001good Jesse okay yep go ahead all right good evening I'm gonna call our meeting to order it's 5:05 pm tonight we have a um a great update coming from Alma our search firm around the themes of our community outreach survey results all of the input sessions and we have Monica Rosen here um who's going to lead us through the themes and a conversation tonight about what is important to us so um I will pass it on over to Monica and then Monica let me know if there's any way I can assist um as we as you get to more of the facilitation part okay fantastic um I'm just gonna go ahead and put up our slideshow here um this is a well first of all good evening everyone um this is always a really exciting
002milestone for us in the search process we had a fantastic visit we met with lots of people was that just last week uh or the week before that and um really enjoyed our time at the district but also had lots of uh focus groups and conversations virtually before during and after our visit um we also had a Community survey so tonight is about sharing what we learned lifting up Community voice as as best as we can um in this process so that the board has the benefit of what your community is asking for as you determine the criteria for this role our meeting tonight really has three key Parts uh we're going to do a quick search update we're then going to spend the heart of our time on community Community engagement so I'll share
003the results of our community engagement work and then we'll open it up to you all as a board for any questions comments or feedback reactions and then we're going to have a brief conversation about the job profile itself uh so in our slides we included just a number of headlines in terms of the top responsibilities and the top competencies based on the conversations that we have with your community we're going to give each board member the opportunity to just we'll go around uh the the table and hear from each of you what's going to be important to you in the job profile uh so that's how we're going to structure the evening um I have a lot of information to share so if possible I think it would be great to note your questions and
004hold them until the end and then we can jump to any part unless un you've got a major concern about something on a slide so we always want to stay grounded in our shared purpose uh which of course is to recruit screen and select the next superintendent of Madison metropolitan school district but the board agreed that they want to ensure we have a transparent and accessible search process Guided by the input and needs of the greater Madison communities and designed to mitigate bias every step of the way so we're always going to want to be checking back to ensure that we're working in alignment with those goals uh our timeline is the same uh so the real quick headline is we spent the summer really planning for community outreach a lot of that ended up
005including um Community conversations so we actually began Community conversations back in July and August uh and and September uh so our priority for the months of August and October have have really been to engage Community our goal is by the end of this month to finalize and launch the job profile that will make November and December Peak recruiting and screening for the alma team the hope is that in the months of December or January the board will have the opportunity to begin interacting with candidates our goal is to reach a semifinalist or finalist stage by the end of January early February uh so we are on track uh with the hopes that by March you'll be able to announce who the next superintendent is going to be for Madison metropolitan school district so we have
006completed our Communications and Outreach to the community we launched our survey we've now completed the majority of our virtual and in-person meetings as well as our community survey we had some late requests or recent requests for meetings we're honoring those requests and we welcome any member of the community who feels that for whatever reason you weren't able to participate to please reach out um to us reach out to Mike herding who's supporting the board through this process uh we welcome the opportunity and it's never too late to have your voices heard in this process as I mentioned earlier our next steps are to complete the job profile recruit candidates for the role and then of course interview and select uh the candidates in the ultimate um the ultimate superintendent so now moving on to our
007community engagement so I want to start by giving you first a good sense of who we heard from in this process uh in total the community survey had over 3,200 respondents um that included an additional 50 students who requested um requested an extension and were able to participate last week um we really wanted to utilize the survey to get as many voices in the process especially anyone who was not able to attend our our Gatherings uh we had inperson and Community Gatherings over the course of three days the alma team met with just about 400 different individuals in the Madison community and that included 150 students uh mainly from your high schools but also your middle schools who were incredibly insightful and candid with us about what they want to see for the district so
008we're looking forward to sharing that this evening and then finally we engaged in 45 virtual focus groups and one-on-one interviews we met with over 100 participants in that way that included teachers students staff Union leadership city council members and Community Partners and it really allowed us to have deeper discussion by Roll by the hat that people wear um so we appreciate so much everyone who took the time to come and sit down with us to share their lived experiences with us and one of our big questions is how will you know that this conversation made a difference it's something that we ask everybody that we meet with and there were two things that people tended to say one was well we'll see who you who the board ends up hiring whether or not they kind
009of match what we're looking for but the other thing is we would want to see a a full uh report out to the public that tells us what you heard and what the board is going to do with that information so that's our top goal for this evening so uh I know I've covered this in previous conversations but our our our discussions really centered on a few key ideas and that's what I'll be speaking to tonight we start with what's working what do you love most about the district what are the things that are going to be important for the next leader to Champion protect or sustain we don't we know there are things that are either just building momentum or things that we take for granted we don't want anybody to disrupt and so
010we ask every group what are the what are those things of course we always have a conversation about the top areas of improvement um and then we talk about the role itself what are the skills and experiences that people want their next leader to bring um we also ask uh what are the uh what if anything you you haven't had a chance to share uh so we give an open cart to whatever top issues people want to express uh so that we can bring that information back to the board so as I mentioned in all over 80 meetings and over 500 participants um in addition we met with 164 students and that included multilingual Learners it included a significant number of students with IEPs students participating in alternative programs I had the opportunity to meet
011with five students who are receiving intensive supports from the district and those were some of the Highlight that that was a real highlight for me and some of the more insightful conversations we had we met with student Senate and we met with different student uh organized groups um including the Latino Student Union the black student union um and uh the lgbtqia um student groups uh and a number of others as well we met with ma mang students um and quite a number so really want to thank uh the principls and the leadership of the schools who helped bring together um really a wide ranging group of students who were able to share their perspectives with us in addition to that we had 984 students participate in the community survey so uh I'm going to be
012sharing the results of the survey disaggregated in some cases um uh what I'll say is in our community survey what you see here on this side on this slide is the breakdown of community by type of role um and we're fairly evenly split between community members students and former students and caregivers and while our our staff slice of the pie might look a little smaller it's mainly a representation of numbers we actually had a very high uh representation percentage of your Workforce so we have close to 25% of your teachers participating we had a about 40% of all of your principles and and APS participating so we're feeling very good about the makeup of who who responded to the survey now when we look at the demographics of who participated and remember uh a couple
013key things one is that this really did go out to the entire Madison Community not just um the student and family community in the district we also had 177% of respondents who did not answer the question related to race and ethnicity what we see is that the numbers um in particular representation of latinx community members and black community members tended to look more like the representation in the city and less like the representation um in the schools um in some places we did a little bit better than we have than the than what has been the trend in past District surveys uh when it came to the latinx voice uh we did not perform as well there in terms of the relative number of participants that said we did have quite a number of um
014proactive Outreach and meetings with different Community groups so I'll be sharing a little bit more about some of the things that came up both in the survey and in our conversation uh for these groups as we move along the other thing that was we thought was really wonderful was that about 18% of respondents openly shared their representation as members of the lgbtqia plus Community that's nearly one in five respondents um and I'll be speaking to this a little bit uh later as I get into more of the things that um that people shared with with us um but uh this is something that even just um being able to be open about that identification um to us was really meaningful uh in addition you had 26.7% that preferred not to answer so we don't know
015um and then 55% who identified as heterosexual or straight um in addition we had about four 4% of respondents identified with a gender identity other than CE gender um and so that information is also reflected in the data uh with many majority of respondents um identifying as women um we also had approximately 10% of respondents identifying as having a disability so our Outreach to the disabled Community was fairly significant for this search compared to other searches that Alma has LED and we're looking forward to sharing a little bit about what we heard from this community as well tonight we actually asked individuals who shared they had a disability if they were willing to provide more details and so what you see here is a representation of what people identified as um disabilities uh when they
016answered this question this was all Al the other thing that we asked were if people were families of students or caregivers of students who had diverse learning needs as as documented through an IEP so what did we hear we don't expect oh is there an issue I see someone up by the TV there am I coming through okay okay good just a pizza a pizza run maybe um so yeah um so uh you know we don't expect any Community to be a monolith um we expect there to be things that are diverse in point of view natural points of tension in the community um we felt that there are some differing um opinions and certain things that are more important to some individuals and to some groups than others and we saw a great deal
017of alignment across just about every group and a number of key areas so what I want to do first is talk about the strengths that many people said they wanted the next leader to Champion and protect and I know there are a lot of words on these slides um it's a mixture of just the statement but also some quotes that we really feel like tell the story so as I'm sharing I'm going to talk a little I give a little bit more of the commentary behind what's what's on the slide slide here now the first main point was that we just kept hearing over and over again we have a strong Foundation to build on people felt there's been incredible progress in terms of academic programs in terms of Community Partnerships in terms of services
018at just about every conversation people said that the moves uh related to literacy programming were incredibly beneficial this is something people don't want the district or the next leader to change or move around what's important about this is that what we kept hearing is we don't want another Visionary who's GNA kind of come in and build a whole new direction for us we like the ideas that have been put in place we want someone who can come in and fully Implement some of the work that's been started uh and I'll be able to talk more about that uh um that was a a very important thing for a lot of people we think we've got good things already in place good decisions around the Strategic framework around the key priorities around curricular Focus areas that
019we've been building and we just want to go deeper stronger in those areas the second big idea that was really important to us and really stood out to the alma team was the district's commitment to creating welcoming and inclusive spaces for staff and students so we had a teacher as an example who shared several teachers pointed out I can have my black lives matter flag or my rainbow flag or button and I can create a space where I know my students are valued and seen and welcomed and I don't have to worry about any backlash for that um I'm not going to get in trouble it's not going to be considered controversial um and I really appreciate that uh what your students said off multiple times is I feel seen by my teachers and I
020know there are teachers who make a point to create safe spaces for me now students would like to see a lot more so I'm not trying to paint a Rosy picture here but I found it very important that you have attracted a Workforce that's drawn to the commitments that this board has made that's inspired by the work that the district has done in this space and that they feel safe to bring their full selves and create inclusive spaces for their students because of that many people called out the diversity of the board um as a something that has brought them hope and has people feeling that the district really is committed to these things unapologetically um uh you I'll talk more about the student perspective in just a moment um now uh in addition and
021I think of the a principal's voice here um just saying uh or even the central office staff member who said Equity is a given here it's woven into the culture and it isn't Up For Debate that's really important in our particular National context people really believe in the work that's happened in the district around anti-racism people many people still called out uh the benefit of having black Excellence named in the Strategic framework um the work around restorative justice uh this is work that again keeps many of your employees fully engaged in the district and proud to work in the district um so it's really important that your next leader can uphold those things can support those things there were a few voices I would be remiss if I didn't say saw things a little differently
022but they were very rare over the course of three days and over the course of 80 different meetings that we held um there there is a point of view that's looking for something that's different but I would say it really does not represent the majority of your community finally um lots of appreciation for the Educators and staff and a desire to ensure that the district continues to Value Educators and create uh supportive environments and supportive conditions um for your Educators and staff um your students really talked a lot about the fact that they feel many of their teachers care about them uh and that is extremely meaningful to them and then finally this note about the Madison Community the fact that you have these rich uh this Rich higher education uh Community right in in
023your backyard uh the fact that you have so many Community Partners nonprofits organizations many of whom sat down with us who want to partner with the district who are very committed and aligned to your mission and your vision and are hoping that the next leader really values uh those Partnerships uh as they as they come into the seat so I'm going to lift up a few different voices here very intentionally and the first is around student voice uh your students um again T talked about um teachers uh that have really reached out and worked to form strong connections with them and primarily with with the high schools in particular uh they really appreciate the opportunity to engage in student groups in programs in organizations they want more opportunities as many as possible where they focused
024on in terms of areas for improvement was they felt they didn't have enough of a voice in the ongoing work of the superintendent seat they want to have more of a seat at the table they want to have um more of a structured role and opportunity uh to be able to share their insights with District uh leadership they also really want to see greater diversity and representation among staff so um and this this really took a few different directions and one that was particularly moving to me was a high school student who said representation isn't just about uh race and ethnicity he said and he's he identified as a latinx queer student and he said we um you know we also need teachers who can advocate for us in the lgbtqia community and it's really
025important to us to have that represented among the adults for adults to show up for us for our big events for our big activities um and that was something that was you know really important to to this student um but also really represented we had a black young black woman student who said to us when I see somebody who looks like myself in a leadership role it makes it gives me hope that I can do the same things that I can achieve those same things and students feel like yes there has been progress but it hasn't been enough they want more diversity in the classroom the third thing they talked about was greater representation of their cultures and this really was across mang community latinx community and black community in particular um students said they
026want to see more of themselves in the materials that are being taught um and this wasn't just um students of color we actually had white students who uh named a concern around African-American studies um being not a ful year program and wanting a full year uh for those programs um we also heard uh from students wanting access to year round spaces that affirm religion and identity uh with an example of a Muslim prayer room available year round for students um the next big thing was around supports for diverse Learners and supports for diverse Learners came up a lot in our meetings um but what your students and your high school students shared a CH two important points of view that I want to lift up here one is that if you're a diverse learner who
027has a need that's not obviously apparent so the student who shared um particular had um a diagnosis of ADHD he said it wasn't always clear where to go for help and there request was that in their schools um there should be an opportunity at the start of the year for school administrators to sit down with students and say here's where you can access mental health supports here's where you can get support for different diverse learning needs here's where to go if you need help um and this this is something we've heard in other districts as well uh but important to note that your adults in the schools are concerned about student well-being um and support for diverse Learners and your students are expressing the same and that extends to bullying as well as safety in
028the schools uh so students complained a bit about behaviors in the bathrooms um vaping and things like that and just want to see you know want to see improved support and control for those things to really create safe environments um for students school lunch is something think students would like to see different um but um more access to uh higher level courses uh in particular for black and latinx students so students shared that they felt the diversity in higher level courses was not as good black students participating in AP courses said they felt they were often just one of one or two students in a classroom we had a latinx student who felt like because they were the only uh repres representative uh they felt like they were called upon to kind of speak for
029and represent their entire Community as well and um felt there that the next leader should make a concerted effort to increase accessibility to higher level courses at the high school uh level for students I want to take a moment and lift up a few important voices that we heard in this process I want to start with latino voices voices from the latinx community who said they really appreciated what they have seen as real concerted effort to improve and strengthen supports in transportation services translation services and expansion of dual language immersion programs which by the way we heard U from staff as well and in a number of other places parents though shared in multiple different settings with us us that uh they do feel that translation services though better haven't been adequate and they have
030been times when they come into spaces and there's not appropriate translation for them they're not materials uh that are that are easily accessible to them and it influences their feeling welcome in the school uh I think it's important to note that what we heard from a number of Latin know Community groups is that people feel their voices just aren't valued today in the community um families want to have more direct partnership and collaboration with the superintendent uh and with Administration um students would like to see greater representation um of latinx staff and multilingual staff uh not just in the school but also represented in the curriculum uh and they would like to see additional supports resources programming in particular for new arrivals to the community and those who are English language Learners um something that
031was really relevant for the latinx community members that we spoke with was the support for diverse Learners um this was something that was called out in the survey as well as in our conversations as a real demonst ated need a need to be thoughtful and intentional about when students need interventions and supports and a need to really educate and partner parents around the best ways to support Student Success to make sure they're getting the resources that they need and that they're achieving at the same level as their peers so a number of parents shared they felt like expectations were different for students um with diverse learning needs um we when we spoke with members of the black community and I would say that we had a fair representation in just about every community group that
032we sat down with we tended to have at least 20 to 30% of the groups that we met with whether it was staff teachers Educators administrators um District leaders Community groups we we had uh we saw more frequently representation of black leaders um who showed up and and and met with us and there were a few things from these voices that we wanted um to call out and I I think the place where I would start is a real frustration with the continued differences that are showing up in terms of achievement for students but also that as a reflection of inequitable access to resources that certain parts of the community um might have access to better resources better extracurricular activities um better facilities even and they felt that they connected that to the results that
033they were seeing for their students we also heard from this group uh a particular disappointment with superintendent tenure and really wanting a leader who was committed to staying with the district for a long period of time there was a request put on the table to have the board approve a four or even fiveyear contract with the next superintendent uh as a part of that um similar to students um community members would like to see more black students in particular in higher level courses um and uh a a greater focus on College and Career Readiness which was something that really spiked among black respondents to the service um in addition to wraparound services and Community centered resources within schools this was something we heard about a lot the mang Community was one that uh we wanted
034to hear more from and uh we did reach out to a number of organizations we did speak with a number of individuals and did have some participants in our groups who shared that they were members of the mang Community um your mang students expressed a need to see more representation of their culture in the curriculum and coursework and the feedback that we received from this community more than anything was this notion of really feeling like over the years there just been a persistent um lack of Engagement of this community to the extent that they just were not as interested in coming out and participating in this process and so we really see an important need um for the next superintendent to prioritize the mang community in particular and engage in really structured ways to to
035ensure that their voices are heard that their particular needs are being addressed in the district now I want to share a few things from the survey in particular dis disaggregated by certain roles and um first and foremost safety and health and well-being was a top priority for just about every single community that we spoke with um this is not atypical uh many districts around the country since coid have seen um a great need for Focus around Mental Health and well-being of students and also of staff and this is something that showed up very loud and clear uh in our survey your teachers also really focused in on students social and emotional needs as a top priority and your parents and caregivers called that out and really called out preparation uh for students for their college
036and careers Life After High School um improving student academic performance was something that was very important uh to many community members uh and this is a place where people just feel styed and this is a place where they want to see a leader that has a proven track record of achieving breakthrough results for students and in particular um being able to demonstrate uh results for students of color uh in the school system um this is looking at this particular slide is looking at the same sort of set of priorities but disaggregated by race and ethnicity with specifically black latinx and uh Asian uh communities represented and uh what we saw here similar to what we saw uh for uh in our focus groups is that safety continued to be a top concern but improving student
037academic performance was a top noted issue in your black community and your latinx community uh really was looking at the health and well-being of Staff as well as meeting the needs of non-typical Learners um you know your Asian and Arab Community also focused on health and well-being of staff and then very close with that uh preparing students for college and careers there are lots more um questions that were asked but these were the ones that people really talked with us about the most and then ranked and prioritized in their surveys we also looked at members of the lgbtqia plus Community your disabled Community as well as members of your community who reported uh household income lower than $50,000 um as a way to take a look and see if there are any differences in priorities
038among these groups and this slide is showing uh those results um again safety continues to be a top priority for many um lower income family lower income residents and members of the community called out health and wellbeing of Staff again so we ended up having the same set of top six six uh questions but where people peaked in terms of what they were looking for was a little different so your lgbtqia community um and your parents of students uh with uh IEPs or 504s or those who self-identified as having a disability were very focused on meeting the needs of your diverse Learners uh they were also very focused on the health and well-being of Staff okay I'm nearing the end of my report here thanks for hanging in there um so we wanted to call
039out a number of things um I won't repeat the things that I've already talked about but there were agreement there was a lot of agreement across community members about things that were really important to them so some of the things I haven't mentioned were Recruitment and Retention of Staff people are concerned that there's been a lot of turnover in particular at the principal level and worried that more teachers will leave the district uh we heard that a lot and we saw a a strong desire for as new openings come available uh a desire to continue to see the district strengthen its efforts to attract diverse teachers in particular that's teachers of color teachers who openly identify as members of the LGB qia plus community and multilingual staff were the things most often mentioned by your
040community um communication is something that I haven't talked about yet it came across in many of our conversations and what I want to say is that it really ties to the last bullet here as well which is people are seeking systems and structures that enable clear communication from central office to schools both about the expectations about the work that's taking place and um decisions that have been made uh and then there's the other way around which is uh feedback loops and having the opportunity for people to share their perspectives uh with leadership um to be able to provide input on the key work that's being prioritized in the district there is also a perspective of a need for strong collaboration and better management of Community Partnerships so what we heard was we have Community groups
041who would like to work in closer partnership with leadership and would like to see more intentional engagement of Community Partners as part of the work of the district there were a few points of view view uh that we wanted to add here um as I'm as I'm getting close to the end of my presentation and something that was a theme for us was what some people called A Tale of Two Cities this this idea that Madison is growing and that parts of the community are thriving but it also feels like they're parts of the community that have deep and persistent pockets of poverty that may not be getting the same res sources um as higher uh socioeconomic parts of the community um and this perception that not all members of the community have access to
042everything the city has to offer um there were some perceived tensions between and among racial groups in the city that we heard at times and a real sentiment of a need to rebuild trust uh between the district and different parts of the community uh many people talked about how politically complex Madison is and this idea that we really need a leader who is Savvy well- informed and able to bring all of the different aspects of the city together behind a a unified plan moving forward um we asked uh individuals in the survey a very open-ended question Madison metropolitan school district will be successful if we accomplish these three things in the next 5 years so we had thousands of open-ended comments and our team analyzed all of those comments and what came up and these
043are people's voluntary words and what they're supporting um really mirrored a lot of what came up in our open conversations so this idea of really supporting staff of focusing as closely as possible I'm really proud prioritizing academics strengthening school safety both for students and staff um working on making sure schools are fully staffed increasing trust collaboration and transparency and though I haven't mentioned it earlier really focusing on being fiscally responsible ensuring the district is financially sustainable and is managed uh responsibly from a financial standpoint um a few other things that came out when we asked if there's anything that you would like to share in addition and so I think it's important to note there's a fair uh preference in your community for someone who's either from Madison or has strong Madison ties or is
044really committed to being part of our community and staying here um in addition to that um you know people teachers and staff uh again really wanting to have resources time and support um and then this focus on behavior and discipline which I I didn't speak about too much but I I want to share you know um I think that we kind of heard a a couple perspectives around behavior and discipline and one perspective was sort of that with change in disciplinary policies it feels like teachers don't have as many tools to be able to manage um behaviors in the schools and I think this is particular particularly we heard this from high school staff um there there's another side to this which was teachers sharing with us that they agree with the foundational principles and
045elements uh related to the behavior educa Behavior plan that the district has put in place but they feel it wasn't fully implemented that teachers need more training they need more coaching and support and they need a a stronger toolkit for alternatives to what they used to have and so that's a real call to action for the next leader um and even for work that might occur this year as as many teachers uh felt that they grappled with it with this and that students also as I mentioned earlier um were noticing and kind of wanting to see more attention placed around um around really supporting uh improved behavior in the building um and better safe climates for students all right so with that I will pause and would love to hear reactions feedback from the board
046and any questions you have about everything that I shared and I'm happy to move anywhere in the presentation um if you want to take a closer look at something and uh president Nichelle I'll look to you to call on people if that's okay yes we'll start with um Ali or member malro thank you um I want to thank you all for your presentation and I I want to talk a little bit um about a few points highlighted so the first point I want to recognize um is people speaking to uh wanting somebody who has a long-term commitment to this community um and the complexity of of wanting somebody who maybe has has worked for this District or is an internal candidate my question is I would imagine that throughout this process people named internal candidates
047that they were interested in seeing be part of our pool um for our next superintendent and I'm I'm curious about kind of balancing the confidentiality that we would need to to talk about those internal candidates um in a closed session with the the transparency we need to talk about the process of identifying who those candidates may be with our community thank you for that so yes um there are quite a few Uh current and former staff members who've been uh named to us in different conversations we certainly are doing our own um kind of research and and Outreach and remain very open and available to speak with any potential candidates out there um anyone who's considering applying whether they're in the district or not um internal candid first of all for all candidates protecting the
048confidentiality of any applicant is of the utmost important up up until till the point of at least finalist stage which is really what we're going for here the truth of the matter is we're going to be recruiting individuals who may not be considering a change certainly they're all in major leadership functions wherever they are for the most part and it's a great political risk to individuals to have it be public information that they're even being considered for a role like this so we have candidates who say if you can't protect the confidentiality my confidentiality I can't take the political risk of applying because if I don't get the job I I have my community and the trust that I've built here that's really at risk so protecting the confidentiality of all applicants is really really
049important um and it absolutely affects your process uh if candidates don't aren't sure if the board is committed to that now for us we also see um that protecting the confidentiality is also important for other reasons we actually see that when we heard the confidentiality of the process or when people are going around and checking with friends and colleagues who might know a candidate you can have a single anecdote totally bias your perspective in an unredeemable way in the process so we really try to have our boards as much as possible uh to trust the process to trust the focus on competency and to allow the candidates to demonstrate their skills before you go out and try to find your own perspectives about individuals now to your question Ali when it comes to internal candidates
050um for one they're likely all high performers in the district today if if they're internal to the district and we value them in the roles they're already in so it's really important to us and at Alma we always take this carefully because we were each internal candidates at some point in our careers and had our own experiences positive and negative we want to make sure that we're giving direct feedback to internal candidates that we're not wasting their time and that we're assessing them fairly which means sometimes we have to set aside stories or small whether they're minor things that maybe occurred in the past to stay focused on the evidence in the process um especially for promotional opportunities sometimes it's hard for us to Envision someone in that next level up where somebody who's coming
051from outside may not get that um that same kind of um maybe second guessing that we might give someone that's already known to us so Ali I kind of went a few different directions there did I answer your question you absolutely answered my question I greatly appreciate that answer and I deep I deeply look forward to uh this board being able to go into close session and really get that feedback from our community because I think when our feedback our community says hey this is somebody I'm interested in you strategically reaching out to they want us to be mindful of that person's privacy they want us to be mindful of that person's family and they want us to engage that person in a way that would make them confident that they can be in this
052process um and be successful and be respected and I also think that that balance between the confidentiality of our candidates and the transparency with the community that represents the Integrity of this board um and so I I really appreciate the way you explained that the other thing I want to say is um there are factors that determine whether or not someone can be our superintendent that are beyond the control of this board um meaning that whether or not somebody is qualified in Wisconsin to be the superintendent is different than whether or not they're qualified to be the superintendent in Ohio or whether they're qualified to be the superintendent in Seattle um and so I would never want to put somebody in a position where you're discussing whether or not they're qualified to be in this
053role her State Statute in Wisconsin publicly um and I think that we need to be really mindful of the different factors we have to take into consideration um as we pursue hiring for this position I want to thank you for emphasizing our lgbtq community I think it's a a really phenomenal thing to see 20% of people self-identify as members of the lgbtq community um and to you know feel confident that this district will take that information and use it to represent who we are and who we're looking for um to lead our district so thank you for for doing that work it is particularly meaningful to me um given the political climate in Wisconsin um and what happened recently in our Capital that being said I do want to ask how will you use that
054feedback or how have you used feedback like that in the past um to assert to candidates that a community is welcoming and affirming of lgbtq folks and we expect that from our leadership yeah so as we talk about the job profile I think this is something we must make sure is represented there um and named and I I think we should also name um the board and the district's commitment here um you know your black and brown your bipack community your black and brown communities your disabled communities um as well uh and uh you know I think part of it is how we talk about what this next leader needs to accomplish and the other thing is to talk about the things that are inherent values that the next leader needs to really sustain and
055Champion so those are the places that are coming up immediately for me we'll talk eventually about the finalist stage in the process and um I I do think that this is a community who should also be well represented at the finalist stage and should have the opportunity to ask questions uh that they feel their community and particular um is concerned about or wants to learn more about um whether it's about the lgbtqia community or about um other things that they know their Community um cares about so we'll have time to talk about that as well but that's the other place Ali I would look to see those voices well represented thank you so much for this work I just want to remind our community that this is not your last opportunity um to participate in
056this search it's a marathon not a Sprint um so if you are out there and you want to be involved every step of the way uh stay tuned and we'll make sure that you can be a part of this because uh I think one of the great things about this process and working with Alma um is emphasizing the the voice of the people who live here and work here and go to school here so thank you all so much for your work thanks for making sure our students were heard from thanks s um I'll share then why don't I just see if there are any other board members who have any reactions the the first thing I wanted to just say as I was um going through the first part of your presentation where you
057were talking about the number of people engaged in the surveys the input sessions where your team was here in Madison for three nights and then all of the on to ones is how Greatful I am to our community for participating right like um I I think that sometimes when you have turnover in these kind of roles it can be easy to I don't know like disengage actually and so the fact that we were able to get as many folks completing the surveys and showing up I'm I'm just really really grateful and so I do want to thank the community and I want to thank you um Monica and your team and all of our district folks who really were working hard to make sure that we were hearing from as many voices as possible that's
058the first thing the second thing that comes through loud and clear is how big the expectations are for this role um you know like I hear that we want an instructional leader who can get after the academics we want an equity leader who understands the the importance and the commitment of the diversity of our school Community our larger Community is going to partner um and collaborate with the diversity in our community we want somebody who is community engaged Community committed politically Savvy y um an HR leader a fiscal leader um somebody who really values our Educators and will be very collaborative and will take care of Safety and Security yep do all of that without changing much because we we are committed to the foundation that we've built you know what I'm saying so I'm
059getting a little snarky I'm being a littley but umir all of that makes me think about just how important I think it is for the board for us to be clear um about what kind of results we would like a superintendent to have with young people in our district yeah and if there are other kinds of results we would hope our superintendent would would deliver on so like I think some of the things that I'm hearing are um leadership styles or you know traits of a leader right you know somebody who can build trust be Community focused collaborative um and I ALS also think that you know one of the things that the board is also responsible for at the end of the day is like we're not responsible just for hiring we're responsible for
060supporting a superintendent evaluating a superintendent being clear about what we what we think um and when I say we I mean inclusive of like what the community is thinking right are the expectations that we hold and um I guess for me I'm just thinking about the importance of us as a board having space to have that conversation as well as what are the competencies and kind of leadership skills that we're looking for because I think that also will be a strong attractor for a candidate if they know exactly the board is hoping um to hold as the results or expectations um I think it's hard for somebody I mean we've all applied to postings before I'm sure and sometimes you read a posting and you're like oh my that is me it's like they wrote
061this thing for me right because you can see all of the competencies and the skill sets and the um the kind of overall description and sometimes it works out beautifully that the job profile or posting matches your gifts and talents and the organization is a good fit and other times might have all the things in the postings but it's not really a fit in the organization do you know what I mean like you hold a different um I don't know philosophy or approach to the work so I I know this doesn't sound very clear but I I think what I'm trying to say is I I appreciate everything that was lifted up from our community and that's a lot that's a lot and I and I I want to I want to hold that knowing
062that we probably won't find like the perfect person and we have to be clear as a board about what seems like reasonable expectations for a for our next superintendent to accomplish and deliver on um and so I'm just hoping that that will become clear um as the process unfolds and I'm wondering um Monica in in some of the work that you've done have you been able to incorporate like board members I guess expectations for the kinds of results they want into the process and where does that show up in the process thank you Nelle so first of all I totally agree and we usually know we've got the job profile right when everybody is saying this is a unicorn this person may not exist so we want to get the things that are most important
063to the board but we know no one's going to like check every single box and part of the beauty of our process is to have you have your eyes wide open about the things that are going to be natural strengths for your next leader and the places that are not going to be natural strengths or where they might need extra support or thinking about the team structure around them things like that um so we don't expect to find a superhero here we're gonna find human beings who have things that are real track records so part of the job for you as a board um is to be able figure out what matters most you know and also um you know where there's kind of relative priority among some of the different criteria um but I
064will say Nichelle for like in a in a more maybe traditional ex superintendent executive Search the job profile isn't as um you know detailed as ours and this really is about how you will not just assess the candidates but how you will measure success for the person once in the role so we do see the clarification of the job profile as the B foundation and basis even for how you will evaluate this person once they're there now to to answer your question different boards have had different preferences so some have focused very specifically on the responsibilities of the job and others have focused on the outcomes expected in the job for example some have mentioned a levy that might be in the district's near future you might list out you know the work that needs
065to happen with the levy and what that lead what your leader is going to need to do related to that um or the completion of the facilities work that's so heavy and we got to see ourselves walking through many of your buildings um you know the work that's happening on the facilities front so I do think there's a good benefit to being able to speak to the things that will help you to know this leader is successful and how you will assess that uh in this process right thank you so much are there um other board members who' like to share just any reactions or Impressions from the feedback from all the community input um or member Moser FAL thanks I don't hey Monica I don't have my I'm having some tech issues can you
066okay hi um thank you for working on this um it's exciting to see how much over there overlap there is across um community um one thing that I think I'm going to be curious about when we are at the point of like talking to candidates or or one thing that I want to offer that I'm curious to you as you're talking to people is like what you know to um where president nichols's point a lot a lot a big job um and I'm thinking about uh H like H how candidates believe schools change like what what's the what are the set of beliefs and values about how this work happens um you know there's there's lots of ways to change schools and I'm thinking about like some of some of the like cities in the
067US that are in actual educational crisis because their leaders um are changing schools like a lot and fast but um in a way that's distructive um and so I'm I'll be curious to hear from people like okay you have you have the competencies what's your vision for how these how how schools change like how these things work together um and then I guess I don't know if now is the right time to throw it in the pot um but I'm thinking a lot lately about about assessment and um uh so so right now we have like a there's like a a national push back from some of the standardized testing companies um to like to like move back in that direction uh we we're using some standardized test measurements now in in this year in
068mmsd and as is appropriate I think in in some ways but I'm I think this is also like going to be a major question for schools going forward is how how schools and school districts are responding to the changing assessment landscape and so I'll be curious to know about that and to connect that with some of this feedback that I heard you bring up from from community members um what I picked up on is like people want a lot of um nimbleness and freedom uh through through our school system right for things to be flexible and personalized and um and open and different for for for individuals uh which I think is valuable and I'm thinking a lot about like okay well what does it what does it take to do that and what are
069the tradeoffs if you're going to do that um and I would I would hope that like we could be really clear or whoever we hire could could really articulate like a something clear about that right like if we're going to go in the Direction X Y and Z what that means is we're not going in Direction a b and c because I think that um to to lean towards some of the like broad partnership um individualized learning across across the board right whether or not it's legally required um has uh what trade-offs um that I think can be valuable but we should be clear about what they are I hope that was a helpful response yeah I appreciate that and it it raises up for me something that wasn't as prominent in my report but
070that we did hear there is a great deal of value for autonomy in the schools and what we heard has been um a track record in the district of really um seeing central office as a support arm for schools but allowing schools to figure out what's best for their communities and how to implement work in a way that works well for their communi so I agree completely with you about this notion of being open and flexible but still providing the training the support and the tools that people need to really do things well um so I did I did kind of see a little bit of that um I think it's an interesting question about the assessments and even just how do you measure success of students um and what what does that look like
071uh beyond the standardized tests I think there are a lot of people who feel like we should see more movement in the standardized tests and we want to see measurable um allocation of programming and resources in a in a different way um across schools based on student need in a different way than what they perceive it to be today um so I I see all of those things and I do think the community is looking for more than just um test results um but really looking at how do we Define Student Success uh beyond their time even in the district and um it'll be interesting to be able to discuss with you all how that shows up then in our screening process what that are you good well thanks thank you for adding that um
072vice president Pearson yeah I just wanted to just to say um and just appreciation um of our students really coming out I know that that was something that um we really wanted to make sure that we focused on and that um we made sure that they were heard um and kind of going directly to them so kudos to your team in in getting the extensive um responsive from the students um I guess my question is just I know that there was some students that sent some emails today um just about like the share out of information for them um and what the followup will look like because I think what ends up happening a lot in our communities is that um we expect folks to participate um we gather the information from folks folks um
073and then there's kind of like not necessarily no followup but it's not followup in which they expect the followup to happen um so I guess just a um just hear from you all of like I know that we're having this meeting and we're going to be continuing um the the profile and the process and as Ali mentioned earlier um we'll also be having openings where folks can still participate so it's not the only time to engage but what does the followup look like um from Alma now that we've collected all of this data from everyone are we sending out reports are we um creating Graphics um because I do think the information that we got from folks is useful not only for this profile but also for the work that we are going to be
074um conducting in as board members um and so yeah I just wanted just to know what that looks like for a followup I think it's an excellent question and we have several options I really like your idea of creating a sort of executive summary because there's a lot in these 35 slides here um so we could certainly create kind of a summary um we're also um we I know that uh you know Mike hering helped to create with the district a website so we could post the whole report on the website for anyone who's interested um I'll be really curious what feels like um the best way to get information back out to students uh I would be very open to creating a a briefing that um has student voice and I think we should
075share the job profile um with the community with students and ask them if there's anything they would add or change once that's created uh so that their voices can be heard there um again we are hoping hoping to to have uh communities participate in finalist interviews that's something in the coming weeks we'll be deciding uh with you as a board or you'll be deciding as a board um and so I do think there's a real opportunity to consider having a panel of just students where students get to choose the questions they ask the candidates I just want you know we've done this a number of times now and students are always the toughest interviewers like you really they ask questions nobody can predict and uh you know you really get to learn a lot about
076your candidates when they're interacting with students so that's another opportunity I hope we get to do vice president yeah thank you for that um I appreciate that because especially the the open form for students to be able to ask um an interview um so I'm looking forward to that and then just in line with what um president Nicholls said it's just um the expectation setting for the community I think is um super important um although that we've gotten back the extensive feedback um and the the glass is very tall and what we're expecting um from the community um I guess just management of the expectations I think is is going to be important on our part uh moving forward just so folks know that we have compiled everything and we will definitely consider um but
077it's not the final one so um that's it thank you thank you okay Monica I'm not seeing anyone else at this point and I know that we still have more conversation to have correct yes that's correct so maybe some things will emerge um as we continue on okay sounds good um so I will uh share my screen again and we're going to talk about um the job profile so uh you know there are certain aspects of this conversation um that are really about how you will screen candidates for this role uh at this point in time what we're going to do in this Open session is to share what um we see as the alma team as implications for the role and then we're going to allow each board member the opportunity to share what's
078going to be important to them in the screening meaning in terms of the qualifications uh that you're that you want to make sure is reflected in the job profile so we'll have each of you go around it could be things you've already seen or could be things that don't feel represented well enough I'm going to end on a slide that has like headlines in terms of responsibilities and also competencies uh so that we can hear reactions from the group if you think we've got the right kind of headlines or if they're things you either want to make sure are covered within those or that needs to be lifted up um in the in the profile itself and that'll be the completion of our evening so first uh you know we are we really think your
079community is looking for someone who's going to Champion students and ensure that Madison is a model of safe inclusive and welcoming schools among the things that we heard and I'll show you survey results connected to this in just a moment is a desire for a leader who's a strong and clear communicator and that involves listening as well as sharing um and being reflective uh as well uh somebody who is able to promote trust and build trust build coalitions build Partnerships um so this relational piece is very important here and someone who views families views staff views students views the community as real assets and partners in this work um your community is asking for systems leadership implementation and execution skill skill above all um they're less interested in somebody who's going to bring in a
080whole new vision for the district they really want to make sure programs and services are appropriately resourced fully implemented that staff have the tools and the training they need to to execute on the goals that really have already been stated so we think this means um someone who can kind of come in and you know bring all the information together and then to be able to say here's how we're going to move forward but not necessarily red debate open up for you know exploration if there's a whole new direction that we want to go um and I can speak more to that if if you're interested so when we asked the community about the most important skills and attributes of the next superintendent by stakeholder group um we heard these things coming up loud and
081clear from all of your communities strong clear communication putting the best interest of students first seeking and responding the feedback being skilled at managing competing priorities um and maintaining a focus on diversity equity and inclusion um there were some some differences uh among uh members of different race and ethnicity but the top two were the same for all groups and that's this communication piece and putting students first um your latinx community certainly wanted to see um the focus on seeking and responding to feedback it really aligns with what I shared earlier and creating an inclusive and welcoming um environment as well uh which was something that your um Arab American Middle Eastern East Asian Asian-American South Asian Community including indian-americans they were also asking for this focus on creating an inclusive um environment um your
082black community um in addition to the top two uh really were focusing in on seeking and responding to feedback as well so here is the slide that has a kind of a first pass at the responsibilities that are are seem to be coming up in terms of your community voice and the skills and experiences that people should bring to the job so I'll read through these and then would really love to go around and hear from each board member um just what are are the things you think important are they reflected here what would you add what might you change um so first is and and these are headlines so the way our profile will go and um to Nichelle president Nel's question uh president Nichols question sorry uh we might um you know have
083specific deliverables in here that you would look to evaluate um the superintendent against I think we'd have to speak you know to Ali mro's question earlier what's the right format for the board to have that conversation um however these what we're trying to get here are what are the headlines if somebody just only saw these things would we be capturing what's most important the alma team will add the meat to this we'll add the um the additional um descriptors beneath this so first is to unite the full community around common goals um um or the vi and vision for the Strategic framework uh there's a real interest in bold and unwavering advocacy for each of our students so really strengthening supports um for for various uh members of the community establishing coherent plans systems and
084structures this really speaks to the implementation piece but also clear communication these are systems and structures that support um clear communication Clarity around outcomes connected to the Strategic framework serving as a culture Builder that strengthens uh environments that support safe inclusive um welcoming environments for staff and for students and stewarding the success sustainability and Equity of the district's finances and operations now embedded in here is the board relationship we heard from a number of of stakeholder groups that we they're looking for a leader who can really work in partnership with the board that can manage board expectations manage up well uh with the board um uh and somebody who can also work well with all the various constituent groups but that board relationship piece is a part of this the skills and experiences this is
085kind of how they get these things done well what are the skills they need to bring people really want to see a track record of improving outcomes for all students but especially black latex and Asian students um effective communication collaboration and Coalition building um team leadership this is about the ability to build a strong leadership team and hold them accountable ensure they're performing well to serve schools um this is is not exactly a skill this is more of a disposition but your community is asking for commitment to Madison a commitment to stay in Madison um reflective leadership which is listening to understand not afraid to ask questions um a systems perspective which which includes the ability to prioritize many competing demands and to be Unapologetic about the path forward once Chosen and then innovation people
086are looking for Creative problem solvers people who are willing to disrupt uh systems that have been that have persistently underserved um members of the community and to be able to um engage in new and different ways to meet student needs so those are the highlights that are coming up we know it's not perfect we really want to hear from each of you board members what's up here that you really like what's something you want to make sure is more explicit or clear um as the alma team goes and develops uh the profile for you all right um Monica said that she wanted from each board member if there are things on the job profile that you know really resonate with you certainly amplify that if there are some things that you think are missing or
087or need more detail please um add that we'll start with board member Castro thank you for getting us going yeah um one thing that uh want to know if you think it's embedded in one of these points or could be added is using research and data to drive decision making thank you for remember Castro is are there um if you look at kind of the key responsibilities and then the skills and experiences are there a a couple that really resonate with you as being pretty spoton um or in in um in the opposite view is there's something listed that doesn't seem to speak to what you would would be thinking should be there yeah I think Point number two being a bold Champion for for students I think the district is I well I know
088the board and district is very United in a commitment to social justice and so um wanting that person to be um in lock upep with us on that uh I think Point number two is really important that in that regard and it just kind of speaks to like the vision of the district like the that that mission statement um the the why we do it thank you all right vice president Pearson thank you very much for going next yeah thanks so the systems perspective with the ability to manage and prioritize competing demands um that for me kind of strikes also at the at the top um obviously what savan said also resonates with me high but I think one thing that um I think is super important is being able to have that systems um
089perspective um but also um be able to ground that perspective um an actionable um um intangible um items so um I guess that's the only thing that I'm trying to figure out how to say that um effectively so it's although having these system perspectives and being able to be Innovative what does it look to actually ground that and implement or something about implementation I think would be extremely important um in this got it thank you all right thank you board member Vander M yes sorry um I like number two with the champion bold that on wavering advocacy the only thing I would add would be um for our first nation and Native students that think that needs to be called out there specifically um we are on their land we are one third of the
090state is native land I think therefore it should be called out by name the other one that I think is the most important though is to serve as a coh with coherent planed systems and structures we have great ideas in this commitment we do things very well idea Wise It's the implmentation that's the hard part and often times that gets mtled or gets confused and I think that goes hand in hand with clear communication because you have to do that to explain your vision so those are the two most important then just that one tweak and number two and I'm good thank you for thank you board memb simin oh can't hear you you're muted sorry um most of this resonates deeply with me I I see this as the same things that I have
091on my separate list um that is side by side with it um and so I I just want to lift up also um the importance of someone with a track record for improving outcomes for students that's something that we wrestled with for decades um and so we want to I want to make sure that that's said out loud um I very very much appreciate um on the leand side the champing of all of our students and of course we want to lift up those who often feel um less seen and so I really appreciate that as well the one piece that isn't on here that perhaps falls under some of these categories but I think it's important for it to be explicit is the category of um of strengthening the professional climate and culture for
092our staff which I think think is very directly connected with the ability for our staff to um work to their fullest potential which then gives our students all of the chances to achieve their fullest potential and so I just want to make sure that that connection is explicit as well um and I think everything else on my list is replicated here I am so thankful for our community and and for your group for bringing this forward in a way that feels um digestible considering the enormity of it all so thank you very very much thank you um board member Castro can you hold one moment let me just see if um board member Mosner falam wants to go just so we can get everybody and then are you okay with me coming back to you
093okay thanks are you ready um thanks um a couple of things are going through my mind um I'm gonna start with a couple that are really clear and then um sorry you're good I'm sorry you're good no no worries and then say something that's a little less clear and hope that Monica with your expertise you can like parse the parts that make sense from it um where it says commitment to Madison which which I've talked about really caring about a lot I wonder one thing that I'm thinking about is like commitment to madis and Madison's future like I think about we could have a superintendent who who stays for only a few years but um like we can't we I mean I guess the example that you brought up about a longer term contract and
094I don't know how I feel about any of that but like you know this people's lives they got to do what they got to do and so and I'm thinking about like you you can have a commitment to Madison's future that doesn't necessarily include you but that would hopefully show up in your decision making and so I'm I'm kind of thinking about about how we make make sense of that right as commitment to medison and commitment to medison 10 15 20 50 years in the future um and like a vision that that that responds to that I'm kind of wondering about um in that thing where it says Innovation disruptor and creative Problem Solver I'm wondering about adding um something about like with realistic timelines or um with like a acute change management analysis or
095Capacity Analysis because I think one of the things that really um can harm a good idea as it gets implemented in schools is like um you forgetting to ask a question about what the capacity to do it is and I'm thinking about experiences that I've had and things I've watched unfold um but like you know if you want things to change you have to have a real sense of like what's actually possible next and that's as important as the long-term Vision um and then here's the part that's like uh maybe that makes less sense um I think my board colleagues some of you have heard me talk about this letter that the former superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District wrote at the height of the coid lockdown that really affected me and I don't
096I don't I never I didn't work for the superintendent I don't know what it was like to work under this person or anything like that but what really affected me about it was it was clear that the superintendent had like a a really deep understanding this is probably in the instructional leadership piece but the way it reads now is that the instructional leadership is like a a track record of improving outcomes and I think that misses a little bit of like the beauty and importance of what happens in schools that aren't outcomes but are that our student experiences and I feel like the one thing that I would say is missing here is like um is is that is that piece right like how how do we attract somebody who like in their heart um
097believes that what happens in a in public schools in a city have has meaning and impacts on on the experiences that young people have experiences that families have and the relationships that get built through that through the public schools o over time right like when you're 30 on the bus and you're like hey weren't you in my whatever class or what like it's like you so I appreciate you laughing especially because like it's yours like you know what this is here I mean I'm pretty far from my um my home Public School uh but I and maybe I'm just like news day but I feel like um but I I feel like I would just a little bit more heart um in this profile I'm good that was very clear for me that last one
098so it was just as clear as the first two thank you for that and I really appreciate um everything you're sharing for sure all right board member Castro did you I'm good thank you oh okay um board member Malo do you want to go or do you want want want me to go and then come back to you um I have my my questions do I am I completely ready you can go I'm sorry okay um so I would say the majority of this also resonates with me so I appreciate kind of what you've lifted up so far um one of the things I would like to see in the skills and experiences is um a track record in collaboration with collective bargaining yeah I feel like that's a big part of our school district
099and we need a superintendent who understands or hopefully has had some experience and and is kind of walking in willing to do the collaboration and partnership that is needed and not see it as a I don't know as a something else okay um G I also would like to see more explicitly so right now there is a okay let me just see if I see it okay well one of the things that we heard in the feedback was this commitment to kind of Community Partners and so I don't know if that is in the what or the how right now but what I would like to see is something that's a little bit more explicit around collaborating with higher education business and our community-based organizations for the greatest benefit of our mmsd students um so
100that it's it is about being visible but it's it's visible with a purpose um for great you know great new programmingsoftware improving the student outcomes I love what um Blair just mentioned around well at least as I heard it not only being focused on the student outcomes but also the experiences um because that is key um I would like to see something and maybe this is part of the reflective leadership I think think it's really important for a leader to set the conditions for people to be able to collaborate and be honest and show up with their full selves and you create either the conditions for people to want to do that or you create the conditions where people withdraw um and so I I don't know if there's a way for us to I
101don't know get that in there somewhere um it is about your ability to also look in the mirror take feedback be reflective and you have a responsibility to kind of create create the kind of um environment where people can show up and really be an asset um to the organization and then the only other thing for me is um I do appreciate the unwavering advocacy for our students uh of course the plans and the systems thinking I think that's key I appreciate the instructional leadership especially for black latinxt Asian First Nations to board member Vander muan point like I appreciate all that I I think what I'm I'm wondering about is can we more explicit call out like Equity leadership or like a I don't know if it's a what or if it's more of
102a a how like a leader who has a clear kind of philosophy about equity and social justice and how they will I don't know how that shows up in their leadership moves I don't I don't know I'm sorry I'm Blair I'm like you like I I don't know if this is clear so you make sense of it Monica um and then this is my one question I when I see the word experienced because it was on the slide before this as well like the community wants an experienced leader uh uh up a couple more before the graphs yeah who cares deeply is the board defining experienced are you defining exper you know experien like because experien to me comes with all kinds of interpretation um for some districts experiences like you had to have been
103a teacher a principal of this and a x number of years in proven leadership for other people you know I mean so I'm I'm curious about how we are quantifying experienced it's a it's a great question and it is something we need to discuss um you know there are different points of view uh often around what we mean by experience um sometimes a board is very clear they want someone who's been a career educator where other boards are very open uh on this question some want a minimum of 10 years um some have a strong preference for see people who are have been in the superintendent seat um in the past which Alma usually advises against because the superintendent seat is not diverse today in this country uh so it really constrains the diversity of
104potential candidates um however I do think it's a good question to pose to your colleagues as to is there a minimum set of years experience and uh you know what that kind of Ideal profile looks like up for you thank you for that is is that something we would need to discuss before the leadership profile is completed or is it something we can discuss when we start to think about vetting and screening um I guess the you know kind of applications that come our way yeah so it's a good question I think that there are certain so actually two two things you mentioned this piece um but also if you want to have a job profile that has specific outcomes which would be more like the criteria you would evaluate um even the sitting superintendent
105against once in the role uh if we were considering those for the job profile while we might need to consider planning uh an additional conversation um uh you know so I think that's something for us to discuss if that's something you want to do if we don't have the time what the alma team can do is we can um make our best starting guess and then allow the board to review that react to it uh rather than having a planned conversation about the things like that okay thank you for that all right Bor member Mal thank you so much okay so my first question kind of teases out a little bit of of what or my first ad a little bit of what I think Michelle was was talking about or board president Nichols and
106board member Mosner Felman um I'll I'll just say this if you go to the very last Slide the one right before kind of the wrapup one of the things that I always think is interesting is just like the do these things align with what qualifies you to be a superintendent in Wisconsin um because no one ever says like meets the requirements of this state um I do want to emphasize that that's important and I think that's important part because one of the requirements to be a superintendent is the state in this state is that you've taught and I think that knowing who this person is as an educator who this person is in in the classroom is really really relevant to their approach to this work and how to to demonstrate that this isn't a
107person who's just thought about working with young people but has real experience navigating um the the the lives of young people with them um is something that I I want to emphasize as as part of what I'm hoping we can uh tease out the other thing I want to say is when you hear they are they are an effective and excellent Communicator they're an HR leader they're um you know uh they're fiscally responsible what I think about is this is the person who manages our communication department and the leadership of that department this is the person who manages our human resources department and the leadership of that department this is the person who manages our CFO um and so there is a part of that that's about putting the right people in the right places
108and then recognizing those people and using their strengths um and so I really wan to kind of tease out we're not asking this person to be everything we are saying their role impacts the way every other job in this district is done and therefore we need this person to to be able to put the right people in the right place um and then to be able to uplift their strengths and talents um and and the other thing I want to say about that for me as a board member is that somebody has to come in and have a clear understanding of what a functional or chart looks looks like um and how they demonstrate that in the process is really important to me as a board member this person has to be able to work
109in concert with the board that employs that the superintendent serves at the pleasure of the board they have to work well with board members um I have to say I have some hesitancy around a five-year contract board members serve three-year terms which means we would make a really significant decision for board members in the future um and so I understand the the want for stability and continuity in our leadership I also think that we as a community have to respond in real time um to the performance of our superintendent the other thing I hear in longevity is people talking about what it takes to stick around it's great to say we want somebody to stick around in Madison that's a really Charming thing to say um but Madison is a place where you're going to
110have to be able to survive some really scrutinized izing criticism people care deeply about public education people have lots of opinions about this job I hear all kinds of things about who should be this job or what we want from the person to do this job I don't hear a ton of people saying that they want themselves to do this job um and so I think what you have to understand is uh I I think it's a great thing to to say somebody should should hang out for a long time and really commit to this District but that me means they have to withstand criticism and they have to establish a work life balance and they have to model that work life balance to the rest of our Administration in order to make sure that
111this is sustainable so that means this person has to know how to manage their time they have to know how to take a break um they have to know you know how to be strategic in engaging our entire Community um and make space for themselves and their family I think that is it for what I wanted to add I want to thank you so much much for giving us the opportunity to give feedback at at this phase in the search thank you so much for that and I I also just want to add to what you're saying about commitment to Madison I do think they're members of the community um who think being from here means you're more likely to stay and you know it's just no guarantee no matter what whether someone's born and
112raised in Madison or came from outside the system so I really appreciate your comment and and lifting that up as well uh and I I definitely think we can be more explicit around how they're building the right leadership team and leading that team and also um you know the pieces about the organization chart um and your point of view on the terms I think it you know um at some point we'll we'll get to the point where you've got to make those decisions and really helpful to know how you're thinking about it so Monica can I ask um what is the next step from your perspective so you've you've now drafted you've give given us an offering of kind of the key what's and how's we've now added and giving you some additional things what
113would come after this yeah so the next steps are for Alma to draft an actual profile and um to have the Board review it I believe you have another meeting on October 30th yes a regular board meeting we would love to Target that meeting for the opportunity to um discuss and vote on the profile um uh I uh so I think there's a question that we need to resolve about whether people can either provide feedback uh to us before that board meeting um but uh that would be our next step we would really like to get the job posted before the end of the month we just need to ensure that every board member is in agreement um with with what's in the profile before we post it um yeah so that's the story um
114we have Ben here who um can provide legal support so here's my wondering if Monica takes the feedback she received tonight or the alma team does drafts the drafts the first version of the leadership profile and sends it back to us as board members we can take that draft and we can make revisions as long as we're just sending it back Direct ly to Monica right individually yes okay and then um so I I think we could do that and then what would be good to know is like what what are the deadlines for you to get that last version of feedback yeah and then board members you all are hearing that then the the mo the second draft which hopefully is very close to the final would come to us at the regular Board
115of Education meeting on October 30th yeah we would publicly um hopefully be voting to approve and accept that leadership profile at that yeah okay the one thing that we discussed tonight which um I think is still unanswered from my perspective is that if we wanted and I don't think we're ready for this I'll just say that that's my own opinion but if if we wanted to be more explicit around the the kinds of student outcomes we expecting which would then create a foundation or a bridge to how we would evaluate the superintendent later um if we want that to be part of the leadership profile we would have to find um a space and time to do that before the leadership profile could be completed so are there any board members who feel strongly tonight
116that we need to get in get in a room and really gravel with what the student outcomes are um and get consensus and Alignment around that to go into the leadership profile or if you have another recommendation board member simit thank you I'll jump right in here because I think this really aligns with the work that we're talking about doing around board governance and which is potentially a very outcome based process that we're moving towards and so I do think it's really important that we take some time together to look at this as sort of a segue Point towards moving in that direction so having a first go around of um putting outcomes into the job description and therefore into the evaluation as well thank you Pearson yeah thanks um okay so just so that
117I understand what the potential timeline is we want to vote on the profile at our regular board meeting which is on the 30th that's in a week and a couple days like it's almost two weeks so when are we then if we wanted to do this work around outcomes that's going to have to happen like next week so are we then planning to have some meetings because I know that that conversation could possibly go be a little lengthy um so are we looking to do a couple meetings next week and then um have it all to Alma I guess I'm just trying to like Envision what the actual timeline would look like I'm interested in doing it but at the same time I want to be realistic um on what we can actually accomplish and
118adding that piece to it I do agree that it is important so that folks know like what we are expecting the outcomes to be as they are applying for this but I also understand our limitations so I'm just asking like where like what are we envisioning yeah so if we were going to move in the direction of talking about the outcomes and the results that we expect we would not be able to do that and have a leadership profile to vote on at at October 30th it just wouldn't work out uh I would also say in the board governance conversation um we're hoping to have some initial board development at our November Retreat and usually there's more of a foundational conversation before we kind of jump into the student results conversation um I do agree
119with you Laura that it is important that we get it would be good to get this established this year while we're in the the hiring process um I'm just not sure if we want to keep the timeline for the most part um that Monica spoke of at the beginning of the meeting with us being able to um have a early what did you say early Recruitment and um kind of having to yeah our goal is to be able to begin um screening candidates in in as early as December um yep so what is the latest date then do you expect uh or would you like to ensure that we have enough time to get a wide range of candidates in um what is the latest that we should be posting yeah so uh I would
120not adjust the posting time but I think this is very relevant towards your screening process so you know president what we might do in and vice president is think about the work that we need to do when we're designing the activities the interview questions of the screening process that might be a time when we look at the specific outcomes which might connect more to the criteria so we might want to do more planning for that um I I'm uh yeah and so we can talk about I don't know what the agenda looks like for your when the November Retreat is set for um we'll be ready to do that by mid to late November so I don't know if you want to consider part of your retreat or finding additional time for us to do
121that um that should be in uh executive session um because you'll be determining the screening steps and the interview questions as well as the that criteria okay um yes our Retreat is right now scheduled for November 10th November 10th um those are publicly noticed meetings we can though related to a personel um issue I mean related topic um a journ our our Retreat and go into a a a closed session so uh board member simin how does that sound knowing that it if the outcomes conversation would be critical in our screening um and we could buy a little bit more time by getting it into our November Retreat would you be open to us kind of holding that conversation then and then still moving forward with the draft of the um leadership profile in the
122next week or so so I guess it brings up some questions in my mind so I'm wondering Monica if we have this completed profile um that we we all accept and then we're continuing to work essentially on the job description as time goes on what are the implications for candidates are there any negative um repercussions that could happen or is that a common situation I yeah I mean I think you want to make sure the foundational elements of the profile are laid out and are pretty clear but it is normal for us in in in the searches that we lead you're still getting Community voice you're still getting additional inputs and the board is getting more clear at every stage of the process as to what you're looking for so we're not we're letting our
123the candidates know those things as they become clear to you um and we just fold it right into the next phase of the process so it would become really relevant at the point of screening uh you know and we've got time for that because you know hopefully we'll be spending the month of November really recruiting and bringing in candidates um so I I have no it it does it's totally fine um what what we're discussing provides Clarity for candidates as to what they're going to be expected to deliver but it shouldn't change the responsibilities or the skills that you're screening for um and if it does we can make those adjustments but my guess is the things you're focused on are going to be an alignment with the things we're talking about in terms of
124responsibilities and skill sets yeah yes I I think that they will be so based on that I am I I don't have any interest in rushing through the conversation around outcomes I think it's too incredibly critical that we give it the time and the space that it needs so I am very comfortable working on that after we complete um the profile thank you awesome I agree thank you for that all right board members any other kind of final thoughts um anything else that's sparked for you as you heard that other board members share their Reflections that you want to um share with Monica a question all right or member Moser wel it's a little tangential okay Monica can you remind me if I'm thinking hey I really wonder who I know such and such a
125person and I really wonder if such and such a person has an idea about a candidate I'm thinking specifically of like my my teachers my grad school teachers do you know anyone who might be a great fit am I supposed to email you my teacher's name or am I supposed to ask my teacher and then can you rem how that goes you are welcome no thank you for asking that you're welcome to ask far and wide for rec recomendations and send them our way so we would prefer if someone is suggested to you that you connect them with us and get them into our process rather than you beginning to talk to them before they've gone through our process but we we we would love for every single board member to play an active role
126and you know letting us know people that you think we should reach out to uh letting us know connecting us if someone comes your way and says they're interested just just go ahead and connect them with us over email or text whatever it is we'll take it from there we really appreciate that so you are more than welcome the thing I was referring to earlier is that once we start talking about candidates that you're not doing sort of your own background you know um research and talking to people who might know them to hear what they have to say about the leaders that's where you can really hurt the integ of the process and introduce bias that's hard to undo but getting people to us to apply bring bring it on we want as many
127as as you can think of thanks vice president Pearson okay so just remind me again um because I know we've thrown out a lot of dates the next steps for us to move forward um we'll get the the updated profile hopefully next week or can you just go back through the date sorry no no absolutely so um we're going to take this input and build the profile we I didn't actually give specific dates so let me make some commitments to you right now we can have the profile to you by Monday uh October 23rd um the meeting is on the 30th if it's at all possible to get feedback by Thursday the 26 that will give us enough time to incorporate that feedback if you need more time will understand uh um but probably the
12829th would be the latest I know the board likes to receive things ahead of time so yeah um president were you GNA say something there yeah I was gonna confirm I believe Thursday the 26 is when our board agenda goes public it goes to the board the 26 and then public the 27th okay it would go so let me clarify it goes public on Friday the 27th and yeah so feedback by the 26 should work I think you'd still be able to we'd still be able to get it attached to our agenda yes so would you want the revised version by that Friday um I'm looking the Jesse um that would be ideal right yeah we we could also kind of do it like would we did today doing the type typ line that we
129would send it out um either over the weekend to give a little bit more time so it wouldn't necessarily go out with the board pack and it would follow follow up that's like what we did for tonight we didn't send we posted the meeting on Thursday and there was so much data together that we allow a little bit okay is that making sense yes sorry I would say if people could try to protect time and get us feedback on Tuesday or Wednesday we would really appreciate it and um so if you know if it's not all of you getting us you know your individual feedback on Thursday for us then to create that version we we can get as close to possible but if we have uh if we could have through the weekend that
130will help us but we can try our best to have it by Friday um I just don't want to give an unrealistic timeline for people to review it um and get back to us can you use can you use the actual dates I'm sorry because I'm trying to conceptualize Thursday do you mean like this Thursday the 26th Thursday I guess um um so we would have the drafted job description to you Monday October 23rd and then I was requesting feedback by Thursday October 26th uh but then we were saying that the goal would be to have it turned around by the next day the 20 7th um which is Friday the 27th so I was saying if people are able to get us feedback on Tuesday and Wednesday that will help us to be able
131to turn it around by the the next day by the Friday the 27th thank you okay all right sounds like we have a plan um I just want to remind everyone that that um tonight we held all held all of our comments and feedback and suggestions for the leadership profile in tonight's open Workshop we will not be going into Clos session and we look forward to Monica sending us an updated draft on the 23rd um I really appreciate tonight's conversation I always appreciate hearing what my fellow colleagues um bring to the table because I I just feel like we each bring in a a great point of view and I I think that we're going to end up with a really good um leadership profile that should be like a nice attraction um for all
132of those great candidates out there Monica thank you so much for all of your team's hard work I know you had a very short turnaround from um you know closing the survey just the first week of October over all the input sessions and then having that ready to go um for tonight so thank you for your hard work and we um are looking forward to the next phase well thank you too and this board has been just wonderful to work with we feel really good about you as the supervisor of your next superintendent as a collective body and just really appreciate what each of you have stood for in this process and also um especially for your support support with the site visit um you know we appreciated you know Nikki and Nichelle both showed
133up in different ways and lots of lots of you just supporting um in in different ways to help us get the word out there and meet with people so thank you so much for your support and your continued engagement in this process great and we'll follow up with you also about the um board retreat and other opportunities to keep the next conversation going Perfect all right um with that said y'all um I'll take a motion to adjourn all right we already have vanan made the motion malro seconded all those in favor of adjourning the meeting I I wonderful good night everybody have a good one so much night