thanks for being here everybody well thanks for making it back over again Steve as I remember from the first time all right Steve absolutely and uh it will be a similar format tonight except as you're well aware the 15minute or so presentation of your transition
plan so I'll turn it over to you sure so in front of you you have uh two documents i made the the nice little kind of what I would call the cutesy little plan that people like to see and then I got the meat and potatoes which
is what I really think you want so um but I'll go over the the little plan there and I'm just going to skim over kind of these these little pages here um so with my entry plan um it's real simple for me i call it
listen learn lead um as I said kind of in my last interview if if if the leaders don't listen and make the connections with the people they're trying to lead there's nobody that's going to stand behind them to be led so that's one of the pieces so it's really
simple you're going to see with me I'm trying to do a lot of listening i'm trying to do a lot of learning which is going to help me connect with all of you and start leading as a team um you'll see on on page two um that
building strong governance foundations we want to establish regular communication we want to clarify roles and responsibilities and we want to develop a shared vision now that's with me with the whole district but that's especially
between all of us in this room right here the board myself so my first priority is developing a trusting collaborative relationship with the Albertly Area Schools Board of Education through intentional communication structures and clear role
definition will establish the government foundation necessary for effective district leadership so we've got to establish that right away um I will do getting acquainted um and building uh relationships so you'll
see got a little timeline there july August I will be meeting with principles department heads key leaders and I'll get a little more in depth with the next document there uh July through October we'll host listening sessions with teachers support staff student groups
other perspectives on school culture climate and educational priorities september through December we'll conduct uh school tours classroom visits uh get a really good educational environment instructional practice and the reason why I say that I know I took
a tour today when I take the tour I want to be out on the roof and I want to be down in the basement i want to be in the tunnels and I want to see that storage closet i want to see everything and that's what I've done when I was a building principal and when I was a superintendent i want to know and I want
to see and then ongoing um you'll see I'll have my other plan in a year but ongoing in order to be visible keep uh transparent and a trusting relationship with the
community you have to always be out in the community i have to be in the schools i have to be in the classrooms um I have to be with people all the time talking to them about what they see what they feel and what they think about the school district and the direction that we're
moving we'll have a strong uh focus on student achievement we need to develop that post-secary success so what are we doing to be college and career and life ready uh we'll have that academic excellence so our rigorous curriculum and instruction we need to back that up with
the social emotional development the whole child approach and and we need to have that equity and inclusion which means what are we doing so all learners are successful and achieve their ultimate best when we assess the district
priorities we need to assess financial stability technology integration facilities and infrastructure and instructional programs and you'll see in my plan that there'll be a lot of one-on-one interviews with a lot of people to try to assess that
for community and stakeholder engagement we'll have to do some community forums i'll be working on those business partnerships and again that's an ongoing process but uh working with the board you're going to say "These are the business we want you to start with and then get to the rest." Um
not that we want to put a hierarchy on businesses but it's sometimes it's important to establish some really clear strong relationships with certain businesses um that the district's had meaningful relationships with in the past um civic engagement i'll be going to all the uh local government the
service organizations and the civic groups want to make sure that they're aligned with us in our efforts um more importantly they need to know who I am and they need to know how to contact me and get a hold of me um and know that it's it's all right to say "Hey hi I see you in the grocery store and I need to ask you a question." So it's important
that we do that um with family outreach need to make sure that I'm engaging with the PTO's with parents um uh need to make sure I'm engaging with the students and not just being at the activities but I mean being there and talking with them and finding out what their thoughts are students have a lot to say stopping in
at um the student councils uh the NHS meetings and making sure they know who I am and that I am accessible to them you'll see I have some key questionings for listening sessions and again I'll go over those uh more in depth there's a community question a
district strength challenges opportunities and then I have two that are kind of your perspective questions and again for that analysis planning and reporting timeline by October I should have a presentation back to the board with the initial findings on phase one and again
I'll go over that on phase one here uh for the listening sessions to highlight the emerging themes uh immediate needs and preliminary observations about district strengths and opportunities by January we should be able to deliver some um comprehensive analysis report
with detailed findings from stakeholder groups data review uh prioritizing recommendations uh for district areas and I know I'm saying strategic planning but that's the planning we're doing as we want to move forward um and then of June by June
that'll be my final transition report uh because by then I should be stepping into the the role or we should as a team be fully stepping into the role together um but really formulating with everything that I've learned how everybody that's involved with the
district what direction and how they want to move forward so if you look a little closer and I'll say it I'm honored to be the new superintendent of Albertly Public Schools and to partner with the student staff families and community and providing a high level education focused
on meeting student needs and enhancing the pathway toward college and career i share the Albertly Area School's vision of inspiring learners and cultivating growth to positively impact our community i want to thank the school board school district personnel and the community for
their time and energy during this hiring process having a comprehensive process allows me to listen to some of the voices of the school district and community i look forward to hearing more from everyone as I transition into the role of the superintendent i want to continue to build upon the legacy that
Albert Lee Area Schools has developed as a school district i want to explore the strengths understand the challenges and identify the top strategies to address those challenges the following plan provides a structure to my first 90 days six months and one year of work i look forward to developing strong
relationships with the school community and the entire Albertly community as I listen and explore what works for our students and what challenges our students may have I also would like to hear about how we can better prepare all school district staff to better serve our learning community for our students
i look forward to listening and learning about Albertly and Albertly public Elbertly area schools our partnership will provide me with understanding to formulate my leadership for the school district together we can increase the educational opportunities for all of our
students to succeed and create a thriving educational system so the goals and phases of the transition plan uh we'll develop school uh board and superintendent relationships we'll get
acquainted and building relationships uh with the school community there's a student achievement piece we'll have some diff district priorities and community and stakeholder engagement phase one is listening and learning consists of uh Albertly area schools
district staff and community members to gain an understanding of current strengths concerns and areas of improvement for the district it's very important for me to speak with as many stakeholders as possible from all the different parts of the entire community to learn as much as possible about their
perception on how we've been working on our district's mission vision goals and priorities main questions that I'll ask are what should Dr hy know about the Albertly community what are the strengths of the Albertly area school districts what challenges are Albertly area schools
facing and are there any opportunities that Albertly Area schools should be looking at and what is one thing you wish someone would ask you about or your advice on and that's been an interesting question I've asked in the past um to really formulate some direction phase
two would be analyze plan and report and again that's October January and June board meetings so I'll take this data I'll gather it all up I'll report it back to you and I'll also put it so that the school district staff and the overall community and public can see um
what I've learned and what we're talking about so goal one to kind of summarize that with the board superintendent relationship um I'm sharing this with you now this is not set in stone if you were to hire me from now until July 1 we
would be working on all the components of this plan together to make sure it not only fits what I need to do but it also fits what you envision I need to do to enter to enter into the school district um each board member will all
have one-on-one meetings um that's made so that we can strengthen our relationship we get to know each other as people and as educators um and and that way we can really start to strengthen that relationship with the board chair we'll establish a regular
meeting time we'll also start to establish our retreat so that we can kind of work on how we're going to work as a superintendent board um and it's got some examples under there um I'll also review just the calendar um the
election calendar um and then we'll all establish the structure and expectations um for how we respond to stakeholder concerns comments and feedback um and then we'll calendar uh board and superintendent school visits i think it's very important that um either
groups of two or three or individually i usually like individually that we walk the schools and we discuss what we see and what you see and what you think and and what I think so and I think we need to make sure that we continue to do that those are easy little things to to stop doing but it's important that we do them
together uh goal two getting acquainted uh that's where I schedule the get to know you meetings um to try to find as many facets of the school community really get that deeper understanding of the history challenge dreams and visions of the future so you'll see I have each
board member on there that's part of goal one but it's also part of goal two uh each member of the district leadership um all the different employee members um union leadership uh support staff community education child care child
care student leadership uh your parents from your PTA your volunteers your boosters um community members that includes government city county uh cultural civic uh chamber industrial and others goal three was student
achievement um we need to identify areas uh goals and areas for growth with regards to expectations for the district so we'll talk about that in our first 30 days we also need to identify key instructional issues priorities and plans so that's
meeting with each elementary principal the middle school principal the high school principal teacher leaders from pre-K to 12 academic and accountability director learning center director ALC online CTE director community education for district priorities again
we have to have those meetings so I'll meet with the finance and operations director really gain an understanding of where the budget is some of the assumptions that are built in that's how we start to form our relationship also and all these we're trying to get to know each other as people too um we'll
meet with the facilities so the uh coordinator of operations and safeties um and then you'll see al I have that uh complete walkthrough on there also um HR staff development committee technology director athletic director food service
uh health services student services child care and the Albertly bus company just to make sure we have all those relationships and what they see so that's most of those are within the first 60 days and then five community and
stakeholder engagement um that's where we you know I got I need to meet with those students and you'll see at the very end of there it says be visible so I want to know what their priorities goals and issues are but I want them to know who I am not who's the guy in the
tie so they need to know who I am with families again the last thing we'll discuss those priorities goals and issues but the main point there is be visible uh local government talk with them discuss the how how we work
together priorities goals and issues um plan on attending those civic groups and club meetings so they get to know me also then I can give them where you know like the presentations that we make here here's where we're at here's what I see um visit with local and regional
business um leaders again that's one of those ones first six months to one year that you do because it takes a long time to get to them all and again the overall community um offer the meets and greets on and off district grounds uh attend community events discuss all those
priorities goals and issues and again the important thing be visible anytime a new superintendent walks in is a unique time for Albertly Area Schools the resilience of our staff to continue
their high expectations for educating students prek to adult has been echoed in the students families and community during this transition it is time to listen learn communicate collaborate build trust with one another it is time to deepen our understanding of the culture and climate of Albertly Area
Schools and how we interact with the Albertly community state of Minnesota and the United States of America let us look forward together to fostering the mission and vision of Albertly Area Schools building upon our past successes and pushing ourselves to
higher levels of student achievement where every student succeeds i do look forward to meeting with each one of you and working together to create a bright future and a thriving educational system for our students does anyone have any questions for Steve
um just one and I mean it's I don't know how fair of a question it is um you've been at St james for a number of years now can you kind of compare do you see as you looked around a little bit today and done some uh research on us some um comparables you know where we could be
like St james or where we're vastly different um everybody I met today great staff great staff that compares um you've got staff that are working hard
and they're they're trying to move the district forward so some of the learning that I learned today was um you had some leadership that moved in a direction that didn't fit with the district um and that happens
occasionally uh there's was a lot of questions from the leadership and the and the and the staff as to what does that mean for us like what are we doing now that's that's different than what we've been working on and and what you've been working on
for a leadership model is using the Marzano uh framework uh for school improvement um I know that framework it works i've been through it i know that i know it works um so what I can tell you is that you have a staff that tried to
live out wear two different shoes and that's hard to do so they still move forward you still have schools that are working on becoming a level two school you have a school that's working on level three you have staff that are moving through the read act and they're
doing what they need to do for the kids and the families and to move the education forward that's very similar to St james uh they're working really hard too and they're trying to move forward um a lot of great things happening in
the classrooms when I walked by classrooms today teachers were teaching nobody was just sitting there kids weren't playing in the corner so you had teachers that were teaching that was very comparable to kids are working hard in the classroom that shows you the level of expectation that your
administrators your teachers your pair professionals have um about what the kids are doing uh when I walked by custodians they were busy they weren't standing around so and that's a that's a key thing that you see so I know how hard everybody's working to make this
the best place to be all right Steve thank you for that presentation we appreciate hearing how you will handle transitioning into this new role now please share with us what professional challenges you might expect during that transition based on your
current experience and how you will manage those challenges so professionally first is is to make as many trusting relationships as fast as possible so
that I can really get to the bottom of any challenges or frustrations like people don't don't like to say I'm really frustrated about this right away right like you you really want you really want the new person to come in and say "Hey this was the best decision I ever made you know thank god I moved
my family here and all of this right people don't necessarily want uh you to know all the negative unless it is so negative that several major changes need to happen i don't think I'm going to run into that um so it's it's about first
one um establishing some strong relationships so that we can have those conversations a little bit earlier some of those hard conversations of stuff that we see um another one is is and it's going to come through the
assessment this is always a hard one to do is and I kind of mentioned it just a little bit ago i from what from what I kind of learned today and I'm making an assumption and assumptions aren't always correct but I think there was some frustration within the staff
about how like why are we being why are we working on this and we're being told to do that so what's going to be I shouldn't say what's going to be hard but what's a little bit harder is where do I need to make sure we back off of so that we
allow the staff to push forward and and not just in comfort because again it's uncomfortable to get really good at something right so like when I when I'm working with kids and they're training to get to the next level in a sport you got to go to the weight room well it's
not comfortable to get tired in the weight room it hurts i don't want to say hurts but you know you're tired the next day and your body's tired that's not comfortable but over the long run you you see the progression and then you have become better the same thing
happens academically right like it's uncomfortable to learn sometimes to admit maybe you don't know how to do that and that you've got to get the learning and struggle a little bit nobody likes to struggle in front of somebody else let alone a kid in a class of 25 but if you struggle enough and and
get help and get the assistance and the facilitation and the teaching then it becomes easier and then you really learn hey I did learn how to do that and wow look at how much better I am now so so a little bit sometimes people are trying to do too much and so it's figuring out
where to back off but where to push too and that can be tricky right away because I don't know all the history um and again that transition plan tries to get me there a little faster um but again it's working with the cabinet working with the teachers being in the classroom i also think
uh quite frankly since I truly believe it's the relationship if you don't have a good positive trusting relationship like a student to a teacher there it's going to be harder for them to learn i'm coming in as a new superintendent
there's probably been some bridges built um or sorry some bridges burned um in the past i'm going to have to say I'm not like the rest of them so professionally I'm going to have to work a little harder to earn that trust and keep that trust um as I move forward so
that's probably in my six months the the piece that's going to be besides making sure with the bis business manager that we've got the finances in order and that we're moving forward which which we do but they could always be better right okay
is there anything you have sure so my my current district we actually have child care in it so I'm familiar with the state laws and and all that and working with the state um through child care so I probably didn't I don't remember talking about that at
all um so that's been interesting um I'm not afraid to work with people i I don't believe in power over i believe in power with um I'll give you an example from back when I was in Arizona i took over a
school back when I was in Arizona that needless to say was filthy um I could find the mouse droppings in the food service and stuff and I know a little bit what to work for i worked for Airmark Foods when I was in college and was a student manager so I got a little training there but anyway
um I was trying to get everything clean and nobody was listening to me um superintendent on down um so I went ahead and called the health uh department had them come and do an in uh inspection surprise inspection on us it wasn't a surprise to me and I said "You
need to site me for everything." So after I got that sheet back then that allowed me to move forward so um in another sense with the child care that I have uh that we're running right now some things didn't seem right so again I called our our person at the state I said "Can you come in and look at this
with me and tell me what's going on and then tell me all the things that I'm doing wrong so I can correct them." Um I took the ownership on that we were able to figure it out um and now um I have a thriving child care system but I'm not afraid to use the people and and get a
hold of the people that can help us take that next step um and in in both cases I I shouldered the the responsibility for that one um rather than get in a fight and argue with people it's just I got it documented and then we could move forward
thank you uh please share an initiative you are most proud of leading or being a part of within your district explain what your role was what the impact was on students and in hindsight what would you have done differently oh I could go two different
directions with this okay this one will be uh more educational leadership uh role of me as a superintendent um I'm actually really proud of this so uh I don't remember if I talked about it in my first one first
interview um coming out of the pandemic we were notified by our um language arts curriculum that at the elementary that they were going to go ahead and sunset it at the end of the year um this would have been whoa it was in the early spring not enough time way not enough
time to find a language arts curriculum ask any elementary p ask any teacher they'll tell you um so what my uh so I got with my elementary principal and we discussed it uh we brought it directly to the site uh leadership team the build
team as we call them um and we notified the staff hey we got notified by this here's kind of the letter you're the leadership team we're going to start to work together as a team and formulate a plan on what we're going to do in the background uh the elementary principal
and I basically called the um language arts and we said we're going to try to get one more year of curriculum out of them which we were able to do um so then uh the um principal and I uh sat down and we went through kind of a
strategic uh planning uh process for just that what from a leadership standpoint do we need to help the overall staff do and then the parents understand about um our process so we filled out a roadmap um with some
timelines in there of how we were going to go about uh finding a whole new curriculum um as we did that uh we we kept we brought the roadmap back to the build team and we said "Give us give us your um give us your thought on this do
the timelines look okay?" Um and they said "No there's a couple of things they want to change." So we went back the next month we we bought it brought it to the sitebased leadership team at that time anytime brought to your sitebased leadership team then they're able to bring that information down to their grade level and and discuss it there so
we're trying to build real transparent um pathways of communication at any time the teachers since I'm in the buildings talking to them they would ask me questions anyway individually uh they'd ask the the elementary principles questions individually anyway but anyway
we got our road map done uh the first step was to identify uh curriculum that they would like to work with at that same time the state of Minnesota was offering letters training free um for some staff so because we were in this situation we had a lot we had nine staff members out of our elementary school
that wanted to go so it's a pretty good number for staff to go to that so they went and got their training um and so we started we turned to the the science of reading all the research and we started to look at what curriculums uh were strong and and what should be there so
we were able to narrow it down uh with the sitebased leadership team uh to five curriculums to really take an in-depth look at um and then some phonics curriculum to take a look at um fully admitted uh by then finances we had the finances going right in the district uh
one of the curriculums was UFly um $75 a teacher so I offered any teacher that currently wanted it and try to use it in their classroom they could have it we just got it for them um so um they also looked at functional morphology and a couple other ones
um what we did was we created a model that the teachers could then um look and assess what they thought we had vendors come in and present to the teachers um I stayed away from the presentations personally because to be honest with you
I'm not using the curriculum the teachers are using it the paras are using it my e teachers are using it the sped teachers are using it so I stayed out of that i let my principal run those meetings because I didn't want it to be too uh administrative topheavy or if
somebody saw me agreeing with one I didn't want people to say "Well we got to get that because Hyle agrees with that." Because it really doesn't matter what Hy thinks it matters what everybody thinks is going to work with the kids um so we the Anyway through the process I kind of oversaw that we double checked
on that road mapap and we used a lot of teacher input once the teachers had it down to two curriculums that they were really strong about we sent teachers and again I didn't I was invited to go to the meetings but I explained to the staff you need to go i'd rather have one more teacher go and I'll sub a classroom
if needed for the day so that more staff can go but you need to see how other teachers are teaching with this curriculum and be able to ask the questions for yourself in the classroom so we sent teachers out they reviewed it they came back um along so then after we had it down to
the two and they saw it then they came back then we came back with what are the training needs or what are we going to have to purchase in training with those two curriculums so we were getting quotes and stuff on that but we wanted the teaching staff or or the users of
the curriculum to fully understand like if you choose curriculum A this is what training timelines look like if you choose curriculum B this is what the training and the timelines look like um and so then as my role I kind of oversaw that but it was making sure we had the
right information and then pushing it down to the users and then questions that they had that they couldn't get answers to right away it was making sure I could get the right information and then pushing it back down um to the user so that the right decision could be made
at the end of it when the teachers ultimately said this is the well sorry when we got to the two we also did some parent and community nights so parents could come in and see the two different curriculums um not hugely widely attended but we tried to do it on multiple nights we tried to do it on a
conference night we had some parents flip through it we got some in input back um enough that the staff pretty much felt comfortable um with it because we shared all that information with the staff but the parents parents got to look through and ask questions we we
sent emails out we had lots of parents that didn't necessarily come in and look at everything but we we gave them the resources so they could research it online and ask questions online and give us input online so we had some surveys at the end of that for parents to do we ended up surveying the staff at the end
um they uh we got to the point where just under 90% of the staff was um had consensus on this one curriculum um that curriculum also had to have um a phonics curriculum with it because we had so
many staff using UFly some tried the the other curriculum they all agreed on the UFly um three below we still use functional morphology above the other curriculums they were pretty much able to get out um of the way um in the end the agreement I
made with the with the staff was we're doing this for eight years we bought the professional development we bought the curriculum rights we had everything for an 8-year quote the company thought we were nuts by getting an eight-year quote uh we got a pretty good deal on it but the the the key that I told the staff
was next year you're going to have a kindergartener that walks in and I want to make sure they try this curriculum all the way through the elementary school because ultimately it's going to be the um uh middle school and the high school teachers that tell us if the
curriculum worked like we don't know that that's why I picked eight years so that gives us a good indication of if it's if it's working um test scores and everything that we see we know it's working um we've got middle school staff
that now wants us to get the curriculum and move it up into the middle school for them because they see what's what the kids are coming with so it was a big success um and I know I kind of glazed over some of the pieces there but all the time we were able to report back to
the board because they had the road map in front of them so then we have periodic times where the board was updated on where we were what staff were doing um and then at any time the board uh could communicate with the elementary principal or I about processes or things
like that or what they've been hearing so and then if we do those walkthroughs as superintendent then that that's time where you can ask a teacher hey tell me about how you're doing in this so So I'm extremely proud of that process it it
worked really well um I even to this day the staff felt that they were able to really make the decision and we have as complete a buyin as I think you can get for implementing a curriculum K5
um in a school district so they're still excited they're still doing that they're they're proud about what they see they like the results that they see um at the end of that we brought the middle and high school teachers in so they saw what was coming so again they're familiar with it so now they're starting to look
at how do we align with that so and we brought our preschool teachers into at the end it's actually they're able to use some of that in the preschool so we're really we're really trying to align that literacy initiative forward and then the read came
well thank you um what trends do you see happening in special education describe for us how you stay current on these trends and how you explore what might lie ahead in the future for special ed programs
so I I think we're at the convergence of two really really uh neat things that could be happening um not just for special ed but I think it really could impact special ed um but all of our education um artificial intelligence or
AI is is getting real real big out there um and there's a lot you can do with it if we learn how to use it appropriately i think you couple that with the current brain research that's coming out the the
the it's getting easier to to map um learning processes so if you go into the science of learning even if you were to look at it eight nine years ago they don't they have it mapped out way better today than they did back eight or nine years ago so they know parts of the
brain that are activated for speaking and they know the parts of the brain that are for listening and they know for reading and they know that reading isn't um a natural thing so they know there's different parts of the brain that have to activate for that so what does that
mean for special ed that means that as we learn more about the parts of the brains or the way that we can teach so that a learner or facilitate learning so that a learner can activate certain parts of the brain and move that into
long-term learning um I think we're going to be more apt to uh engage learners who struggle differently or who brains may function differently i kind of foresee that eventually parents may be able to
uh go in for some testing and you might be able to actually monitor how the brain's lighting up which would give you ideas on um how to teach or how to adjust your teaching to really have that student learn where maybe they're a little learning disabled or or not
getting it um I think with some of our um I think with some of the students that I've had in my past schools that um um are are mute or um maybe like like ASD where um you know they're in there and they're
paying attention and all that but they can't communicate or get that out when you think of what AI um you think of those iPads and they push a button and it says a couple of words but when you think about what AI is potentially able to do those students might be able to
really get some information out and really allow their brain to work so um I think that's kind of in the area of of uh cutting edge um so how do you stay up on those
current trends personally me I do trainings in AI because I want to know about it i want to learn about it um I'm curious in that way um I read a lot i read research u brain research is interesting to me that's kind of my science background a little bit of life science background and my history there
um I think the brain is just an amazing thing i think that's why I'm so passionate about education it's really neat to to see how that brain works so it's a lot of learning for me but I think it's also making sure that we're sending staff and getting our staff um some professional development and
training with um how are how are they learning with AI and and not just how are kids cheating in the classroom but how can you use AI in your classroom uh to better your teaching um and then what are we doing with brain research and how
how does that translate to your teaching and is there anything we can help you move forward with that um can tell you with the science of reading uh the teachers that are really uh taking the time to learn and really learn how to do that you're going to see their kids really grow because they're going to
know how to activate that brain in the right way um and I I suspect in the state of Minnesota you're going to see uh the literacy um increase for those staff that do that so
special ed you'll really see that yeah all right thank you we believe building effective leadership teams is critical to student success as you look at our school district what specific competencies and leadership traits would you look for in administrative
colleagues on your team and why please be specific okay uh integrity and honesty word and of word and action um especially in leadership we need to
be able to communicate uh with each other and and not in a negative nasty way but I mean if we need to be able to tell each other when things are going well but we also need to be able to tell each other when things aren't going well or if there's a behavior that we need to change
so if I'm having a crabby day and um I bark at uh an elementary principal that elementary principal needs to go "Steve come here a minute you seem a little crabby today and you're coming off a little raw and take a deep breath and let's have a restart for the day." So we
need to be able to talk to each other and trust each other enough that we see um the positives of what each other brings um and that we also can talk to each other um hardworking Um
I I've worked hard in my life um my mom tells me that not just cuz I'm her son she'd probably tell me if I was lazy too um but I've worked hard in my life when I think about the people that I work well
with they're hard workers they put the time in to make sure that what you're trying to do gets done in a meaningful way uh I'll talk about communication um it's easy to talk and
communicate it's easy to try to have people um it's easy to talk and and say things it's easy to write stuff and send an email the biggest part for me about communication is listening do people take the time to listen and
try to truly find out um what the other person is trying to communicate to you without trying to make a judgment or without trying to jump in the conversation i sometimes I catch myself doing that and I'll tell people wh I'm sorry I got to listen sorry about that
so um it's important that um in all of communication that I think listening is probably in in being an administrator in education probably one of the the top traits or characteristics of a person that can really help change the
direction or move the direction forward um if they take the time to listen and truly find out what the other person is trying to communicate thanks Steve uh as a superintendent please discuss the process you would use to ensure that student learning plans
are progressing uh monitored adjusted and result in positive trends in meeting student performance standards sure so uh one of the things that I just talked about and shared was um having a process that by which you write it down
put deadlines and dates people that are responsible for certain actions um and then continually following up on that um so as as we move forward as a district uh we need to write down what those
learning plans are and then put some dates to them so that we can not only report them to the board but report them to the community but then as we meet as um leadership teams or cabinet teams that we're also discussing where we are on there doesn't have to be every single
meeting but there has to be followup to say this is where we are this is where we're headed we think this is going to take two or three months so we'll follow up again but again it starts with writing it down making everybody aware of it and then working on it and
following up and monitoring it from that thank you uh please provide an example of the strategies you have used to create an inclusive learning environment for all students regardless of ability socioeconomic status or life experiences
so ultimately we're talking about climate and culture so what's the climate and culture at each building just lost my train of thought um so it it begins with the climate and culture of the building um so ultimately the the
first thing and I'm going to say it again it comes back to are you building relationships with students do they feel that they belong to that school building or they belong within the building at the same time are are staff are you
building those strong staff relationships too do staff feel like they belong in the building do they feel like you're trusted and I'm going to throw myself in there do they feel like they can trust that the superintendent pops in their classroom and I'm not looking for anything going wrong i'm just looking to see the cool stuff that
they're doing so um it begins with building that relationship then it begins with working um on the need on on the needs of what the data is telling you so yes you might
have students that um have lower or higher social economic status you might have students with different ability needs but you start to work you start to look at the data and see okay where are the current students right now what are they learning and where are
we going to move them and then from that you start to build your systems um of help so if you look at a school that might be an MTSS so um if you're looking at the academic standards and you have struggling students are you providing um
tiger time for lack of name but tiger time for students so that a teacher can work with a group of students that need help and students can maybe explore a different topic with a parah or a different teacher and you move kids
around to do that um so um one is kind of adjusting little bits of time during the day which which I know it's done um but that helps build a strategy um to make students that maybe are struggling move forward another strategy is uh
working with your build teams about um what's it do we have enough social emotional um data on the students if we don't can we get some where do we see that maybe we're struggling or that we need um additional help in that social
emotional learning and then is there additional programming that we need are there lessons that need to be taught um so at at the elementary level a lot of times there's there's at calendar time they'll do social emotional learning at that time or just working with students
um that also allows if social workers or uh counselors or people need to pull kids sometimes for different things sometimes they'll pull them at that time too um I've seen um at the middle school high school then it's do you have advisories uh do you have a health class are there certain things that you do uh
to engage students with that social emotional learning and then what do you do to remind kids about that so are there studentmade posters and I'll go to the high school a lot of high schools don't do that but are there student made posters that remind you don't be a bully
um um your s your um if you're having negative thoughts talk to that trusted adult things like that so do you get some of that um information out there and is it
studentmade student generated and then by the students and then of course um some of the other strategies that make stuff inclusive are um when you look at clubs um extracurriculars um student groups are
there does the data tell you that it's open to all students that want to join if not do you notice there's a group of students that maybe are missing are do we need to look at what additional items uh within the school maybe students
aren't going to um a big example when I came from St james they they always talked about having soccer but they always said they couldn't afford soccer um as a single school district that wasn't possible um so I kept on it for a
year and I found two school districts to co-op with and together we could afford it so that actually opened that extracurricular off to a whole group of students that didn't see themselves um in any of their other sports so now they have more students that participate in
afterchool activities and we see the benefit then in the classroom because now they're working harder to stay eligible for that um some of the other strategies um to make the environment inclusive for all students um again is going back to
that data and working with like your health and health and wellness uh teams throughout the district and making sure that uh you're trying to do uh maybe challenges by the classroom um so like uh laps around the playground different
physical or or healthy things to do with with kids that are inclusive that are things that everybody can do and participate in and then uh classrooms can celebrate that just helps students feel a belonging to their classroom feel a belonging to their school and feel uh
a bigger part of the system uh how would you suggest establishing a reasonable balance between budgeting for needed school district programs and maintaining the fiscal integrity of the school district so I think that comes in with the idea
of how you're going to build your budget so and I'm pretty sure I said this in the last one so when you're when you're building the budget right you base it on those long-term uh goals strategic goals and plans that you want so you kind of have those so you
know this is where we want to go when you come back and look at the budget then and you start to allocate dollars you look at um what are those non-discretionary dollars you put them aside right you can't can't change or do
anything with those what are what other uh budget assumptions or what other items that you need that you know you need to put away and you put that money away so again I said uh uh paid family medical leave act um unemployment um
what what curriculum um do you have that um you know you need to continually purchase um year after year so you put all those aside then you look at your discretionary you say "Okay here's the money that we have." So that's the money
then that you're going to look back at the goals and say "Okay people say we want we want these programs or we want to look at this new program does that new program fit with the long-term
strategic plan or the long-term goals and priorities of the district and if it does can we accomplish the paying for the programs we're currently paying for and adding that program on there and if it doesn't then what needs to come off so that that new program can be on there
like is it replacing a program is it is it going a different direction so I know that's kind of a summary of a of a quick uh nitty-gritty to do it but that's how you establish that balance when people don't that's where they run into budget problems say they they overspend their
budget because they spent non-discretionary money on something that should have been discretionary thanks Steve scenario staff are expressing frustration with the new district-wide policy citing the lack of communication and support as our
district's leader how would you take responsibility to improve communication channels address their concerns and ensure policy implementation success okay so if this happened uh first thing one of you could hit me
on the back of the head because I did something I don't normally do um so generally when we're talking policy a new policy uh implementation um or or a new procedure implementation um I'm going to go back to um if there's
a new policy procedure that needs to be done we're going to go back to and discuss it as a cabinet and administration group from that we're going to bring it back down to your building leadership teams they're going to bring that information back down to either the grade level teams or the
departments they're going to bring and then those departments will discuss it and that'll bring it back to the individual teachers or custodians or um pair of professionals or or whoever that at the lowest point that it's affecting
then the communication is going to come back up the chain uh back to the leadership groups so that we can discuss about what are we hearing what are people saying and does this sound right um then if we have a policy that we want
to provide to people and say this is this is what we think this is how it's going to run we'll send it back down to the back down that chain to get the feedback so it can come back up to us um during that time my weekly memo is updating the
board on where we're at so the board's fully aware of what's going on in this process um and the board's also providing me feedback on that too um so by the time it gets to the board meeting we should have consensus and so
consensus is really when everybody feels that their voice has been heard and the will of the group is ready to move forward then you can move forward if you're not at consensus that means you're going to have some of those
issues and those concerns so for the interview though you're asking me Steve you did that you knucklehead now what are you going to do um so first of all I'm going to apologize and I will stop what we're
doing um and I will say "Yep you're right i moved too fast too didn't try to get to consensus that's my mistake i apologize for that." And then we're going to send it right back down the chain and repeat that process until we have what's right and then in my Friday
me I'll probably call you if that happens and say "Guess what i screwed up here's what I did and here's what I'm doing i apologize for that." You might hear from from uh some teachers or or community members that that happened so thank you many students are suffering
from stress mental health and behavioral issues these are just a few barriers they face to reaching their full potential other than hiring more staff how would you implement a support system for staff parents and students to reduce these and other barriers hindering their full academic and social emotional
growth 30 okay thank you well let's start with probably one of the bigger stressors that hinder full academic and socially emotional growth how's your cell phone policy
um there's a lot to be said of learning uh learning how to use a cell phone and be successful with it but that that takes some strategy um so yeah students are suffering from stress mental health and behavioral issues
um I think we need to look at the data and that would probably be at um at the appropriate academic level um what what our elementary teachers might see um as stress or mental health with
our students um at this point is probably back to um the pandemic because if you think about it kids that were born during the pandemic or uh were not quite school age yet are now in the
elementary school and they're s they're suffering a different stress and um mental health because they were told to stay away from people to not play with people and and not develop those those early learning strategies of of how to
be effective um um little child um so we probably have to look at the elementary level and say okay what what strategies and work with our mental health uh case people um uh social
workers counselors and look at the data and say what kind of things what programs are out there not and you don't necessarily have to spend money but what kind of things can we do um as a school uh to bring stress down to bring mental health down um which should always help with the behavioral issues uh when get
to middle school you need to look at at that data um they're going to have a little bit about of that in there again from the pandemic at least that's what I've been seeing uh in students that age um but what what systems of support as a
staff can we do so you're going to look back at the research um a lot of times with with middle school kids again it's going to be learning about because they're really trying to figure out who am I so it's a lot of learning about who are you what do you
like what do you dislike and how do you how do you interact with people so it's looking at um how do you provide some lessons or some opportunities to help kids build stronger relationships um through different things not only through their learning but uh do we do
um um middle school um different middle school activities that will help kids interact with each other and with with different people so not necessarily the different group that they travel with each day but how do you help them interact with each other um when you get
to the high school a lot of that um can depend on they're still trying to figure out who they are but they're really trying to figure out um who they are and how they fit in um so again it's it's working with some curriculum doing some
lessons um some things on um what are what do the next steps look like that's stressful so it's it's working with counselors working with social workers on those next steps providing potentially uh coursework in
uh looking down the road um we're working with parents on that how did I lose myself again i apologize for this um it it really means that as a building we need to look through our multi-tered
system of supports and what what does the data say is stressing our kids or what mental health or behaviors are we seeing and then how are we going to react to that um and
then consult the research consult other schools um maybe con if you're at the high school consult the element or the middle school if you're at the middle school consult the elementary how did how did you work with these students um and then it's and then as you build that
out then it's also creating a sense of belonging so do you offer the activities do you offer things for kids uh to come alive are the are do all kids feel like they could be in the play or the musical um do they feel like they have a club or
a group uh to be there um again I mentioned with the elementary I know I'm jumping a little bit i mentioned with the elementary with the calendar time so what what do we want to talk about building resilience in young kids and and what things do we need to do those
are all stuff that we can do internally uh without going out and finding other things to do or more things to do um we can do those things and then it's just working with the data and are we improving are we not um and then of course with parents it's getting that
information out these are the things these are the structures that we're using um and how are we are we communicating this outright and what information do you need from us um to further help your student steve uh what administrative model will
you use to most effectively and efficiently run the school district would you consider roles or titles such as executive director assistant superintendent if not what other management model would you suggest that we use
it's an interesting question because a role or a title is not the leadership it's the person um so my personal philosophy is it it really wouldn't matter what you call
what you call the people or the structure we're we're going to need we're going to need a a hierarchy of structure because people have to be responsible for certain things like as a superintendent I have to be responsible for the entire district but I can't do
everything in the district so then I you know I need I need to have a business manager to help manage the finances and then we work together i need to help have that operations person so that we make sure that the the custodial work and the grounds and everything are being
done so you can have that so ultimately you need to have that hierarchy of structure uh to manage the the day-to-day um on the other side you'll find with me that I don't believe in power over i
believe in power with and that's why I think you you'll the theme of teamwork of learning communities of whatever you want to call them but the the team the theme of teamwork should come out uh really well with me um just like in my
example with the teachers I'm not the one using that curriculum those decisions need to be made by the practitioners I just once that decision's made I need to be able to provide that direction and provide what they need with them so yes we're going
to have that high hierarchy model uh to try to be most effective and efficient run our school district but we should also be evaluating that model and are we too are we too topheavy are there too many people at the top do we need to trim
from the top uh do we not have enough people at the bottom so that maybe student academics are our instruction is struggling um so we should be evaluating that all the time and and seeing where we're at
um and you do that through eval budget talking with people having different committee uh reports um I'll get a little bit um to another question that you have you know as a board member you should be on some of
these committees um different school committees you should be there you should be hearing what's being said you should be in that you should have a voice in there too um you shouldn't just be sitting here a couple of times a month and trying to make the best decision possible without ever getting
the information um so again that's power with not power over if you stay strictly in a hierarchal uh format typically what'll happen if you practice power over is you will get topheavy at some point because you're going to start adding people and you're
not going to assess and make sure that what you need or what needs to be adjusted throughout the throughout the uh management system is being adjusted and managed but I think that comes with conversations that we would have as a board superintendent too and as a
cabinet and as a leadership team and as a build team and all that okay uh please provide an example of how you can intentionally sought out different perspectives of how you have intentionally sought out different perspectives to reach a collaborative
outcome okay um so when I I I won't use my current position but I got to a I could but I got to a school district um that right away we recognized that um I'll use an
athletic example here right away I I realized and I had some parents in the community realize that um when uh specifically in a girl sport when they were younger by the age level by the
grade level there was anywhere 10 to 14 girls that participated but when they got to their junior senior year there was one to three so that that's an extreme loss of opportunity for kids um
so I had some parents and I mean they hit me with this right out of the the so I said okay I'm listening but let's look and look so um I went and talked with the youth association about how um how
at the high school level there were so so many less opportunities for the students but yet at the youth level there were and so we started to track the data uh with the youth and we realized that there was ultimately two different co-ops that uh these kids went
to so they started in the town that we were in 10 to 14 they went to a neighboring town for 2 years and then there were typically about 8 to 10 that were left then and then they went to a larger co-op um and then that's where
you saw the loss then when they got to high school they lost more so as we looked at the data and as we started asking more people in that part of the community their opinion on it you
you started to almost frame aside those that thought we need to do something more so there's more opportunity for the female athletes and then there was a side and no easy way to say it but um that other
side said if there if we do this there'll be less time that the boys will have for that same opportunity um the the data just didn't match that
opinion so we ended up having several community um all community um information sessions where we presented the data we got a ton of questions then we went back we worked with the youth organization we worked uh with the high
school league we worked with the other high schools involved and we got the information and we could clearly show that um it was the relationships between all
this that was eliminating these kids the bonus I had was I could go talk with those individual girls that were quitting and ask them why they quit so that was pretty hard data to ignore of I would love to still be doing that but I
just can't do it because of this or this or this or I never was the one that had the opportunity so I couldn't do that so what we did in the end is we ended up getting consensus so I spent time with the youth um
organization board with all the data i spent time with our school board with the data i spent time with the high school league with the data i spent time with our parents with the data we finally had it
took oh months to get that far to finally build consensus with everybody so that we could move forward the group that said there'll be less opportunities for all the male um athletes at that time slowly started to shrink um because
and it's not that they were 100% set but they were to the point where you are right we are limiting our own kids for this opportunity so ultimately we ended up starting um the varsity sport
uh we waited one year got all the agreement with the high school league got all that pushed through and then all the kids knew they were they were going to get the opportunity to start that sport what the youth had to do was pull all their cooperatives back and keep all
the kids in the youth uh sport and since it involved ice there was only one rank to play on so that's kind of what we're talking about so what happened what happened was they now can field their own varsity
sport at some years they actually have varsity and JV but they have enough numbers to have all the different ages through there um yes it's a little bit draining on the on the the overall system of how they all work together but
it took a lot of time and you're looking at the person that was told over and over you are going to destroy the entire program if you do this and the entire program is stronger those girls go compete at the at the region level all
the time um and the boys make it to state every now and then and the program has gone bigger that now they're talking about additional ICE um but that was a scary process because it involved
working with the the youth organizations in the city in a different manner where if it did backfire yeah kids were going to find it hard to do but that was just a a neat scenario that worked out and it took months but we had to build that consensus to move forward
all right you uh hinted at an answer to this question in your response to question 14 so here's your chance to dig deeper the governance management model is commonly adopted by school district with school boards constituting governance and upper level
administration led by the superintendent constituting management having said that do you believe that there are areas where it may be beneficial and appropriate for board members to have a presence in the context of management if so please provide some examples yeah so
there there there's there's lots of context right so board members should be on district committees um that's that's the bottom line you should know what's going on in the district um with those committees right when
committees are making decisions or making recommendations to the superintendent or to the principal who makes them to the superintendent who eventually gets to the entire board um you should have some of that inside knowledge on things that are are going on and that that can come out as board
reports at board meetings yeah I met with the um I met with the finina the finance committee met with the superintendent and the um uh business manager and this is what we discussed and things like that the um these board members are on the um health and
wellness committee and these are the initiatives that we're working on and you should have equal say because you're on the committee um ultimately a lot of those items come up as presentations to the board or or or items that you act on as a board just because you're on on the
committee and just because you're part of the committee and the decision-making model doesn't mean that you as the individual board member are calling the shots just like me as a individual superintendent I work for you so yes you do let me make those some decisions and
stuff but you all know those decisions that we're making or if there was a decision made and hey I need more information on that that's the conversation that we should have and I want more information on that then I should be getting all the board that information um I I just don't see how a
full governance management model would work if if all of you are on the outside all the time that there's just that's not possible well there's no way i don't know that I would sign up for that and I don't know that I would be your superintendent if that's what was going on because I ju it's a sets you up for
failure it sets me up for failure it sets up for us to get in a really good argument or fight at some point that would look unprofessional and then that shouldn't happen so um did I answer it for you i want to make sure I'm thorough duh i
guess you're getting my philosophy there i honestly it is not power over it is power with we should be a team absolutely 100% and the teachers should feel that they're a team with you too and if they don't then we'll do some things to work
on that probably should have answered that above but yeah we should do some of those things and that's what some of those uh schoolboard superintendent walkounds that's why we should have some of those scheduled that's why we should be doing some of that stuff uh together so that we're we're talking about what
we see and what's going on it's really nice when a board member can look at a pair of professional and say "I saw you working with that with a certain student in the hallway man you do a great job with that student." And that parrofessional is going to tell everybody they'll never guess what Neil
told me i couldn't believe he even saw me in the hallway right so I mean it it's it's those relation again it comes back to relationships but it's it's how we provide that structure that works all right Steve we have about 15 minutes
left so um now it's your turn what questions do you have for us oh would I be me if I didn't have a couple questions um so just kind of being curious i I I toured today great
facilities great facilities i know everybody can sit there and say if they find fault with something um I had a lot of fun touring do you foresee any major any major or somewhat major facility projects or improvements
in the next one to three years i don't think at this point nothing major other than you know the old typical roofs and parking lots um we were pretty blessed a few years ago with our Hammerfield project and then also our Herson schools that we're able to add on and uh put a an actual gymnasium
there for the students to learn in but um other than that I don't see anything major going on right now okay good it's good to hear um so you kind of asked this of me what is the biggest challenge you see me
facing in my first six months well ju just like anything it's uh we've got one name to learn you've got several names to learn um I don't see any um problems building relationships but uh
you know and I think I asked this question before about the similarities of the current district versus this district we're just a little bit bigger you know we've got a few more people that we work with a few more uh hands but um I I I just think it's still
building back the trust within our uh our district levels um Dave uh Kren our interim superintendent has done a great job he's uh uh been in I believe all the buildings within six days you know and and you know for an interim you know it
could be a babysitting job but uh he's taken it that so I mean I believe is that I think you had mentioned that a little bit as you've seen some people going in different directions what should we be working on what's the most important but that would be mine and and of course finances i'm the finance guy
but uh we're all working on them and uh we all learned a little bit about one-time monies and we all learned that the uh state changes their minds on too many things that uh at at any opportunity they have so we we want to see that uh level off the best we can
yeah I would I would concur uh with the the latter statement about finances and and I don't think that's a that's unique to Albert Lee i think it's statewide probably um somewhat more difficult in rural
areas where there may be uh as we are experiencing declining enrollment which compounds the issue so that's our our budget you know our expenses uh are creeping up to exceed our income and
that's a problem right and uh and uh it would be it's going to be an interesting um uh problem to solve right i would echo the same building trust and addressing our financial challenge i
would say the third thing and I think it's what our stakeholders told us and I think it's the reason why we're looking for a new superintendent is that there's a need to build a collaborative leadership model within the district with your with
your main reports you know we want our principles to feel part of the district leadership with the superintendent i I don't I think we lost our way in that in that vein and so CLA a collaborative
leadership model would be to me one a third priority okay can I just ask you a clarifying question sure um obviously relationships are very a priority for you um which is great but
the power of width and power over I I get that um I also heard a lot of consensus from you at what point as a superintendent do do you then step in if the consensus isn't going it's just stalling
yeah so so that comes with that kind of decisiveness and decision- making right and so what what do you what do you base your decisiveness on and so that's with careful so as you're having the discussion you need to to move that deci
those decisions and look at what are the long range plans and the long-term goals and priorities of the district and as you're building consensus and stuff as you get closer to there that's when you bring those back in there and you say "Okay look this decision is going to
help us accomplish this because it's lined up with these priorities." So it makes sense to move forward there um at times when you when you do that that's how you're trying to tell your non your people that are still maybe fighting the change because they think it's maybe too
much change or too big of a change at that point is where you're trying to say look if we do this it goes over here and that's what it's going to help with that so there are times when you do that but it's it's how you use the data and the information and how you make uh your
strategic plan and your strategic direction and priorities and goals work for you another challenge we don't we haven't really talked about that I see um and I don't think it would be different if you were in St james or if you were in Albert Lee but um is you said it in your
conclusion about in the United States and the Department of Ed transitions that are happening and what effect that has it's it makes people on the local level anxious um programs that are federally funded like our special ed and
and um some mandates that come from the federal government and just I think that's going to be a challenge for any superintendent any school board any district as we move forward and trying to navigate through that yeah yeah i think it's I think that's going to be really interesting
um to kind of manage because you're going to have to watch and then all the time we're going to be like okay wait a second how's what's this going to do to the budget and what does that look like right um the the one of the biggest things that we did and I guess it's part
of the answer here or one of the questions here is um um we have quite quite a bit uh immigrant families whether whe they're documented or undocumented um in St james um so one of the things that we did communities we
reached out to our community groups and we just told everybody you belong here it it I I I put out a little page to everybody and then we made sure that our community groups got it and it went through uh different communities but I made sure they understood that in the
Constitution and in the of the United States and um um really in um Minnesota that a free and appropriate public education is for all no matter status so and and there's a a plethora of other things that it says in there so but I I
made sure that um parts of our community understood we want you belong at school you're one of us you need to stay here and and be be part of us so um and it really whatever their status is of no
for me um I just need to provide them one heck of an education any other questions for Steve sure has this been a long day yeah a little bit not too bad though go ahead i've had longer days you know i've had I've had
where we've had to deal with issues and I'm at school till past midnight and then I go home to sleep quick and you have five o'clock more meetings the next morning and it goes all day so um been there so um we did discuss and it's been
said uh today declining enrollment um at our last meeting and today in your view what are some of the top factors that are affecting our enrollment one thing that I think of is our open enrollment the students we lose we were
um we were under the impression that we were it was more of a wash but we actually are losing quite a few students um to other districts in open enrollment okay the number we've been throwing around Steve is about 250 students net loss
annually okay um so I mean it's a factor any ideas why like where I might have a three bit opinion about it but uh I I think some of it is I mean we see a lot of students go to Alden for example okay
and just talking to some families and even students that have that go there some of it's just size it's just an environment they feel a little bit more comfortable in so um but I think there's many reasons you know
yeah oh go ahead One reason I've been hearing about lately has to do with student behavioral issues and our response to the behavioral issues so that is one area that I I think we'll need to continue looking at in the future
i think another area that has increased the open enrollment is pre- pandemic we had about 20 students who would do would do an online education now I think we're about 150 i I don't know the number off hand but
Okay how many of those are PSO do you think that's just online that's That's not counting okay no I've just u I've got a philosophy I'm still looking into a little bit on losing more at the younger level for the for the smaller classroom sizes and
possibly gaining them back as they look into the future and maybe need some classes that uh aren't offered at some of the small smaller districts okay which I do have a quick question sure what would you what would you suggest to
turn that one around and you're losing the younger students well yeah yeah that that's just in my estimation i mean students in general i I guess I try to I try to dig in there and find some data and be honest with you i might go call those parents and find I might just call
parents and say "Hey I see you're enrolling somewhere else and just conducting a little survey." and they might hang up on me or might say a choice word but um might get some information out of it just to see it's good question that is a good question
so we must be pretty close yeah one minute that's what I thought oh yeah it's it's been a it's been we've been flirting with this this issue of of we're in this area we're the big town and we're not a really big town but in this area we're the big town and there's
a perception that big big towns have issues that small towns don't have and so the solution to that problem for for some parents with their children is that they will send their child to a small school because then they will be able to escape all the issues that children in
big schools have to experience uh I emphasize that that's a perception i'm pretty convinced that small towns have a lot of problems too and that and that it's not unique to a to a place like Albert Lee um I think probably it's
there's there's no simple solution to this i think we need to do a better job of advertising what we have available here uh in and especially you know as they move up into the upper grades where they have an opportunity to take classes
and be involved in programs that smaller schools simply can't provide because of their size so we we need to do a better job of of promoting who we are and what we have i think you and I had the same
idea i literally just wrote what you said as you were saying it so yeah my my thought was like we're not we're not we're not I I'll use the word advertising we're not getting our information out there that's what we're not doing like right they're assuming
like oh there's 15 drug bus a day happening and all this stuff but parents need to know like no we haven't done that so it's kind of I don't want to say it but haven't done an alcohol bust in a high school in five years i I did one this year and I went with him i was like
this is the greatest thing ever i not that I want to say that but I haven't seen alcohol in a high school in a long time so it's one of those things and and don't I don't mean to make light of it because we got the kid some help that he needed but you just don't we just haven't done that but parents assume
that stuff's there all the time so um well and sitting in front of you you've got a strategic uh leader planner thinker um I truly believe that uh if we do this right all of us will hold the vision together um but I do use a vision
vision to move forward um every everywhere I've been I've been able to help student achievement improve um I believe in instructional leadership i love being an instructional leader that's not the only piece of my job um
but I do believe that fits in with with strong professional development strong support of of all the staff in the district um I have a background in facilities and finance management um was able to improve that in St james i improved that in other districts I've
been in uh both in Minnesota and Arizona um I am a networker i like to get out there and meet people um I love to build those relationships um so you will find out that I do engage with all stakeholders in the community
and um I believe governance is governance is strong when the superintendent board relationship is strong and when we work with each other to move forward uh through policy and management of the school district so I've had a lot of fun i've had a lot of fun today is not as tiring as people
think it is um I'm excited by the opportunity and the thought of Albertly Public Schools my family is too so thank you thank you Steve and we'll definitely be in touch after our deliberations okay sounds good thanks
travel safely we'll take a uh So thank you uh that was a lot of listening to do and a lot of scoring to do on your exceeds meets disappoint statement so um on that that I distributed the um you're not ranking these candidates either you're just sort
of indicating where you're leaning toward with your answers that exceeded or disappointed you in general the next thing would be for you to simply I think report out on reference checks and if people want to indicate how they felt about the interviews tonight you can do that i have a lot of great notes from
round one about their strengths and so you don't need to go around and do all of that again unless you'd really like to um but what you've learned from your reference checks and then see where the board would like to go from there i'm going to plan to just sit over here and let you deliberate but if you need anything I can always come back okay
sounds good thank you all right um if you know much about me I do things a little bit differently so I did what I called some of the off the grid reference checks msba had the opportunity to check three of the
references that they listed i found my own references and by calling different connections within the communities people that I've either possibly known professionally or at least making a phone call to a business i I I was able
to get a hold of a couple business owners a couple ex uh retired schoolboard members for each one so I thought let's let's get a little check on communication skills and that with the board when they're no longer on the board so basically
um you know and and and as most reference checks the the ones that you list are all pretty much in your ballpark otherwise you're probably not going to list them so that's why I thought well let's try something a little bit different and again they still came out
extremely positive for both of them and I will go through Mandy first um the uh I had four areas that I asked of and then uh some any other comments they want to make uh best qualities they said communication strong leader community
involvement and relates well opportunities for growth she's very competitive uh taking direction sometimes is a opportunity for growth bringing everyone together uh during referendums was another mention that
came up communication they said uh social media weekly staff updates she does radio group meetings she touched a little bit on her district advisory team and I happen to get two members of that and they were they said that was an
extremely good process one that uh they should have leaned on maybe a little bit more for the referendums um deals with conflict i asked how that was and they said generally meets it head on uh cuts are difficult but she'll get it right
with the board other comments well received within the community uh for Steve uh best qualities personable hardworking intelligent can rally people to get stuff
done opportunities for growth they didn't have they said we can't really think of any other than he probably spends a lot of time in school and maybe isn't around his family like he should be so that happens a lot of us but that was the comments they gave
communication talks with a lot of people as he makes his decisions weekly updates he's in the public and always talking with others again board updates were weekly and if a problem arises this is an exo board member we all know about
it uh deals with conflict they said he's very calm does his research and when he acts it is right great followth through transparency and finally the the other comment that I got and it was if I had a
job opening today I would hire Steve without hesitation so again just a little bit different uh but I did take uh the questions that MSBA provided uh when I asked the uh the different references
steve just to clarify the references that the candidates gave have we checked with those references barb did three of them okay yep we went through them and and and again that was a little bit of the the personal choice because you know
most of them are yeah as a great person great you know whatever so I thought well let's let's dig a little bit we talked about doing some uh community visits even but uh thought well let's just try to find some different people that might wish to come and and everyone
commented in both cases no one said no I just did not say anything they all commented and so that's what I had for reference checks uh let's
see any any other questions and well well for what it's worth I I I was at a wrestling tournament for the last three days and there were people from St james there and they had nothing but good things to say about him that's my
limited reference jack thanks you looking for comments on a candidate yeah let's let's go into the uh positive uh comments that we had like we did last time for each one of the candidates that I jotted down before we decided on our
three well two finalists so I yeah on the EMD sheet or whatever you call that yeah go ahead Gary if you Well I guess the statement I would like to make is that I think our job over the last week
is to ascertain what's the what's the um core of these people what drives them who who are we dealing with and I felt that one of the candidates naturally spoke to and I'm I I wrote
down their words us we together a lot of communication a lot of lot of words about student learning and and a learning a focus on learning and that candidate to me was Steve it seemed to be part of his nature
who he was as a person and that resonated with me pretty strongly both candidates did very well um but Steve would be my strong choice also he seemed very genuine he gave a lot of detailed answers he put a lot of thought
into them um I get a sense of servant leadership from him um I really like the idea of not power over but power with um and I I just think he can really help our culture to heal i think our staff would
appreciate him and I have nothing bad to say about Mandy she did a very good job i'll agree with you on that one i think uh a couple of quick things that I wrote down um he had mentioned in one of his conversations that he uh wanted one of the teachers to be involved in the group
and he said that he was willing to sub in a classroom if he needed to um so just that tells me that he's a team player and he's willing to step in where he needs to um he made a lot of sports references um which is another big team player effort um I think that he is a a
great choice as far as a community guy who wants to be involved wants to be seen um and in that position that's that's what we're looking for so that's he's my number one and again Mandy was a great candidate too uh I have nothing bad to say about her but if I had to choose that's where I'd go
okay i'll echo what you all said and thank you to everybody in the audience who filled out the um your comments because they align with what everybody's saying here so that's great um I'd also add Steve I felt would have very clear
expectations talks a lot about road maps processes communication um so he would be my choice as well we'll go in order all right um I I the one of the difficult things about this
position is that when we have to choose between two candidates we have to choose not to have one of them and I thought I was impressed with them both i I like Mandy everything about her um was
impressive um but uh Steve did a really great job of uh convincing me that he's the type of person that I would really like to work with um I found myself listening to his answers and orchestrating in my mind how would how
would I answer that question in the same manner because I I pretty much my thoughts paralleled his on on all of them i really like the uh the hypothetical question that was asked the scenario which which presupposed that
you had made a mistake you know and and then what would you do about it and he one of the his final conclusion was I would admit I made a mistake apologize to everybody and then move on um so I I I
I like both of them but I guess I like Steve a little better i would just add um you know in looking at how what what the survey uh looked like and what we as
board members how how much we matched with the community so really feeling good about that expectation coming into this and then also um just the fit i keep thinking in my head the fit um and I too I I think Mandy um is really I
feel lucky that we were able to get to meet both of them and hear about what they would do for Albert Lee but in the end I feel like I feel like Steve is a fit because of some of these the words that stick out this collaboration
ethical honest um I I go back to the first um interview which really stood out to me when he shared the story about the milk carton and I feel like that um it just kind of carried over into this
interview and um collaborative leadership is is something that we all the the um community wants what we want and so I think he's a good fit nice thing about going last everybody says what you want to say but uh just a
couple points that I want to make and it's probably a comment I will make a little later is there's there's a couple different types of leaders and I'm going to say superintendents because that's what we're dealing with here and it seems like in schools you're either a people
person or you're a finance guy and a lot of times the finance guys not saying you Paul I'm just looking at you smiling sometimes they're just not the people person and a lot of times the people person are just assumed meet with everyone and decide what they're going
to do but never be able to make a decision or if they make a decision they make a mistake because they didn't keep up on it um I I believe that we have a people person and a a person with a good financial background of course you'd
know that resonates with me but I just like the ways he talked about the finance on you know if we're not going to spend it in this area and I know there's certain things we can't just put in a savings account and say "Hey let's hold it for next year." You know much better than I do Paul but I really
appreciated that because and and I and I assimilate that from coming from a smaller district too it's kind of like that uh quarterback that's going to make a hundred million dollars over two years i spent a couple million on a house it doesn't really matter because I'll get
it next year but here's a person that was you know let's work with it so we again Mandy mentioned too about making small cuts and I like that and and again thanks to the community with her there's some great comments on there just right in line and uh but he talked a little
bit about what I'm even talking longer term and that's save a little bit so we can use it later if we can save it so Yeah go ahead here well uh there's one thing I really want to make a maybe take stock of this process is that you know I
know there are critics out there that have suggested that we're moving quickly and um I just look at the results of the process we had 14 I think resumeumés to review of folks that we
assessed their qualifications our goal was always to have five or six people to interview we had five um we have no control over these superintendants and their desire to interview at other I mean look at the news every night there's something about
a superintendent leaving or somebody being interviewed but to be here tonight with two strong candidates to me is the end result that I think we wanted so I'm happy for us i'm not going to be grumpy
about the process i I didn't feel rushed i don't know about you but I'm a bit passionate about this i think it's a good process we have a good partner with MSBA i think it's a good process and we have good results and we have two people that could probably do the job and one
stands out and that was my hope coming here tonight is that one would be a standout hallelujah for us yep yep i'll just add um I I know we've done this already but I I just really want to thank the people
that um were able to we that we were able to because of time include in the process because we we see things through certain lenses and you see things through other lenses and we collectively we we matched up really well from your comments to how we rated and I think
that's the what Gary talks about this that's the beauty of this process and I'm so thankful some of them had to leave but thank you really I appreciate the the thoughtfulness and the time it took for you guys to include to be included and so um I feel good about it
and I think we should I'm also with Carrie that we should feel good about this i I know people don't aren't going to agree about everything but this process was was well done so thanks for your leadership Dave well thank you and I mean just again to add I mean 14
applicants 10 with which the community and we all asked for previous inschool superintendent experience that doesn't mean other experiences aren't important as business leaders whatever but in school and seven or eight of them are doctorates which means they went the extra step we've got one more she's
working on her doctorate I mean so we've got people that education is their career and I felt the most passion from Steve and maybe even the last question when he's wrapping up because I
think he's very interested in Albert Lee and that's what it comes down to we can have the greatest candidates in the world and got to want to live here in Albert Lee and I think we got a pretty good spot i think all of us in here kind of feel that way barb I know you'd live here if you could i mean I just you
know so but yes I was very uh happy with the process and rushed i think we were maybe 3 years ago this time uh we did have some time to get a good pool put together so I will u ask if there is a
motion to select a uh a loan finalist chairman Claude I move to extend an offer of an of an employment contract for the position of superintendent of Albert Lee Area Schools to Steve Hyle contingent upon the following that
there's a mutually agreed employment contract that's negotiated and a criminal background check is completed with results acceptable to the board okay second and uh Angie seconds that motion is there any more discussion
it has been an interesting process and I do believe a rewarding one for the Albertly Area Schools so all those in favor of the motion to uh extend a contract as Steven Hile with the uh with the negotiated contract and background
check that's satisfied satisfactory to us signify by saying I i and oppose the same sign motion carries seven to zero now um
Yes so I took it upon myself Neil to have a little visit with him so I think we're in a decent spot but you know what he's also finalist he interviewed in Cass in Manville today and he he's going to interview tomorrow potentially in Byron
i know there's some people that think that's bad i think it's you've got probably a quality individual if they are offered this so um yes I've talked with Ashley and Paul about tomorrow morning i know Barb would put in a phone
call you and I can step out for Yes take a recess yes we should call now yes I'll take a five minute recess and I'll be right back with good news okay um we did get in touch with Steve
he's on his way home and um we did have a a short visit and I'm playing poker face but he was very excited to accept our offer of negotiations and uh we're planning on 9:00 a.m tomorrow morning to
give him a call and he is withdrawing from both Byron and Cass and Manville so it was a tough night for me last night so anyway uh Barb I think you got a couple of things you want to mention as we wrap everything up yes thank you very
much and congratulations that is great news uh it's been a long process i've really enjoyed working with you but I do have a couple of loose ends and then you can go home i promise um so first of all um I will contact Mandy and let her know how much you appreciated her time and
interest in this position i know she had a great experience with you as well i have a press release that I will send to Darcy and copy Dave so you know what is going to be going out um it can be announced i will reach out to the Byron board tonight and Amy will reach out to Cass and Manorville um I'll have a text
in writing from him officially that he's pulling out please if we could keep that under wraps for at least 10 minutes so that the news doesn't leak out before I can let those other two districts know I'd appreciate that um I do want to give a special shout out to Darcy because it's a lot of work to be the internal
hub of the wheel and I really appreciate everything she has done to help help keep everything organized and functioning um she did a really great job and I know there's more people in the district that worked on it there's all kinds of people sitting back there and back here and many people I don't want to start listing them because I
would not get to all of them but you have a tremendous staff here and their support of the search process was stellar so many thanks to your staff and a shout out to everybody who touched this search i really do appreciate it i'm going to send out a survey to the full board and also to Darcy just asking
for feedback on the process it really helps us to know what went well what could have gone better so I'll get that out to you perhaps tonight before I head home if you could just take two minutes and let me know how things felt for you from the beginning of the search through the end that would be very helpful for us in terms of continuous improvement
also you have a lot of notes I'm sure you've been taking and just a reminder that those notes should be turned into your HR specialist Ashley she'll keep all of your board notes in accordance with your um private personnel data files um from an HR perspective so thank
you for keeping those professional and appropriate as well so they can go in the files uh I do have a question on the recordings um I know that you recorded the round one interviews and I believe the two finalists are on the website um
one of the things that we tend to recommend as a courtesy to your candidates is that their interviews don't stay on the website forever as they continue to seek other opportunities i just want to put that out there and see what your thoughts were if you're going to leave those up forever or if you're going to put both
interviews up tonight and leave those up forever or some boards do put a limit on it like a month or two the successful candidate they often leave up into perpetuity but other candidates as they seek work sometimes don't want other boards going and watching their interviews with you when they're trying
to focus on another district but I just wanted to bring that up and see if you had any thoughts on what you might do or if you want to think about it as far as that remaining on your website think about it it's entirely up to you i just didn't want to I just wanted to mention that because I know candidates do appreciate
having a fresh start whenever they throw their hat in the ring for another position and so most districts don't record the interviews because it's a data point that you then have to manage of course it's always going to be there if someone wants a data request you will give it to them it's not like you're going to hide it or destroy it by any means it's just very helpful for
administrators to not have it floating around out there for the rest of their career so something to think about and you can certainly decide and discuss what you'd like to do okay uh the last thing is the transition workshop i get to come back here in the fall we're going to kick off the first year of the
new superintendent board team uh with a workshop to talk about expectations around what you want from them in that first year and how you will evaluate them it's a performance evaluation workshop where you'll come to agreement as a board team about what are the priorities for his first year as your superintendent what metrics will you use
and when will you be be evaluating him so that's included in the search package for free and I will reach out probably in August or so to set that up for September October is when we do most transition workshops so I will come back and do that with you as well other than that our role is completely done i will
now exit stage left and see you in the fall unless I bump into you between now and then uh good luck with the negotiations i know that Steve is very excited and I'm excited for you as well so thank you for entrusting MSBA to be your partner in the search we appreciate it thank you well thank you for all your
help Barb and appreciate it it's uh it was a process and uh it was it it's turning out to be a great process so thank you um only announcement I guess I have is I believe December 7th is our
meeting is another meeting to accept the contract and if you have any questions or negotiations I'll let you Why what why december isn't that a good time yep there I go you know and my one of my chocolate bars melted so I really kind
of bummed out at this point in my pocket no comment so uh yes let's do April 7th that's a great catch thank you Kim so yeah well there you go thank you girl did you hear this at 5 5:00 PM we'll
meet here on April 7th to uh ratify a contract are there any other questions for the good of the group so so I'm assuming that you and and Ashley will will orchestrate that arrangement yes yes we will have That's great we're
hoping to have numbers tomorrow okay somewhere in that 9:15 range right that's my second best sale job so no I'll be up at five yeah okay no uh um it like I said it is exciting we did have a great pool we had a lot of great people
you know and um um and appreciate everyone you know especially the stakeholders there's been some that weren't even in that been here every single meeting i appreciate it people that came for the first second third fourth time and but especially the ones that were able to give us comments they were awesome i didn't know what to
expect i thought they just going to put ones and twos and threes and no they were super comments so thank you very much and you've tired of listening to me so I will adjourn the meeting