001e e e w he did really good all for one story you're like do that again sometime well he does a really good want to disappoint are we ready okay um I'm going to call the meeting to order and ask Laur Le to um call the rooll St Boyd here Denise Chapman here Amy Doran here Don Kirk here Barbara Cruz here Alexander here Nancy rfel here LA and um yeah Amy will you just state that you're virtual oh yeah yes I am virtual today due to Child Care thank you delg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all all right um first item that we have is the um adoption of that's for today anybody have
002any additions to that lengthy agenda all right I'll take hearing none I will take a motion to adopt the agenda please so move a second okay so first from Stu and a second from now and Laur please call the RO Stu Boyd hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz hi Alexander LOM hi Nancy rumfelt hi thank you agenda is approved all right our meeting tonight is for the purpose of selecting um a search firm replace help us replace um Dr Sher who we are ALS that about but he's moving on and um so we have this task ahead of us for the next four months or so try to reach a decision on what we have so earlier this last two weeks I've sent out emails and letters of um
003request for application for interest showing um that they are interested in being our search firm for the process and there were two of them that um we and I worked as vice president and President we felt that would be a good way to do it and steu and I looked through all of them and steu do you have any comments um at whatever Point you'd like me to share some additional information about the two that we both agreed would be our finalists just let me know when you'd like me to do that all right one of the the proposals was way higher than the others and so we opted not to part to use that firm and then the other one it took a little bit of time to get contact with them and finally
004Tom had to help us and so we felt they weren't perhaps as invested in the process as we needed somebody but we have two companies that we are um working with at this point in time and tonight we hope to make a decision on which one will be our search firm one of them is called Hazard young AA and Associates and the other one is mcferson and Jacob Jacobson and um Incorporated and I sent all of the board members a full packet of information about all of them they had that if they wanted to um browse it but I also sent them all a spreadsheet I did comparing the two compan well I actually compared all four and then once we narrowed it down to two I took the other two companies off but I
005asked or searched out um who the Consultants would be and if they had somebody in our area because we felt that would be kind of important to be able to get back and forth um their process and I asked them to share what their process was that they um were used and they all had four or five different stages that they go through and then key thing for us was looking at the community engagement and so they all have various ways of engaging with all kinds of stakeholders whether it's um senior citizens or whether it's the parents whether it's the staff whether it's classified staff licensed staff so they all have a plan as far as approaching the um Community engagement and then when I asked him about the recruiting and screening and how they
006would handle the postings and they all seem to access the same areas uh as well and then I asked um this their uh how they limited and narrowed down the process because they anticipate a lot of interest and then narrowing down to maybe 10 or 12 that we would look at and then from there it would be narrowed down um a little bit further and then I've cost I um asked about the cost breakdown and so some of them have a set fee but then they add the cost of the travel some of them add the cost for advertising and some of them um have a cost for the research so there were a lot of different pieces that we looked at and then I asked for references and so that's basically the process that
007we are using it and there's certainly way more in these packets but that was those were the ones that I felt were perhaps the most important for us to consider so I want to hear from my fellow board members on their thoughts on the process Ste you want to share what you have as um somebody who's gone and looked at them all sure um Barb and I agreed after reading the four proposals that two of them were really ones that we weren't interested in so we both then spent considerable time looking at the two that we thought we were more interested in and so I'm going to tell you just a few Salient facts about those two ultimately Barb and I agreed on the on that we would rank number one and we the one
008that we would rank number two um we didn't look at the proposals to together we didn't rate them together but we ended up with the same decision and when we shared that information with each other uh we felt that we were probably on the right track so um I will be quick in this Barb mentioned that one of the companies is Hazard young and AA uh they advertise that they've had 1,600 successful searches they do about 80 per year they actually have a local connection ction um the brother of one of the principles in the company actually works and lives in Loveland and his daughter is a graduate of Mountain View High School that was something that impressed us about both of the top two firms is that they both had some in interest in
009some involvement in or some connection to the community the problem that I saw with um Hazard young and Atia was even though they've done 1600 successful searches and 80 per year in recent years they've only conducted seven in Colorado and uh I thought and when Barbara and I talked she thought too that that that was perhaps um not enough local involvement to really understand uh much of their work is done in the Midwest and on the East Coast so uh they were this is the company that Barb and I both ranked as number two so let me tell you now about number one the name of the company is mcferson and Jacobson um the Colorado Association of school boards has used them and I'll tell you about uh a little bit about some other districts
010that have used them as well I had a an email exchange today with one of the officials from casby uh to ask some questions about the whole search process and I'll share that quickly too uh they have placed recently 1,000 superintendents what impressed me about their proposal they have very specific covered services and they offer other services for a charge they were the only one of the four companies that offered something that I thought to be important which to which is to set up spouse and or significant other visits to the district it's not part of the covered expense but they're the only ones who uh offered to include that what really impressed me about them was they have three pages of Colorado searches um that indicates they have a lot of understanding they have
011a lot of involvement in Colorado uh and whereas with the first company I told you that the brother of one of the principles was uh or lives in Loveland uh one of the the primary uh Searchers one of the executives of that company is Dr Randy zela who worked in the Thompson School District as a principal he was also I believe a district administrator and for several years he was uh the superintendent in St vain so he's very familiar with our area the other thing that I wanted to talk with you about is we we have another option and this is why I wanted to uh have a conversation with somebody from casby our other option is that at this point we wouldn't hire a superintendent we would hire an interim superintendent so I spoke
012with somebody who was familiar with searches um and asked some questions of that or about that one of the things that he told me was normally the interim approach is used when the resignation of the superintendent or the uh quick retirement or whatever happens very much last minute uh the other is if the applicants who are available do not meet the criteria of the district so I discussed our situation with him uh via email and here's some of the information that I got from him uh we will be searching uh at a time that a lot of people are looking I believe Barb isn't the post actually made on March 14th or March 16th or something like that according to the uh he said he felt that was a very adequate amount of time he
013said also we live in a very desirable location our district is very highly regarded uh locally particularly and and for someone who's coming or looking from out of state that's probably what they would find about our district and he made one other comment now remember this is someone from the Colorado Association of school boards he said you have a very stable board and he said that makes a big difference for people who are looking and interviewing for superintendent positions um so he said I don't think you'll have any problem finding someone um to meet your needs we always have the U interim option of course and one disadvantage and this is something that I thought of he bring this up were we to choose to go the interim route we would have to pay to
014choose an interim superintendent and then in a few months we would have to pay to go through the superintendent search so we would be paying twice basically and based on what uh the gentleman from casby told me I don't think that's necessary uh based on the other things that I told you so I wanted to share with those of you in the audience and my colleague colleagues on the board what I discovered both in my own um research and also the information I that I gathered today from the casby official thank you stu um so what I'd like to do now is you all both or all had that nice thick packet so I'm going to let you just kind of give us your response are if it totally is different that's totally fine whether
015it's our first or second choice it doesn't matter we just need to be able to have a decision tonight is what we have to be able to do so I'm going to start down here with Denise do you have any thoughts on all of the information that um you've had a chance to look at and I know I sent it what Monday yesterday I don't know I know you didn't have Rec I apologize um well it's good that we have opportunities to thank you for um resurfacing the interim option um it's always even if we get through the search process and decide we don't have the right candidates you know to know that interim is a possibility um I do prefer someone who has more local expertise um I you know in the recruiting work
016that I've done um which is pretty extensive having someone who really knows your um your local issues um your environment your Community is important um to help find that right match because as much as these C we're interviewing the candidates they're interviewing us as well so if they can um you know make that match better than someone who's you know has limited visibility to our area I think um that's important okay thank you I will tell you when I had verbal conversations with both companies they both agreed and said that if we don't find exact match that they would include the interim process as well for us okay Alexandra so in reading through their proposals I found that the one the hazard young and AA Associates I thought was more sort of polished and put
017together as a you speak up a little bit he's having a hard time hearing okay I thought the sorry that was very loud the hazard young Anda Associates seemed more sort of polished and put together as a proposal um and that there there were a couple of things in the mcferson one where they sort of were repetitive or I like it just wasn't as well put together as a proposal um so that is neither here nor there but that was something I noticed um I also liked some things I liked about the hazard young and A1 was that they talked about having the like online portal that all of us can access at any time um so so that we all have access to all of the applicants um rather than just being able to
018see the ones that they have chosen for us um so that I sort of liked that um because I always sort of Wonder like if they're you know if somebody's applying you know they get somebody and then they're like no no no this isn't a match but we would have been like oh no this is a perfect match um so that I thought was sort of a good thing about them um and I think also as far as their I agree with the like local thing but I thought also that they seem to be more widespread um and I don't know that we have a particular desire for somebody from Colorado or somebody from far away um but it just seemed like their R might be a little bit greater um than mcferson from what
019I could ascertain so those would be the positives I would see for them the positives I would see for mcferson were definitely the local the local connection um that they um have worked you know more with with Colorado school bth and have know more about that um they are cheaper which um would be an advantage um it wasn't totally clear to me as far as the the costs like if those if the add-on costs were in addition to the base fee or if that was included in the base fee um but both of of them were the add-on costs I guess were fairly fairly comparable um as far as that went um both of them as you said it sounds like do do a good job as far as like setting up you know focus
020groups and discussions and Gathering input from different stakeholders um again I would say looking at the hya it seems like from my it seemed like that's a little bit more structured with them um and requires a little bit less of the board than with mcferson it sounds like it requires a little bit more from us um so those were kind of my thoughts thank you NY so I I read through both of them and it's true on the hazard one it did come across as a little more polished but when I was reading both of them it it seemed like I couldn't I wasn't able to get quite as much detailed information from the hazard that I was from the mcferson um and the hazard it just seems like they just haven't had that many
021um recruitments especially within Colorado I really liked the mcferson and the casby connection and how there were so many and um what I really liked was the way they laid out all of the to-dos and tasks and they said here's what mcferson has to do here's what the Board of Education this is their responsibility and I really like that because this is my first time doing it um and I thought that also was just a good way for us to gauge like how much time are we going to have to invest in it and there also just seem to be a little bit more focused on helping us what what were we looking for in the superintendent what are our priorities and so you know I would say I'm probably leaning towards the MC as
022well as you know they are less but I really like the way that they laid out the to-dos and the tasks and who's responsible and I think about the only thing that really pequ my interest on the other one was the the portal but I I don't know if that's worth you know the extra money and we could probably get mcferson to set up some kind of uh shared drive or something where we could put all of the resumes so that we could see them I I'm sure there's a solution but those are my takeaways okay I do know that um mcferson has a a survey ready to be sent out tomorrow to our community um he's just waiting know as well as I'm sure the other one also does but they didn't point it
023out whereas he did yeah um got a chance to share I'm going to jump over to Amy and see if Amy has anything since chair is empty right now um no we will I'll go to thanks to Bar St for do for doing um some of the or a lot of the L work for us um greatly appreciate that and um you know I I would agree um that mcferson would have a good pulse on um the local candidates local needs um it looks like they've worked with us before and might have recruited uh somebody that we currently work with um for um so you know I appreciate that um again I I appreciate the casby connection you know because casby seems to you know is our uh guide um so and yes also as
024what Nancy mentioned is um having that Todo list the the tasks very well um set out uh was helpful to me um the hya um cost was a big thing um to me you know the um higher cost and the lower um Colorado recruits that they or positions that they filled were just a little concerning to me um again they seem to be really big in that Midwest area um but I think that you know Colorado we have some definite um you know things that need to be considered and I think that a um somebody the search firm needs to have a good pulse on that so um yeah those are and again the cost um for mcferson was um significantly less and the cost seemed to be uh laid out a little more specifically
025the um cost for the hya firm um seemed a little clunky like hard to like is that really it or how much else are we going to have to pay um so again thank you very much to Barb and Stu for putting this all together um for us appreciate it thank you Amy on you guys have covered pretty much everything that could be feelings yeah I you know honestly what jumped out off the page at me um um and I've been kind of going back through it and see if I'm forgetting anything is the cost um I think that there's a thousand ways to say how you're going to do the same thing in the end I'm a little skeptical of that kind of thing overall um you know I mean there's some basic shared
026steps and given that it is driven by Community input and engagement in both cases I I think that um if we had a strong desire to to ask for something from either one of them we could probably do that so the The Help The Helpful part is having the comparison just to glean out ideas from both um and so I think that at the end of the day cost is our bottom line to be honest with you I can't I I just can't swallow paying more for essentially the same services period And there's a lot of good reasons to choose both organizations and you guys have covered all those I will tell you that Laura Lee and I had a conversation with our CFO um Bob last week when I was here and um he
027said he went through the process he told us how it would be because it's less than 50,000 we don't have to go through all of the bids and everything in that way because it's having to do with a professional employment employment but he also said don't make your choice based on money he said make sure that you get the company that you want us to have and that's was what he had said in the and so just so you know that that's we don't have to do go that route but I hear you I appreciate hearing that but he's not the one that's right who sits up here and we'll get the opinion of everybody if I said otherwise so I have said that part which is I mean we have two of the most
028two of the biggest most important things that we are responsible for is this process and the money right so I feel like wrapping those up as the last speaker is important yes thank you Don so does anybody have anything further that they need or questions that you have I just wanted to add something quickly that I thought was interesting about mcferson is that it sounds like they rather than just like posting an ad and seeing who replies it sounds like they are much more active in the like recruitment part like actually if they they you know they said that they have a Data Bank of quality candidates and if they see somebody in there that they think would be a good fit they'll go out and actually like grab that person um so I think
029that could be definitely a benefit as well okay Alexander that's the impression I have too yes okay here's the big question I will take a motion to adopt one of the firms does anybody have a motion I move we approve mcferson to be our search firm there is second second thank you Don any further discussion that we need to have hey Laura Lee will you call the role please Stu Boyd hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz hi Alexander leson hi Nancy rumel hi okay the motion passes so our search firm that we will be using for the process um of finding a new superintendent will be Merson and Jacobs anybody have any other comments or anything they need to make all right I'm going to adjourn our meeting meeting
030ised