all right Well welcome everyone tonight to uh tonight's uh special meeting where we will um go through our applicants and uh choose some semifinalists for the uh superintendent position here at Albert
Lee Um the first thing I'd like to do is just ask for an approval of the agenda which is in front of you So move Got motion by Gary and Kim seconds it Any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose the
same sign We uh have five here tonight which is our quorum Uh Mary Joe and Davey are unable to attend Mary Joe is kind of close but and Davey is unavailable So but still got our number to get busy
with And uh so we're going to uh just kind of basically now review the um the uh applicants information with Barb I'll turn it over to Barb And uh when she's done speaking if you have any questions for her again uh I know she'll mention
it to us how generic everything is until we uh vote and choose our semi-finalist So Barb Dorne MSBA you got it Thank you very much Dave I really appreciate it Uh it's nice to see you all again Good to be back This is a very exciting night
for Albertly Area Schools Um you have an excellent pool There are a few housekeeping things I'd like to cover first before we get into the actual review of applications So if it's okay with the board um I had emailed something to you this morning and I
wanted to just go through that I'm going to screen share it as well so people who are in the audience can see what we're discussing But is it okay with everyone if first I kind of go through schedule and some housekeeping relative to how the interviews are going to unfold Is that okay with the board sounds good You bet Okay So let me try and screen share
here I'm going to present a window I think it is Albertly area Okay So once I'm screen sharing this let me see if that's right
What is that special schoolboard meeting H It should be something in I think wouldn't you know the one time I don't Yeah that's not it The one time I didn't practice this ahead of time but
if I screen share I have it open in Adobe So if you bear with me just for a moment here I'm going to try it again Microsoft Edge There we go I bet this is it There we go Thanks for your patience
everyone I'm going to make it larger as well And if I'm in Adobe I'm not able to see anybody in the room So if you have questions or um need something please interrupt me Okay Um so the first thing
that you're looking at here is the draft schedule We have been through this before so I'm not going to dwell on it I just want to confirm that right now initially on next Wednesday first round of interviews we are holding spots for potentially six candidates but that will change based upon the board's decision
tonight And also just this is what last time I shared with me is the interviews will be held at uh in the Brookside Education Center room 109 and of course are open to the public So is all of this still okay with the board
yes looks good If um we would end up uh picking fewer than six then we would just adjust it from there at the end Correct Okay We will circle back to this tonight once you've got your finalist selected and decide exactly how it's going to lay out So that's great Thank
you for asking Then we also have the round two tentative interview schedule which would be on Monday March 31st Uh at this time we're holding spots for three finalists on that Monday evening We could of course change that based
upon how round one goes next week So there's two things I want to mention relative to round two Of course it is still in Brookside Education Center Oh I need to add room 109 to the bottom of that Room 109 Okay I will add that Uh the
three spaces This is the round of interviews which at the last meeting the school board decided to invite representative stakeholder groups to provide input on those two or three finalists relative to their strengths and areas of growth i.e weaknesses So um
Darcy did send me the names and email addresses for the people who stepped up or were sent by their membership to do that So I will be reaching out to those folks with an email about expectations for March 31st So thanks very much Darcy for sending those to me I will copy you
and Dave Clatt I'll copy you as well on that Just so you know what MSBA is sharing with those folks who will provide be providing audience input to the board on March 31st So that is underway The process is in place for that to occur Also I wanted to ask the
board again about uh giving tours on the round two date Uh very often school districts do offer tours to the two or three finalists take them through the buildings answer questions So if that is something that interests the board then I need to work with Darcy to get that lined up if it's not already in place So
I think I'd like to turn it back over to you Dave to facilitate yes or no on tours And if it's yes if you could just give a little direction to Darcy and me about how to move forward with those tours on this day Is that okay was good Thank you Um what does the board think
um about uh tours of the district uh I know some of the thoughts were a lot of candidates kind of spend their own time come in on their own time frame to look around Uh at 4:00 in the afternoon or 3:00 again depending upon the time if
the school buildings would be open we talked about that and who would be there what they would want to see But it's up whatever it's up to you guys whatever you think we should do What is the school calendar maybe Darcy could help us look like on the 31st Is
it just a regular day of classes across the district or Okay All right We at one time talked about maybe student students helping with those tours at um so I I would since we're not
starting till 4 I would love to see the option provided to those candidates to come in with a student and walk around the building or student andor someone else to to walk around buildings if they want to And one of the thoughts on the students
is again to make sure everyone is treated exactly the same way Students might not but I think if we decide on the tours we should have students be able to greet them somewhere So um Barb is there any logistics that Kim had brought up about students or about tours
that we should think about yes if you decide to have um maybe two students per candidate they really do wonderfully as greeters and then they usually just accompany the person to the different buildings But of course then the administrators take over the tours
and answer the questions specifically about the programs and the things in the buildings Uh the biggest logistic thing is travel between buildings If you are taking them to high school elementary middle school etc students cannot drive them in their cars Uh so you would need
to provide transportation by the district whether it's a school van or a small bus or something like that Generally if it's an adult sort of an ambassador for Albertly Area Schools it could be former board members it could be members from the city whoever it is that is sort of the driver in that case
Adults do tend to be more comfortable taking people around in their own cars But if the district is concerned about liability I would recommend that each tour be provided a driver um on behalf of the district Okay thank you And again that would if we decided
on that we would schedule basically three tours Correct Correct And so I know I talked to Dave about it Kren's about it too And he had talked about if that's something we decided he would be happy to do that also So I didn't know
if we how far again we needed to go for the consistency part of everything So Okay Any other other thoughts i mean that's a good thought Agreed
So are you thinking which I tell you what I'll look for a motion if we're thinking about tours and we can get the logistics after that Um so I'll make the motion that we um commit to offering tours to the
candidates the finalists um with um student representation as not the guides but as the welcome the hosts if you will and then we'll have administrators be the guides Okay I'll second Okay Uh
motion on the table and a second Is there any other discussion i'm assuming that the tours will be arranged so the candidates aren't going to run into each other because I think we always did that at the college that we try to keep this as mysterious as
possible So okay Yeah we just do a a regular schedule with them too with back it up maybe however we would put it in thoughts or comments All right Uh seeing none uh all those in favor of offering the tours for the
candidates signify by saying I I And oppose the same All right that carries So Barb yes we will offer a tour Okay So um just some thanks to Darcy in advance I think this will fall largely on her to coordinate in-house maybe in partnership
with David Kren And you should have some sample tour schedules already that I sent you But um please take a look back at that email and then let me know if you have questions as we go forth Okay Um so really appreciate your help Looking forward to round two It'll be a good day for candidates and I think for
the hosts and the tour guides So going back to the um there we go back to this I'm all done with round two Then I do want to take a moment to talk through the interview process If you can all see the highlighted yellow candidate interviews
Can you see that yes Okay I'm sorry if you're nodding I can't see you My screen share is taking the whole screen So here is something that um Dave as board chair you can customize this to fit yourself and your own style but generally speaking we want
each candidate to get the same welcome Uh when they first sit down to their interview they'll be at a table There will be uh the interview questions in front of them probably a bottle of water and then we would just ask you to greet them and say "Welcome Thank you so much for coming Um today we're going to
rotate asking you questions and we'll be taking notes and so we are carefully listening Um also let them know there are 12 questions but I will have shared that with them before they walk in as well And then I'm going to be holding up signs for each candidate at 30 minutes
15 five and zero if they use the whole hour So they'll know to look for that as well And then just ask each board member to introduce themselves And in this case we just would like each board member to simply state your name how long you've been on the board We want to keep it real simple Uh so that you're not
inviting them to share all kinds of complicated information about their kids or families or where they graduated from Uh those are protected classes So we ask board members not to share information beyond your name Uh if you want to say if you're an officer but then also how long you've been on the board And then
we just jump right into the interview So it's a very short intro by Dave as the board chair So then you ask questions until we are complete and please do take notes Uh I'll bring hard copies of the
questions in an EMD form and that means exceeds meets or disappoints And so I'll walk the board through this next Wednesday before the interviews where you'll take notes on the EMD form and then select whether the candidates's answer exceeded your expectations met
them or if you were disappointed in their answer and we'll have you do it all on hard copy um because eventually you're going to put it in electronically and you do have a link in the email from this morning that's called the EMD link if you want to practice it's just a practice form to input that data but we
really like you to fill it out on hard copy initially for at least the first three people because you have to get some kind of baseline of understanding and sometimes when people immediately go in and put the electronic results in and then by the third candidate they realize
that they were a little too harsh on maybe that first candidate So I call it kind of getting your seal legs under you in terms of how you're rating the candidate answers And so you'll be doing it on hard copy I will bring all of those for you next week And then when uh the candidate is completely done um here
we go Uh Dave will simply thank them for joining us and let them know that we'll be in touch that evening when you finish deliberations So that's it Um do keep your notes and do remember that you have to turn those into HR when you're all done We talked about those at the last meeting Please make sure the notes are
appropriate and you do not reference anything relative to protected classes in the notes that you're writing down as well So it's pretty straightforward After the first interview or two it's going to feel very very natural And then this is how the deliberations typically unfold Again you can do whatever fits
Albertly area best But in this case once you've interviewed all four or five or six people whatever it might be we'll give you a half hour break as you saw in those schedules while we collate all of the EMD results and then that is emailed to me and I'll email it to Darcy or
whomever in the district could print hard copies for me next Wednesday So I'll hand out hard copies to the board and I'll spend about one minute reviewing the results It's just one tool in the toolbox Um it's not going to tell you who to bring back for round two but it is something to take a look at in terms of how your fellow board members
felt about the quality of the responses Then what we usually do is ask Dave to facilitate a conversation where you talk about each candidate for maybe two minutes or so a piece two or three minutes with what you saw as a strength If you just list one or two that's
helpful Whoever is the first board member please don't read an entire list of strengths because then you steal the thunder for every other board member after you So we want each of you to maybe share one thing that you notice was really strong about their interview or their candidacy There will be disappointed people that night when I
make phone calls to tell them they're not being uh brought back for round two So it's very helpful for me to have some positive comments from the board to share with the candidates that are not being brought back as well as those who are So sharing the strengths keeping it positive like we talked about during
interview training is great The round two reference checks is different That will not be in round one So after the EMD form and the strengths then you can get into talking about who do we want to bring back and it can happen kind of organically Uh Dave will facilitate this
as well He might say well who'd like to go first and share which two or three people you'd like to bring back and so people kind of start building on one another with their comments about who they'd like to return on the 31st for round two And fairly soon you might see a majority start to coalesce around a
couple of people So as that happens at some point um you might get stuck and you might have some difficulty choosing between two people Let's say you want to bring back three but there's two that for that third spot you just can't decide That as we talked about last time
is probably one of the only times that you could go to deficits If you really are needing to break a tie you could talk through who is stronger in which areas and who might be a little weaker in another area in order for someone to percolate up to the top And at that point you might have two or three people
which you could then make a motion second discuss and vote So this is how deliberations usually go but I want to be careful to say that every district is different and you might end up having a different type of conversation Some boards like to do a straw poll and simply jot down their preferred one or
two people on a sheet of paper and I can collect that as a straw poll and let you know where the votes are landing But you do not have to do that It really depends on what Albert Lee wants to do We will call everybody We'll have a press release ready to go out after round one Just like tonight we're going to have a press release ready to go And then after
round one and you've decided who to bring back there is still homework I'm going to bring suggested round two interview questions for us So that that night while I'm out in the hallway making phone calls to people you're taking a look and discussing round two questions and what you want to ask the
the people you've selected on the 31st We'll confirm the schedule We'll talk through the reference check process and whoever is making those reference check calls I'll meet with them for a couple of minutes after the meeting to give them some ground rules on that And then wanting to make sure that you're ready from a negotiations process on the 31st
if you found the right person that you are ready to launch into negotiating immediately either that night or the very next morning And I know we've talked about that and I believe you are already working on a contract that the board is comfortable putting forth as your first offer After round two there
couple of things to do as well but we're focusing on round one right now So as far as deliberations I'll pause for just a second Do you have any questions on how that might unfold okay going Barb going back uh to the candidate interviews Just a
clarification it it indicates that we're going to give the candidate copies of the questions Is that as they're entering the room or will they have 10 minutes with the questions i've had that Good question Yeah Yeah Thank you for asking Typically
the first time the candidate sees a question is when they sit down at the table and the questions are in front of them Now some boards have chosen to send all the questions to them 24 hours in advance Uh some boards want me to hand it to them five minutes before their
interview so that they can take a quick glance at it before they walk in the room And uh some boards have actually asked me to send two or three questions in advance and keep the rest to be answered sort of impromptu during the interview So that will be entirely up to you and how you'd like to proceed with
the questions You did pick questions last time and we have 12 Um so if you think there are some that you want to um have me share with them in advance we'd need to get the questions back out to all the board members so you could discuss and decide
which ones to send or you could simply say send all of them out in advance 24 hours or five minutes Let me uh Does that help yeah let me ask I'll ask a question here Barb real quick Uh any thoughts about um questions in
advance i mean I I personally would think five or 10 minutes ahead They can look at the first one get comfortable Um I don't know if I like the 24 hours I don't want a dissertation on each question that will sound like everybody else's So
that's my thought Any other thoughts i think a few minutes or whatever so x number of minutes before they come in I I think it might take some of the nerves away and we might get a truer picture of them but we do want them to be able to think on their feet and some of the
questions pose pretty big challenges as far as answering in a clear concise way and that has value too So I'd advocate for 10 minutes before they arrive and sit here to at least see see the
questions Yeah I would I would too Um I also think that um most potentially most candidates will just appreciate that it's in front of them to refer back to because if they're if it's a long question they have that in front of them So I I I
would agree Do you remember Neil last time i don't think we gave them did we never been involved in an interview where the interviewe was given questions before before they did the interview So but I like your comment Personally I you know
halfway through my answer to the question I forget what the question is So it'd be nice to have that written down but uh not perhaps until the actual interview I I don't I don't I don't think they need to have the questions
before they're interviewed Any thoughts Angie trying to remember what we did before I don't think they had them ahead of time but I think at the table I think they were Yeah Well I'm all right with a few minutes As a candidate I think that would as Gary said take some of the
nerves away but still you know see how they think on their feet They all know what the first question is Everyone does But maybe they hit that second one You know maybe someone's really quickeyed and they just look at the last one But I mean at least the first one I think and give them a chance I I like the comfort
level Um so 10 minutes before sound like a good deal Okay Barb let's let's sound like consensus about 10 minutes before Nothing real long before Okay I do go meet with each of them before their
interview to describe the layout of the room uh to let them know how many questions there are I'm going to ask the board if it's okay if they come in and shake your hands that day or if you prefer that they not So I give them kind of those again preparatory housekeeping comments and at that time I will give them the questions and leave them alone
for a few minutes to take a look at them Does that sound okay yep sounds good Okay great Thank you Thank you for asking that question It's important Okay so back to the uh candidate interviews There's the deliberations Uh the next thing in preparation because
we're very close now to talking about the candidates themselves In preparation for that I just wanted to remind the board how MSBA arrived at our recommendations Now I know that all of the board members have seen every piece of applications as well but I will tell you how we came up with those that we
will be discussing tonight from our perspective as the strongest in your pool So we have a team of service providers across the state They are former superintendent and some former board members who take a look at all the completed applications Uh we look for
all of the standard things like lensure recommendation letters history of education and work etc And then we hold those candidates up against your leadership profile that is in the vacancy brochure and against that public survey report So those are the the
measurement tools we use to see who's aligning best with what Albertly area is looking for in the next leader Each individual on the team then scores each candidate on a scale of one through five Basically from yes down to no Yes maybe
yes maybe maybe no and no So every individual does that and then in uh the the system it coaleses them together and we then meet virtually and take a look at each candidate and see how strong the support was among the group for each person in your pool Then we sit and talk
about them There are always some people that there are very strong indicators they're a great candidate So there's usually agreement on some people as yes There also is agreement on some people as no or maybe no for various reasons There are quite a few often in that
maybe category And so that's where we have a very robust conversation about those people kind of in the middle Do we want to look deeper into their information call their references do a pre-in or do we feel that there are simply stronger people in the pool so we winnow it down to anywhere from maybe
five to eight maybe five to nine people that we do investigate further We also do a social media sweep on everybody in the pool So we know what is out there if someone were to Google any of these individuals And so that's a part of it for every single applicant in your case
And then once we've decided those that we want to look into further our service providers make uh follow-up phone calls with each of those people to do the pre-in ask them questions compare their answers to the leadership profile again and then also we ask if we should contact or if we can contact their
references So then we call people who've written letters of recommendation and or people who are listed as references Now one of the challenges for us is this is still private data So we are not able to go outside of who they've listed as references or letters of recommendation
because we cannot out their candidacy to someone who doesn't know that they might be looking at the opportunity in Albertly area And generally speaking references do speak positively of the person but not always Not always But those are some of the limitations we have in doing our reference checks So
then once we've uh decided who really moves to the top we put together a list which I call the highlighted list You as board members will receive a copy of that tonight from Darcy She's going to need to collect those after the meeting because she does need to shred them immediately It is private data but
you've also seen it electronically So I want to be sure that tonight when I read our recommendations you know that we have done our homework However as the board you've seen everyone's application materials you have three options The first is to accept the recommendations we've made and that is the slate of
candidates you will interview You might accept some of ours and replace them with others that you would really like to see that maybe we're not recommending or you can ignore our recommendations and bring forth your own candidates to interview Keep in mind that MSBA's uh
search guarantee if for whatever reason the person within the first year does not work out either by board decision or the candidates's decision If they are not in our recommended pool we cannot guarantee the search But if anyone who is in our recommended list leaves within that first year we'll do another search
for free next year at no cost to the district So I just want to make sure that you are aware of that Uh tonight you're going to make a motion by alphabet identifier only um as to who you want to interview and then tonight of course I will call them congratulate them schedule interviews confirm they're
still interested in all of those things So this was our vetting process and I just want folks in the audience as well as the board to rest assured that we're very comfortable with our recommendations However we do not live or work or pay taxes in Albertly area So we want to be certain that you are
making the best decision for your district Our feelings will not be hurt if you select candidates that we are not recommending So I just want to make sure the board's comfortable with this is your decision and your decision alone And that being said here's the uh motion you might want to make tonight Uh please
note it talks about candidates A B and C the motion must be by alphabet identifier And then once we have a motion that has passed we'll circle back circle back and figure out the um interview times if we want three four five six seven or eight Um and then at
the end of the meeting I'm going to read the names out loud Every other name on that that highlighted list remains private data forever So please as board members hold that in confidence and make sure that you do not share any other names outside of the ones you're going to interview If you want to keep this
information you could then use this one after round one next Wednesday Obviously names are being used after tonight You can throw away the alphabet identifiers completely You could make uh this motion if you want to for second round interviews And then when you select a
superintendent you could use this You don't have to Uh but this is a motion you could make to actually offer the position to someone It's very important in our opinion that the motion be contingent on a mutually agreeable employment contract and the criminal background check with results acceptable
to the board Those two things could allow you to resend an offer if either of those things are not acceptable The only other thing I'm going to mention and then I'm going to stop screen sharing is we have something called the AB plan A plan B This is if you have for
example two very strong candidates You could see both of them serving as your superintendent It will save you time if you make a plan A plan B motion If negotiations fall through with perhaps your first choice you at the meeting
after round one on the 31st could make a motion that if the employment contract is not attained the chair is authorized to extend an offer to a different person contingent on the same two things If you don't make this motion and if negotiations with your first person fall
through then you need to have a 3 days notice to call a special meeting simply to make a motion to enter contract negotiations with the other candidate So it can save you 3 days if you roll them into one motion You don't have to do this It's just an option that some
districts find helpful when they're they really like two people and they don't want to lose time by having to call a special meeting at the end of uh round two So I'm going to stop screen sharing That is all I have But let me see All right I can see you again Any questions
on that packet of materials before we get into the actual candidate recommendations one question Barb Do the candidates know what their letter is just out of curiosity No they do not Any other questions thank you for asking
that Okay so we're going to get to the fun part of the night This is really exciting and I want to congratulate you on the strength of your pool Um our service providers were very very impressed And so I'm going to give you first of all an overview of the pool
Very high level Again I'm bound by private data as well but I will share with you and the folks in the audience you did have 14 applications Um the 14 applications came from four different states Uh the majority were from Minnesota which is always to be expected but you did draw
from four states which is wonderful Of those 14 people more than half have served as a superintendent In fact eight of 14 have superintendent experience That's quite unusual Um and it's partly why your pool is so competitive is folks
who have served as superintendents are in here Of those eight people their average length of experience as a superintendent is 10.3 years So you have people in your pool with a significant amount of experience as a superintendent
So that's also good news Uh you did have five female applicants and nine male applicants And of the 14 you have six applicants who do already hold doctorates and two are in progress So you will have eight
of the 14 who have PhDs as well So congratulations again Um very strong pool for Albert Lee and you should be really pleased We were quite impressed So if you look at the applicant list now if I could ask Darcy to distribute the highlighted list right now And please
remember you need to turn these back into her so she can shred them Also board members when you look at the list can you please keep it flat on your uh table Sometimes if you kind of pick it up to read I know your your setting is pretty good but sometimes if you hold it up like this people can either see
through the paper or they can walk behind you and see it So simply try to keep flat on the on the paper if we can with these names All right So I will tell you that in going through the list of the 14 applicants 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 uh MSBA
decided there were eight people we wanted to look at in more depth So we did that and after the pre-ins and the reference checks we did come up with um five that we felt were stronger than the others So we have five candidates in
yellow which would be our top recommendations but we also have three people we call it on the bubble It means that they are also good solid candidates We simply didn't feel they were as strong as the others So we are recommending candidate D candidate
E candidate K candidate L and candidate N So I am going to take just a few minutes and read for you what we call presentation forms for each of those five applicants So what this is is an
overview for each of these applicants of their experience their current licenses um their education and then we have a short paragraph of what their references say about them and the reason for MSBA's recommendation So I'm just going to read these aloud and board members you will
know who I'm speaking about of course but no one else in the room will So I'm simply going to tell you that all of these folks are very interested in the opportunity And I will start by telling you about candidate D Uh candidate D has experience as a superintendent director
of student programs special education coordinator and a staff development coordinator as well as a teacher Their current licenses are as a superintendent principal and teacher Their education includes a doctorate an educational
specialist degree master's degree and a bachelor of science References describe candidate D as an exceptional leader an innovative educator and a dedicated advocate for student success They have demonstrated
an unwavering commitment to academic excellence and community engagement Under D's leadership references say their district has seen measurable improvements in student achievement and teacher retention Candidate D has implemented forward-thinking initiatives
that have enrich enriched educational experiences expanded opportunities for students and fostered a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement MSBA's recommendation for candidate D is because they are a successful superintendent whose skills in
communication transparency and approachability are their hallmarks Candidate D also demonstrates the ability to develop effective district leadership teams that move the district successfully forward They are an exemplary relationship builder are
honest motivating and an excellent CEO Candidate D models integrity offers insightful well-ressearched ideas and continually strives to help staff students and the district excel That is candidate
D Moving on to candidate E This candidate has experience as a superintendent principal teacher activities director and coach Their current licenses are as a superintendent principal and teacher Their education includes a doctorate a master's degree
and a bachelor of science References describe candidate E as team oriented as well as a visionary creative ambitious person who leads with exceptional integrity and sincere listening skills This candidate is noted
for a strong ability to create relationships and excels at community involvement and commitment Candidate E is also seen as a strong instructional leader who has created a robust framework of professional development programming and assessments They communicate effectively and promote
strong relationships between the district and the people it serves according to references reinforcing a culture of trust and transparency Uh candidate E is being recommended by MSBA because of their skills integrity and successful
experience as an educational leader and superintendent Um also because this is a candidate who is highly regarded across their current school system being seen as both prominently visible and widely connected in the community as well as with the
school staff Canada E has a strong background in developing and implementing strategic planning is someone who communicates very well with the school board and is described as possessing exceptional fiscal acumen and financial common sense That is candidate
E Moving on to candidate K This candidate has experience as a superintendent principal and teacher Their current licenses include a superintendent license principal and teacher And their
education includes a specialist degree a master's degree and a bachelor of science References describe candidate K as someone who is passionate collaborative and relational Candidate K is known for being ethical honest and
transparent with excellent communication skills and is very very innovative Candidate K has solid administrative experience is very student focused and according to references has a deep understanding of what it takes to lead and succeed as a
superintendent in a rural Minnesota public K12 school district MSBA recommends candidate K uh because they are a successful successful pro has successful proven experience in leading a district
through difficult circumstances with positive results Candidate K highly values their relationships with the school board staff students and the community They are innovative and understand the role of both data and strategic planning to foster student
success Candidate K has a core belief in the values of meaningful relationships communication and transparency This contributes to their reputation as a trusted and effective leader That is candidate K All right moving on to the fourth
candidate This is candidate L They have experience as a superintendent principal assistant principal teacher and coach Their current licenses are as a superintendent principal and teacher and their education includes a master's degree and a bachelor of
science In terms of what references state about candidate L four different school board chairs shared the following comments regarding candidate L's qualifications as a leader One they are an outstanding superintendent Their
passion for students staff and our community is amazing Two candidate L's people skills set the example for others to follow Three they are a visionary leader who inspire and motivate others and they are very
visible in our schools and community Oh that was four They are very visible in our schools and community We are blessed to have them as our superintendent MSBA's recommendation of candidate L for your position is because they are a very positive student centered visionary
highly effective communicator and school leader who strives for excellence Uh let's see I can't read my own writing They are also a passionate educational leader who builds a positive culture and climate
through strong relationships leadership skills vision experience and dedication Candidate L has also experienced financial challenges in districts they have led and together with their school boards have successfully navigated those issues
That is why we're recommending candidate L And finally uh we're recommending candidate N Their experience is as a superintendent principal assistant principal dean of students teacher and coach Their current licenses are as a
superintendent principal and teacher And their education includes a doctorate a master's degree and a bachelor of arts Uh for references they describe candidate J um providing very strong letters of recommendation from three schoolboard members as well as a direct
report These descriptors include someone who has high integrity is very calm approachable communicative collaborative and forwardinking Another reference describes candidate N as reliable honest
personable consistent kind and yet another reference has stated the nest next district will be lucky to get this person All board members MSBA spoke with also indicated they would rehire this person as a superintendent MSBA's recommendation for
candidate N is because they have the experience qualifications and professional skills the district is seeking in your next leader MSB also believes this candidate has gained valuable superintendent experience in challenging situations and throughout those situations has exhibited honesty
and integrity as a district leader They are prepared to hit the ground running and will bring a collaborative lens to their work as superintendent in your district Candidate N I will stop now Those are the five candidate U presentation forms that MSBA is recommending for your consideration
And I'll now turn it back over to Dave um to start the deliberations or ask me any questions Does anyone have any questions for Barb okay seeing none um the one nice thing about our uh our
community survey and it seems like the things we've talked about here and even hearing some of the MSBA results there seem to be pretty consistent So what I decided to do was my own little straw
poll And I'm going to hand you Keep them flat on the desk Now I'm going to hand you a sheet that's got each of the candidates numerically on there and I want you just to go ahead and vote for five of them because if we're sitting
here with all the same five and that doesn't mean we don't go to six I'm just saying put in five and and I'll do a little calculation up here and then um we will open a discussion from there because again seeing some of the qualities that we've seen and the
experiences maybe we all decide that there's four or five or three or two that are good and then if we want to add to that list we sure can Um any any thoughts on that as I I had Darcy put together a a little sheet And again I
just thought since it was we were pretty uh seemed pretty uh had had the same same uh type of um candidates in mind I thought maybe this would facilitate So I'll hand these When you're done just
pass them back to the middle Dave while you're doing that just to clarify the five of us are doing this This wasn't people that aren't in attendance The two board members are not part of correct this Okay If they were able to zoom in then they were able to
do votes If they weren't they're unable to vote So the five of us will Yes vote for the uh the semi- finalist David in that same vein when we I know we have a consensus I mean we have a quorum which
is good I'd like to at least have you and or Barb touch base with the two that aren't here to say this is the direction we're headed Are you you know are you are you are you okay i just like to I don't want to miss out on the feedback of two board
members Fortunately you're correct However legally this is how we have to do it Okay Now um Barb I I did I will say I did receive today and and I'll just give numeric I'll give the uh the
letters I did have one uh person reach back out to me to give me their feedback on the way they were they were uh looking And um I can do that can't I Barb just give the numeric the sorry the alphabetical okay so I'll just without
any other comments I will give you the letters that they had they had uh D E K L N and B so that person listed six I
asked for five again just information on the side but you can see some coherence there So let's go ahead and mark them We put our names No no that's just five of them and then we'll expand Rank them though Just No don't rank them No just
just X's Yep That's how I saw my name Probably could read them better Okay Did I make you you're way taller than me All right And all I'll do is I'm just going
to make little hashes by the ones that were picked [Applause] Sorry music Yeah I don't Let's take a 15minute break I'm just kidding You all just All right enough We just got to
lighten this up a little bit It's kind of an exciting time And thank you for everyone that's come here at the spring break even taking some extra time So um the results that I have I I and Barb I do and I'm not going to give any letters
I'm just going to say I've got three of the candidates that had five votes had uh one candidate with four votes and I had one candidate with three
votes and I had two candidates with one vote a piece So we were thinking a lot alike Anyway um what um I can I can again I can do the numeric the alphabetical right Barb
and just say again long as we're okay Well here's what we got So um the the three candidates with five votes a piece was a candidate E Easy
Yes K is in Kevin and L is in Larry The candidate with four votes was D as in
David And the candidate with three votes was N as in Nancy And both candidate A as an apple and B as in boy had one a piece Let's see
So Gary go ahead Well I'd just like to say that um and maybe this is true for all of you but the filter I used in looking at the candidates were the survey That was pretty powerful information like I
said before And I think um being a superintendent is pretty critical Uh having experience as a superintendent pretty critical And the five people with three or more votes in my mind met what
we're what that survey told us what the community is looking for and the and the employees of the district the the five people with three or more votes to me fit that survey And I that means a lot to me as far as I want to I want to talk to those folks And they're all and they
all have been superintendent every one of them So I think we've done I've done well Yeah I truly agree that uh like we had talked a lot about the experience factor and and as Barb said and I I wrote it on here somewhere what do we have uh uh was
it eight or nine well was it eight or nine Barb that had superintendent we had eight of them That's what I was So again you know very happy to see that Neil did you have a thought you had over there yeah I think um for me it's pretty
telling that we're all on the pretty much on the same page when you have three candidates that we all feel very strongly about and the fact that we have two more that is the majority I think is is pretty
telling for me and I would agree I think I used a survey and I also those questions the additional questions I felt like um you you could have people that indicate I do this I do this but those
examples that we heard in those questions really helped me with those decisions as well I like the the uh initial questions too Even though there was a little bit of redundancy in some of it I think that's truly an indicator of experience You
know something that seen it done it work this way Maybe doesn't always work that way but at least we've got some guidance that we've seen work So so Chair Clatt I would like to make the motion that we move forward candidate
D candidate E candidate K candidate L and candidate N We have a motion and a second to move forward with candidate D as in David E
is in Edward K as in Kevin L as in Larry and N as in Nancy and a second Is there any discussion on that group yes Uh couple of thoughts um one I it is
a you know great to see such um agreement on the three candidates I'm very excited for those three I did have a concern about N um I'm fine interviewing them Um but I did have a concern that came up based on some some
Google searching there Um I I do think we should add a sixth candidate just because one of these recommended candidates looks very likely to be hired elsewhere and that would leave us um just with
four and it would be nice to have at least five So I would say we should add one more Um if we factor in the votes from the person you had mentioned that you talked to Dave that would give B two
votes Um so I would say add B That's my thought That was only a discussion That's not a vote And uh we have a motion on the table I'm not saying there can't be another one afterwards but we have the motion for the five that we've listed
And I so we'll have to vote on that motion first but then we could come back with another one if we wanted to to add also unless the motion was amended So that's that's motion could be amended I my contribution is it's not strong
enough for me if we have two board members that are looking at one of the candidates uh as an alternate or as an additional one It's to me it's not strong enough Just looking at the needs of the district and um that's that's
where I'm at Any other thoughts on the amendment letter I was suggesting adding B to the list Yes that would require a second Well I think I think it would require
Kim to amend the motion if she wanted to and then Gary would I think originally my statement would stand that I feel like it's pretty powerful that there was that much of a gap in in what this this these folks here felt So I would want to stay with
my motion Okay So we will uh stay with the original motion then to uh offer the offer semi- finalist interviews to D as in David E is in Edward K as in Kevin L
as in Larry and N is in Nancy Any other discussion the only can comment that I would make is obviously I don't know these people Well some of them perhaps but um I would
have to uh concur with the advice of the people at Minnesota School Board Association who uh are in a position to have the wherewithal to make some pretty sound recommendations and vet these candidates pretty well And uh the five
that uh are in Kim's motion are those five that were recommended by the MSBA So I I guess I would have no problem with that There there were perhaps a couple that I would have liked to have had included
but uh uh I I I think that that that pool is contains some very excellent people and uh I don't think we are eliminated anybody that is that stands out If they
hadn't stood out they would have been among the five recommended Okay Any other discussion i I guess I might also add that um one of those five u I have some issues with also
but we'll find out in the interview Okay Anything else all right Seeing none then uh all those in favor of the five semi finalists signify by saying I I and oppose the
same Okay carries five to zero Uh Barb do you want to read those letters back so we can confirm the letters you have selected and passed are D as in
dog E as in emu I try to use animals instead of names but it's tricky Uh K as in kangaroo L as in
lion and N as in nesting birds That's the ones we've got Yes ma'am Okay Is there any additional motions or discussion that's going to be held i
don't want to rush Um anything else uh one just one point that I would and make sure all these get into uh Darcy One uh thing that I would like to uh mention is and this is a little bit ahead but when we get into uh
the second finalist interviews um I would like to uh hear in addition to when we pick out questions about their transition schedule because I would like to see I mean everyone starts on 71 if we if we get that candidate
Some may be able to come a little earlier Um but we do have quite a gem here and Superintendent Kren that is really would like to help with the transition You hear him talk about that So I'm just asking that not requiring
anyone one to come in earlier and thing but he's very willing to help and I just was kind of wanted to see they've all every one of those people have been transisted before So it might be interesting to hear Just a thought
And we can talk about that at the end of round one When you're looking at round two questions you can talk about whether or not to invite each person to present a transition plan That could be a part of the interviews as well if you'd like to in the second round Okay Thank you Darcy I'm assuming Darcy has five copies
of that highlighted list Great Thank you for shredding those right away I appreciate it So I'm not quite going to read the names yet I just want to do a few housekeeping items in looking at the round one interview schedule to circle back to that Um the first candidate
would begin at 9:15 I would like the board to be there at 9:00 to call the meeting to order because I do want to talk through that that EMD form and some of those things just before you start your interview So the 26th at 9:00 a.m we'll call to order The first interview will be at
9:15 So there are five here So would you prefer to start later in the morning or end earlier in the afternoon Yep Hi Sounds like end earlier in the afternoon Door B End earlier Okay So I'm
going to eliminate the last interview at 3:45 The last interview slot at 3:45 Yes Okay I will contact all five of these individuals as soon as I log off your meeting I will call them Everyone
else in the pool will receive an email from me uh first thing tomorrow saying "Thank you so much for your interest The board has chosen to uh interview others that more closely align with what they're looking for but thank you for your time and energy It's a lot of work to apply for the position and we want to make sure people feel appreciated for
all the work they put into in pursuing this job." But I will call those five individuals tonight There is always a possibility between right now and uh next week that one or two people will choose not to accept an interview I'm
still going to read all five names out loud tonight because the board took action and it needs to be reflected in public record who you're going to interview If someone does drop out perhaps before I get the press release off to Darcy I'll remove their name from the press release Uh but in the meantime
you do have five If someone were to drop out I'm assuming it would be okay to remove the 2:30 interview slot as well Yes And then I'd reconfigure it so it might be two and two with the break in between the two or something like that Are you okay with me shortening the day a little bit if someone drops out yes
Okay Okay sounds good Just want to clarify Um also want to let you know that uh Greg Abbott will be with me next week um just for the first 20 minutes of the meeting at 9:00 He's trying to capture some footage of our superintendent search team out in
districts So for the first five or 10 minutes while I'm visiting with the board about what to expect he'll be there taking some video So if that's okay with the board uh you might pop up in a short video we're putting together about superintendent search services But Greg Abbott will be accompanying me next week for a bit So don't be surprised
when you see Greg at 9:00 on the 26th Okay I think that is all the housekeeping that I have Is there anything further before I read the names aloud i will create the press release here shortly and send it to Darcy Copy
Dave I also will copy Jeff if that's okay He called me earlier today and said he'd put on the website So I'm going to copy Jeff as well on that press release Sure Do expect to be lobbied I want to make sure the board is prepared for that For those of you who've been through a search before you know what happens uh
people will start googling immediately and I can assure you that all the Googling that is uncovered with these folks we already know about We are still comfortable recommending those people You can refer people to me if you want to Otherwise just assure them that MSBA
has looked into all of these candidates from a social media standpoint and are comfortable recommending them as leaders for your district But if you are lobbyed for or against people please thank everyone for sharing their feedback with you Um do not engage in lengthy back and
forth discussions with people about these individuals Remember you've seen a lot more than anyone else You have seen application materials that took you hours and hours and hours to go through So you should listen to your stakeholders and also remember that you as the board have seen a lot of stuff
about these folks So thanks in advance for your help with that Um I'm going to read the names and then we're probably going to be ready to adjourn Correct yes once going twice Okay Also when I read these names aloud they are not in order
of their alphabet identifiers I mix them up so people don't know who was candidate E who was candidate N etc It's just mixed up So it's in no particular order The uh Albertly Area School Board will be interviewing as semi- finalists next week on Wednesday I got to find my press release
Here we go You will be interviewing Dr Steven Hiley Mandy Fletcher Dr Michael Newbeck Beth Geese and Dr Jamie Joe Thompson Congratulations Those are your
five semi- finalists and I look forward to seeing you next week If you do have anyone who chooses to drop out between now and then I will email the board immediately so you will know about it as soon as possible Okay All right Thank you Barb for your leadership and your
help And uh we look forward to next Wednesday We will see you here We will all be here by 9ine or earlier with our with our best interview hats on So thanks again Um that would adjourn the meet Well I'll look for a motion to
adjourn the meeting Is there a second second All right All those in favor signify by saying I I oppose the same sign Thank you Barb and everyone Take care everyone Byebye Yep