001Thank you. Um at 7:58 I am calling the school board for the district of Milton to order. We will start with uh the pledge of allegiance. Please >> aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I I'm not going to remind us of our miss vision and mission tonight because earlier uh the portrait of a redhawk was pointed out by Tracy and I think tonight is a good night to take a look at that as we go through our conversation about hiring a superintendent and keeping in mind what we see as a profile of a graduate and what um we could all use a reminder of so collaborator, self-manager, problem solver, communicator, and community
002builder. So with that, we will move on to our one and only first agenda item, which is uh a discussion and possible action on superintendent search firm recommendations. You will see that there is a memo there that was um put together by the hiring committee at our last board meeting. There were several things that were asked of the uh for me to follow up on. Uh one is people who wanted uh to join that hiring committee and several several people asked and in the end we asked John as the vice president to join that committee. So the committee is myself, John and Rick. And so we all with guidance, a lot of guidance from Chris put that document together. Additionally, I was asked to contact references for what we determined would be the re the
003ones we were going to recommend. And so I'd like to share with you tonight some of that information. And additionally, there were a number of people who sent me specific questions and I got the answers to those questions and I think we should all know that together before we started a discussion and move forward. So, I'm just going to do I'm you've all read the memo and the two that we recommended moving forward and discussing were McFersonson and Jacobson and Hazard Young and AIA HYA. So, those were the two that I uh reached out and got references for. Um, so just to share a little bit of that for McFersonson, I was able to get a hold of the board presidents in Clinton and Oregon. Clinton is the one they just finished and Oregon is
004the one they are about to finish. Both agreed they received excellent candidates um, and they liked working with Dennis. Clinton had a concern um about access to all of the candidates materials and that they were only given one week to review those materials um before they had to uh select they would hire them again. They said they got great value for their money. A second concern was that they didn't see much support from McFersonson, although it didn't impact their process at all. Um, but it was more of a one-man show with Dennis. They said Dennis listened to their needs, did everything that they would have expected him to do. Oregon had almost the exact same concerns. They were concerned about access to all of the candidate files and they only had a week and they
005could only access those files through the central office. And so for people who work during the day, it was a challenge. Um, and they didn't feel that McFersonson provided Dennis enough uh support in particular around publicity and communication to the community. Um, but they thought Dennis did a great job. Again, happy with their uh with their their pool. Very happy. I was asked questions by the board >> [snorts] >> um regarding uh if to to follow up and see exactly what that one what one week or how they could see the the um applicants paperwork because there was no portal. So I talked to Dennis today and they heir on the side of caution in regard to confidentiality. If we want to see all of the candidates materials, they would notify candidates that all board
006members were seeing all materials and so that they could protect the confidentiality and then if any superintendent didn't want that and were worried about confidentiality, they would have the opportunity to not to not apply. We would still need to go into the central office to maintain confidentiality. uh we would get a link, but it would have to be done in the district office and um we could do that as many times or as often as we wanted. So, it doesn't have to be one week. [snorts] Dennis additionally emailed me. Oh, somebody else asked how many searches he had done in Wisconsin. He has done 20. 19 for superintendent. One was for an HR I think an HR director. He also emailed me today that we would be his only client for this part of the
007year because his company limits every consultant to only two clients and he will only have one this this time around. Moving on to Verona um or moving on to HYA. I talked to Verona and Manona Grove. Verona was very pleased. They could they had no concerns. They their superintendent won superintendent of the year for 2025. They thought the process was excellent, very professional, professionalized, customized to their needs. It was hands-on, but without micromanaging, they would hire him again. Manona Grove said they got a very good candidate pool, top tier service. Um, all of the candidates were prevetted. It was a very polished experience, terrific outcome. would hire them again. Thought they were well worth the higher cost. Um they had uh couple of concerns. One is that someone from the board had to always stay
008on top of everything, manage it and timeline. Um it takes a lot of time. Uh I think that was their only there was oh and a second was in the memo the original memo we had said hya or mcferson did rac scene it was actually hya and you should have the updated um memo um I think oh items that uh Mike Richie who we would be working with and who both districts Verona and uh Manona Grove had Mike as their consultant. Um they may wave the 1,00 contracting fee for us. They put that on there typically for their larger districts and remove it for their smaller districts. He will be available for interviews and for contract negotiations at no additional cost. I also received a call from Sarah Breal asking about the involvement of staff
009um and the process and um I told her that of course we would include staff the two companies where we were looking at had that in their in their proposals and then I told her where the proposals was were and what the re where the recommendation was for her to read if she wanted to. So that's all the information that I've received or questions I've answered since our last meeting. So with that, I would open it up to the board if um you know what is what is their will in terms or questions in terms of the two we recommended or the other two that we didn't recommend. Tracy, >> could I ask you to clarify on the confidentiality of the documents? Was it McFersonson? >> What exactly did they mean by that? Like what
010is it that they wouldn't want to provide to the hiring committee or the board or >> It isn't that they don't want to provide something. The way Dennis explained it is there are many superintendents who apply for the job that don't want Chris is nodding. He'll probably can speak to this too that don't want their home district to know they're applying for jobs. And when they hear that seven, eight, nine people are going to be reviewing them and know that they're applying their we'll make an assumption that the information will get out to the public. So that's why we would have to all sign a confidentiality agreement and why they prefer to keep it in district so that they don't have to worry about someone in our homes finding it or getting access to it
011and word getting out that they're applying. And so that his concern is that [clears throat] >> okay I appreciate the comment you made about not everybody can come to district office. So um we >> again that was from a reference that is not my >> but the comment that that was somebody had made I appreciated that. Um am I okay to so going through the proposals this weekend and spending the time um I lean towards HYA. I liked the idea of the portal. Again I don't have the the flexibility that some of the other board members do. Um I do things at night and on the weekends when the district is closed. sort of to be able to have that time to decompress and read and understand what I'm looking at. Um, in addition, some
012of the other timelines that they had set out um had me leaning towards that firm. >> Joe, are you are you wanting to speak? >> I'll go next if that's um first of all, thank you to the folks that have spent the leg work so far. Um, this memo is very succinct. I did look through the proposals in detail and without question these two are the best of the proposals that we saw um in the effort. I don't think we should make this more difficult than it is. Either of these firms I think in my estimation would do a really really good job. We would get outstanding candidates and land in a really good place. Um, I I think the memo was just a tick ambiguous because it says or and I was hopeful that
013the three of you would say we prefer X over Y because of dot dot dot. I realize it's about splitting hairs because these proposals are very very similar. [snorts] Um, the fee I think is almost irrelevant. Um, at the end of the day, six or $8,000 difference, and I don't want to belittle it, but it won't matter if if we get where we need to go with with the candidate pool, etc. Um, so I could support either. And I think if someone feels strongly offered the motion to pick can or firm X and I don't even know which I would prefer, but I'm not terribly either will do a great job and we I think we'll be in great shape starting tomorrow. >> So I will respond to why the committee did not pick one
014or the other. And uh both Rick and John, please step in if with anything to add. It's exactly what you said. They're both going to do a good job for us. They're We have no concerns about either one, but I'm retired, right? And I can look at stuff anytime I want. I can come to meetings and nobody else on the board can, right? You all have full-time jobs. And so, it's important that we pick something that works for all of us. And so, I I was not comfortable picking one or the other. after reviewing them and I I had I had a 1A and a 1B basically is how I put them. I I don't think we can go wrong here. Um I I'm confident that either group will give us a good result. Um
015and [clears throat] I I think that's a good problem to have. Um, and that one question earlier when you were going over your questions, can you you said one of them was going to wave the $1,000 fee. Which one was that? >> Hya. >> Okay. >> Um, he sent me an email saying that typically in smaller districts, they tend to wave that $1,000 fee. It's more for the bigger districts where they have to do a lot more leg work um and in-person meetings. >> Okay. Thanks, >> Dr. Smith. Uh, thanks for the questions. Those will really help cuz I I agree either either one of these is going to be great and the feedback you offered might help me tip one way or the other. In HYA's case, you mentioned a mic. Is that is
016that the person that we would be getting? >> Mike Richie would be our consultant and he was the consultant for both of the districts I got references from. Same thing with with uh McFerson, the two districts that used Dennis who would be our consultant. So to um pick people, pick districts that were in our vicinity, you know, in our circle and who um work specifically with who would be our consultant? >> I'm not as familiar with Mike as I'm with Dennis. Um does he have any knowledge of the area? I mean, obviously Dennis was the superintendent in Edertton, so he's very familiar with the with Milton. Do you know? [snorts] >> I think in in the prop proposal, one of the proposals or in his proposal, he is from Wisconsin. >> Okay. >> And he's
017done the number they threw out there was thousands of over a thousand. >> Yep. Yeah. I'm sure you do a great job, but I don't geographically he's from this area. I didn't >> But he knows this area. >> Okay. >> Um pretty well. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> And then I just have a one quick question. Obviously, you said Dennis would have just two clients or maybe just one and it would be us. >> Any indication as to how many clients Mike might might have in this process? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> I think initially um I I kind of lean towards having Dennis as our consultant. I think that has a lot of value. I think there's something special about Milton. I think there's something special about this area. And
018I think there's something special about Wisconsin. So for me, I I kind of leaned towards uh Nick Fearson until I heard that they only did 20 in Wisconsin versus HYA has done over a hundred. Uh and then having Mike Richie as a local or Wisconsin based consultant. Um like Rick, I think there's a 1A and a 1B. Uh so I I would cast my vote for HYA as well, just based on some of the portals and stuff that we have at our disposal. I think that trumps the other stuff. >> Usually before you say where you're going to cast your vote, you you'd make a motion. >> Okay. Well, >> if if somebody is there somebody else who still wants to speak >> because typically you'd get a a motion. >> If we're ready, I
019will make a motion. >> Uh I will make a motion to have the uh school board, the district move forward with HYA as our consultant for the superintendent search. I'll second that. >> So, we have a motion from John and a second from Tracy. Any additional comments or questions? >> I just kind of want to hear from Chris before we vote. Chris, do you have any thoughts, comments, anything to add to this? >> I really don't. I'm going to do a I'm going to ask >> I'm gonna ask for a roll call vote on this one and I'll start with Jen. >> Yes. >> Um Ed, >> yes. John, >> yes. >> Annette, yes. Tracy, >> yes. >> Joe, >> yes. >> Rick, >> yes. Yes. >> All right. Motion carries. We will um contact
020Hya. And just a quick overview of the next steps in the for the next few days at least. So, tomorrow morning at 7 uh30, we have a meeting at the district office for the hiring committee to go through the proposal, make sure everything is there that we want and discuss the contract. Once that meeting is finished, we'll reach out to HYA now and um start getting the contract in in place and um hopefully Tuesday afternoon or as soon as possible, we should get that contract completed. um with HYA. Both HYA and Merson said they would be able to meet with us um the day after today, so tomorrow. So, we should be close and we if there are changes to that proposal that are insignificant, we will try to call a a quick meeting with
021the board to discuss those. If there are no changes like no significant changes to the proposal and that's what the contract is then we'll move forward with getting that uh signed and working on the f timeline. Are there any questions or items missing or that you want to be sure are done in the next couple of days? >> Dr. My only concern would be is if um there was some language or some guarantee that we're going to have the person that we say we're we were offered. If there was a um possibility that they say, "Well, sorry, this person's not available." Because I think that's a big big part of the decision process. Anything else? >> [clears throat] >> I'll make a motion we >> second. >> I have a motion from Rick and a
022second from Tracy. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Same side. Motion carries. Thank you all. Thank you for um getting that done so quickly.