Board of Education Work Session – Aug 12, 2024

001e e e [Music] awesome all right apologies for the delay we had technical difficulties but I would like to call this meeting to order Miss Motika can you please lead us to uh in the pledge thank you I would I need a motion in a second to approve the agenda for August 12th 2024 as presented some second which one did you get it you got okay all right all those in favor please raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes I need a motion in a second to approve the curriculum for second reading as presented so moved pbor second boo all those in favor please raise your right hand and say I I all those opposed motion passes now moving on as you all know we are in the process

002of um looking for the next superar to serve as our superintendent of Kirkwood School District um tonight we will be interviewing three search firms and we'll collectively decide on which one will lead our search based on both um qualitative and quantitative factors first up we have Ray and associates oh Kathy it should be Kathy yes let her in first and then we'll see yeah correct Dr [Music] Hall you're muted if you are trying to speak there she ISS there you are hi good evening are you presenting with um Molly can you all hear me yes can you hear us well you're a little low are my colleagues here who are your colleagues and are Greg and Molly your colleagues yeah yes okay and if you could you may can you um turn your volume up

003Dr Hall yeah I have it all the way up I hope yes here's my team hello good evening everybody good evening apologies for the delay in the start we had some technical difficulties you know how technology works and don't doesn't work alrighty give us one second are we is there any way that we can turn it up okay okay see my screen yes yes is it is it big enough for everybody or do I need to adjust the size it's perfect awesome if you could we're working oh we're working on the volume so if you can speak a little louder that would be helpful to us very good perfect [Music] perfect alrighty so you will have right would you like for us to begin yes please wonderful well good evening ladies and gentlemen everyone on

004the board it is an honor to spend time with you this evening thank you so much for the opportunity and uh my name is is Karen Hall and I am the managing director for rayan associates I have been with this company now for four years and uh I am very fortunate to be a part of the the leadership team here and just a little bit where I am right now I've been with St Louis University um for going on my fourth year now and educational leadership is what what I um focus on as a professor in the educational leadership program graduate level with people who are aspiring to be principles and also superintendents so my passion for education has never diminished and educational leadership is my my heart and I'm very dedicated to of this

005work and especially to St Louis um finding the best leaders for our children because this really what this is all about so I would like to pass it on to my colleague here who will be a part of the team this is greay greay would you like to give a few words good evening Kirkwood how are you um my name is Greg baon H horse and I just joined the ray Associates team after 40 years in education the last seven of those years as the superintendent of the Mount Vernon Community School District in Mount Vernon Iowa which is in Eastern Iowa 23 of those years in education were spent in the St Louis area as an administrator I was a principal Middle School principal in both Francis how and Rockwood School Districts was assistant superintendent

006in the school district of Clayton but most importantly I spent seven years of my career the first seven years in administration my work home was 700 South Kirkwood Road better known to you as knifer Middle School I'm also a r Associates Alum so I've Seen Rain Associates from both sides I was a candidate for the Mount Vernon superintendency seven years ago with rain Associates leading the search and it was their in-depth candidate research and their National connections that brought Mount Vernon and I together and what became a great marriage for seven years then the school board chose rain Associates to choose my successor so I was able to watch rain Associates do their work from the other side and could see the rain Associates systems at work and I can tell you tonight that the

007things that we're going to describe to you the process CES really do work and I would be honored to come back to Kirkwood and work with you thanks Craig full disclosure I hate going after Dr Karen Hall she's just such a power house I was Joker on that I like to open up first and then I go then Karen goes after me because otherwise I feel like I sound like the teacher from Snoopy that want want want after going after Dr Hall um my name is Molly schwortz off and I am the president with Ray and Associates um you o see Miss Kathy schonfelder and she's the vice president within our firm she would also be helping out um from the corporate side she'd be your in-house contact and I think that's one of the

008things that really helps us stand apart is between Kathy and myself you will always have somebody that you can reach in the office so even if Dr Hall or Dr B are out you can certainly reach one of us on the team and I think that's something that really stands out we're always available even after hours and over the weekend as well so happy to be here and excited to to meet you all so let's talk about the vision mission for Kirkwood and why that's important when I was looking at the vision Vision vision mission and even the Strategic plan of Kirkwood there were certain words that jumped out at me I want to share those with you those words included engaged empowered empathetic value all people children and their needs come first and I

009have to say that I think it's absolutely awesome that on the front page of your website there is a great video of a special needs student engaging with um one of his peers and what looks like utter Joy um between the two kids and it was just phenomenal to see that as as your homepage and and what that means to you as a community your mission your vision your strategic plan that's your North Star in identifying your new leader and it's our Northstar in helping you find your new leader for what I think is still one of the Premier jobs and districts in the St Louis area in Missouri and Nationwide you know that Kirkwood is a great Community you know that people who grow up in Kirkwood often want to come back and do

010come back there is great Community Pride Community Pride and history matters in Kirkwood and the new leader needs to know and embrace this and we are ready to help you in that search for that perfect person a little bit about who we are um we have been specializing in school leadership searches since 1975 which makes us one of the longest standing search firms in the country something we're very proud of um our process you're going to hear us talk about it quite a bit this evening between Dr B and Karen um our process will keep you and your District on The Cutting Edge of education and more importantly we'll keep you all informed um from beginning to and you and your stakeholders will have transparency on the process know exactly what's going on so if

011you as a board member are at a school event at District event or at a school and somebody stops you and says hey what's going on with the search you're going to know exactly what to respond with you're going to have feel very very supported and comfortable responding and letting folks know where they are um our associate team Blends diverse individuals and backgrounds over 40% of our leadership is of women and people of color recruiting from the nation's largest pool of candidates is our business and we do it well we find the best fit for your District um one of the best things and and what makes our firm great um is our our Associates we have Associates from all across the country they are much more talented than I will ever be um their

012experience speaks volumes they are either former superintendents such as the two that I have with me today um former board members or former cabinet members so they really know all worlds of the school district system and they can really help find us the best fit for your school district thank you Molly and from a a personal perspective this part of the organization is very um important to me and why I I work for rayan associates is the value of diversity Equity inclusion so it starts there with how we listen and respect those who are in the organization who can give input in the super superintendent search and really dig deep and provide the boards the best candidates who are leaders of diversity equity and inclusion so throughout the entire process I see it as it

013to be very inclusive because we ensure that we have multiple stakeholders that are involved all voices as you know through the guidance of the Board of Education are part of the process and then secondly when we have conversations with candidates and it's especially a focus of the school district such as Kirkwood the work around diversity Equity inclusion we know how to delve in and ask the right questions to make sure that there is an understanding of how to lead this work and again I personally appreciate this and I'm in a position where I can Leverage What I Know to support boards to find leaders that value diversity equity and inclusion and I know Kirkwood you all have been working on this for uh several years and I remember when I was a teacher in Kirkwood

014this work um actually my first introduction of diversity Equity inclusion many years ago and I know the executive director of diversity equity and inclusion Dr map who used to be a teacher for me and Maplewood Richmond Heights and his heart and what he's trying to do and in different ways I have supported Kirkwood over the years with this work so this um we work together and we listen and we want to make sure it's the right fit for where you are right now and where you want to go next in regards to this work so um it is a priority but we also partner with you and listen closely to what your needs are thank you next slide So speaking of listening closely and consistently is this work that we do for um you as

015the board so we like to say this is your search in the way you want to do it but the way that we work with you is we collaborate with you we have a process we have a method that we know that we believe in that we have used and yield a great success over many years but it is your community so we do the work and you give the input you say yes no yes we want to move in this direction no we don't like this we can provide this for you and when I work with you it is collaborative it is communicative it is consistent so there are ways that you going to hear in the next few slides how this works but on this slide you just see a snapshot of different

016ways you are able to give input and immediately the pacing of how you want to run your search is up to you but we recommend a timeline so you don't start from scratch we provide you recommendations based on what you want and we work backwards from that and you have input and there's flexibility um the the profile is again it's multifaceted it's qualitative quantitative you have input in an individual interview um and that's with our our one-on-one from the candidates or excuse me from the associates we sit down and we have a conversation with you and then also we can do just a global scan of what the the salaries are in comps of other districts but of course you all know your financial situation but we provide you some information to begin the conversation

017if you haven't done and some recommendations just on some national comparisons as well so it is a start this is your search but you're not starting from scratch and you're not alone and we work very closely with you throughout the process and provide that communication so you never feel like you're worried about what's going to happen or you cannot say in the community well where are you with this and how is it going and why did you do that you will never be at a loss and you will never have any surprises so let's dig just a little deeper in that profile development the district profile needs to be unique to Kirkwood Kirkwood is not Clayton Kirkwood is not Parkway it's not Leo it's not Webster grow the goal is to bring the board the

018district and the community to come together and to build a profile for a Kirkwood leader one of the things we do in the beginning that was expressed um by Dr Hall is the onetoone interviews with board members which is critical because you know the most important role you have as a board member is to hire the superintendent we also then will utilize surveys if you would wish to use those to reach out to as many stakeholders with the Kirkwood District as we can to get their input on what they think an ideal leader would look like in the district we want to engage as many stakeholders as possible in helping you make this very important decision we also will do um in-person or virtual stakeholder meetings that's your choice depending on what works best for

019you um based on an assessment of 31 leadership qualities we know tell us make an exemplary leader so we'll bring that information together to guide stakeholders in creating the ideal profile profile for a Kirkwood leader once we have that profile then we're ready to roll and we're ready to roll right into recruitment which is next so just a little bit more about recruitment as um Molly said earlier we have Associates across the country that are ready to personally reach out to candidates who they feel fit to profile to encourage them to apply they know candidates from um previous searches or from their interest in um reing Associates in the past or from work with them in their different communities or States we're also able to use a variety of advertising mechanisms and marketing tools available

020online and in many different uh ways to help you get the word out to as broad an audience as possible so you can have as diverse a pool of candidates as possible we will work with you to tailor make that the tools that you want to use as a board and as a district we were reached to get the word out and give you the choice in how to move forward um to make sure that we recruit the absolute best candidates possible that fit the uniquely Kirkwood profile thank you Greg and so the candidate pool this is very important um this process and and what we do we uh are very uh conscientious in what we do in this process it's also collaborative you have a lot of input and access to the candidates before

021they become semi-finalists when you get to the last two or three so the first step is you've heard about this briefly about developing the profile for the superintendent so that is when you cast that net to your stakeholder groups it includes the one-on-one interviews it includes the survey the 31 qualities all of this information the qualitative and the quantitative information is all combined and myself and the team here that you are are hearing we create the themes that comes from all of information that we have developed and we're able to share that with you and you give input based on what you want to prioritize to use this as the profile so it's also the job description we put it out in the world to recruit but we use it internally when we begin to

022look at all of the candidate information from the people who have applied for the position and that is the the starting point for how we begin to determine who is a good fit so in that beginning stage we have have a social media search and we also will select maybe 10 that we feel that are a best fit along with that profile that I just described and we will have conversations our Associates will and we will have um interviews and conversations and we will check their references along with the social media search so that's the first tier of finding out about our candidates we don't want surprises so we do our due diligence with this pool and there's multiple ways that we do it when we get closer to the semifinalist then there's the deeper

023dive where you will see the criminal civil litigation Social Security all of these things that's done after you have decided that you want the semifinalist candidates to meet with you so that's at the very end but in the beginning we do do the background search around those individuals but not as deep for the first 10 let's say that you would need now um at the next slide to learn more about what you are doing in the board selection and and your engagement so after we have used the superintendent proam profile we select those top candidates and so you have an opportunity to review all the resumés and we have something called a SP a spark hire video and Spark hire videos are just a snapshot shot of these individuals but you get to see this

024um image and have them answer three questions which they have like a minute and a half per each question and it's lovely to have a face to the name and hear how they respond to these questions and they don't know these questions ahead of time and then also the board you can decide you know the input on what the questions are you know as we move along you have input in some of the questions that we have that you would be interested in hearing um the candidates respond to so you would have the resume and the application all that information plus the spark hire video and you would have all of this information this is like homework assignment that I give everyone and you have to study all of the candidates and then you come

025together as a board and we have a process that we call a consensus building Matrix and it's lovely because it provides you this process C to think about each candidate and you compare one another um compare the candidates to one another and it provides you all the opportunity to really advocate for a particular candidate it's not something that is cut and stone if you all don't want to use that and you clearly know what you want to do in terms of who you want to select of course you can do that again this is your search but we have the tools you don't have to start from scratch and this Matrix is very very helpful to have this opportunity to help facilitate the conversation for you to decide which candidate is the best fit for

026Kirkwood so from that conversation you then come up with the semifinal and then your final um interviews and so we use that Matrix for each round to help you facilitate those conversations and how you want to move forward and then also you have input on the questions yet again this is a tool in my toolbox we have suggested interview questions for you but you can customize them as it best fits your needs and what you really want to know from the candidates so we have this for you so all of this is a level of Engagement for you we provide you the structure we provide you our expertise as consultants but this is your search this is your community and this is your expertise and we are here to make sure you feel confident about

027moving forward and making this very important decision thank you Dr Hall I know we're getting close to our to our time limit for our presentation so I do just want to quickly go over just the overview of what you heard from Dr B and Dr Hall um this talks about the size and scope of our firm we talk about the engagement and the support from the associates that you would receive along with the full-time office staff um the educational leadership Outreach we talk about our associate database and how wonderful they are and how crucial they are to Our Success we have a long-standing relationship with State national educational associations and we have incredible website traffic count of over 20 8,000 visits per month um that's something we're very very proud of Dr Hall touched on

028the background checks along with those oneway video interviews they'll spark higher videos and then we talk about the leadership and performance from the board's end um determining the timelines compensation helping finalize the profile and help facilitate the interviews along with being a part of the board decision making and helping facilitate that meeting um when it comes to the selection assistance we would assess with the contract finalization and assist with any board and candidate followup um if you have the proposal in front of you will also see that we offer a board assessment piece where we stay in contact with you and the final candidate for every six months we do a check-in for as long as that candidate is in office and we offer additional workshops um programs including surveys um just to kind of

029see areas that you guys are excelling in in areas that may need a little bit more attention and what that process looks like to help get everything on where it needs to be um with that in mind I want to be respectful of time and I believe we're right at our Mark so I will open the door for any questions that you may have for us thank you canar can you guys hear me can you hear yes okay thank you so much um for that presentation and um I'm going to ask you a series of questions um they may you may or may not actually I saw a few few of them that you kind of touched base on um so if you can just repeat those um answers or elaborate as you um wish

030all right the first question is based on what you know about Kirkwood School District what should we highlight about our district and Community to attract the most qualified candidates your strategic plan says it all several different areas because you talk about um academic rigor and Excellence which obviously that's the center point of many strong School District um there are a lot of references to U diversity and equity and those are we feel are critical in helping students in the you know 21st century plus to be effective citizens moving forward so so that's critical uh being aware of of uh serving students with special needs and and how they will receive the best education possible and just making sure that that the person you choose is staying on The Cutting Edge of those things that are

031you know first and foremost in people's minds and ensuring that their kids when they you know cross the stage in May every year is great graduates that they are prepared for the variety of places that they are going to go to after high school and are prepared for the workforce once they um leave a two-year school fouryear school go straight into the workplace into the military whatever they choose but um those those are some of the critical things to to know and again too to to ensure that what we said is true about your person truly buying into the uniqueness of the Kirkwood Community this is your hire in your special community and it's not a one-size fits all thank you what is the best way to manage the community and stakeholder feedback in this

032process in order to make the amount of information obtained manageable while assuring all parties are heard from in represented I'll take that question because it's my favorite part of the process is working it really is um and working with uh the the community and we have recommendations we start with the board and we take the recommendations of the different groups that you would like for us to meet with for stakeholder groups and um that include students parents that is the business Community it it's all of the uh it's just the crosssection because all of that is um feeds into the school and everyone in the community has um some connection to the superintendent so they should have some voice and all of that and so we have over time created um a hybrid approach where

033we've had like this we've had Zoom stakeholder meetings we've had in-person meetings I've done all of them and um they're all very effective and what we do because I I mentioned this earlier there are questions that we ask that are very similar and we then compile all of that information and we come up with the themes and we report that information out to the board of education so we are able to manage that because that's what we do and we have been in a space where we've had 30 over 30 stakeholder groups and we were able to do everything that I said that we've done and have the um Associates available to do this work and we can be there in person we can do it virtual and um it's similar questions that the board

034would have so there's that alignment so we're looking for common themes and threads throughout that information information and then the next thing that we do um is a survey so if we are not able to capture people in person individuals have an opportunity to you know complete the online survey which is the 31 um qualities of a leader so what we do we have this this survey already prepared and we give you all that link and you disseminate the link out you put it on your your web page you give it to all of the building leaders so they can put it on their web page and then there's issues if you have the digital you know divide those who don't have access to um technology we can also provide it with a paper and

035we've also included that so we can make that happen as well because we want it to be as inclusive as possible and as we talk about inclusivity we also can translate all of these I don't think there's a language yet haven't come across yet that we cannot translate the survey for so I I am passionate about this hearing everyone's voice and I just love talking to the people like and working with the students gets me excited and their voice is very important and um working with your contact person on the district you know like typically you have the board president and then you have someone who does like administrative um work for the board so we become a team and um we make sure that that happens that it's seamless and again we do that

036I mean it we're very good at it and we love it we make sure that um this happens for you so the voices are so people feel like oh yeah we knew what was going on yeah because you know we heard about it and we were able to to participate um we get the tools we get the people out but we also need to work in uh collaboration with you all to get the survey um posted and then also to get the word out that this is happening like please show up you know um we need help with that because you all know your people and so that's where we work hand inand on that thank you Kirkwood school district is committed to diversity equity and inclusion how will you go about reaching and presenting

037a diverse pool of candidates both locally and nationally when it comes to race gender ethnicity you kind of spoke on that but if you can elaborate on so in in terms of recruitment that all starts with our Associates honestly um and our reach and the people that we know and we are known for having our diverse pool and we have and maybe mly you could add more with um the portal and how we we manage that and the and the information that we collect but we start off with the board and getting really clear on what they need and if that is something that the community is looking for uh in terms of a a diverse candidate pool um like there are some for example when I say all that there are some communities that

038would really like a bilingual leader that is something that they really need and so then that is then what we work on we're we're looking for that um but we want to be responsive to what the community is looking for but we do have resources in order uh to do the very thing that you're talking talking about and I feel confident about that and M do you want to elaborate more especially on our our portal absolutely and I do want to touch on to you you asked the question and I I caught it where you asked about both locally and nationally as far as reach out um National is not a problem you know we are a national search firm that's what we focus on and our Associates are all across the country so when

039we do that networking it comes both through that system but also these these people know each other so there's a personal relationship and our Associates are not going to vouch for somebody that they don't feel comfortable vouching for but also locally these two individuals on the screen um they're too humble to really touch on that but their experience and their knowledge within your communities and within your state and even the region these are the folks that are going to really attract those amazing candidates that you're looking at um Dr Hall mentioned our portal something that we are very proud of with rain Associates is our candidate care we treat our candidates fairly and they come back um Dr B is an example of our candidate care somehow I cont him into actually working with us

040as he's going into retirement so I think that speaks volumes but with our candidate care and our portal we customize that application to what your needs are and what you're looking for so as Dr Hall mentioned if you're looking for someone who's bilingual we would customize that application to ask that question you know do you speak any other additional languages if so please list them but we customize those applications to Kirkwood it's not just a copy and paste here's a blank application that goes to every school district we customize it to your needs and what you're looking for just let me speak anecdotally for a second as as one of the new people um when we do our quarterly meetings with all Associates across the firm uh you see a a hodg podge of people

041from an ethnicity perspective from a location perspective um from all corners of the United States and um that's that's always very reassuring and and it's fun to see and fun to listen to people from different parts of of the nation collaborating together to to do the best we can for the for our clients uh locally I have a list of people I'm ready to call um to ask them you know who they think are some of the strongest candidates for Kirkwood based on the profile that you're looking for um so we're ready to roll there um and I think I want to go back to one thing that Molly pointed out in the very beginning the fact that um uh the President and Vice President of the firm are women and then Dr Hall is

042one of my other immediate supervisor so my three most immediate supervisors are women and one of them is an African-American woman I think that's awesome um guys have been screwing things up for long enough so let's let the women take charge and and we'll fall in line and and do some of the Dirty Work they assign us but um I think we put our money where our mouth is in the fact that it is a very diverse organization that will do its best to bring you a diverse set of candidates based on your profile for Kirkwood thank you and so I just want to we have about five more questions um to go um so number four given there are currently three other school districts in our area looking for a new superintendent can you

043guarantee that our team mean you guys on the screen will solely focus on Kirkwood I can guarantee with rain Associates that your lead would solely be focused on Kirkwood um I cannot guarantee the corporate office and support just because it is Kathy and myself um we work all districts across the country um to help support so I can guarantee your lead would be solely with Kirkwood if we were lucky enough to be selected thank you can you describe what an ideal process of negotiation with a final candidate would look like with your firm's support absolutely one of my favorite documents we call it a contract component sheet and it is literally a fill-in-the blank of a superintendent contract we do this before we even get to your top two or top three finalist we bring

044it forward with the board and we fill it in with the current contract we just fill it in with exactly what you currently have we then get into a discussion when we're talking about presenting candidates of what would those changes would look like especially for those top usually top two or top three candidates are what you bring in for your second round of interviews and talk about what those modifications would look like based off of those candidates and the reason we do that is if you've got someone who's coming in as an assistant superintendent that contract may look a little bit different than somebody that's coming in with 10 15 years as superintendent under their belt so you would have that opportunity to customize it based off those top two or top three candidates and

045what that would look like like so ultimately when we go into that final meeting after your second round of interviews and you all decide this is our person we are excited let's let's make them an offer we have that contract outlined ready to roll so that we can call that candidate lay it out for him they can accept and it can be pushed out to your to your stakeholders and your community almost immediately thank you um what are your methods for Gathering thoughts and feedback from school school boards um given that members may have a diverse range of priorities and experiences and so like how would you help us as a board organize our thinking to ensure that all members voices are represented oh I love this question um so one of the first things

046that we do when we get together and I do want to invite Dr Hall and Dr B to chime in too but one of the first things we do after our first meeting when we talk about salary timeline um recruitment advertising all those fun things then we set up oneon-one interviews with each board member so we would set up a time and it's usually based off of the board's availability so sometimes it's on weekends sometimes it's a you know weekdays in the evening but we would set up a one-on-one phone conversation with you everyone has asked the same questions your answers remain anonymous but it helps us as a team understand where the board is what the themes look like and how we can make sure that everyone's voice is heard um you know I

047had one my favorite example is I had a board down in Texas and I had a gal that she was incredibly shy and had a lot of anxiety because she was new it was her first I think week or month on the board and she was very nervous because it was the biggest hire that the board makes with their one employee um and I really got a chance to get to know her talk about what her anxiety looked like what she was concerned about and then when we get into those meetings the team is well informed so we know how to manage that meeting so that every voice is heard and everyone has feels that they are their input um and one of the things that I like to do being the lead I don't

048like surprises and I don't want the board to feel what I mean I don't want the board to to feel surprised or they don't know the next step um working closely with the board president or the designate for um the board committee chair for this process closely and also trying to get a feel for what the leader from the board feels the best way to disseminate information so it's okay everybody you have to do this and you get it done at that moment I let people know ahead of time where we're heading and everyone can be prepared so our first meeting is to work on the timeline so I let the designate know hey this next meeting we need to talk about calendar so everyone needs to bring their calendar so I don't want people

049to know at a meeting that we're talking about calendars and they weren't really in the right frame of mind see what I'm saying so I want people to feel comfortable and confident every time they are going to talk about this they know where they're going and what to expect so they know how to plan their lives and I will ahead of time tell the designate or the board president okay we're looking at probably six dates that we need folks to all be together and we're looking at this so you all know ahead of time what we're looking for because it's hard when you have seven people trying to meet at the same time more meetings than what you normally do that's like hurting you know cats sometimes so whenever I can do the pre- meting

050and the pre prep so the board knows that diminishes a lot of the stress um moving forward so that's when I say I'm collaborative and communicative I like the board to know ahead of time what is expected of them so they are prepared before they come to the meeting then they can do the work so that's how um that's been a strategy that I've done to help bring everyone together so let's take this down to a more personal level even for a second um when you think about the components of an effective search and you talk about the um one: one meetings with you as board members and you talk about the stakeholder meetings and you talk about problem solving meetings and and collaboration with you as a board around things from contracts to who

051do we invite to interview you think about all those things that's in our DNA that's what we've been doing our whole lives as Educators we've worked with groups we've worked onetoone to help people um come to good decisions we've worked with people collaboratively to bring them together in a consensus to make sure we get the best result possible no matter what we're doing so this is what we have done for our entire lives and why we are confident that we can serve you well I first Ste foot in a classroom in 1984 I know I look much younger than that but um what was true in 1984 is a saying that's true today it's about relationships relationships relationships we're going to come in and we're going to do our level best to build relationships with

052you with the Kirkwood Community so that we can work together to get the outcome that we all want that's why Dr Hall and I are very passionate about St Louis schools and St Louis kids we know your community um we know the district raise your hand other search firms if you've you know made homemade french fries and sold them at the Green Tree Festival and the knifer PTO uh Booth um so I'll throw let out as a gauntlet to our competitors but also too I think we've been dancing around this for the whole night and I think it's what has to be glaringly obvious is the number one thing that the superintendent of Kirkwood has to know and has to do is to keep alive the 10 game winning streak against Webster in the turkey

053day game so do that that is your number one goal all right um what tools and resources would your firm provide to us uh to provide to help us find and evaluate candidates um you mentioned that portal but this also includes any experience you have with creating compelling videos and or visuals uh to utiliz in the job postings as we know that that will substantially increase candidate engagement absolutely so Karen I'm gonna let you jump in here too but I do want to start off with that what we offer as part of our service is that we have somebody inhouse that we will do a promotional video um last time I checked we are the only firm that offers that service um and that video would be compiled by us um the only thing we

054would need from your staff is I send a checklist out prior to that first meeting and it requires um just requests you know five to seven pictures a couple blurbs here and there it's nothing crazy it's one pager I promise it's not scary um that we would ask for that information and then we do a promotional video um we offer that service um we also we could do a hard copy brochure as well if you would prefer but the video has seen a great success that we would like to continue to do awesome and then just in one minute or less is there anything else you would like for us to know about your firm um well we know as uh GRE said a moment ago we know a great deal about the district and

055we feel that we we're going to work really hard for what you need for your next leader and because we know the community so well um we want to hit the road running hard because as you mentioned there's three big districts now at the same time that are going to be open and we've been strategizing and thinking about how we can get ahead and get out of um the gate running hard for you so you have the the first pick so to speak out there so we've been thinking about that and how we're going to do that um because we want you all to have a shining star a superstar because that's what you deserve and that's what the students of Kirkwood deserve and we're here to do our very best to get you what

056um your your community needs so yeah we're ready to work hard for you all we're really ready to do our very best so thank you so much for this opportunity I could throw in just one sentence real quick um Kirkwood is a very resilient community and it's been through some tough times but the constant has been your commitment to kids and we are thrilled to be considered as one of the three candidates and we are very passionate about your community and really are excited to work with you we just appreciate the opportunity as a group and I appreciate the opportunity to to listen to Dr Hall and Dr Bey and talk about their experience with Kirkwood it's been really neat to to hear we actually had a meeting this morning um preparing as if we

057had the search so we're ready to hit the road you know we're ready to hit it run and just as Dr Hall mentioned so thank you again for your time we really appreciate it and we look forward to hearing from you thank you all and uh we will be in touch soon thank you thank you e e all right I think we are you can let them y ready are we good any good evening can you guys hear us or me you're muted Diane there we go I can hear all right good evening thank you all for taking the time to um present to us um I'm Nicole Sher I'm the president of the school board I will start here to my left uh Ben if you want to give you Ben caffy G Marie

058Andrews that's Mark boo Judy Motika Laura heurn and Jennifer P Bo all right you will have 20 minutes to present good evening 20 minutes I'm sorry there's a delay 20 minutes to present um afterwards I will ask you eight questions and you will have um three minutes to answer each question all right thank you very much for time you Diane do you want to introduce yourself and then I will go and we'll start the slideshow sure uh my name is Diane Robertson and uh I am a former superintendent I call myself a recovering superintendent I retired 11 years ago but was a superintendent in Illinois for 22 years I've been with school exec connect since 2006 I believe and uh I live in the Quincy Illinois area so that's the central part of the state

059and I've been doing searches um since then for school exact connect um in the in the midsection of the state of Illinois um mainly uh currently I am working as a field services director for the Illinois Association of school administrators and what I do in that position is I mentor and support superintendant around the state of Illinois focusing mainly on the early career superintendent but also supporting veteran superintendent um in addition to that I am well versed in Illinois School finance and so I also do a a boatload I call it of uh Finance workshops around the state and help uh School superintendents with their their budgets their tax levies and uh filing grants and reports and and all things financed in the um Illinois realm so that's just a little bit about me Kevin

060thanks thean uh good evening everyone my name is Kevin Oma I am um a former superintendent here in the state of Illinois for nine years retired six years ago um after that I became an associate professor at Concordia University Chicago just outside Chicago um and help run their PHD Ed program and train and do classes internship um workshops for aspiring superintendents um I am one of the two owners of school exact connect and I've done over 55 searches uh with people like Diane who's a great partner uh in in this regard um the most recent one I did in your area was uh for Dr Curtis Kain um at Rockwood School District and uh one of the reasons I recruited him is because the president of aasa the American Association of school administrators uh Dave

061Schuler who's a good friend of mine which is part of our networking uh said that he was going to be a finalist for superintendent of the Year Nationwide and actually about a week after he signed his contract he was named National superintendent of the year so our networking is very very strong um and um we love to to work with you and and we'll take it from there if that's okay um our background is that uh we we've been around for 20 years we have over 650 now successful searches 67 Consultants work for our firm across the United States uh we've got hundreds of uh contacts Nationwide uh just last spring in February we did I'm sorry in March we did a we're invited by aasa to do a national conference on um aspiring superintendant

062uh for women and people of color and we've been invited back to do the same conference in New Orleans this this March so we're going to go back there and do that again every single search we've ever done has been completed on time and within budget we have a 97% success rate and that's defined by the metric of those superintendant who remain in good standing with the board after their first contract and our offered a second contract um we gave you a list of some references from some school districts in your area but we've got many more if you need some more um our search plan is a four-phase process we open the search process with a planning meeting with the board um you help us to find the timeline and scope of the search

063uh we have suggestions for that but these are ultimately board decisions we start working with the board and your stakeholders to create a candidate profile we have a psychometric developed survey that we use plus we do a series of focus groups with your stakeholders and other constituents uh we will start developing the candidate pool right away again Nationwide we feel this is going to be a nationwide search we'll attract great candidates and then we work with the board to narrow down and select the state of C slate of candidates by face-to-face interviews and uh present a slate of semi-finalist to the board of education for your consideration um our search process is this eight-step process you can read through this yourself um but we have a good success rate not only because our process is

064outstanding but because our our 67 people that work for the firm are really really good partners and get the word out that this is a great uh opening for for anyone who wants to commit to this to this this jop search I'm GNA turn it over to Diane so Kevin if you could go back and stay on that slide uh just a second so one one thing that um the devil is in the details right and I know that you all have received a formal proposal that has a lot more detail in our process in it um we never know how much time we're going to have um in these board presentations so we try to just uh squelch it as much as we can and just hit the nuts and bolts but uh we

065really do spend a lot of time in your District prior to searching for the candidates we we want to spend a lot of time talking to constituents in your District talking to board members um staff members some students we really want to get a flavor for what your community is all about what your school district is all about so that we can figure out who might be the best um successful candidates in your school district we want to bring someone who matches what you're looking for and the best way to do that is to physically be on the ground in the district talking to people and when we're doing that we're looking we're asking questions like what are the greatest strengths of the district the community what would be attractive to candidates we we've got

066to be able to sell the job to people so we we're looking for like a real estate agent we're looking for the the the bells and whistles of the house that we're trying to sell so we're looking for what's good what's been working well what your sex successes are and then we look at the flip side what are the issues that the new superintendent is going to have to face because we we want to know what those are so that we're not bringing someone in who's not equipped to deal with whatever the issues are going to be um approaching or facing that person when they come in um we're going to be asking what skills and characteristics you'd like to see in the new person and then what priority areas you would have for the

067new person coming in so that they kind of have a feel for what are the hot button issues I'm I'm so sorry I need to turn my phone off on uh silent sorry about that um uh what what priority areas there are so that the superintendent knows where your focus areas are for the work that has to be done just right out of the gate so we do that in a in a variety of area ways we we meet face to face with focus groups that we would um plan out with you in a planning meeting we would also do an online survey of all the the constituents in your District um and we uh have some open forms where anyone you know in the in the public can attend and then also an open

068form for your staff members where anyone who's a staff member can can attend and then we would take all the information that we gather from those three three uh venues and put together a profile of the candidate that we think that we're going to uh be looking for and we would bring that back to you and say does this look like who did we hear this right this is who you're looking for and you give us the thumbs up or the thumbs down on that and um then we use that to go out and recruit candidates and to also screen candidate candidates that would apply for the position so we so the the first part of us working for you is really digging into who you are understanding truly who you are what you're about

069and what you're looking for so I just wanted to to reemphasize that um when we get to the interview phase after we've screened candidates and bring you a slate of candidates we actually come back and we support the board in doing a a training for excuse me how to do the interview process how to write your questions to get the kinds of answers that you're wanting from the candidates and and we are right there with you through that process we don't participate in the interview but we're like the fly on the wall in the back of the room just to make sure that things are going well and if you have questions through the process we're there to support you all the way through so those are just some some more detail on the things

070that Kevin was um talking about Kevin thank you no thank you Diane you you filled in the blanks there I really appreciate that thank you okay okay so we have three guarantees that we offer um the clients that we work with and the first one is if when we bring you that first slate of candidates you can't fall in love with someone um and you just don't think that we have brought you the quality candidates that you're looking for then we will go back and continue to look for Quality candidates as long as it takes so in other words we don't want you to settle for someone um we we just continue to look for someone until you are happy with uh you're excited about signing a contract with someone and if that were to

071happen that does not happen but once in a blue moon but if that were to happen then we would um not charge an additional fee but we would just a charge for any additional expenses like travel expenses or something that we would have the second guarantee we have is if the superintendent resigns or is dismissed for any reason that could be uh you you aren't getting long uh the superintendent chooses to go somewhere else break the contract superintendent dies in the position hopefully that wouldn't happen uh superintendent is asked to separate from the board whatever the reason is for the first 24 months we would redo the search for free for the fee and only charge the expenses again the third guarantee that we do is that because we heavily recruit we're out looking for

072um candidates we will not bring it and then take it away so we have a promise that we will not recruit your new superintendent that we placed for the duration of their first two contracts if you give two two-year contracts for four years we cannot recruit them you give two five-year contracts for 10 years we cannot recruit them so they are welcome to apply on their own but we will not actively try to take the this person away from you that we just brought to you so these are our our three um guarantees Okay Kevin so our cost uh the consulting fee for the entire process we start planning out the sear with you we we do the focus groups we create the profile we are screening applicants we are meeting face Toof face with

073them in preliminary interviews we bring you a slate of candidates we do the training on interviewing we help you through the interview process we help you get going on um you know working on a contract um all of that stuff that we would do would be 245 $24,500 in addition we would have expenses and that's mostly going to be travel it's going to be some mileage it's going to be some Hotel expense it's going to we're going to have to come to the district a couple of times of course we live in Illinois and um you guys are are in the St Louis area um Kevin is from Chicago I'm from from uh Quincy which is kind of where the Illinois Missouri Iowa um States all meet in the bump so it's like a two-hour

074drive for me um but that's basically what those expenses are a little bit of Secretarial expense but if we don't need the 119 we will not charge the 119 we'll we'll charge actual expenses but we guarantee that we will not go over $ 11,000 ,900 unless a snowstorm happens or or something like that we get we get stuck or something like that and that's always pre-approved by the president advertising if we uh enter into a contract with you to do the search then we will give you a variety of advertising um venues that we can use to um announce the search and advertise for it and those are various costs we have several that are at no cost um to the district and then uh some that do cost and we would let you decide

075what type of advertising you would want to do and how much you would want to pay for those um types of things and then we always recommend Kevin and I will do a due diligence in Thoroughly checking um vetting any candidates that we bring to you we will be contacting references we will be doing Google searches we we will do as much as we can on the surface but we would recommend all of our clients do a deep uh thirdparty background check uh a deep dive where they're checking um court records and arrest histories and checking to make sure that the credentials that they're presenting are authentic like they do have the degrees that they say that they have from the universities they say they have so that you know that there there aren't fake

076degrees out there um sometimes there will be Financial reports that will be done so that you can tell whether or not your superintendent candidate um handles their own finan as well um we don't want to see bankruptcies on on the records there um we they also will double check um Social Security um uh numbers make sure it's legit they will check check DMV records to to see what all is out there um if you've got a candidate that has multiple DUIs that may be a red flag for you that that might be something that you know you might have to deal with um if you were to go with that candidate so they are able to do a more thorough background check than what we're able to do on the surface so we always recommend

077that boards do that just so you have your own due diligence out there um we do recommend that you contact people references too when you get down to your final person just so that we don't have a headline we do not want to be the person that has a headline that says Kevin and Diane from school exact connect brought the Kirkwood District a pedophile or you know something like that um we just don't want that we've not had that we know there have been those headlines before we don't want to be a part of that so we want to make sure that we have thoroughly investigated the candidates that we bring to you okay Kevin so this is just kind of a flow chart of of the process um there are there are things that

078will kind of slide into each other and if we work with you we would start we would work and nail down exact times and dates that we would do all of this process process but like Kevin said we're basically we would start the search by uh you entering into a contract with us and then we would come and have a planning meeting where we would sit with you you bring your calendars we bring our calendars and we just schedule out the entire search um from beginning to end subject to change as as we go through but we would plan it out so that everybody can see where we're at at different times we would also ask that you put this on your website so that the community and the public knows where we should be

079at in the search process so that just eliminates a lot of questions to us board members um we we would do those um schedule those focus groups and that online survey and all that kind of stuff so that we could start to develop the profile we'll get the advertising going um so then we get into developing that candidate pool we're looking for candidates we're accepting applications we are recruiting people we will be selecting the candidates that we think are most promising on paper um interview those face to face do some screening interview and then bring a final slate to you to interview and uh once you select a person we give some time for that deep dive background check and uh working out the terms of the contract and you doing your own kind of

080um vetting and then uh once the contract is signed the the person is hired then the search um is is final and it's ended okay so I guess you that's our presentation I know that was quick so uh I guess we're ready for your questions awesome thank you so much um the first question that I have is based on what you know about Kirkwood School District what should we highlight about our district and Community to attract the most qualified candidates from my preliminary research you've got a a larger School District that has a very diverse set of students and families throughout throughout the the district I think that's an advantage for your school district and I think that should be played on by attracting candidates I think one of the things you know after we

081meet with the focus groups and perform the survey and speak with the board on several different occasions of course we want to listen to all those things so we create the correct candidate profile um but I think that you had some you've had some academic success but you've had some academic challenges too with student outcomes um especially with some of the subgroups um again that's my preliminary research that I've done on your school district U but I think someone who has balanced those challenges and great things about your district with that background I think might be a good candidate for your for your school district Diane yeah I would I would Echo what Kevin says and and uh just emphasize again what we know about you right now is just what we can find on

082the internet basically on your uh website so we don't have anybody to ask a question about well what about that what what happened here why is this here that's why we would come in to get those questions answered and get to know you a little bit more intimately and that's the whole purpose for being in in on the ground so that we can really understand who you are and one of the things I tried to avoid is to do too much research so that I come in with some biases that are out there by Google or by some social Media Group or by you know local media uh that portray your district and perhaps an unfair light so we really want to go to the source we want to visit with your stakeholders we want

083to visit with the board we want to visit with your parents your students your parent groups and so forth to make sure that we get voices heard from people who are in the district and experiencing what the district has to offer thank you um what is the best way to manage the community and stakeholder feedback in this process in in order to make the amount of information obtained manageable while assuring all parties are heard from and represented okay again I think that goes back to us being in the district doing the F focus groups doing the open forums having that online survey so that everyone has an opportunity to give a voice have a say and kind of what what you're looking for uh the materials that we compile and and uh present to you

084we ask that you have a place on your website that's the superintendent search that we can upload all those documents when we when we present those we would put out the results of the surveys that we do we would put out the the report that we compile of the strengths of the district the challenges in the district who who you're looking for that profile um that timeline we just want to be as transparent as possible with everything that we're doing with the search other than who the candidates are because we we don't want names out but you know we we want to just be as transparent as we can so that people shouldn't have a lot of questions and the and it can be manageable because the information is there for them but you know

085we always give our we freely give out our contact information so anyone from the public is welcome to contact us sometimes they do sometimes they don't and and when we Port out the candidate profile which is the end result that we're looking for we will give you 30 to 40 pages of data that support that candidate profile and a lot of boards use that information when they start setting goals with the superintendent or for you know embedding in a possible strategic plan modification or something like that so you'll have lots of data from a lot of different stakeholders to use in whatever way you'd like we use it to develop the candidate profile but boards use that for a lot of different uses that's just kind of a side bonus that you guys can use

086thank you um KSD Kirkwood school district is committed to diversity equity and inclusion how will you go about reaching and presenting a diverse pool of candidates both locally and nationally when it comes to race gender and ethnicity so three of our key Consultants are in your area Dr Curtis Kan an African-American male Dr sheronica Harden an African-American female and Dr Keith Marty who's retiring this year they're all part of our team plus we have signed agreements with um nabzi National Alliance of black school Educators and Alis the um American Latin Americans sorry Association of Latin American superintendence so we've got a lot of Consultants that work with those two agencies that that demonstrate um our commitment to diversity and Equity again we've been selected by a national group aasa to uh present and recruit uh

087for uh people of color and for women who are seeking the superintendency and our history speaks for itself um 72% of the people we placed last year were either women or people of color or both um and and no firm can touch that thank you given there are currently three other school districts in the St Louis area looking for a new superintendent can you guarantee that our team will solely focus on Kirkwood yes that our team will or whoever is that the question that yes yeah because we are not have we have no other engagements with anyone in your area right now we're committed to Kirkwood thank you can you describe what an ideal process of negotiation with a fin candidate would look like with your firm's support um that's a good question one of

088the things that we will do is start looking at various compensation packages for surrounding districts of like size so we will give that information to you well prior to you selecting a finalist uh one of the things that I would recommend is you develop a template contract with your school attorney sooner rather than later um and just know that some back and forth some negotiation is likely to take place and uh that doesn't mean anything bad but I I would assume the finals will have an attorney representing himself or herself just like the board will have an attorney representing uh the school board and and the in the Public's interest um but we will give you some compensation numbers uh of some like sized districts in Missouri so you know kind of what the ballpark

089looks like does that make sense absolutely yeah if I if I could add to that what we what we do to what we kind of do to uh assist the board is or to help the board is that we don't want you to unnecessarily lowball uh a candidate or unnecessarily pay more than what you need to pay for the position and so that's why we do some of that background search for you some comparables to kind of let you know where the ballpark is and that gives you some guidance on how to where to start negotiating for a contract the benefits the the salary um we also uh kind of find out from the candidates you know what they're currently making what that what kind of benefits they already have what they're looking for um

090so that we can make sure that we're not bringing you a candidate that's way out of your reach or a candidate who may be may have stars in their eyes because because they see a dollar sign offer but just not equipped to do the job so um we give a little bit of guidance but we feel like really that's between the board and the candidate to decide what the terms of the contract would be thank you what are your methods of G um for Gathering thoughts and feedback from school boards given that members may have a diverse range of priorities and experiences also how do you help Board of Education um members organize their thinking to ensure all members voices are represented so basically how do you help us keep it together there are two

091ways that we have done board focus groups one is to take the board as a group and ask a series of questions and get responses from Individual board members and collate that information together with the other stakeholder groups that we will meet with and the survey results and the forms that that Diane um explained and described earlier the other thing we can do is meet with each of the board members on an individualized basis that that makes the board members more comfortable and more willing to share true opinions so we're willing to do either one having said that um we will take all that information and create that profile that that is a mixture and a blend of all the stakeholders um opinions about what are some great things going on there what are some

092continuous challenges uh what are some things that that need to be worked on as priorities and so forth that's what our profile will develop and the second half of your question I I I'm sorry asking how would you ensure that our thinking uh that all members voices were heard and represented but I believe you answered that okay unless you want we do what's called an interview Workshop sh and close session so we will kind of go through each of those responses each of the aspects of the of the profile that was developed help you form your questions so that you make sure your voice is heard in the process um and and we'll be there every step of the way for that for that to continue and to make sure that all voices are heard

093thank you so I I want to just add a little bit I can um interviewing the board members separately is is an option if we do do that if that's something you want us to do I would also recommend that you do the entire group as a focus because it's really important for all the board members to understand where each other is coming from and what they're looking for in the superintendent um when we when we do that then we we uh put a little bit more emphasis on what the board is telling us they're looking for rather than the the emphasis being on what the stakeholders are telling us we we see where they line up together because a lot of times they do but one thing that we usually tell boards is to

094keep in mind that we're looking for a superintendent who is not for just the board members that are currently sitting at the table we want a superintendent that's there for the entire Community the entire School District you guys come and go as you get elected and get appointed but want someone who's going to be there hopefully long term and is working for the entire system and the entire Community but we will but we do give a little bit more weight to what board members are are sharing with us because you do have a little bit more intimate knowledge thank you what tools and resources would your firm provide to help us find and evaluate candidates this includes any experience you have with creating compelling videos and or visuals to utilize in the job postings that's

095a good question and we would work with your team at the district level I assume that the district that size has a communications director with someone of a similar title we would work with that person to design uh feature sets so that as Diane explained earlier we would kind of consider the advertising options that are out there um I will say this that you're good candidates will do their own research so they they won't need fancy flyers or or fancy videos they they will do their research and our Nationwide group of Consultants will reach out to people who fit that profile so um while advertising is important to get the word out and we want this thing to be clean and well produced there's no question about that we do a good job with that

096working with the board and your District Personnel the number one thing that se separates us from the other firms is our Consultant Group that we will reach out to the people who will do a good job for for the families of Kirkwood so can I ask if that that question was misinterpreted by Kevin are you asking about uh videos from the candidates themselves no we were I think he got it um spot on speaking of creating materials to help um promote Kirkwood School District basically and the position promote okay thought you said to promote the candidates I'm sorry okay I'm sorry no worries all right and then lastly um is there anything else you would like for us to know about your firm just a couple highlights um Diane and I are your people um

097there are other larger firms out there that I know you're talking with that um have much larger uh footprint throughout the United States but no one can match our success rate or our personal mission to make sure every child in the United States has a great opportunity to learn and that we have lived that life I continue and as does Diane to live that life and we will make sure you get the right person to continue that mission and to to to visualize what you hope to become as you Apex this this scenario um at the end of this process we're here and we're committed to you and our record and our success rate speaks for itself danane well I don't know if Kevin wants me to say this or not but I always answer

098that question by saying we're the best so if you want to work with the best then you you go with us we are we are the best I love it we say we're the best too Kirk awesome all right then okay all right we it sounds like a partnership um if you hire us we will we will do right by you and your families and and and your teachers and everyone else that's part of the Kirkwood Community um I I if you Google us and the other firms you'll see a lot of uh things out there uh but nothing negative about us because because we do a good job we we take care of we take care of our clients thank you both so much and we will be in touch soon have a great

099rest of your evening thank you thank you for your time thank you very much you're welcome e e e in can you guys hear us yes hi good evening good evening just a quick question how many people are you expecting to present with you because we have some one so three please just you three correct yes okay we had a random person trying to get on with just want to make sure that we Lyn bur's colleague okay can she hear us oh cuz I did see that she was having difficulties connecting can you check with Lynn to see if she was trying to connect by her iPhone oh let's see do oh she's on now Lynn can you hear us she's on mute right now hello I am Dr Lynn Burks um I hope you

100can hear me um I'm having some Wi-Fi issues so I will put my video on as soon as possible but I'm a K2 higher ed um executive Chief ex ly she's we haven't we haven't officially started CH but I'm thrill that you're eager to go she's ready well with that being said let's do get started we um appreciate you guys for taking time to submit your proposal Al um to lead the search for Kirkwood School District um you will have about 20 minutes to present and then we will follow up with um eight questions um my name is Nicole shurn I am the board president and to my left we have Mr Ben caffy Miss G Marie Andrews Mr Mark boo Judy Motika Miss Laura heurn and Miss uh Jennifer Pangborn so thank you for

101joining us all right you guys can take it away all right president Nicole thank you thank you very much um I'm assuming you posted for the the meeting 24 48 hours in advance correct correct and if so we're we're just dis we're just disappointed we didn't get a sellout one loyal person in the crowd well good evening we're we're hya Hazard young and AA um I'm joined tonight my name is krie krie fodero and I'm joined tonight with two my hya colleagues uh Kelly uh petro and Lynn Burks um and before I have them share a little bit about themselves I I have a question for for you as the as the board um you know we completed your request for proposal the other the other week and it was one of the most difficult

102rfps we we've ever done um we're educational leaders and and I apologize to any educational leaders in in your audience there and you as a as a board but in Illinois we have a tendency to be long- winded both in writing and verbally and and and you can find us to to to seven pages for our proposal our proposal is is typically 20 plus pages and so I I compliment you for pushing us outside of our comfort zone now but whose idea was that was that the retiring superintendent's idea to to go down to seven pages no it wasn't it was one of our board members who does this as a living but uh let's just say you did a great job because you're here with us today today no thank you um thanks for

103this o opportunity as I said my name is krie fero and I'm gonna hand it over to Lynn and and I apologize oh there she is not in full color um but she looks good in black and white as as well um so so Lyn why don't you tell them a little bit about yourself hello everybody so very nice to meet you I am Dr lindur and I'm a chief associate for hazard young and AA um um and we are so dearly honored to be able to present to you this evening um I am a 24e school board member um president for many of those years and so I've sat in your chair for a very long time and understand how important it is uh to ensure that the Right leader at the right time

104um can come to Kirkwood and and serve your learners and your community as best as possible so you have our CVS and all of our references and everything like that but in addition to my board work I'm also an HR professional and um spent um uh during my board role also was able to guide uh 3,000 faculty members at the higher ed level too and and guided thousands and thousands of search processes so that's just a little about me so thank you Carrie KY why don't you share please sure thanks Carrie um good evening everyone much like uh Dr Burks I'm an associate with Hazard young and AA I'm Dr Kelly Petr I have over 25 years of experience in the K12 Arena uh all in Human Resources however uh as many of you may

105or may not know when Huts were necessary and you could eliminate instructional non-instructional support they then gave me facilities transportation a Food Service uh all of the non-essential areas so I've experienced in that space Also with over 15 years but my area of expertise is human resources uh both in k12 and higher ed and I've had uh multiple experiences doing searches not just for a superintendent uh but also Provost um BPS for instruction uh as well as CFOs so that's a little bit about me har yes thank you thank you Kelly thank you Lyn Lynn do you want to try to ceue up our our presentation and and I'll just share a little bit about myself as Lynn tries to pull it up on the the screen um I'm a retired superintendent of schools in

106the Chicago Suburban District in a Chicago Suburban District um where I was there for 15 years as superintendent prior to that I was an assistant superintendent principal assistant principal and teacher um also in school districts in the Chicago area I too have a lot of HR uh background uh post retirement I've done two internships as either the assistant superintendent for HR or director for for HR in addition to to that I um teach future superintendents and educational leaders at an Institute for higher education and finally I Mentor superintendent and other educational administrators so that's a little bit about our our background I hope it's hope it's helpful um let's go to slide two and let's talk about Hy's experience this is a sampling here of our most recent searches um as you can see uh

107we're a national firm we conduct searches from east to to West um we've been in the business for for 37 years um and by doing searches from coast to coast um it allows us um to enhance our perspective of educational leaders um hya has supported Boards of Education with over 1600 superintendent searches since are beginning 30 37 years ago we probably are um the oldest um and most comprehensive firm throughout the United States then can we go to slide three all right L why don't you talk about I'm gonna talk a little bit about why hya and our distinguishing difference um we we have hired more superintendent than any other search firm across the country but I really want to talk to you all today about the unparalleled customization and personalization that you get from

108this team you are not just a number to us you're not just an organization to us you know we W you we will ensure that this search process is customized and that um I am a practicing Economist as well and so we come to Kirkwood with a rigorous re research-based process that really engages with your stakeholders and your communities at your community at large your your your businesses your your learners your staff your teachers and we really really give extreme care to understanding the needs of Kirkwood at this point in time our role is not to bring the best leader but to ensure you have the right leader for this point in time for Kirkwood and our mixed method design allows us to not only create a leadership profile that is backed by research practices

109but then complement that with um qualitative research that really understands the culture and the underlying Trends so we can ensure we build a lead leadership profile that mirrors the exact needs that you need at this point in time um we also are inclusive and transparent with the entire process we are 247 responsive communication we will and um within two hours address any of your questions or concerns via text or phone call or email we provide regularly weekly updates so not only you can keep all the members of the board informed but you can keep the Kirkwood grader Community informed of the process as well we offer extensive interview support for you and so when a final slate is presented we ensure that you are also prepared and in in um in best practice inclusive approaches

110to ensure that the board is prepared to guide those questions and those interviews as well as if you have um forums or a search committee you've also created we we also ensure that that training is also there um we have a national network of 135 plus Consultants that assist in our recruiting um and we also handle each applicant with extreme care as well because this is very important in their Journey as well and so every applicant even if that applicant is not chosen or a final or or you have two final candidates and one is not chosen we handle every candidate with extreme care so Carrie and Kelly I don't know if you want to add anything else I just wanted to also share um with our Communications uh we provide you a portal a

111web portal secure for the board and the board only that will contain all the documents generated any information you need to know about the search will be on that portal and it's right available to you 24 247 Lynn said um we're responsive within two hours it it's usually minutes um um we sleep with our our our phon so um we we will talk to you 247 and we're not kidding about about about that and I just want to talk just really quickly to all three of us are trained in Human Resources practices as well this is not about filling a position or filling a seat or checking a box we do this work because that you know we truly believe how important it is to bring the Right leader I mean you all know all

112the issues that are impacting the the P20 education system right now and and so this is why we've come together as a team to be able to offer these customized services to you with expertise um with with ext with deep expertise and Human Resources as well so this gives you an idea how we can compare to other other search search firms um we do a lot of superintendent um searches as you can you can see and as it says their National Outreach with the local pres now we haven't done any recent searches in Missouri however we have members of our hya team that are in Missouri um two members that I'd like to just um share Dr Chris Lee nastro she's your former Missouri Commissioner of education and and I believe you also uhu know

113the name Dr Kelvin Adams who's a former St Louis School District um super superintendent they're part of the hya family our network with 135 plus Associates is is Broad um and and usually when we go through candidates someone of our 135 Associates knows the individual that we're we're talking to when we go to the next slide Len and I talked a little bit about this before but we are just not I mean we are practitioners also in Dei work um in an inclusive design we have strong Partnerships with um National organizations um we we just believe it's very important to also ensure that the leaders that are brought to the school district who mirror the student demographics there and so we have um as as Carrie noted we we were we were limited in what

114we could do with your proposal but we have um we we have um statistics that back up the diverse candidate slates that we brought to school boards to ensure they match the student demographics and we are practitioners in this space as well we we publish in this area we speak in this area and we continue to learn and grow in this area because it's such an important part of um ensuring that that we bring the right leadership um um that represents your learner population and you can see the professional some of the professional organizations that we we belong to not only belong to but we have um team members that sit on sit on those those boards hya is very comprehensive in its roots across all Professional Organization and this is a little sampling of

115it here so let's talk just a a few minutes about the search search process the the beauty of the process is that it's totally customizable to meet your specific needs in the engagement phase we will meet with you as a as a board to truly understand your District's need and develop a specific plan the plan that we're going to outline to you today is a general tenative tenative plan the plan if you select us will be exactly how you want it we will make it we will design it and make it work for for for you after we meet with you as a board we will then interview each one of you individually we will also meet with your administrative team your faculty your staff your parents um selected students if you would if you

116like community members and Community leaders to gather information about your school district and the leader of your school district your next leader we'll also survey all those stakeholders and we'll use that information um to analyze it review it um and develop a community and Leadership profile um this profile that we'll share with you and you will endorse or give more feedback to us we will use that as a tool to vet the candidates that apply for your position um this is a critical critical tool um and and we will we will use it as as so um in the in the recruitment phase um we will start with the posting of the position on our website our job pages on Hy's website it's over 31,000 individual views each month if you want to be a

117superintendent anywhere in the United States um it'd be foolish not to check our website because we not only post webs the the searches that hya is doing we post all the superintendent openings um throughout the throughout the nation we also have a database with over 6600 superintendent candidates that have registered with us saying keep me in mind if there's superintendent openings so we can access that database when we develop your leadership profile and look for specific skills qualities characteristics that meet your needs to pull out of that that database um then we will utilize all our social media platforms and our 135 plus Associates to get the word out all this were able to do at no additional cost to your to your school district in the selection phase um we'll recommend to you a

118slate of top educational leaders and as Lynn said of not the best but the best that can meet your needs at this given given time um every person on that slate we will guarantee you they will be a successful superintendent in Kirkwood we'll talk about our guarantee at the end of this presentation um we will support you as Lynn also referenced 100% through the you process based on your your needs we'll do a workshop with you we'll provide questions for you we'll design questions um for you and we'll structure the interview process and then when you select someone it's not over there's a very critical transition phase and we'll provide you as a board and the new superintendent with the workshop to ensure everyone is going in the right direction and you start to develop

119that Foundation that's needed for successful board and superintendent relationship we will then continue to provide as needed and requested both informal and formal transition support to conclude this search Kelly Lynn anything to add on this no just that um we we we out of a we survey all of the searches that we've done and hya can continues to have out of out of a 10 we continue to have a 9.2 um satisfaction rating for for all of our clients which is when you do as many searches as we have for 35 plus years that we've had we're very proud of that that satisfaction rating and then I just Kelly please please also um um add here we just cannot tell you how much care that we give each stage to our signature search process this

120is just not a search to us it's why we do what we do and so every phase is handled with with extreme customization personalization care and expertise and just to add L spot on as is Carrie and although we have shared with you our process and later we'll share with you a tentative timeline on what that would look like we're always able to Pivot if we need to if there's something that you don't like or there's something you want to have added we certainly can plug it in wherever it makes sense so we don't want you to think that our way is the only way because we're in this together it's a team approach and we want to make sure that your voice is being heard and your needs are being met let's go to

121the next slide again this is a tenative timeline uh with our assumptions um for this present presentation um this just gives you an an idea um this will be adjusted as needed um uh ideally we would recommend with the knowledge that we have right now and new know could could could uh may make us offer a different recommendation but it would be nice um in regards to hiring a new superintendent if you're able to do it in December or January you know there's waves of the selection of of um of new super superintendents and this is the first wave and so this will get you on course to have a shot at any of the outstanding educational leaders that are Nation Nationwide um if you're able to go with a time frame like like like

122this um you can see in in August in September uh through December the the steps that we've talked about earlier um uh that'll take you through the through the process and if you have a new person um you know by the end of the calendar year you have six months you have six months to start with that transition that transition process and from our experience those six months are an amazing time uh to set up your school district and the superintendent for an outstanding start on July on July 1 ly Kelly anything to Ed I don't think so I I just as as Carrie noted the you know the importance of we want to be out there first being able to to to be able to provide a um you know to nationally recruit um

123so we can have somebody in place and start that transition process possibly as early as the you know the beginning of next year and so that's why we've set up the schedule we've set up however again it's it's tenative based on your your needs next slide please ly so the cost of our proposal the services that we're offering Kirkwood um 27,900 um and that'll cover everything that we we shared we do offer some options and that was included in the in the proposal proposal package um as an example uh we do reference check um we do background checks on on each candidate before we approve them to be on a slate to present to to you um however um uh in today's world many school districts when they're selecting their educational leader use uh an

124extended indepth research um not research um background background check um and this is provided by a uh a professional third third party we offer that that service you can do it yourself and U through a third party or you can go through through us the cost is between 1,00 and a little less than $2,000 um that would be an optional optional add-on if you wanted additional languages on our research based survey um you know we would charge you a little extra for for that or if you wanted to uh have open-ended questions on the survey could be a little uh it would be a little additional additional cost but it's $27,900 for the proposal as as presented um it's a fixed price um we if if you hire one of our recommended slated candidates we

125will not as a firm go after that candidate for another Super superintendency um that would be wrong of us um we we work for for for you um Lynn shared our our satisfaction um you know in the in the nines um which is pretty outstanding we'll match any competitors fee for comparable comparable service and then we have a a guarantee we're confident that we would present to you a slate of candidates that will be successful and if that candidate for any reason that first year leaves um we'll we'll do the search again for you the following year at no at no charge and then we offer a second year as well um which gets a little more specific if the if the person is unsuccessful in the role after two years we'll come back and

126and do the search uh search again Kelly Lynn anything to add I don't think so Carrie all right doing great we appreciate your patience in this in this pres presentation um I know you have questions for for us and we're eager to to share with you why we're the best option for you at this at this time so president Nicole fire away awesome thank you so much um um based on what you know about Kirkwood School District what should we highlight about our district and Community to attract the most qualified candidates so so you have an extremely successful school school district um all all areas um you know looking at your state report card reading your your newspaper flippings you know from your student achievement to your talented ented faculty and staff um to your

127facilities that you passed a recent referendum for and the tremendous community support you get um in addition to your long under plus year Rich tradition um put you in a pretty good class by itself Nationwide I I I don't think you'll have any problems attracting topnotch candidates at all thank you you um not only topnotch but and again this would be guided through research and and through the engaged phrase but also as you know to be able to to move forward and progress forward to be able to innovate because as you know there's an incredible change that's also going on in in you know in your journey and in and nationally in P20 so being able to find a national leader to continue that Journey um we are are we we are confident we would

128be able to bring the Right leader at the right time for Kirkwood because we know how much work it has taken to get to this point thank you what is the best way to manage the community and stakeholder feedback in this process in order to make the amount of information obtained manageable while also ensuring that all parties are heard from and represented why you answer this slint um har could you repeat the question I'm having that's okay I I I'll start and you can yeah thank you and you can you can you can you can pick you can pick up um um you know as I as I shared earlier um we want to hear from you as a board um and then we want to um uh sit down and have an interview with

129each one of you and we want the key people in your your your school district um um your your your superintendent and other leaders maybe your teacher Association um you know president and then we want to do focus groups um you know for for your your staffs for your for your faculty um the same with you know community members school districts your size especially prek to to to 12 sometimes also have students um participate in this and and it's amazing what students can share about your about one their own school school district their their voice is very very valuable community members Community leaders um we have conducted uh many focus groups in school districts with approximately 6,000 students such as yours up to school districts that have 500 500,000 um and and and and we're

130able to take that information as a as a team um and analyze it and review it and put it in a logical order for you to understand and develop a profile with that um in addition to the focus groups and the individual interviews um we have a very impressive survey and I I think we included um a a copy in our we we might not have because of the because of the Restriction but we have a very professional research based survey that really does a nice job um analyzing the data that we we receive and the um the community profile and community and Leadership profile that you'll get from us we believe you'll be very very impressed with it we also um we also spend time touring your school because it's amazing what you learn

131when you walk the halls and you spend time and you and and you and you you hear some of those informal conversations so Carrie Kelly and I are known for our I mean we we will we will spend a some time at the district so we can also get a feel for what that is like that compliments our mixed method design thank you um Kirk was school district is committed to diversity equity and inclusion how will you go about reaching and presenting a diverse pool of candidates both locally and nationally when it comes to race gender and ethnicity ly Kelly when do you want to tackle this were able to hear Lynn so I can't remember I can't remember a slate that we presented it um in recent times that didn't have diversity um and

132under represented C candidates um we had a slide earlier slide four five that that talked about our involvement in the different different groups nationally um we're extremely extremely active um and aggressive in the recruiting of underserved um leaders minority leaders female leaders and and so on and I we can send you our most updated statistics of the recent searches that we've done across the country and the Slate the diversity in the Slate that has been performed um actually we're just we're just in process of updating those because those numbers even have become more favorable and so we will get those numbers for you U immediately um and and so I we I want to make sure that you have the absolute correct numbers because we just actually finished a couple searches and we need to

133update those statistics thank you um given there are currently three other school districts in the St Louis area looking for a new superintendent can you guarantee that our team will solely focus on Kirkwood can we can we focus that that HL will will focus yes so the team on Kirk yes not just not the entire firm but the individuals that are assigned to our district yes we we take this as a full-time as a full-time job um you contract with with us um you have our 100% attention um we are going to be your number one advocate in aggressively recruiting a candidate that best meets the needs that you currently currently have um we don't mix candidates um with with searches um hya 135 plus plus Associates and we have um you know other associates

134that might be working in in um Southwest Illinois or or in Iowa or in in Kansas um and if someone's looking to um to move to the Midwest or to secure a superintendency we won't we won't um um compete against our ourselves we're going to truly look for that best candidate to meet your specific needs in this team myself Kelly and Carrie are 100% dedicated to the search um and ensuring that that that as that that personalization and and customization is there and they we're there through you so our time is not you know I mean you are you would be our number one priority so I I understand we do lots of searches but this team specifically would be I mean our number one priority would be Kirkwood thank you um can you describe

135what an ideal process of negotiation with a final candidate would look like with your Firm support yes um so the last thing we want is to put your board and a candidate all the way through many hours to a final point where things aren't smooth when it comes to the negotiation um phase it's our job as your Consultants to make sure we fully understand your needs and that our final slated candidates fully understand it as well you know when I was a superintendent um we would have this agreement board and I no no surprises I'm not going to surprise the board and the board's not going to surprise surprise me well the same thing goes when you get down to that last candidate those negotiations um there should not be any surprises um uh we're

136going to do our job right and that candidate's going to know the parameters and you're going to know um what you need to know about the about the candidate um we don't represent you or the candidate negotiation we provide support to you and to the and to the candidate um and we act as a Matchmaker um um trying to get the two parties to to together um I can't remember a time where there's been difficult negotiations or challenging negotiations after a a long um um thorough process such as the one that you're looking looking for what are your methods for Gathering thoughts and feedback from school boards given that members may have a diverse range of priorities and experiences also how do you help Board of Education members organize their thinking to ensure all members

137voices are represented yes as as we shared in addition to meeting with you as a group um and collecting feedback on your desires we meet with each one of you individually those are 45 minutes to an to an hour um could be face to face could be over Zoom could be over a phone call we value each unique perspective there's no one right per perspective that's what makes up qualities of a great great school district is all those different unique perspectives come together same for Board of Board of Ed education um where you might have some fundamental just things you dis disagree on you you you function as a whole as as one um we take that information that we hear from the group and then individuals and we use it to develop the the

138profile and the whole board then has to accept that that profile um and if it needs to be tweaked then we tweak it to make sure the whole board is is comfortable for it but each voice is important and unique not just on the board but also all the different stakeholders that we talk to what tools and resources would your friend firm provide to help us find and evaluate candidates so this includes um any experience you have with creating compelling videos Andor visuals to utilize in the job posting as we know that substantially increases candidate engagement so as we shared earlier based on the quality of your your your school district we don't antici participate you're going to have difficulties getting getting candidates um we would look at this as um a school district that

139would get just as many or more candidates than any other school district that we that we do um Nation Nationwide um we have and we didn't reference this um I don't think in our our proposal or in our presentation tonight we have a a back office um hiyi just doesn't have 135 plus Associates um um doing their job we have a a very talented and resourceful team of professionals project managers assistant project managers and and so on that help and support not just the associates but also the boards we we work with um you know in regards to video um capabilities um I don't I don't think I personally don't have any experience with video um U but that's not saying that we couldn't do it at Hy we have some tremendous resources and and

140and talents um and as I said our web page alone it'ss over 31 individual hits every month um and those are superintendant looking for the jobs looking what's out there Nation Nationwide and then we're on all the social medias LinkedIn and and so on um and as I said we have a database of over 6,600 um superintendant or educational leaders that want to be superintendants that have registered with us and so when your posting goes up each one of them gets that posting in their in their email each one of our 135 plus Associates gets it's that you put that together along with our website again without spending an additional dollar um you're going to get U the attention of most if not all the educational leaders that are looking for a superintendency or a

141new superintend U at this at this time we do have optional packages for advertisement and and Inc medium and online um we're happy to to give you more details on that at this time we wouldn't be recommending that to you we don't think there's a there there's a need I think it's important too Carrie if I may add and Kelly please add here Kelly and I also are both current practitioners we belong to many professional organizations um uh We've Spoken at national conferences on K12 issues we ourselves through our national um networks and our national associations that we also are part of also ensure that we reach those thought leaders in our professional organizations as well um so it it's just not about marketing it's also leveraging our networks and the fact that we are

142practicing um in this space as well and part of national thought leaders that are driving change Innovation and transformation in P20 thank you and so my final question is um what I'm sorry is there anything else you would like for us to know about your firm I want to go back to a question if I could um Madam chair and that is to talk about our approach the question was related to um you have a number of board members they have their own voice how are we going to work with each of them to ensure that truly the entire board's needs are being met and I think our approach is slightly different because each one of us will will meet with each of the board members and what that means is one board member might

143be more comfortable with Lynn or Carrie or myself and may share a different perspective um on the process or approach or what they believe the school district needs as opposed to just meeting with one of us so you have Thinking by three individuals sharing with three uh which could yield three different types of responses is from each of your board members to each of us and then we pull all of that data together and we compare notes to see you know what did board member a say to me Lynn and Carrie to see what's different to be able to capture everything um because again it's I think it's all about intentionality and making sure that everyone on your board is heard but it's not just your board it's your constituents as well it's uh the

144staff it's the faculty it's uh the community and each of us would have an opportunity to hear those voices and then share that information with each other so that you have a robust profile to go out and find the right candidate that will fit your particular District at this time thank you all so much much for taking time to present to us um we will be in touch soon all right president Nicole I told you educational leaders are are are long winded so I'm just going to share one last one last thing and we do appreciate the opportunity and your time and consideration to partner with you for your next educational leader but anytime I get in front of a a board a school school board I I I have to I have to share

145with with with you that the there's a lot of things that you can do in the world but one of the things it's pretty hard to be more noble than raising your hand volunteering putting yourself up for election to serve on a school board for the best interest of kids and so we just want to express our gratitude to you as servants um to public education that's going to benefit kids and so thank you for your time tonight we we we greatly appreciate it thank you so much absolutely and um we just want to say too you know I we've been in your your seat um which is why I decided to get into this work um so this is we know it's the most important decision that you can make as a board um

146and so I mean there is no more honorable service than to be on a school board and to serve Learners the way you do and so that's why um this work is so important important to us as well um and and and this partnership hope hopefully this possible partnership um because we understand just just just just how important this decision is and how much work you've done to get the school district to this and how important this is for your learners thank you so much have a good evening all right good night thank you appreciate it bye good night everybody good night on a moment you guys heavier okay so what we're going to do is just go down the line