one kid in a district that wants to take a class and we can offer it to them so there's a lot of benefits to it some drawbacks it's just like about anything else we do U it's just a matter of balancing it
157out right that brings it to me next how will you be a superintendent for Learners at all levels how will you work to provide more opportunities for gifted Learners and how will you provide necessary additional support for those who may need extra instruction I have tried to do everything I could within our budgetary constraints to address the low the middle and the High um you know for the most part you attack the low boost the high as much you can and hope that the middle gets that extra time from some of those teachers in there to be able to help solidify them and let them along a little bit uh one of the first things I did when I took over was I revamped uh how we address our early L Learners uh we added
158so I took over in January that spring out of the 85 kids were in our kindergarten classes 19 were recommended for retention it didn't seem quite Bri to me so we opened a young five classroom for the first time we had 12 kids willing their parents were willing to sign them up for it so we ran it with one the next year we and we Twisted some arms to get to 12 uh the next year we had 20 that signed up but we limited it down to 16 the third year we opened the second room um and currently we have 20 in our two rooms out of I think last year's kindergarten class came in at like 75 and we ended up with uh 40 going into young five um so that helped give those
159extra kids instead of being in the bottom third bottom quarter of their class the whole way most of those kids have jumped up to where they're in the top quarter to start kindergarten and they don't know the difference it's we end up having to do a lot of uh parental conversations to let them know that their kids going to be okay being a young five and they'll never know the difference and they don't we also revamped how we were handling our title allocations uh we had a title one director that was doing intervention with students and the model that she was using was one that had her doing intensive work with five or six kids a semester total in a day would work with six kids uh instead of doing that we utilized some teachers
160uh that weren't interested in teaching full-time they were moms had kids at school they wanted just so they were working an hourly 20 to 24 hours a week would come in and do games basically with a young five and kindergarteners and letter games letter recognition Math Games things along those lines expanded that where we had one working K1 one work in one two and then we have two other AIDs that work with third fourth and fifth grade to where the early L they pull out at the upper L it's push in and go in and support in the classroom to do extra things after a few years we started looking at our data and realized that the kids that started either young F or kindergarten in our district by the time they got to third
161grade every one of them was a grade level in Reading um and it was costing us less than one teacher to run that entire program with all those um the supports we had in place I thought that was a pretty good bang for the buck to go from six kids to our entire building being at grade level the only ones that weren't were either they transferred in or they were in a track to uh they're in process being identified for special ed services um so we worked on those and found that as we were able to help get those other kids up the teachers are able to spend more time delivering content than and quite honestly a lot of the disciplinary issues you run into in a school is because kids are frustrated because they're
162struggling and so when you can help those students out you tend to have less disrup which means you can get a little further ahead on your rest of your curriculum which helps those in the middle a little bit more uh We've also includ put in place um some classes for the middle school students and the high school students that the easiest way to describe what they do in there is it's like a study skills class that you have for your special ed students except it's for General Ed kids that don't qualify so they get an hour for a class period a day where they're in and they're working on um either math or language arts at the middle school level the high school is just one section because our schedules are so jammed um and
163we found good luck with that not it's not nearly as effective as the lower L1 but you're also dealing with a little different kid in her eagerness to learn sometimes unfortunately the other thing we did is we run a few AP classes um but our to run a true AP class you've got to have those that percentage of kid that's really up that high high level ready to thrive at that so for our size District it just doesn't make a lot of sense um so our schore school doesn't do well on the US news report and all that because we're not not testing that many in the AP but we push du enrollment and we do that for a few reasons one is the fact that as we've done our budget cuts it really started
164to limit what elective classes we could offer our students at the high end and the unique I like to your guys' course catalog we small schools can't come close to that so we end up having a lot of our students will do dual enrollment uh we had 64 kids cross the stage last week and with them went 200 college credits um two examples I can give because it's legal for me to talk about are my children my son graduated in uh 2019 with 27 college credits um he did one that we offer as concurrent credit that our that a Han Horton teacher teaches a speech class for Baker College in our room during the day so that was one of his three credit courses and then he took his rest uh Spring Harbor University Jackson
165college and he knew he was going to go to Concordia Ann Arbor so his spring of his senior year he took two class from them that made real easy um transfers form he took a couple of summer classes graduated with his teaching degree in three years um AP is great but if you don't pass that test you're not getting anything guaranteed um where my daughter walked out with 24 credits um so she'll go win as a freshman but then be a junior pretty quick after that just because the way they had it set up the Hope um so that's really where we've kind of aimed at those two ends and in the middle you reduce the amount of kids that are um out of the building between our career center programming and our dual enrollment
166and that allows us to do some smaller classes uh we offer uh we call them CNS so it's Concepts and skills so for the core classes that we saw the Merit curriculum really start hammering kids so you've got Algebra 1 CNS Algebra 2 CNS pre kelp CNS um or geometry physics chemistry all those classes we offer they basically took the power standards swept out the other stuff and just go a little deeper a little slower to get those kids those key Concepts so we've been able to try to manage all that while also dealing with the you know budget limitations and our size dets as well okay I have the next question as a district we're always looking for ways to improve how we address diversity equity and inclusion talk about how you would assist
167us with that okay um I'll be honest this is an area I am definitely know I need to learn more in um not that I'm not aware that it's an issue and one that needs to be dealt with um it's just one of those my experiences in our district there hasn't been any we have no formal process in place we had no um a lot of the schools in this area have really put in some formal plans different things along those lines every time when I tell people what our ultimate goal is it's my job number one job is to provide a safe and fun environment for children to learn and all of those components of the diversity Equity inclusion go into me to providing safe and fun um you know my I was actually
168I was I don't know if I should say awarded selected I gave the Comm speech for this year's senior class and my whole focus of it was be nice and the fact that I don't have to agree with everything you agree with to Value you as a person that somehow we got as a society where the fact that if we don't agree with everything we're supposed to be you know have animosity toward each other and we've got to get to a point where we can accept differences and understand the fact that we come from different perspectives we may not agree on everything but that doesn't mean that we can't value each other and understand and develop empathy understand why someone is dealing with what they're dealing with um one of the things I thought was
169awesome was I saw that you guys have a links program um in the high school I didn't see if it was anywhere else throughout the district um but working on with special ed students and some of the struggles they have and getting them to a point where they're much more you know included and welcomed and understood that people aren't irritated by what their struggles are they understand them and they help them and that's where I think a lot of it boils down and I'm not trying to oversimplify because I know it's much more complicated than that the at the end of the day be nice to each other you don't have to be friends but be respectful be nice all right I have the next question um we're going to talk a little bit about
170sensitive issues and working with the Board of Education and the strategies you used work the board on the following issues if ask uh to give a recommendation to the Board of Education if you're the superintendent making a public statement on a controversial issue or having to assure that all board members are heard all right well first of all the anything that's coming out that's controversial we're going to have a lot of communication going out ahead of time um I rarely would anything come out at a table that you guys didn't hear about two or three times before that uh I sent out a weekly email to the board now um and it's just an update you know how the track team did at the state meet different things along those lines but then it's also
171the fact of we've got this issue coming up this is coming down the line you know this person's upset they've gone to this heard from this person's attorney all those different different kinds of ideas and things just to make sure you guys are aware that you don't find out something's ruined going to a soccer game you find out about it for me um you it's kind of one of those my parents always told me make sure we're not surprised by anything you do I make sure you guys aren't surprised by anything that happens here um that is what I always felt is one of the main jobs roles of the superintendent is to make sure the board knows what's going on before they find out from somebody else um as far as statements and things
172like that on a um controversial subject or anything like that obviously there's that fine line of uh getting communication ahead of time and staying true to the concept of the open meetings act um I will do a lot of emails and say if you have any questions or concerns reach out to me um so that that way it's that individual communication and you know we're not even dancing along the lines of violating open meeting act but it's one that ultimately when it gets down to it once with our board now I know who might have an issue with certain topics so I'll send out the update and then I'll follow up with that person specifically you know do you have any issue with this do you have any concerns anything you're not 100% sure about
173because of the fact that my goal is 70 you know if it's not 70 what do I need to do to convince you that this is the right way to go or or what do we need to change to where you feel that it's the right way to go and just kind of massage it back around that way a lot of communication with board president um and part of that you know every board is different the Dynamics of how they communicate and how they handle things you guys you I see that you've got multiple standing committees that meet throughout the year we started with a lot of committees and by about my second year I started getting a don't worry about it John just let us know what we need to do and so some
174of that kind of went back and it just stayed more of that communication they were happy with what they were getting um did I hit all the points on want to make sure I covered it there okay all right if oper the position you'd be new to The District in the community how do you s see yourself uh being involved in our community and working with our community and future planning if you could also talk about how you would introduce yourself to the community and then maintain VIs and accessibility through the community key in a town like this um not sure as far as what you know Community has as far as big events during the summer assuming there's probably something Fourth of July related um probably some other seems like everybody up in this
175area has some kind of a festival during the summer um being visible at those things being visible at as many sporting events as I can get to as well as any of the Arts performances um you know I try to get to a point where it's not unusual for me to be at four or five events four or five nights of events during the week just because of the fact that my superintendent was at everything and that's what I viewed as a superintendent that they were there they knew who I was they cared how the teenss did now I'm not going to pretend to say I'm going to know every kid in the district but I can make them think I do you know seeing somebody recognizing them being in being visible in the rooms
176once in a while at least getting into the buildings that you know entry and dismissal see every kid going in and out of that building um and you know in the community it's to a point of looking for the different Civic groups different meetings of people that get together that want to talk about the school uh currently I'll go in and I'll meet with our Lions cup Club a couple times a year they'll call me in we've got a historical society that I'll get with their president and talk with a few of their people at different times um there's a bunch of retirees that gather for coffee every morning in the fire station and I'll go down and have coffee a few times a year um stand along the fence at football games because I'm
177sure here is about the same as it is in most small towns as Friday night under the lights everybody shows up and it's just a matter of finding opportunities to interact interact with people go where they're at uh the other key is is my door is open I have zero problem explaining why I made a decision that I made to anybody um again it goes to that fact you may not agree with it I may not have had the information you had and um I may have made a mistake but at the end of the day at the bare minimum I'll tell you I made a mistake or this is why I did what I did and trying to build that trust and respect level through that those types of interactions um newsletters I do
178see you know currently as part of your plan you've got the monthly newsletter going out from the superintendent um all those different things to get the name out there get face out there and just be visible um this is about the only code I own that doesn't have a logo on it um to where I am always wearing my school colors and gear out when I'm in town doing anything um actually it's one of the things I got to figure out is I'm going to wear this winter because all my coats have hand on um but it's it gets down to that visibility and just being out there and also touching base with you guys to find out oh hey there's this group that's getting together to do this activity or that activity especially early
179on you know um I've gone to Pinewood Derby races I've gone to PTA B off competitions um anything and everything tell us about a challenging situation ation you've experienced in bringing a diverse group of people to consensus on a difficult issue how did you personally provide leadership in that situation and what was the final outcome you know I would have to say the first thing that comes to mind um for our community was dealing with uh Co and how we were going to navigate that and get through that and I know every Community was different and I think that's part of what made it so challenging for schools is we had here's the bare minimum you've got to do and from your community and what your health department said anything else you can kind of
180swing from there how you want to go and for us we tried to do a I tried to kind of stay in the middle of it um you know I'd make a decision on how we were handling our you know what we were doing for quarantining or what we weren't doing for quarantining and we'd get a handful of complaints on this side that it was too restrictive I get same number of complaints on this side said it was too loose so in my mind I was like all right then I guess we're doing pretty good cuz the bulk of the community was supportive of where we were at um I worked with the health department we brought in um clear plexiglass dividers for the cafeterias and as long as we sat every other seat they
181were fine with it because our elementary school sits in pods and the high school kids are sitting with the kids are with all the time anyway so we just mapped it out and we made sure the kids sat in the same spots every day at lunch so when we had to do the tracking we could do it um you know and ultimately we we did everything we could to give the kids as normal and experience as they could get um our achievement data from our internal scores did not change that much from year to year um through the process and ultimately I think maybe we might have had six public comment complaints during the entire thing um so when it gets down to it I I take that as a pretty successful run through the
182pandemic um and again it came from a lot of listening a lot of conversations and I had a lot of half hour 45 minute conversations to explain why we were looking at it this way um in hindsight some things we got right some things we didn't um but we were quick to admit that we made a mistake or hey things changed guidance changed so we're changing up how we're doing this thank you one of our guiding principles is to implement research Based Teaching and learning practices to increase student academic performance if superintendent how would you go about implementing and pursuing this principle I think that research is always important to look at um but one of the things that you got to be careful of I think sometimes when you're looking at research is is
183it relevant and is it comparable to what you have that I'll never forget it was back when I was in Lesley we were um looking at moving into the plc's professional learning communities Rick before um it was a big deal several years ago we went out to uh ad Stevenson High School just outside of Chicago where he was at and unbelievable campus I mean it was something to be something to be seen and they talked about how they did all their interventions and they were happy they had 98% of their kids went right straight to a four-year school after graduation and then it turns out when you look at it that they had 1% of their population with special ed while the state of Michigan was giving us $5,000 a kid they were getting $155,000
184a kid um and you just you know they were a district of just a high school they had no middle school or Elementary School in the district I don't know how they set that up but it really all the bells and whistles that they did did not we couldn't come close to imagine it now we could take certain aspects of it and mold it to what we were looking to do and I think a lot of times with that research that's one of the things you got to be careful of is getting into those details you know what kind of student population were they working at you know look at comparative schools you know are they using this program and I'm always leery of buying canned programs for that reason um you know sometimes you
185look at it and at first you see amazing results results with the program and then you look into it and realize oh well they had these 10 things that we could never afford to do um so I believe it's important to explore the research but do the homework on it as well and when something is new and Innovative I'm probably not going to be the first guy to jump on board and say yep we're going to buy this and we're going to go all in might be a teacher come and say hey I'd like to try this all right good what do you need to try this with your class the downside of that is with the accountability measures that are in place now if you've got too heavy of a hammer hanging over the
186teachers looking at their achievement data and everything else and they're getting dinged anytime they have a bad test cycle you're not going to see people try to innovate so it's one of those if you're looking to change and try new things you got to make sure that on the back end of it they're going to be supported even if their data is not going to show that they did everything they could with that new program you always have an implementation de and it's one where I guess I I get a little cautious when it comes to a wholesale change um and that's why is seeing what my daughter experience going to a new math curriculum That was supposed to be the end all be all um so I just tend to try to do my
187homework on it but I if you're not getting you're not getting better you're getting worse you know so there's always ways to improve it's just a matter of making sure you're following that right path another guiding principle includes maintaining our facilities infrastructure here our community has supported us in our efforts for infrastructure improvements in the past tell us about your experience in campaigning and and project management with Bond proposals and tell us about how in Project you've been involved in uh how you've assisted in creating a safe School environment in that bond proposal okay um when I came to Handover they had a um sinking fund in place which I mentioned before and I took over as superintendent shortly it was within a month I believe of uh Sandy Hook and every one of our
188entrances we were we were already ahead of the curb and some of the safety aspects because we we were in a soft lockdown all the time our main offices they had to do a button to release the door for anybody to come into the building once you know school's open um however the design of it was kind of halfhazard in the fact that you know you walk up to the double door and it be the inside door would be locked well they'd open that up then you had enter into the hallway and then go into the office it was never directly into the office so the first summer I came in for all three buildings we reconfigured our offices to make them a provide them with a secure vestibule we refurnished all the offices to
189move everybody to where they had sight lines coming up the walkway and approach um we reinforced the glass did all kinds of um a lot of behind seen things that we don't ever talk about and nobody ever sees um but that was first and foremost I mean that's definitely one of those when that happened you we were already ahead of a lot of schools but we went a little further with that um then my next summer we built a new playground for our elementary school using the syncing fund which was a bit of a trick because sying funds are not eligible to purchase equipment so we could build the Tower for the slide but not pay for the slide we could build the frame for the swing set but not paid for the swings or
190the chains um well we found a company that had a um was basically buy one get one free kind of you know half off kind of sale so we were able to structure it where the syncing fund paid for all the structures and the freebies were all the equipment um checked with multiple accountants and EMP lawyers before we did it um so we didn't get in trouble there um then we also did a uh Community build on that and the company it was to a point we could either pay $85,000 to have it installed by them or for 14,000 they'd bring a crew down and in 3 days our community would build a playground um so for three very hot days in June um several years ago we were out there and um myself a
191couple the administrators and 120 total volunteers out of a small town um kids um we put that playground up um and so we paid I think a 100,000 for for a $220,000 playground um then we built a waight room for the high school 60x60 Edition um which we oversaw all of that um did a lot of the work either in-house or was in volunteer local Tradesmen um furnished the entire room and built it air conditioned it I think we were 210 out the door for that Edition um then we got to a point where we needed new PA systems and new phone systems and our syncing fund was ineligible to use those items so rather than pull from general fund which we couldn't do at the time um we went ahead and I recommended we
192passed a technology Bond and reduced the collection rate of our syncing fund to match what the levy rate was to pay off the technology bond in that time so basically in a roundabout way we used the same amount of collection we were getting out of the syncing fund to pass a tech bond for a portion of that took care of our technology needs while we maintained the sinking fund and our taxpayers maintain their two Mills um then we were getting to a point where we knew there were some big items we wanted to address and we had a bond that was coming off the books so I'm guessing that was the same way we do guys is that it didn't increase so we carried that Levy rate out 24 years figured out how much we
193were going to have and came up with our project list uh we built a auxiliary practice gym with two full basketball courts um batting cages gave us a spot we drop one curtain at half court or between the two courts another one goes diagonal or parallel to the floor um so we can one half of the gym we can put into another half so our competitive cheer in our wrestling teams actually had space of practice now uh we also air conditioned the district um which I also got to run into the joy of Transformers um fun stuff there which they dropped that one on us two days before we were supposed to go out to bid for the air conditioning port part the uh electrical engineers came into us and said oh by the way
194you need to do another $400,000 electrical upgrades to your system not too un like it sounds like some of the surprises you guys have been able to have um so I designed the whole Edition on PowerPoint and Excel handed it to the architect they sent it back and that's what we built um so I L all the way through that um we just wrapped that up um guess we finished this fall we finally got got all the Loose Ends wrapped up and then this um about February I think we signed off on all the final paperwork so that was passed in 19 we were supposed to start construction the summer of 20 ended up starting construction late fall of 20 and then with some of the different delays and everything we ended up moving in
195in the beginning of 22 um utiliz sying fund semester funds allowed us to swing some money toward it to finish a few extra things at the end of the day it honestly was a lot of the same scope of what you guys did um just not as many zeros attached to it um we did not pay for an on-site general contractor to oversee everything my maintenance director and I took care of that um to where we I was at the meeting where we picked out the tile colors wall colors all the bells and whistles um visited the Ty regularly um just really wanted to make sure that it came out well um proud of how it turned out um we have a fac spreadsheet to be maintained that's basically down to casework desks whiteboards every
196component that could possibly need to be replaced so that we can budget out plan ahead um we've done we purchased uh some material a few years ago that we've got a flat roof on our most of our high school middle school and we've found this product that goes on like paint on top of flat roof and it gives it an extra 10e UV layer so it's instead you know it works out we divided our high school middle school into 10 sections cost us about 10 grand a year so every 10 years we pay $100,000 for replace instead of replacing the million dollar R um so we do a lot of things along those lines um just those regular maintenance bids uh we converted LED lighting throughout the district inhouse um they just get some time
197they go up slap them in and with the uh consumers rebates I think they were started costing us $5 a fixture um to swap out um and actually my office was the game pig Suite um I had a really big office at that time and they came in and installed five different LED replacement fittings and would go through and we' carry the books under to see which one lit the best and all that um and we also we relit the uh football field complex ability lighting several years ago um had a local company that wanted to have a showcase field to do it so we got an extra $880,000 of free upgr trades because they wanted it to look good to um partner up with a lot of local companies to get reduced rates on
198a lot of projects and things so yeah it's um it's important to me that our facilities look well in interc and care of and not throw money around uh the engineers we did uh Mini Splits for all our air conditioners and uh the high school middle school they all had to be roof mounted so there was a $880,000 charge to do all the steel work to support all the air conditioning units going up top we looked at it and realized that the on the pad it was a think they were six square foot for the pad to hold the unit up top and that was going to hold 100 100 lb but yet I can walk the roof and not fall through so my a little over 100 lb and my foot's definitely not going
199to be the same square footage so we talked to him and said I'll just put them on top of a beam we'll sign off on us so we saved 80 grand just by and move the project along quicker because we didn't have to te all the ceilings out to get to the frames up above it's just a lot of little troubleshooting um puzzle kind of stuff it's fun to do great thank you that brings it to me next then uh tell us about your involvement in collective bargaining in general describe the most challenging negotiation you've conducted what was challenging about it talk about your involvement in it negotiation techniques you used and the resolution okay um we just settled um threeyear contracts with everybody uh we have two bargaining units the teachers it's basically the
200teachers and everybody else it's not a supervisor um signed we back up when you get to the toughest ones we had um we were dealing with some years uh right after I came in that we had we were dealing with decline in enrollment and we were built for a larger student body and it got to a point where just in simp terms 100 kids in a Grade you need four teachers you know divide up 25 in a room all well well when we got down to 90 a class that becomes hard to fund and we were looking at a major deficit and about a year and a half in I had to lay off um reduce 10 of the 64 teaching positions we had at the time um but had to we were either deficit
201or you know or that so we went from four sections to three across the board sorted everything out and went to it um then we came to contract that summer and we put into some place we thought we had a good vision for it and we did some teer if the enrollment hits this level and fund balances here you'll get this much and we did a couple of tiers and unfortunately that next year gas prices shut up a bit and we're 36% School of Choice SO gas prices really hit us hard um plus we had a big class graduate that year missed the Mark um so we ended up going in after we rolled everything back the next year comes along for contracts and we did a six-month extension and our contracts now expire on
202December 31st that there are too many unknowns when you're dealing around that 5% fund balance Mark there's way too many unknowns to give a fair contract that you're not going to know all your numbers until after your audit until after your count day and then you you know by the time it rolls around for de summer contract we we're playing with real numbers it's no more well we anticipate this much is going to come in and you guys know how crazy those numbers are between May and October um so we shifted to the six-month contract one time and since then we've been running on the January to December contracts and that's worked great um have really good uh relationships with our unions um to this point I yet to have a formal grievance file we've
203had maybe three or four that were informal start to process sit down talk through it come up with a resolution at that point um or they realized it wasn't backing down and they went away um but I had the attorney with me at the first one reviewed everything with the attorney at the second one and since then I've represented the district in all negotiations that I'll sit in we'll have one or two board members that'll sit in uh we occasionally might have an administrator in the room um but I like to kind of shelter them just so that they're not if any animosity pops up I everybody be mad at me than at the principles um but for the most part I think the uh teacher contract this year took us you take out the
204caucus time and stuff like that we were probably at the table for an hour and a half 2 hours to a three-year contract and support staff is probably less than that um that I've been fair to them they've been fair to the district and we even though we were down at one point um the year we ended up doing the layoffs when I went into the board in October after our account day and the budget came out and everything else I had to tell them that our bookkeeper was projecting I think it was a $34,000 fund balance at the end of the year at that point I think we about A9 million operating budget um board asked do you have enough to get through the year said yep okay that's not you know CU I
205was going to tear up every classroom in the district basically at that point and Shuffle everybody um you know we got through that and since that time and since the layoffs we've been able to give steps theyve been frozen free different contracts before that so everybody got their steps at least a little something up at the top um this last contract we're able to really take care of people um especially our support staff they got some really significant raises in a few of those spots um at the end of the day you know you got to take care of the people that are doing work um it's a tough balance and sometimes that means that you don't have the newest textbook because you gave a raise in set um but they've been appreciative and um
206yeah it's been good right so I have question how do you decide when it's appropriate to involve others such as teachers other administrators students parents or the board in decision making in hindsight have you ever concluded that you should have had more involvement by others before a particular decision was made Gathering input is good but at the same time someone someone needs to make a decision and go talk about a move you talk about how you move from input to a decision wow okay um I don't always rely on formal information gathering just because of the fact that I've looked at enough surveys to know that a lot of times you're not getting the full breadth of it so you send out a survey and then you go talk to a few people that you
207know from the community from the schools that are going to give you you know some trust and confidence that you understand they're going to level with you you know there's always a couple of teachers that will always tell you what they think you want to hear and then you got the teachers that'll be open and honest with you and go to those guys and girls ladies you know get that figured out and um student input I asked you know go in and talk to kids in the cafeteria talk to him in a game um sometimes it's to a point where if it's something that is in the appropriate realm of it we used to have a uh Committee of it was all the varsity captains met monthly with the athletic director frpl our high school
208to get their input and bounce ideas off of them you know how can we increase this or that or how can we take care of this problem um you know it is a challenge to get the input and to get it from a diverse enough um backgrounds of viewpoints where you're getting a really good picture of things ultimately at the end of the day that's you know part of what comes with this chair is making those decisions and what is going to ultimately the deciding factor is what's going to be best for the kids with a little Asters there of what can the district afford and what can the district sustain um when it comes time to looking at implementing a program or some massive change is it going to be better for kids is
209it something that we can continue and sometimes there are great opportunities that we could have taken for a year you know that there a lot of Grants came in hey you do this for a year and we'll pay for it you just have to commit to three years we couldn't commit to the three years so we didn't do it um but it is one where I tend to prefer to have a lot of conversations than big formal meetings um or after a meeting I'll talk to the people that didn't speak up during the meeting and track them down to get their thoughts because it's put a lot of people in a room and you get some strong personalities and sometimes it's people won't speak up because they're just they're not comfortable doing it in that
210environment and again it goes to the open door so we have a three questions left and like five minutes left so we'll call this the lightning round maybe no round all right think back to a time when you're faced with a problem that required or a problem or challenge that required out of the box thinking describe the thought process you went through and what was the solution and why was it out of the box I me one would be the fact of reducing our sinking fund millage for a tech bond to be able to take care of some very large needs of our district um in such a way that hadn't really been done uh one other one that I can talk about real quick is um we were running short on um available funds
211on hand to be able to take care of air conditioning all the rest of the buildings the basically they told me you can do either the elementary school or the high school and middle school but you can't do all of it so we went ahead and we did a non voter approved Bond against the future collections of our syncing fund reduced what's coming from our sinking fund to pay for a bond so we were able to borrow that money at 2 and a qu% pulled a million dollars out and paid for all of our air conditioning to be installed during the summer of 23 for the prices that were bid in the summer of 21 um so if you guys have been looking at those numbers in the last few years that definitely saved our
212district the money over the top of what we paid in that interest rate um a lot of times it's just seeing what the problem is and finding a finding out what we can do um so I think between the tech Bond and the um Bond against the sinking fund pretty creative all right I'm next can you tell me about a time when you failed or something didn't go as you planned and how you responded to that situation to say how long go across better than it did um I think there were definitely going into the co bits where there were some ideas that we had that we thought were going to be right on Target and be well received that weren't um and when you make a mistake you own it you know I'm far
213from perfect but I will admit it when I screw up and try figure out how to adjust course and just be open and honest and transparent um you know when it comes to roads in the winter you know you watch the weather report on five different apps and three different channels and it's going to come in at 7 or it's going to come in at 9:00 and it rolls in at 7: you know there's all kinds of times where you make a judgment based on the information you have at the time and then you find out later that you didn't have all the right information um you just you learn from it and try not to repeat it again just doesn't do any good to blow smoke please describe how you would create a campus
214environment that is welcoming and inclusive with an increasingly diverse population I think it gets to a point of creating opportunities for kids to interact outside of their normal social groups um at our high school middle school this year and and honestly it's a bigger issue I I think at the high school middle school level because you tend to get more divided up based on content that you're taking grade level things like that and you end up traveling little groups a little bit more sports teams will start to group up um so we started something they called uh comic connections where about every other month they'll take a half day and put the kids into some special advisory groups where it's um Middle School state of grade level high school divided them up 912 and do
215different different team building activities different challenges um not meant to be super stressful just interacting with people outside of your normal comfort zone um put it just you know as a teacher I always changed up my seating chart I'd see two kids that didn't talk to each other next time they were sitting next to each other just forcing people out of that comfort zone um mix it up days you know in cafeteria you can't sit with who you normally would sit with um just all kinds of little things to uh just you know again force people out of that comfort zone but also celebrating and acknowledging some of the changes and differences and you know awareness of different holidays um at different groups and you know faas and areas to celebrate get under the belt
216yeah we're good we're good so that that's the end of our questions um is there anything else you want to share that wasn't covered in your answers to the other questions I don't think so well thank you for coming I appreciate it thank you enjoy the rest of your thank you so much e e e supp stream okay [Music] you're so start okay so our concern was with everything that they were pushing at that point in time our child wasn't ready for this and so we had a part of the conversation that Happ my son I'm not going to get into 100% of the details because I have three minutes so part of the thing that we were talking about is we first talked to Mr paler about the issue she said the issue was
217done now the issue came back up later on uh so I'm going to read what my wife put here so we we pulled on of school uh because we were not being heard from the superintendent from the board I emailed the board here two or three times never got any response so what I'm trying to figure out here is when my 7-year-old Conant came home a nervous wreck who the one who Lov School came home a nervous wreck didn't want to be in that classroom it still hangs with all his friends from that classroom he did not want to be in that classroom I never saw him get excited like he did when he said do you want to change teachers do you want to go to a different classroom and he jumped up and
218down like there was a party and so one of the things I think is feeling here is when I reach out and don't get a response that's not acceptable when I talk to the superintendent and expressed my concerns and literally one of the words I got from the previous superintendent was noted does that sound like I'm being listened to or heard that's my question so I feel when I hear some of the folks tonight talking about listening to the community all of the community I agree we need to listen to everybody but the last meeting all the bias went one way we didn't want to hear the other part of the community with we're not a community guys we're just not so we had to sit there and listen to everyone equally and I'm not
219seeing that and if I get back into my history I got kids that got graduated here 05 and 09 it was a different Community because it was where is that gone why are we pushing all this and not making sure everybody understands it that it's coming and talking about it and getting the community involved so we do it as a community that's my real question uh again let me see if there's anything else I need to here because I know I got three minutes so at the end we actually did change classrooms with my son and after 3 to 4 days he still wasn't getting any validation from the new classroom that he went to we have a seven-year-old that has feel uncomfortable going to school and I'm being told by the previous superintendent but
220that's just not happening and not it you know how hard that is to hear that they're telling you that our 7 yearold is tell those things that aren't happening he's a pretty smart seven-year-old when it comes to a lot of things and when we talk about everything that happened we basically said our child is not ready for this how can we work with this and we w't listen to so I want to know moving forward that you're going to listen to everybody because that's what needs to happen and I can tell you a lot more because again a lot of people thinks all this started March is started our classroom with one of my twins in ped work before everybody else knew about it so if you want to have a discussion with me I'll
221be more than happy to sit down with you thank [Music] you and Heather H thank you hello I'm Heather hagenau um lived into it 18 years but moved here in 1979 as a sixth grader uh I'm very very worried and concerned about this school district um seeing that I started in 6th grade in 1979 and the main reason my parents moved into W was because of the schools uh it was a time when Lake Geneva wasn't even paved it was dirt roads they put the county would come out and put oil on the roads you write ride your bike and you'd have oil all over you that's the dit I know that's the dit I want to see back um so like like I said the main reason we moved here was because of the
222schools I am that voice that John dny just said that may not talk you may not hear from because there's other louder voices I'm that voice that won't come and say anything but I'm very concerned with what's going on in our school district I'm just going to give you a little history lesson so you know where I'm coming from but can I see a show of hands is there anybody here that graduated from dit schools or ever attended dit schools one my mom became the administrative assistant to the superintendent of dit schools and served under three superintendents and many board members during her 10 years there her favorite superintendent was Terry Davis and still in contact with her to this day Mrs Davis came in at a time when dit was barely a Class B
223School District her goal was to put dwit schools on the map we are here because of her and I'm worried that we won't be here anymore unless we make a very good decision on superintendent her grow our growth from D came from her excellent and unique and the unique School District that we have people wanted to move here and raise their families here she did little things she brought people together the teachers the kids the parents the community this is what her Legacy will be so in choosing our next superintendent I hope you know and can convey what their legacy should be and what we want for this community Mrs Davis used to make sure that there was a panther on every school bus she was never in her office she was in all the
224school buildings all the time she loved to talk to the teachers and talk to the kids uh she made sure that the state Christmas tree came through dit and that all the school kids could come and see the dit or the Michigan Christmas Tree be delivered downtown Lancing she made things happen she was a PR machine and she made the what it is today and I am not I seeing that we are at a plateau and we're not going up any further we're going down out of the three candidates that I saw tonight I think they're all very good candidates I wish we could mold them all into one person Kevin I thought his teamwork attitude was outstanding Christy I could tell she was detail oriented and and and really did her research and uh
225could relate to our community and uh the district scores I thought that was very interesting uh when we met in smaller sessions in regards to what you want to see in a superintendent I said I want to see the W in top 50 schools why are we not in listed in the top 50 schools and Christy hit that Mark she saw that um John loved his ex's and O's attitude I was um interested in his dual enrollment and he always seemed to know it he made me feel like I knew where I could stand with him and he and where he would stand with me um and his common connections I thought was very interesting and that's what dit needs thank you thank you you're okay as we move into this next phase um I
226refer to my notes here just to some reminders for you um through this process we've gone through and gotten Community input we reviewed those surveys you also uh work through and developed the SE selection criteria which I think is one of the things that we want to use as a component and a reminder of the kinds of things that you're looking for in a superintendent you use the interviews today um that is one piece of what you're looking for uh in a superintendent you also have had the opportunity to review a lot of the materials their resumés their work experiences and therefore because of that you have you have information that maybe others haven't been able to see and that's going to help you in making your your decision uh we've done some reference checking
227for you we've given you that kind of information again things that I've been able to provide for you so that would help you in your decision making you know as we've gone through and looked at in round one we've looked at the qualities that you um are looking for in a superintendent and hopefully those would match with a selection criteria one of the things that I do want to emphasize to you is that you as you gather input you have much more information than many others may have and um it is you the one you are the people that decide you can gather that input you can get that information but it's you you are the ones that who do this deciding I ask that you as you go through this um because I know
228this is a difficult decision uh to bring back people that you are only interested in truly interested in um I've never believed in token interviews I don't believe in in bringing back people just to see but if uh you do bring back one two or three that we really do consider them that you would really look at hiring them um in this process if you're not ready to do that then we need to go to plan B which we've talked about before um which to go back to the drawing board but uh those are some perspectives that I have as we are going through this just some simple directions for for you one of the things that I did notice that so many of you were taking notes uh as we were going through this
229so different from some of the other groups that I've worked with um people need a lot more time to take to review their notes um it seems to me from watching you and taking those notes you probably have already identified some of the strengths of those candidates um look at how those candidates are and look what if they're meeting what you are looking for um what I would like to do is is to go through and discuss the candidates uh with you um I don't know how much time you're going to need to do that um but identify those candidates that you want to bring back um based on the criteria that you've developed that you want to go back to and um what we would do is to identify those strengths that you have
230um and eventually we're going to need to go through and do that uh publicly identified the people that you want to bring back so uh that's where we're at in the process I guess the question for me to you would be since you've been taking notes how much time do you need to go through and uh identify how long you need to gather your information it can be five minutes it can be 20 minutes can it be zero minutes it's up it's up to the board good do you want to do candidate by candidate Dave or what's your what's your recommendation well um we can go candidate by candidate um I also want to identify for for you or a perspective that I've views is if you have a strong belief in a particular candidate
231you speak on behalf of that candidate sometimes Silence of not speaking up on behalf of a particular person um you know they have a reputation as they go back into their District and I learned a long time ago if you don't have much good to say about a person that's better to say nothing so I would leave that up to you as a board as to how you want to handle that but I'm more interested in identifying the strengths because that's what your community is looking for who are you choosing and why are you choosing up particular person so so maybe we just you kind talk a little bit I nominate John i' like to talk about all fine I'd like to at least to talk about all of them I mean they all put
232in a lot of work to be here and I I feel that it's fair uh to be able to discuss uh the qualifications and the positives that each of them could bring to this District so I'll I'll just go right in order of the way um they they interview tonight and I'll start with Kevin um you know Kevin checked you know a lot of boxes for me in terms of what I'm looking for from that Community Builder perspective uh I think I I really liked how he focused Fus is on relationship building because I think that that's important uh I'd like that he listens a lot um and he's willing to factor in a lot of perspectives before he makes a decision I I think that's important uh in terms of chrisy I I thought
233she was highly detailed and prepared I was impressed with her prep her preparation not just by mentioning staff by name but talking about the district demographics doing research on the test scores and I did feel that she was the only of the three candidates who actually gave a really good answer on where we could improve with actual data um you know I I thought that was a strong moment for her uh John you know I value his experience as well uh for me when I coming into this process uh it was important for me to likely pursue an experienced superintendent and there are a few reasons for that um you know we just have a lot of new leadership in the district whether it's in the cabinet whether it's in building principles and administration teachers
234whatever it may be and I do think there's value in bringing someone in who has done the job before and understands um how to really bring the best out of people in terms of leadership and values so I I think John possesses those qualities as a you know 11e 10 year superintendent uh there's probably not much that he hasn't seen at this point uh and so I think all of them uh bring potentially some positive factors to do thank you next yeah sure I I think I Echo a lot of the comments about Kevin I think he mentioned climate and culture a lot and that that's something that that really stuck with me and and I think what his his best answers were the things where he was done answering the question and then he
235would kind of add in this this extra thing of you know and I remember him saying it I'm not I'm not the guy in the high tower and that's like he's this downto Earth just very um you know a man of the people I guess is the easiest way to say it but um Christie again very well prepared certainly has the credentials to to lead a district like ours I don't think there's any question about that um I I i' liked her ideas uh like John was saying about what the district could do differently um an IB Program I'm I'm not sure that seems ambitious but that's not a bad thing right so uh those are good John again the experience is there I mean his his his ways to to manage different Financial aspects
236of of running a district which is critically important uh is great I mean I I think that would be a huge value to us here of of thinking about things in a little bit of a different way so um I mean I think I think three great people um certainly um appreciate them taking the time to to prepare for sure so next angel I didn't do that um again Echo both uh Brad and John's comments um I really appreciated um the climate and culture comments by Kevin as well um I thought he did focus a lot on um in terms of the bullying question that was a big deal to me he did talk about you know what is bullying are we having a shared definition and then empathy and different ways and different programming
237but I like that he acknowledged that all children are unique and you can't just throw a program uh into any district and and have it fit um in terms of um your comments about him being a man of the people and out of the tower that stuck out to me as well um and I love that he talked about a meet and greet and getting people um in the conversations with him because we've heard that over and over again that that is going to be really important for our district um I um also appreciated the points that Christy made though on our test scores and uh sat preparation particularly you know having a junior Here I that that's a big deal um and I think she's got some um great experience in that area and
238then again with John here um I I liked his safety comments um he did seem to understand some of the critical components um having gone through uh that context with with Sandy Hook and um I think he had some real tangible things to add there um yeah so um with Kevin like many others I said the whole relational piece stuck out I think that um based on where our district has been and comments that we've heard from the community that that's something that is really going to be important um I agree that with his his Concepts on greeting and getting to know people and being connected I also liked his response to to technology um and mentioning how Ai and teaching people how to use it appropriately I think that's going to be important for
239our students in your future as while they District but also as they exit out um and jump into a space where they can successful at the next level whether that be in industry or whether that be at the community college or player institution whatever they choose to do after they graduate um I thought that Christie was prepared um I like some of her ideas but she didn't stick out as much to me as probably I'll be honest as Kevin or John did um John stuck out to me in a way that he just seemed to have a calm about him um I calming a situation that might be rough or a not pleasant conversation and and using the waters and putting people in a position where they could communicate versus perhaps shouting at each other
240um or being upset and uped in moments like that um I do think we had three really good candidates tonight um I just have probably more to yeah I'm going to Echo I think a lot of the thoughts that we've shared already I thought we had really great candidates I appreciated hearing from all of them I think Kevin talked a lot about listening and learning I thought that was valuable um I definitely got the feel from him that he was looking to kind of get in and get the feel for like the lay of the land and kind of figure things out before he jump to a plan I thought that's valuable he talked about the student as a whole I think he mentioned a couple of times I think the words he used was
241like emotionally and physically safe and I thought that was valuable because you're looking at you know the whole picture and not just focusing on physical safety I think emotional safety is important too um he talked a lot about Community involvement really listening and learning he talked about Community Pride so I think that he would do a good job of engaging the community in a useful way so I think that was great definitely you know some superintendent experience is valuable uh Christy definitely was really detail oriented she was super prepared she definitely has a lot of focus on data and academics I think that's going to be valuable she definitely focused on uh Ser assessing and SAT scores which of course is important and then John you know he brought a lot of experience to the
242table I agree I think he had a very calming presence it felt like he could probably handle just about anything that came at him probably nothing will surprise him I'm sure he's seen it all before and he clearly has a really good handle on the financial side of things budgets bonds you know um thinking outside the box to make something work around budget constraints so I agree I think all three of them have something unique to offer that they bring to the table yeah I agree I thought I thought Kudos Dave you brought us a lot of good candidates I thought you guys did a great job of narrowing three three really strong candidates I I don't I don't have a lot to add I think it sounds like we all took very similar notes
243um I'd like Kevin's level of experience as prior superintendent position or current superintendent position I like that climate and culture climate and culture discussion I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at Christy's book that she put together we only had a few minutes in between I look through it it's great it's kind of reflective of all the details she gave us during her presentation I thought I I really liked some of that material um again I feel like I'm just restating what others have said I like the I like that feeling of calmness but I also like from John also that feeling of come talk to me I want to listen to your concerns and how it help address them calmly so I think that's something maybe our community could use
244as well so great feedback where do we go next what's the best approach so the so we heard the the strengths then of each of the candidates so now at this point you need to decide we have tentatively set up second interviews for July 11 July June 11th uh which is Tuesday um you could you could bring back anyone one two or three um if you choose to do that the big thing for me would be to make sure that you have a comfort level in whoever you bring back and that once you make that decision to hire um now you're on a different plane you know you you we want to make sure we understand the candidate very thoroughly and is the has the information that we provided for you and the interviewing that
245you've done been enough information for you to make a decision if it's not then we need to go to the second interview if it is then again you have a decision to make so how do you guys feel about do we want to rank our C our top three candidates in order and see see if we have commonality there or is there a desire to bring back two people is there a desire to bring back one person or you guys I just have a question for Dave so let's just to Jason's point one two or three three and two I understand why would we only bring back one candidate in as opposed to maybe just offering that candidate the job is it just to glean more information at that point or talk to me about
246your experience with boards who would decide that because that seems a little outside of the norm compared to Bringing multiple candidates back the the perspective of bringing one a person back to talk with them again is that if there were some questions that they answered that you would like more in depth remember that in this process so far each of the candidates had to answer all of the same questions particularly for our newest board members when you bring fact a person there may be some things that you still had some question about you need more detail on you wanted more more of an expansive answer so that's a perspective that you can you can use as you're looking through it the danger becomes when you bring back only one person you've made a commitment to
247that one person that's or star or starting over that's correct I mean that's basically I mean that's the downfall that is that you're going through that because remember um again I'm I'm stepping back just a little bit but when the board makes a recommendation there somewhere along the line whenever that is the the and I'll say that I'm Jason I would make a recommendation to offer the position to Dave Moore and allow them to go into contract negotiations that's basically where we would be at so until the contract is negotiated and finalized the person is not truly hired until board takes action after the contract has been completed so to go back to your question John you lose the leverage a bit when you have one person that you're bringing back however and I'm giving
248both sides of the story is I just don't believe that bringing someone back for a second to bring someone back so we have two is a good idea I just think it's not fair to the candidates if you're truly not willing to hire them and one of the things that I've always said is if you're going to bring them back if person a backs out are you willing to hire person B and if you're not you know that's the issue that that you're that you're in right now and to go back to the other question that you had is could could we as a board select tonight or would we bring them back a second time I believe that was what Jason's question was or John's question I which but that's a choice that the
249board makes my my answer to would be do you based on the information you have do you have enough information to make a decision and if you do then you make a decision tonight thank you thoughts I've gone first every time everybody else I like I have enough information to make a decision tonight do not not would you would you prefer to bring back two candidates I would probably prefer to bring back to consensus on that I based on going through this last time if I'm sitting here right now I I I had I remember having a preferred candidate in my head and that was and the second interview changed that so I I think I think that makes sense that's why we go through the process right yeah I mean this process have PR
250candid starting and 50 minutes of them answering questions half of which they got ahead of time right I mean I I think more questions will make a difference so I I I guess I'm with Dwight I would support that as I agree too when we did this before too um if and I'm just using example if we had 15 questions I would say that probably five or six of them at least were customized to candidate and candidate they were different questions because there were each of them had different strengths and the board wanted more information in order to glean be able to make a decision so I know we're going to get in questions later but that's I I do want to talk about that approach because I I mentioned the bullying thing earlier I'd
251love to give a like an assignment or something like that and say come back to us with a 20 minute presentation on how what you're going to do 24 25 school year to address the bu concerns in our school that's just an example yeah it's a real example because that's what I would suggest but and the other thing I would say to that too Jason just as a advisor to this is when you do a presentation you can see a lot of things you can see how well the person's on their feet you can see how prepared they are you can see how they engage with you there's a lot of really positive pieces versus just a question and answer session so if we give them a time frame of 20 minutes with a topic
252and I person personally I would like to see you take one of the top tier subject areas that you're concerned about that you would like to see a plan or something addressed you use bullying it could be that it could be change it could be um how we're going to deal with inclusion it you pick but I think that giving that person an amount of time and saying hey you have 20 minutes to present on this particular topic that you choose I also think seeing a sample of like a welcome letter we did that with the principal interviews could be an interesting idea because it would give you a feel for like how they would engage and interact with the community not person a person but at least you could see a sample of how
253they would approach the community that's a great idea am I hearing consensus with the board to do some kind of presentation and do you like the the the one that was mentioned earlier which is bullying i' say 10 minutes that's fine minut is a long time I know when I when we did we did when we did the 90day plan last time I was here it was 10 minutes that was the first thing we started with you seem to be pretty comfortable with that but you can make it as long as you want I wasn't able to hear the response is that inclusive of no questions afterwards okay thank you yeah 10 minutes which you will now that you have the information you will be able to develop the new questions that you want to
254have to add to what you which you already have and I use the S give you the samples that remember when we had our original draft I think we're on draft nine there were several questions that we did not use you'd be able to pick from those if you chose to do those but that's totally up the board the only thing I'm going to request is if you're going to submit develop questions I need to know when those questions are going to come in okay so are we at a point where we wanted to select the two candidates we're going to bring back next week with that okay I'm happy to go first and I'd like to bring back Kevin and John I would second that de you're Deb you're taking notes for us thank
255you is that a motion no I think we're just I think we're just so who have we done so far Jason we want to make sure that those are public that everybody heard those sure and yours what your I also would like to bring Kevin and John thank you yep you want me that too messed it up for you days I just want to make sure because sometimes we can get into the confusion of somebody wrote it down they really didn't say it we want to make sure that the public it's open I am officially on record Kevin John thank you thank you I would like to bring back Kevin and John as well thank you you Jo would also like to bring back Kevin and John John have we got you let's go unanimous
256then I guess I'll go with John okay well you know uh what do you want to do time on and I'm sensitive to the time that you're getting out remember that that is the 11th unless we're changing the date um the last many times when I've done this we had add a little bit more time time because we want to make sure that we're being thorough so it might be if you went 6 and 7:15 or 6:30 like an hour and 15 can I note something our agenda does indicate that selection of finalist is a roll call vote and I have a roll call vote sheet can I consider each of us having voted for C and John as that yeah we I'll move to bring back John finalist next week support discussion okay now
257we can do a roll call Jason yes John yes uh Brad W yes Angelina yes yes Dwight yes discussion of final round questions well let's go back the date the 11th is going to work yes and we know that um Brad already talked with me Brad stard already talked with me he will be back that week so he's fine how about time 6 o00 I have o00 I honestly think an hour is plenty of time okay I'm I'm just confirming i' do an hour just an hour okay and so we've got the the welcome letter that Hana brought up everybody's good with that approach yes good that and then we're going to do 10 minutes of the way that they're going to attack The Bullying within the district with an extensive plan that will take
258approximately 10 minutes are you you give them a written prompt or how are you because I think it's important that they include metrics how are they going to know at the end of the year it's successful I think all of those things it just can't be I'm going to do this okay what are you going to do and then how you going to show that it worked okay and the questions how do you want to handle those do you want to submit them to me or do each one of you want to develop two questions and you'll bring those to the table on on that night I mean I'm happy to submit them ahead time but I I will have different questions from different candidates based on and I'm fine with that okay so why
259don't we all send them to you as the repository of questions I would like I would like to think about it and talk to people absolutely and so figure out what I mean if there's something that came up that they and the one question that we're talking about or the two things that we're talking about I can give those to them right away sure and we have we have today's Monday we've got or Tuesday whatever day it is we've got the rest of the week to you tell me when you can get it done okay Friday Friday question that's fine Friday Dave Y in my view on whatever I even is principal I don't read much at 4:00 in the afternoon so my view is it's it's no later than 8:00 a.m. on Saturday because
260I'm not going to read it on Friday night well that's fair as long as you weren't going to say 8 a.m. on Friday no it's no later than that that Saturday and that way you've got all of Friday work till midnight to get them done I got a question because I was not a part of this process the last time when finalists are brought back are they then in a position to have conversations and I know that there's a building tour that's going to happen but is there an opportunity for them to meet with the current cabinet or other Administration how did that work the last time we had have conversations there was like a meet and greet right before okay so when would that happen like are we going to say if if the
261interview is going to start at 6 are you going to tell a candidate they have to be here at 5 so that there's not well I don't have a bunch sheet in front of me okay so the problem where where I'm stuttering a little bit is is that we were trying to do a meet and greet before the kids left okay the so the problem is they're going to be gone on the 11th there's no meeting or greeing that's going on they're all gone you have calendar for June 5th here we go hey Dave so we have building tours potentially on Wednesday for these two candidates and then what we did last time was say we had candidate number one come at 5:00 from 5 to 5:20 meet in a classroom here and then it
262was up to them um we could do a box box lunch or dinner and then we had a little Gap that person went to the conference room and then we brought the next candidate in and it was all before the 6 PM board meeting so they did have to come in kind of H have to hang out that second candidate but it was an opportunity for the cabinet to meet them so that was just the cabinet right Dad yes because my question would be could we could we do the cabinet on the on the site visits on Wednesday and not have two days of stuff and I don't know that we need to answer that question now but I would if there's a way that we can take care of those things and one visit
263for them that might be easier I know several cabinets do have pre-arranged schedules that they can y I understand that we we can work on that okay I think we we have the parts that we need to have and I will make the contact with those people tonight um usually I do the person who's the farthest away I give them the choice of where they want they want to do first or second you want me to fli the co I can do that too N I like your approach okay anything else thank you Dave appreciate your patience and work with us okay anything else thank you all right motion motion to discussion all favor say I thank you all