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good morning everyone welcome back from spring break i now call the March 24th 2025 special administrative briefing and work session of the Marian County School Board to order at 900 a.m please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing
others mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day i ask that you please pause for with us for a moment of silence please join me thank you i'll now read our commitment statement we are the Marian County School District Leadership Team
when we come together to work we are efficient effective and productive our three most important characteristics are dedicated transparent and individually responsible to work well together we must demonstrate respect confront
reality and be accountable we will always put students first we will leave a legacy of success good morning Attorney Powers will you explain the rules for this public work session yes Madam Chair thank you this work session is a public meeting as
defined in Florida's Sunshine Law the board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work in compliance with Sunshine Law the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures including the right for citizens to participate the board will allow public
comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time speakers must fill out a request form located in lobby and hand it to the board clerk after the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item the board clerk will call speakers names
in the orders order received each speaker will have three minutes as required by the sunshine law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout this meeting speakers may criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people finally speakers must be very
careful not to violate the privacy rights of others especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or identifying information thank you for their attention to these important rules thank you Attorney Powers good morning Miss Martinez please provide the proof of publication for
today's meeting the notice for the March 2020 20 24th 2025 special administrative briefing and work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on March 14th 2025 proof of publication has been attached to board docs under proof of publication thank you we'll now begin our work
session um board at this time I'd like to welcome Miss Andrea Msina chief executive officer for FSBA she is going to provide an overview of the superintendent search procedures good morning Miss Msina good morning thank you for having me we are glad you're
here to uh give an overview for us and I'm going to turn it over to you all right thank you so much there's an echo is that Do you guys hear it as well we do not hear it on this all right then i'm just going to ignore
it um thank you again for having me this morning and most importantly for allowing me to zoom in i came in late last night from Atlanta tomorrow I have to be in Duvall and just that turnaround was going to be crunch time for me today what I'm going to talk to you about is
conducting a superintendent search sort of all of the elements involved this is the first conversation that I like to have with board members who are members of FSBA um just to give you an overview of everything and answer any questions that you have and then you guys as a
board will make some decisions about your next steps so I'm happy during this uh presentation to answer questions as they come up along the way i hope this can be a conversation but I'm also happy to answer I'll stay here as long as you
need to answer any of your questions i do like to set the tone by reminding board members that the single most important decision a school board will make when you have an appointed superintendent is who your superintendent will be this is going to
be the education leader in your district so we take the responsibility of hiring the superintendent very seriously as does Florida's statute we do have a number of school districts across the state that have um appointed
superintendent as you all know from your kind of short history uh many districts likely have uh or not likely but many districts have elected superintendent but we have a lot of new superintendent um right now we're currently doing a
search and I'll I'll be answering some questions about that in just a minute in St john's and Monroe County so we have two districts that are currently doing searches as you know next door to you in Elatchua they currently have an interim superintendent so we're expecting them
to launch a search sometime in the in the near future i also like to remind Boards but Superman and Superwoman does not exist that's what we want for our superintendent but it's an impossibility so we have to look at what does a
district need now what does a district um have current in capacity and what kind of leader are you looking for at this time in your district so the one thing that we sort of try to calibrate for for boards and for communities is
that consistent throughout your search starting prior to this meeting even when you began talking about it all the way through to the final contract signing some things are going to remain consistent those things are everything will be done in the sunshine everything
will be a public record and every meeting will offer and allow for public input so all of those things should be consistent throughout your entire process typically before you actually begin a a a true search before you
launch a search you're likely going to decide on hiring some sort of a a team or consultants we can talk later about what that might look like you know what kind of options you might have but what I try to remind board members is that
your HR department while they do hire people in your district they have they typically don't have the experience hiring the chief executive additionally they'll be reporting to whoever gets hired so most uh best practice that I'm
aware of suggests that the board gets sort of an outside perspective to kind of help run and guide this process to keep everything above reproach that's especially important if you have internal applicants and also um if you
have a small staff you're talking about adding a lot of work to their workload usually what will happen step one after you say "Okay we're going to do a search." you maybe hire your team or your consultants you'll have what's kind of discussed or or called a pre-arch
review where the board will sort of inventory where you are what is your status at this time so that the consultants can then make sure that they understand your district and that you all have some agreement on some things
about where your district currently stands i'll give you an example uh in some districts there's uh when we sit down and have or when the pre-search review is is being held some board members will say oh we have a very
strong relationship with our union and other board members will say wait a minute no we don't so it's where does that lie in trying to help the board have some consensus on the status of h how are things with your legislative delegation how are things with your
policy how are things with your development of agendas you know just all kinds of different things to to to make sure you all are calibrated and your consultants understand your district then typically the next step is going to be community input that can
occur in any number of ways um and I'll go through some of these others in more detail but there's any number of ways for community input and typically the board will decide what kind of community input and how often you're also going to want to decide what if any overlap
you're going to have with your departing superintendent based on what I'm aware of related to the number of days of notice that you are giving it's very likely that your board is going to have to discuss and consider an interim superintendent
um it's not impossible that you could hire somebody by that deadline but if you did you would probably not be including your community along the way so that's a decision your board's going to have to make but even what if any overlap with an interim superintendent
if you choose to have one and then also your timeline when do you want to get somebody in how quickly do you want to move uh especially with graduations and spring activities you guys are going to have full schedules you may have to add meetings along the way you know the
timeline's going to have to be worked out so during the search itself there's a number of of different steps and the first step is that input step you all will have some input your community will have some input and then all that
information should guide what you all decide and what you're going to end up advertising as the qualifications what's the profile of the person you're looking for the best example I give for that uh for part of the discussion and part of
the input is around um for example are you going to require that the person who applies has education background or are you going to be open to for example military background business background other things what are going to be the
required qual qualifications what are going to be the preferred qualifications and it's only the board that gets to decide that but you typically would base that on the input that you receive uh along the way then you're going to advertise you'll decide when and how
long you want to advertise sometimes uh with the uh with the applications coming in the community will have some feedback to you so you'll get some advice from your community on some of the applicants uh as not just at that point but
completely along the way the board will then sort of prioritize who you want to talk to more who you want to learn more about and then you'll conduct interviews um typically those are face-to-face interviews then you'll hire that person you'll have a conversation you'll get
into negotiations there'll be some level of transition and then there'll be a start date so when we go through um each one of these steps individually we start typically talking to you about the timeline there are a number of things
that are going to impact your timeline like I said spring events graduations school start days meeting days that you already have scheduled uh the board is going to have to look at two to three full days that all five board members
can meet together to do the face-to-face interviews typically so where is that window how do you make sure that the interviews are before uh we have to back the interview date out after the start date with the overlap and so there's a
lot of pieces that will weigh into your timeline that you'll develop along the way people frequently ask about sort of a Florida specific search versus a national search what I will tell you is with the uh internet now every search is
a national search and as I mentioned before about advertisement where you choose to advertise and of course all advertisements cost money uh will also help to define your scope right now as I mentioned we have two districts one district wanted more national
advertisement than the other so it it just depends the board gets to decide how much and what the reach is going to be uh regarding input many times districts will start with an online survey then they will do some for
example like uh community town hall forums with students uh focus groups with staff with union with chamber whatever it might look like uh but you we typically you're going to want to hear from your community what are they looking for in the next education leader
for the district and then based on that input you're going to develop the advertisement now some districts in the past have had sort of a role for their community they've had this community advisory type organization that's
something that your uh whoever you decide to work with your team will will talk to you about it can be in the form of um participating with the finalists when they come to town for interviews it can
be helping to develop a survey it can be any number of things along the way if you're looking to do some community advisory work I will just caution you that uh since COVID community advisory groups um are no longer as um
desire people are no longer as willing to serve on a community advisory committee as they once were we've seen in some communities where people who participated in a community committee uh were criticized as having an undue influence over the board and over the
new superintendent and why is this community group recognized in serving and another community group isn't there's just been a lot of sort of push back against community advisory groups but I but I want to bring it up because I think it's important for districts to
have the conversation but also I like to remind boards that you all signed up for a public position and if you choose to have a community advisory it puts your citizens in a public position and then sometimes you know their Facebooks get um
um if they own businesses where they work sometimes they they get some push back and I just want to bring that to your attention um once you decide the qualities and qualifications what degrees they're going to need what kind of experience you need um then that's uh
the board will approve that that will typically get advertised that's how you that's how your team is going to start recruiting based on people who meet those qualifications and qualities uh the board's going to need to have some conversation along the way about what compensation package you're going to be
offering the superintendent you'll need to do that before you even advertise because the very first question that your team your your whoever you choose as your consultant will get is what's the pay what are they looking for what's the pay because for most people these
days the position of superintendent is a very um highly public highly scrutinized position and what we have seen is superintendent compensation inching up and up and up the pools are getting smaller and the willingness of people to kind of put them their own selves out
there and their careers at risk um requires a an increased level of compensation is what we're seeing additionally um you'll want to talk through and consider how your applicants are going to be vetted what kind of
background searches you're going to do what kind of uh questions you're going to ask and of whom are you you know will you be reaching out to other board members community groups that have worked with these applicants things like that you'll need to think through sort of how you want the public interviews to
go uh based on what I'm seeing here this sort of structure that you have here will work for part of that where the candidate will come in and it will be typically a public interview just like your public board meetings it would be recorded your community can watch every
interview um archived for the next few days and then you'll typically want to also not just have the public interview but have individual one- on-one conversations where each board member meets with each finalist um one on- one
so that you can really talk honestly and talk through uh something that you might have seen in their background or a follow-up question based on an answer they gave in the public interview things like that there are costs associated with a search i know some of you uh participated in the search that brought
you Dr gullet but I want you to be aware going into that this that there are costs associated with consultants and advertising with the travel of your consultants and or your finalists if you're going to have open receptions for
the finalists to meet the community uh when you have what people coming in for interviews there's hotel costs there's meal costs there's travel costs and also costs associated with background checks so once you have decided who your new superintendent is going to be and then
you've negotiated a contract and you're bringing them in on on some sort of overlap uh and they have their start date these are the things that after the search the board really needs to spend some time effort and energy on first and most important is ensuring that the new
superintendent will be successful you all as I said going back to the original first slide most important decision you make your job as board members is to create successful conditions because if the superintendent is successful the board and the district is successful all the students that happens with clear
expectations shared protocols common goals and an evaluation that improves performance and meets the needs of your community so that's kind of a general overview um I will leave the PowerPoint available but I will end my sharing and
answer any questions that um board members have at this time thank you so much Andrea um board any questions or concerns you ask at this time dr james um thank you for joining
us via Zoom it's good to see you um my my question to you would be based on the circumstances that we're in currently what is your recommendation for our next step from your experts your I think your next step is finding an interim that can
tie the board over and buy you some additional time once you decide on an interim and you can hire an interim with a contract that says um not to exceed three months six months nine months whatever which is kind of open-ended and
there are people who are retired superintendent in Florida who have experience and can step in and are willing to serve in short-term relationships with boards they're not looking to be full-time superintendent um getting that step so you guys know
there's going to be some definitive something after the date that Dr gullet's uh contract expires then when the when you know who your interim is going to be and you know that you've got that locked in then you need to probably have some conversation about
who you want to bring in to help you as a consultant because that's when the timeline and all those other things they'll your consultant will guide you through every step you'll have to decide on a consultant but in my opinion you you you guys need some definitive
leadership and clarity on what that's going to look like after the contract deadline expires i just had one other question and then I'll be done um if time was not a consideration what is the most appropriate length of time a
superintendent search should take so if time was not to be considered and we had as much time as we would need to really do all of our due diligence from start to finish how long would that process take i would say six to eight months is
the typical uh expected and part of that is contingent on I I do kind of want to uh calibrate the thinking because sometimes you can get some of the work done in the summer but summer is always
a challenging time for some community input because families travel in the summer and so if your community input is scheduled for the summer in some cases you'll get criticism teachers are gone on um people will think that there's an intent not to include them and so we
have to be very sensitive to your community's um sort of travel and and not just the community internal community employees of the school district that summer piece there sometimes creates additional time
needs and the same would be true if it was going over like the December to January time you lose a little bit of time because of certain holidays and things like that i thought of something else sorry and then I will be done um would it
be would it would it be potentially so we have vision 2026 that's the the um vision and strategic plan that was developed when Dr gullet came and it's through next school year do you think that whoever comes in um for for the
time being as interim and then however long that interim is with us should consider continuing down the path that Dr got has paved for us and kind of trying to maintain our strategic plan and continue through this as we go through a superintendent search and just
really not change much and just keep that strategic plan and focus going forward typically an interim's goal and job is to keep things stable while you're getting ready to
enter into a period of transition if you task an interim with a bunch of transition and change then that transition change will occur under an interim and then again with the new permanent superintendent it depends on your priorities and goals uh point
directly north to Elatchua they had an interim and they could have moved forward but they specifically wanted to task her with doing some of the things including I believe as I understand it some redistricting which is not a strategic plan but it is a big
uh undertaking and in truth something like that so uh redistricting for example a few slides ago one of the first things I put in there was creating conditions for success
So what Elatchua is doing is having their interim do the redistricting which then would create that level of success for the new person because if a new person comes in and has to redistrict they're automatically going to start making enemies that you really don't want them to have to make
if that makes sense absolutely thank you yes good morning Andrea how are you i'm good thanks thank you for being here this morning on short notice um my specific question is what would be
your recommended timeline um if we were to move forward with an interim that they should begin are you Did you just ask me when I thought an interim should begin yes well that's going to depend on Dr gullet that's going to depend on the board
that's going to be depend on the rel relationship between Dr call it in the board i mean I know you have a contractual relationship with her until a certain date um if you were going to bring in an interim I would if if you have the ability to have some overlap
with Dr gullet maybe one week overlap would make some sense um some districts have the luxury of having that other overlap some districts don't you may or may not have an internal person who can
serve in the role of interim that happens sometimes it may be someone who wants to apply it may be someone who doesn't want to apply sometimes boards try to say that they only want to consider somebody for the interim who
does not want to apply but typically I mean by law you can't prevent somebody from applying so that would be like taking someone's rights away so that uh could be challenging however the people applying
also here very clearly the board doesn't want someone to apply that's the interim so applying could also mean they really wouldn't be considered for that reason but that doesn't mean you can by law prevent them from applying um I I would
say that is going to be an answer that the board is best to address uh as long as things are still moving in a positive direction in your district my guess is Dr gullet has some items or projects or
things that you asking her to kind of tie up before she leaves so you'll you'll probably want some of those things taken care of but that's really the working relationship and the progress of the district are the factors
to consider there okay thank you because I feel like I heard you say that a week or so overlap um is typical and I'm just trying to wrap my head around uh timing
um fiscal responsibility you know her contract I believe is July 11th right so uh thank you for that feedback because the transition piece is going to be important i mean we're moving into testing and everything else here
there there may also be a consideration that you have to think about and that is uh does she have any leave on the books that she's going to want to take before she leaves so while her date may be the 21st or
whatever the board chair probably had some conversation is is it expected that she would use any leave before then because if that creates uh a a void or an opening you might want an interim to come in now if she's the superintendent
and you bring an interim in the title they would come in under would not be superintendent because she's still the superintendent until she's not so the person could come in on a contract until they become the interim superintendent like a consultant contract something
like that okay thank you I just want to interject real quick um because it fits in right here um I met with Miss Boston Ellis this morning um I will say it was challenging going on spring break and then getting here this
morning and having all the input that we needed but along the lines of finding an interim superintendent one of the concerns um that was brought forward to me uh from Miss Boston Ellis is that they're beginning budgetary conversations this week actually
Wednesday and Thursday and so um it was expressed that there is a high level of of importance that um someone that may be coming in as the interim be part of those conversations um moving forward so
Dr gullet may be there but the person that's maybe stepping in would also be there so they can understand and participate in why these ch why these decisions are being made and so I just learned that this morning met with her
at 7:30 but that is something that I personally um had not thought about i was glad that I she gave me the opportunity to meet with her early this morning um but I think uh I spent also quite a bit of time looking at um everything that's gone down with uh
Elatchua County and I think that the board providing a sense of stability moving forward um and letting our staff know that we have a plan um is one of the most important pieces of our
conversation and so with that um are there any other um questions for Andrea concerns yes Dr campbell sure i I thank you for bringing up the budget because that was going to be my question uh Andrea because I know that you have
worked in multiples of these superintendent searches and regardless of whether you're the chosen entity that actually does the search you're still advising us and so I'm I'm super grateful that you're with us this morning because of the uniqueness of the timeline again and perhaps you've dealt
with districts with the same kind of timeline knowing that we have some deadlines that come forth we're on a July one fiscal year so June 30th is the end of our fiscal year our superintendent essentially is leaving two weeks after that and so we know
there are some things that we as a board and the current superintendent can get nailed down and in place ahead of her leaving the district and essentially a person just picks up with that similarly to uh what Chair Conrad was just
mentioning about the budget and all that timeline with that being said would you still recommend the the proposed timeline of six to eight months after that i I that I I keep milling around what we have
obviously testing graduations all the things that are coming but knowing we have a superintendent leaving essentially two weeks into the new fiscal year and so how does that timeline impact our timeline or should
it well when the question about the timeline was asked to me it was kind of what's the typical timeline when any district has an opening we look at all of the conditions within that district
for the ideal timeline for that district so um I will tell you one of our team members on our superintendent search is Dr deborah Pace dr pace uh is the former superintendent in Ocola County you all may know her and
we've had some conversations about sort of what is the ideal time for a superintendent to be able to come into a district have some ability to impact that district and then uh be able to open the new school year and so she said
that she uh thought like an early spring hire date early spring so that the new superintendent the new permanent has an opportunity to participate in the budget for the next year as well as start the
next school year makes a lot of sense u that's how she was able to do it in Oyola and she said it worked out really really well staff are your experts in your finance department they understand you know the ongoing budgetary issues
with the district but having the new superintendent be able to be on board before your next budget cycle and be a part of that does make a difference thank you that's exactly the the question and the answer that I was curious of and yes Dr pace is is a
wonderful um example of a great appointed superintendent that has now retired and I'm grateful that she's on your team working with you thanks thank you anything else any other questions or for concerns for Andrea
okay Andrea with that I Yes go ahead it looked like you were about to speak yeah I was just going to say um the position of superintendent is not what it was five or 10 years ago it's very very different and what we're
finding are much smaller pools were finding that some people who uh maybe have worked their entire year with the anticipation that they were going to be a superintendent that they wanted to be a superintendent have kind of seen some of what's happened across the country
with superintendent and they're saying you know what I'm not sure I'm going to put my family through that I'm not sure I'm going to put my career at risk so it's a little bit of a different um pool than we might have had five or 10 years ago and I just bring that to your
attention so that you know there's a lot of competition out there for good people thank you oh yes board member Thrower thanks Andrea and you mentioning that made me think of something else um how many
counties are currently appointing superintendents it's like 28 or 30 isn't it oh the actual number of superintendents in Florida yeah I want to say 28 but you know we just had one go from appointed to Yeah to elected and there's going to
be more on the ballot coming up for sure okay because as I was looking into it a little bit I was noticing I thought it was about 28 and that um out of those 28 eight were hired in 2023
um five were hired in 2024 five in 2022 three in 21 and Lake Countyy's a bit of a an outlier and they must be very happy with their superintendent because that superintendent's been there since 2017 um and it was just interesting to me because through the years I feel like
that there have been a lot more longevity um with superintendents in general so would it be accurate that we're seeing a lot more turnover these days and a smaller pool to fish in so to speak I think is what you said yes ma'am
i would tell you that in the last five years almost every single district has turned over their superintendent and and we used to have some very long-term superintendent in Florida we also saw 16 new elected superintendent so it's not
just in the appointed side it's in the whole superintendent position in Florida we just we do not have the longevity that we did 10 years ago or even five years ago there's been a lot of turnover but that's also not unique to Florida
there's a national turnover as well thank you for that um and I guess my last question would be what are you seeing in terms of average salary in Florida for appointed superintendent
well uh two things one you may or may not recall that last legislative session the legislature recalibrated the formula for elected superintendent now why that matters is
because one elected superintendent salaries had not been recalibrated in probably 20 some odd years and so they were sort of behind on the salary schedule but two as the elected salaries go up the appointed salaries are also
going up but even without that before the legislature addressed the elected salary superintendent issue the um appointed salaries for the last five years have been jumping
anywhere from 25 to golly even 50 or more thousand for a departing superintendent having to bring in a new person there's there's a significant increase um now we run a lot of data and
so we we kind of look at the salary of the superintendent size above you size below you where do you fit what's the experience that kind of stuff but to attract the kind of person that some districts want to attract it does
require an increase in salary for people because of the turnover that you just referenced uh Nancy people are starting to look at the superintendent position as I have to be willing this is my last career position
so there's a there there's a perceived risk in someone's career longevity by being a superintendent and that costs districts you to convince someone to take that risk you know you have to
sometimes put some money on the table thank you yes Reverend Cummings yes good morning Andrea thank you for um this this um this session this morning i appreciate you and thank you
for the help last week as well um question what is the trend that you're seeing as far as bringing in a superintendent as far as the person being either out of state or local or you know in state
what's the trend been lately so what I have seen from boards in Florida is that they find it important to hire someone that has some Florida experience that doesn't mean they're currently in Florida but maybe when they
were assistant superintendent somewhere along the way they might have had some Florida experience then they go off to another state and then they can come back so we've seen some uh people from out of state come in with some Florida experience we've had some very
successful superintendents come in from out of state that had no Florida experience but most boards um want some experience in Florida because boards believe that the Florida our accountability system our
state laws you know they're very unique and so people who there are plenty of leaders in this country who can transfer and bring in their knowledge from other states but it does help for someone to
be familiar with Florida now when you ask about internal versus external one of the first things I tell boards is if you have on your staff the person that you all as a board believe is your next superintendent
maybe it's someone you've been cultivating developing your superintendent might have been building you know the bench maybe you have two or three people you don't have to do a national search you can talk to your local person first and say "Yep this is who we want to hire." And move on and
it's a smooth transition um we've had I'll give you an example in Charlotte County not their current superintendent but the one before that they were talking having a conversation similar to what you all are having right now what are we going to do
what are our next steps and one of the board members you know said "Well we've got Dr dianio right there and he's been he's been one of our highest most successful principles he's been the assistant superintendent he's the chief
of staff you know I I would really be willing to have a conversation about do we want to offer this position to Mr dianio and so then they scheduled another meeting they had that conversation they decided they did want to hire him they didn't do a search at
all um it was a very smooth transition so we've seen that in some places as well i will tell you in uh St john's right now I've got two at least internal applicants that I'm expecting in that
one in the Monroe County which is the Keys I'm expecting two or three in order to attract a pool of candidates if you do have internal candidates it has to be very clear that the board is willing to consider
uh outside candidates that you're not just um doing a search but you already have a predetermined outcome that affects people's careers when they've applied and if I'm a sitting superintendent in Florida or any other state and I'm going
to apply in your county I have to know that I have a fair shot of getting that job um that's what's fair to those people and so the board has to have some conversations about that to make sure that the board is open to somebody from outside thank you
okay anything else okay all right andrea thank you very much for spending your Hold on reverend Kum thought of something hold on thought about something so Andrea um if we're going
the route of of looking for an interim superintendent what should be those how should that process go forward u should there be because there may be as you just said there could be three or four people within the district that are qualified to be our inter uh
superintendent how should that how should we proceed in that direction okay so let's say you have three or four people internally that you think can be your interim superintendent that that's what I think I heard you say correct
okay so you guys could have a workshop not unlike this where each one of the first off you would ask them if they're interested you know anyone that's interested would indicate to the sup to the board chair that they would like to have a conversation with the board about
how they might be able to continue to serve the board in the role as an interim and then the board chair might get let's just say three of those people say they're interested one says "Heck no not interested don't even ask me." Then uh you could have a workshop the board
could have kind of it wouldn't be interviews let's say but you would have a conversation with each one of those people you know making sure they understand what you're asking of them to do as an interim that that they ask you questions they need answers to do to to
have answered to see if they really want to serve as an interim then you guys could you know talk to each one of them have some conversation the board could discuss and you could hire who you think is the best fit um as I said alternatively I also have some retired superintendents that I maintain a
database with that if you decide you're interested in ser in bringing somebody outside then I can start reaching out to some of those people to see if they're interested sometimes people um maybe have like a family cruise planned for a
month and and so working for you guys in the immediate future they might have to say I'm gonna have to pass on this one but maybe again in a year if somebody else has it so some people's time frames are different um but I will say if you do have an interim one of the things you
want to consider is a stipen for that person because odds are you're not going to backfill their position they'll be doing two jobs and probably expect that they can go back to their original position when you hire someone so there
is a consideration of additional compensation for someone who's willing to take on some additional duties and I do as I'm as I'm hearing you talk different things are going through my my mind so and I see a dilemma a potential
dilemma where if um a board does select the interim and that interim does um decide to apply for this position of superintendent but then that interim is not selected as the next superintendent
that there's a potential that the incoming superintendent would you know they can clear the deck and that interim could u possibly lose their job because they weren't a part of the team um how do you how do you navigate that situation well there's also the
possibility that because the board didn't select a person they don't want to work with the board anymore so both of those exist that's one of the reasons when somebody decides to be an interim it's very clear between the board and that person sort
of what the expectation is now I will say this I have seen it in more than one district where they had an internal superintendent serve or an internal person serve as the interim superintendent
that person working with the board working with the community uh demonstrates leadership that maybe the board wasn't expecting or or didn't anticipate and maybe it's a very positive working relationship so I have
seen interim contracts with internal uh leaders turn into discussions about why would we move forward with a search when our interim is doing a phenomenal job and I will say I tell board members all
the time there is no better interview for someone to be superintendent than them serving as superintendent so if you have an interim internal that you really really like I caution boards not to uh place the expectation that that
person won't apply because you don't want to limit your own option to potentially hire that person and that person may find that they really shine in that role but to answer your other question with
regard to a new superintendent coming in and I heard you say cleaning house most leaders are not going to come in and clean house most leaders are going to come in and do a whole lot of listening before they do that and most people that
I have seen if the board has faith in a staff member enough to make them the interim superintendent they're going to identify that person as a key player that they want to keep around anybody think of anything else okay Andrea thank you so much for taking
time to be with us this morning and I know several board members have mentioned that they visit with visited with you last week as you did well spent some time with me so I just want to express my gratitude again not just from me but the entire board thank you um for working with us this morning you bet and
I think every single one of you has my phone number so if you have any additional questions that come up or you want clarity on anything feel free to give me a direct call and I will get back to whoever it is and answer whatever questions I'm able okay we're here to help support you whether whether we work with you in this capacity or not
is irrelevant for your membership association so our priority is a successful outcome for you and your board thank you so much have a great week thank you bye bye okay board at at this time I'd like to
cons continue our conversation and I'd like to begin with gathering input from each of you um Miss Miss Msina's recommendation to hire an interim superintendent um as we discuss that timeline and I'd like to
know um from each of you what your preferences are one thing I'd like to share over spring break I spent quite a bit of time looking at different school districts and that process and I will tell you that um hiring someone from
that bank of retired superintendent was extremely expensive um one one contract was $200,000 for six months plus $800 or $900 a month for a car and phone so I that was just
surprising to me um the level the financial commitment um so I wanted to share that with you in case you did not know that and with that I want to open it up to um see how you all are feeling anybody like to go first i can go first
so um I I'm really grateful for Miss Msina joining us this morning and providing insight into what we do next over spring break I had about 30
conversations with district leaders school leaders school employees i wanted to understand um just understanding the implications for today's conversation i wanted to understand what do the people want
and every single person told me the same thing which speaks volumes to how this how this community wants this to go in my opinion and that is they want a local person to be an interim and they need
stabilization um and I feel I feel pretty strongly that that is what this district needs and when I asked them how long they thought an interim should serve the
common answer was very aligned with what Miss Msina shared which is that they want to see someone get us through summer we have a lot of really big decisions to make we have obviously going into budget cycle cent office central office staffing plan changes in
leadership at schools changes in leadership across the district um graduations and then going into our new fiscal year and and what that looks like and so they were adamant that the person that we appoint as an interim needs to be a player in all of those decisions a
couple different times the comparison came up to when this district historically on occasion has placed a principal at a school in July when a principal goes into a school in July that principal walks into
someone else's budget and someone else's staffing plan and someone else's vacancies and it is the the least ideal time to walk into a school um if we recall Mr jacobs at Lake Middle School just a few years back mr jacobs walked in and he was moved there almost July
11th I think almost to the day and he had something 20some vacancies and the title one budget was already done and so when I think about what this looks like I believe that the person that we name as an interim needs to be named
very timely and they need to be a decision maker in what we do next um I'm also you know I'm I'm aware that Dr gullet's new position was announced on Facebook where she's where she's headed and I think that I would like to
see this board or our board chair this board give our board chair um privilege to negotiate with Dr gullet what that looks like for maybe if she's if she is willing and ready to step down and what what would that cost this board i heard
overwhelmingly from people that they need an interim that's going to make the decisions and then be responsible for the decisions for next school year so that is the direction I would like to go very consistently the leaders I spoke to gave me three names um and what we do
next with those names I could share them now or share them later but I think that there's a very cons we obviously are are we don't have a deputy so there's not an obvious next choice and so I will say the community the leaders feel like there's an obvious next choice or a few choices and so I would like to see this
board engage very timely in in nextstep discussions thank you Dr james um yes Reverend Cummings um I too heard from I too heard from some people over the holiday over the week um spring break and I hear what
Dr james is saying i I this is my preference i would prefer that you not bring those three names and the reason I say that is let those three names come forward to us sure if we do that process because when we when we bring anything
it looks like we're creating undue influence sure and so I would prefer that if there are people that are interested in being our interim let them reach out to the board themselves mhm i too heard um some of the same things that you're talking about as far as
stability um in the district as far as um we're getting ready to make some decisions um we're getting ready to have um going into budget um we need to make sure that we have people in place before the summer and all those um schools are
set for success so um there there I think we do need an interim i think we need to do our due diligence and get an inter room um so that we can have some so we can uh calm the waters because right now there's a
lot of things out there in the public that's just unknown and staff are going to I don't I don't need staff becoming rogue at this time um I I I just need us to I need us as a bo as a
board to not go into any lane that we're not supposed to go in i don't need us personally vetting anybody i don't need us um um promising people anything i don't need us um creating some undue influence because it'll come back to
bite us the wrong way and so I just want us to do this process right we've done it before and we know how to do it right but I want us to do it so that we keep maintain integrity in the process and that um whomever we choose to be the
interim and ultimately the deputy uh the superintendent that we're putting this the district on a on a um on a course for success and not for going backwards thank you Reverend Cummings uh board members
I'll defer for the moment okay Dr campbell I'm just processing the things that have already been spoken i wish I could have deferred uh board member Thrower you you jumped to that one on me so I guess that means I'm next a couple of
thoughts um along with communication with people within the district and the community has also come the rumor mill and I'm just going to call it out
uh rumor mill and what has been playing out in our community from a rumor standpoint for an extended period of time that is
disrespectful uncalled for and has tainted the work of this board and superintendent in a way that I hope isn't irreparable because we need
to set minds at ease and folks need to understand that the majority of the board my hope is the whole board is going to work in tandem
and lock step to make sure we do this process correctly and we don't allow anything from the outside or inside to taint that with that being said there are a couple of statements that I wanted to
make because I'm certain you've seen rumor and chatter as I have and Andrea Msina alluded to it somewhat that some districts have gone from elected to appointed and from elect from appointed to elected and all of that is still a conversation there was even legislation
filed this year to make all superintendents in the state of Florida elected so I just want for the community's perspective to know because she alluded to it that even the salary range for elected superintendent was adjusted this past year and I don't
think our community is aware that if we had an elected superintendent right now their salary would be $210,954 that is based on state statute and that is what the the salary range is right now if we had an elected superintendent in Marian County $210,954 so folks are still believing
that if we had an elected superintendent it'd be $165,000 or whatever and we we'd be saving money with an elected okay well I mean that the state statute requirement this year would have been just a a few thousand dollars less than what we've been paying so I I just I
wanted to make the community aware of that because again we're being as open and honest and transparent as we can i understand the potential for an internal candidate for an interim superintendent i was not aware of what
an external interim superintendent cost potentially would be um the the thing that concerns me the most so let me let me back into some statements that have already been made
one statement was made about the superintendent's strategic plan i have to correct that statement because three of the board members sitting here developed that strategic plan in tandem with the superintendent for sure but it's not her strategic plan
it's ours and we own it and so it is achieved 2026 and it does go through next school year my biggest concern is having anybody right now at this juncture interim internal or external come in and
disrupt what we're already on a pathway to do i like the idea of someone coming in and just picking up the mantle that's already there at least for the next six to eight
months i like the early spring timeline i like the idea of having someone hired by February 1 if I'm backing into a timeline I like the idea of having someone hired by February 1 so that way
heading into spring break they can have a couple of months to get to know people a bit head into spring break work on budget as she alluded to Dr for PACE's statement in in OciOla County which she would have honestly been my choice if we
had the option to pull in an external in interim superintendent someone who already knows the pathway that that Dr gullet has put us on and someone who'd be willing to just pick up the charge and run with what has already been established there's a lot of things
we've got to fix we know that there's there's a lot of things that have been fixed but our internal audits have shown there's a lot of systems this district still doesn't have in place four years later of our superintendent we we have to get better in a lot of areas so I I
think bringing an external person in will throw them for a loop honestly I I don't know that that will help us as much as I thought that it would the only person again I someone who aligns very closely with Dr gullet it already as an external person is is the way I would
see it who would just do exactly what she would do if you bring somebody else who doesn't already have a close relationship with her and knowing her thought processes that's going to disrupt things even more so um what I don't want is disruption I want
continuity I want strength I want strength through leadership and whether that person is internal and is aligned with the strategic plan that we've already been working because there are some
disruptors internally as well so I just want to ensure that we are acting very wisely and who we choose for an internal candidate because an internal candidate who's meant to be a disruptor is not the direction that I want to go um so I
think that wraps up all my thoughts for now all right thank you Dr campbell board member Throwber thank you um thank you uh board member Campbell for sharing your thoughts ahead of mine
i needed the opportunity to hear from several board members um before sharing my own thoughts um I agree 100% that bringing
in a new superintendent on or around the 1st of February of of 26 would best position that person for success so I'm less worried about that than I am
about the immediate future and how this is already playing out and I believe I've heard from several board members that they see it
clearly they hear it loudly uh I think that all of us myself included have been hearing from various citizens and stakeholders and what I try to keep in mind is
that there's not one cross-section of of 30 or even if those 30 are all from one area that determines the future and trajectory of this school district
i think it's going to be my task as a board member to continue as I always have to connect with people that aren't of my group to hear what they have to say that aren't my typical people that
tend to weigh in you know we all have our folks that we get our phone calls and our texts from and so on but to me a true elected servant is the one that reaches into all areas of the community and hears all aspects before making a
decision i think that there are pros and cons to um both an internal interim versus an external um anytime you bring in someone that is a specialist it's going to cost
you money um I would be very interested to continue hearing from people that may have been following one of the benefits of an internal interim is that they've likely been following our journey and it would
be interesting to hear what they have to say about what their goals would be for the next you know period of months external folks have seen a lot of movies like ours and they have expertise to be
able to come in and calm the waters and and they have credibility um but that a lot of times doesn't play very well in this community just for various reasons from what I've witnessed in many situations you know you could be you
could be Jesus but if you're not from Ocala you know that's going to be a strike against you so I think we have to be mindful of that you know you gota if you're going to play the game you got to see the whole field right so that's that's where I am
um in this moment that's what I've got at this time and and Madam Chair and I do and I do want to go on record saying this I don't think we need to rush rush this search
process or finding a consultant to um I don't think we have to be in a rush to get a superintendent permanent superintendent real fast i think we need to take her and we had the luxury last time of of coming out of an election
moving from an elected to an appointed and we had that luxury I know um store was there I know Dr camel was observing very observing miss McCall was in part of that process as well we had we had the luxury of taking our time and getting through that process and it it
happened at the right time i don't want us to say we got to have a superintendent in place September or even December we need to take our time and do it the right way and we need to not um let any outside influences
um any any any entity or organization or whomever um feels like they that they're pressuring us to make that decision more quickly because ultimately this is about the students of Marian County this is about our staff this is about putting us on the
trajectory um or moving us to a a higher trajectory of being successful and if we rush this process um we're we're going just we're going to end up in a place that we don't want to be so I I'm again
I'm I'm fine with us getting an interim that interim needs to be someone that can calm the waters that interim needs to be someone that um that the staff is willing to work with and can work with um it does not have to be it does not
need to be um And I I'm going be very very frank um because this is what I hear as Dr campbell keeps saying um uh the rumor mill there is there is a rumor mill there is a Marian County rumor mill that that says we're getting ready to go
back to the good old boy system i'm just going to be very frank with that and folk might not like that I said that but if we're going forward you can't go backwards and so if we're going to be going forward let's go forward let's make some changes let's let's let's put the people place that's going to help us
to continue to move forward uh we have some very capable people in our district we have some very capable people uh that have come through our district that know Marian County i don't think we need to limit ourselves in any way we need the best interim that
we can get and then we need to move from being the best interim to get to being the best superintendent that we can get and that's again um we don't need to rush this process no we haven't heard from you yet i'm sorry Chair Conrad um thank you Reverend
Cummings something you said sparked something else in me while I I completely agree I I think that again February one or some timeline like that for a new superintendent i think that would help us at least have that I also personally don't believe we need to rush
the interim choice i I believe that we in tandem again with our existing superintendent who is going to be in place through staffing plans through budgetary cycles all of that in tandem
we work through that and we set this district up for what it will look like for the 2025 2026 school year and as we work in tandem having an interim appointed in April perhaps or early May
I believe disrupts that even more so we can set this district up understanding what all the placements will be what all the district staff looks like and all what all of that will be it all has to be done by July 1 guys and she's not
leaving until the middle of July so all of this by statute has to be done before she leaves so I believe that we don't have to rush the interim name either because the more we can stabilize things heading into the summer the better and
we don't have to have a name next week that that's my personal opinion thank you Dr campbell um board i too um had a lot of conversations with um district leaders
uh there is a sense of and I don't know if you felt this uh but there is is a sense of uneasiness um a lack of stability um wanting to know about the future and
even though we may not need to race into um choosing an interim superintendent I do think that it will provide stability for us to choose
someone fairly soon um I don't know about you but I personally would not like to step in a space of leadership where everything has already been laid out for me i'd like to be part of that
conversation um I see this this role moving forward um as more of a partnership i'm sure most of you names that have been brought forward from staff are people that are already doing this kind of work and already involved
um and working with Dr gullet on a daily basis and so although I understand um that Dr gullet timeline allows her to work through the end middle of July I don't
know that that's necessarily the best choice for us uh moving forward um you know we we really are at a disadvantage uh not having a deputy superintendent and I'll tell you this is just personal
reflection for me that I'll share with you uh just because it goes into some of my thought processes is that um the the role of superintendent and education in general has changed so much over the last 15 10
years um that when I look at what we've done uh and where we're going I really see a lot of partnerships partners partnerships at our leadership level and since we don't have anyone as
a deputy superintendent there there's that's created a huge gap for us and so I'm anxious to get moving um on this I don't want to say hurry um because
that sounds like it's not thought through Um but I am I am ready uh to move forward i I would like for us to look at um who's interested who brings their name forward that they're interested in
being an interim superintendent i believe that th those people that come forward they've already been involved in the strategic plan they already know the majority of our staff and the needs of our staff and they also know the ongoing
challenges uh that we face but they also will have the opportunity to provide input into how um those challenges are met another thing that came up in a lot
of conversation is the transfer period is quickly approaching and it's is it next week today transfer period opens today it was in April okay anyway it is coming up soon and there's there is a lot of again
unease uncertainty um and it's our responsibility I feel as a board to provide that stabil stability for our staff um as we move forward and so um I look for a smooth transition
um one that is not abrupt but uh with the look of um building relationships and working as a team um as the transition for superintendent and interim
superintendent move forward uh this arrangement could allow for Dr to be uh superintendent on assignment she could work on completing reports um and things that are compliant
with the state of Florida that statute is one-42 section 13 and she can finish her term and provide mentorship to the incoming interim superintendent and to
me after a lot of reflection and a lot of conversation um I feel that is what's best for Marian County Public Schools and our students uh moving forward
yes Dr james i just wanted to I I totally agree with you and I also I want to be able to hold the interim accountable um and I would love to see an interim that then either applies or maybe we love them and we don't do a nationwide search and because that's
what I've heard overwhelmingly is they want someone local again and so we'll do community surveys and we'll figure out really what all of the parts of our community desire but I want to be able to hold the interim accountable and if the interimm walks in to take over the reigns of someone else's plan it's
really hard to hold them accountable for what is happening because they will have had no say in the staffing plan the budget and so it's very easy to say well we're doing what we can this isn't how I would have done it but this is what I
walked into and the only way I see to be able to hold that interim accountable is for them to start being a part of conversations in a very near future um I'd just like to go back and clarify
one thing i have not um Dr gallet has been on vacation with her family so I have not spoken to her um about this this idea i don't know i did not see a a post about um this next step that she's
taking and so um I I'm not trying to put words in her mouth um I have not had a conversation i'm interested and look forward to a conversation to her i don't know um if she feels this would be beneficial to her so I just I want to
put that out there that conversation has not been had um these are thoughts um I've had with the discussions um that I've had this last week and so um I just wanted to share that yes Dr campbell thank you and I to I tried to stay off
Facebook over spring break so I and she's not on Facebook so I I haven't seen a post that said specifically what she's doing either so that you know there's something to share i guess social media will do its thing and we'll all find out u but yes uh my I can agree
uh with again an internal candidate for an interim superintendent my concern though I I go back to what my original thought process was is we have a lot of voids that still need to be fixed we know we have pilot
schools for sitebased budgeting that's a process that we're working on and have been trying to work on for four years if we have someone who is the internal candidate for the interimm superintendent who has no experience with that whatsoever and just
decides we're not going to go in that direction well that's contrary to what I believe we've been trying to get to for four years so those are some concerns I have we know that our internal audits have identified multiple systems that we do not have in place in Marian County
and so if we have an internal candidate that we want to hold accountable as Dr james said but they are unfamiliar with any of the new systems that we need to put into place because they've only had work experience within Marian County Public Schools then that's also a void
that's not going to be filled with an interim superintendent if it's an only an internal candidate so I I appreciate um having outside perspectives from time to time i appreciate having varied work
experiences and I understand that our community wants somebody local i understand that but I wasn't local originally either been here for more than 20 years now but and yeah Dr james wasn't local either
and and here we sit so uh I I I think that there is value in some outside perspective and if internal candidates can bring that to the table as well then that would be a direction that I would appreciate i just have significant
concerns with uh us moving in a direction that we've been trying to move for four and a half years and having some kind of roadblock or an about face that changes that direction um and I just I'm sorry Nancy just one
second i do want to say you know um Dr campbell and Dr james you're both not local um but you have been local for a very long time and so you have been invested in this in my opinion you have
been invested in this community with your children going to school um and our public schools you're involved in local organizations and charities um so although um there is a lot of value in
in reaching out and to me that that's kind of a character trait you have to want to reach out and and look um and desire to find new and better ways to um solve problems and challenges um but that doesn't you can do that as a local
person and but I would just wanted to rem say um I would consider you both local you you're here you've got roots here your family's here um and you're invested in the things that are going on in the day-to-day workings um not just in Marian County Public Schools but
what's happening with the city and the county at your churches um and at our schools so um it's extremely important to me um and so I just wanted to bring that uh around full circle all right yes
yes i'm sorry Nancy was wait go ahead um from what I'm hearing um I'm hearing that that the majority of this that we have a consensus on moving forward with trying to get an interim um if we're going to move forward we get an interim
let's talk about the process of us getting an interim and how that's going to look instead of just keep going over the same stuff over and over and over again um I I I think I heard i I don't feel as chair I do not feel um confident
that we're at consensus yet so if we can let um Nancy share and I hear three people say that they said move forward because that's if I heard three that's a consensus but I mean I want to I want to I want I want to hear I want to hear I so I've got a chart here Reverend
Cummings and I am taking notes and I want to know where each board member stands and when we finish the conversation I will call that we are at consensus all right okay thank you so much board member Thrower thank you
um you know after years of witnessing this elected superintendent it was like everything stopped until someone you know until the election was over you know and to me
it's up to us as a board a a smooth transition will come from the five of us working together shining the light and making it happen there is a toxic culture in
Maring County Public Schools of people are anxious people are uneasy people are uncertain you know everybody's all up in arms well in the end we have a job to do kids are showing
up every day they get off the bus they come into classrooms and that's what we need to be focusing on and it is our leadership that will help make that happen i think that's going to go a long way towards calming things
i agree that we because of the timing we're looking at ideally bringing in a new superintendent um at the beginning of a of a new cycle which would be honor about February 1st 2026 so we have we're we're coming into
testing right now um I would say also that if you look at Dr gulla's contract you know yes it would be very expensive and
hey it would work for her because you know we we know that she's moving on to something else outside of of direct public education um how that got on Facebook I don't know she's never been on Facebook she's not a social media fan so you know um so she'll be getting
double paid if we decide to play our cards that way which I think is ridiculous there isn't anything and fiscally irresponsible there isn't anything in this strategic plan that is not directly tied to to
serving kids so I try to put myself in the shoes of if I was coming in as an interim and oh by the way this board dives deep don't we we chopped up the staffing
plan we said what we wanted and that's what we got i'm thinking of kindergarten parents you know and and I'll I'll own it i'll own it too yeah so any interim superintendent walking in is not going to have the latitude to
make a bunch of changes because they're going to have to get it past at least three members on this board i think that it's really important to do two things to start lining out the process as board member Cummings said
for an interim start taking letters of interest inside and outside um come up with a process for that and let our school district know that Dr gullet is going to continue to guide us through through testing because then in
the end too you know you bring in an interim and now at the nth hour and then what school grades looks like well you could say well Dr gullet you know was in charge for most of it but if everybody is uneasy and anxious and out of whack as what they say they are you know so
there's two ways to to look at that um so I say you know let's have Dr gullet finish the drill while we are concurrently um accepting appointed or not appointed interim uh superintendent opportunities from both inside and
outside i think we've talked through the Pratt files of someone from outside coming in and and and privileges and the Pratt falls and privileges of someone coming in from inside so we'll give everybody their best opportunity to show us what they got and we'll make a decision transparently that's something
I'm really proud of this board that we've done you know on our last search it was all out there for everybody to see whether or not we go national or stay local I think remains to be seen by the strengths of the inorms that come to us so I'm I'm wondering how everyone feels about that and then my
last thing is in terms of stability because this was on Facebook um where everyone seems to get their information these days if we're going to come to consensus on what we're doing with a super interim superintendent I think we also need to get the word out if not today then at the next school board
meeting which is tomorrow what we're doing or not doing with Bezendon and Anthony talking about you know putting those principles under a ton of pressure to find teachers and so on and they don't even know you know the word is out there no one knows if it's really those
schools are even going to be open this fall so we've got to get that out there so those are my two thoughts what do y'all got um I'm just going to go down the down the line here um to make sure I've got
my notes correctly dr james you are in support of finding a local interim superintendent yes and timely reverend Cummings you are in support of finding a local I didn't never never said local i just said
inter okay all right um board member Thrower the same you are just in favor of an interim not necessarily local i don't even want to caveat that i'm in favor of an interim and let's let the best person that fits our needs for where we are
rise to the top okay Dr campbell I'm in favor of an interim superintendent as well i don't believe it has to occur before middle of May i I think we need to get through the majority of testing season have our superintendent at all of our graduations
and not have that disruption i I'm okay with an interim starting June 1 but if it's an internal interim they're going to be a part of all the processes we're going to go through anyway and I'm in I'm in favor of an interim superintendent uh looking more as a
partnership and moving that along um a little more quickly so that is where I stand so board we are all in favor of finding an interim superintendent and attorney powers i'm going to uh look to
you for what our next steps will be well the board's the board's given consensus which is different than a vote so consensus is a general agreement the terms may not be specific as to what
it's going to look like but if the board's consensus is to go with an interim the board now needs to discuss what it wants that process to look like who would govern that process who would
set it up how would selection be made would there be there's there's factors that the board then has to determine how it wants that process to be run is that something we look to FSBA and have them do that is that something for an interim
probably not is that something that the board wishes to conduct interviews there's there's there's not a a fixed procedure in place so um is that something then that Well I just have a question for you yeah so in um the
research that I did this last week much of what I saw was less formal than that so is that formality required is that formality best practice um what is your recommendation at this point with what we know what you've experienced
previously um what would be the appropriate next steps i would want to I'd want to defer and give you a better answer i I don't I I don't know that I can make a recommendation as to next steps without
knowing more about what the board wants for selection of an interim so it's it's a difficult question i I agree i agree board member Thrower thank you you know and don't want to put the
cart before the horse i I think that I'm hearing that two board members would like to get an interim in place as soon as possible and I am of the mind that we need to uh be
very deliberate but also very clear in what our timeline is um board member Campbell proposed having a interim in place June 1st i would like to get some consensus on a date and then we can back plan you know from that
i'm willing to go with June 1st i think that it makes sense to get through testing you know make a statement today that it's going to be status quo until after graduation and in the meantime we're going to be looking we can we can do the interviews ourselves you know we
can put something out there that says we're looking for an interm superintendent from uh roughly June 1st or whatever to roughly February 1st to serve that amount of time you know and that person
will be open for consideration to be our next superintendent and like I said you know I'm all about competition um and what what I can tell you is that no matter what the board's pleasure is um we'll
need to get Miss Morant from HR to run an ad within the district for that purpose so that's at least one step that will have to be done um and you know we have an HR department for a reason so they they get the they would they would
probably uh be essential in getting advice together as to how this process should be run um it would be through Miss Morant um with the board ultimately having you
know decisive input so um the board would then interview that person just like any other job you know um so the difference would be that typically the the board isn't the interviewing party in in most
cases it's usually someone from staff or the superintendent someone within um within operations leadership that does that in this case it would instead be that the board conducts the interview but um but then given that the board
sets the parameters of what it wants for and I would advise that that input happen along with one with Miss Morant that would be the process that you would need to do going forward but thanks because you know obviously we
would need screeners so if um when Miss Moran puts it out there qualifications basic qualifications and get the interviews set so that we can get that done and have someone in place and have the community be knowing that you know we're
we're moving forward and and we have a plan attorney Powers would it be acceptable for me as the chair to meet with Monteneia um let her help me come up with a timeline and I'll bring that back to the board um for our meeting next week
absolutely i believe that would be appropriate would that be acceptable to the board i would I would love to see since we have not published the agenda yet for next Thursday's work session I would love to see an agenda item added for another discussion about this topic so
that we are very transparent that we're having a discussion about it and as the chair if you're bringing forward um a timeline and next steps um potentially Miss Morant even has um I'm not even potentially I would imagine because she's very good at her job she has a
list of questions and screener questions and I would love to see you as the chair have those discussions and and get that information and it be attached to the agenda and for publication next Thursday and since we already have an a work session that's a great opportunity for
this board to then engage back into the conversation and I would like to see us make a decision because then we're still only two months from June 1st which understanding our board meeting timelines and
scheduling we're going to we're going to back ourselves into a really tight timeline if we don't act expeditiously in these conversations and I did speak with Miss Moran this morning and so I know she's listening so no Miss Moran I'll be reaching out to you very soon so we can get started on that so was the
rest of the board um okay with adding an agenda item then for next Thursday haven't seen the rest of the agenda so it's difficult to know what all else is there but sure miss Martinez could you share what's on what's in um in board docs for next
and board member James raises a good point you know June 1st seems far away but it'll get here quickly you know we want to give the opportunity i imagine we'll get a few applicants um and hopefully we can go right into June 1st
for the start date but we do need I think it's going to be really important at least by next week to walk away uh and let the community know you know what what that date certain is going to be of when that person will be starting and
then everyone can exhale and focus on what they need to do to finish the year strong take care of the kids get graduations um you know ready to be super celebrated because that's what we're here for you know and the rest of this work will take place and hopefully
we'll find someone excellent and we'll just go from there yes um chair if if it would be okay I actually would recommend that we just have a standing item on every work session moving forward that has to do with this topic uh so that way we don't
have to have this conversation every time but that every work session that's already scheduled just has a standing um agenda item because if we are at least two of us have said a February one date for a new superintendent talk about something that's going to come upon us
quickly um looking at the previous timeline that occurred before whenever the board had a lot more time um but the RFP I think went out in March of and this would have been in 2019 it went out in March and then the board conducted
interviews of just the search firm in April and then a year and two months later is whenever the superintendent came on board so I I know that that's a much longer timeline than we're going to have but if we want to have a superintendent starting in February and
if we're going to do an RFP for a search firm that also needs to be happening by June 1 very much for that input right okay Miss Martinez yes we have currently we have nine topics we have annual investment
performance on review from Miss Boston Ellis mentoring programs from Shawana Harris summer school staffing plan from Miss Morant name process for new elementary school W and X rule development and rule development for Liberty Howard resoning and high school
CCC marian charter school renewal application school start stop bell times and public comment times um which was your fourth item to bring back we have quite a few
yes and we started and we we have an offer yeah we have off air discipline that morning as well i mean I personally am of the opinion if if it means we're working until 5 6 7 o'clock at night i do not believe that
we have the luxury of time on our hands here we're we we have to what I've heard from staff is that they need to see and community is they need to see that this board is we're gonna we're going to work with them to come up with our next step
and timely so that they feel they can take a breath and know what's coming next who they're working for next i mean we're looking at putting someone in for six to eight months that person is going to have a lot of opportunity to make big decisions theoretically if the board is in agreement and as Miss Msina shared
like in Elatcha County they've used that person to make some hard decisions because then that that then they get to leave and not be you know held responsible for years on end in for those decisions so I I really believe that that no matter how much work is on
the plate we have we have to prioritize unless we're going to schedule special meetings which I mean theoretically we we're Wednesday would be a Friday publication so we could have a work session next Friday but that would mean after all day on Thursday then we're
meeting on Friday but yes for the upcoming work session um is the board still I agree 100% with board member James you know we we need to make this a priority just like we did for the last one you know that was one of the strengths of it we were you know the community was very
involved through through all of it you know maybe not everyone in the community was satisfied with the eventual choice but that's the way the cookie crumbles uh my question is is that hearing that list it's a it's a it's a meaty weighty day that all deserve our attention and
and best concentration would it be possible to move the mentoring programs to a different work session date and and replace it with this conversation or is it really that critical i I don't have a great answer for you because I had some questions about um because I had asked
about mentoring programs coming forward and so I actually had checked in with Elena yesterday and we we're working on finding out actually what that all entails and so I'm guessing you have not had the opportunity to find that out because we jumped right into this this
morning i'll be I'll reach out to Miss Harris once we finish this meeting to ask okay is that something that you would support moving that to a little bit later date well and potentially Mr oannanic I mean if the start stop times is not I can't imagine we're changing that much so I mean that's just my
off-the cuff thought but we already did that once so I can't imagine he's saying we need to change it all again so I mean if that's not a decision that needs to be made you know to that time and honestly I'm okay with delaying the public comment to me the superintendent search is is as or more important than
our determination of public comment and so I'm okay with moving that to another agenda item if that's necessary to be able to lift the load there right okay and that was going to be my recommendation as well chair if there are things that you know as you talked to the superintendent because some of
those items came forth out of her team obviously but there may be several of those nine items that can be moved off of that we that agenda was made prior to us knowing that we were going to have I did reach out to Dr gullet yesterday but again I I shared with you she's she's off um with her family and so I didn't
hear back yet but I did reach out to try to get a little pre-planning on on this for today so what I'm hearing forward is if there are a few items that we can shift to another date everybody is okay with that just one thing about the start
stop times um typically uh Mr oanic is pretty brief and straightforward yes he is he is and start stop times are pretty important um there's others that on there I know are timesensitive uh so you know maybe find out from Mr ostanic how long he expects to to speak and if we
can get that one knocked out quickly i think I think the mentoring piece is going to be um the one that's going to have a little length to it which thus it should right and I want to be fully engaged in that me too uh just because I there were so many things I learned um
when I I met with Miss McCll good morning Miss McCall and um and so I my original thought was I would love for the board to know all of this information and so that's how that originated and so Elena do you feel comfortable
um where we're heading from here yes so we're going to have Dr gullet first before we actually change the dates and then Well I you want me to go ahead and move them to the I would like check with Miss Harris first and that's the one that I feel is the most important to reschedu
i will get with her okay and no matter what we're adding the agenda yes and as to the creation of that agenda item um each time we do this since we are going to make this sort of a standing item um I'd like to make sure that the board gives as much clarity as possible to
whomever the participants are that we're going to be expecting for people to provide things okay um if Miss Morant is going to be required to provide something I I think it's fair to let her know exactly what you're what you need and then maybe reiterate that at the end
of each work session uh the same goes for me and everyone else if there's anyone anything that you specifically want let's clarify what that is so that doesn't you know there's not a any misunderstanding when we come back as to what was what needed to be provided and
did we have difficulty with it okay thank you board any further comments questions all right do we have any public comment okay um seeing none we'll go into uh
board comments miss Martinez nothing other than I will be making your reservations for the summer conference from June 11th through June 13th um I'll make them on Wednesday and have your packets ready for you sometime in May thank you very much all right attorney
Powers i don't have anything at this time thank you okay Dr james uh nothing further i appreciate the productive conversation today and I look forward to this board doing some good work cummings just welcome everybody back from spring
break i hope it was restorative restful and and fun and we're in the home stretch now so keep rolling dr campbell I'll just echo those sentiments welcome back from spring break everyone this board is committed and dedicated to working hard for the district and for
students and as long as we're all have the same vision of helping every student succeed we will be successful thank you yes appreciate it um board I don't have a lot either i just want to very quickly thank Kevin and his team this morning
they were here early again trying to get things lined up um after everybody had been on spring break for a week so thank you very much Kevin when I got here they were busy getting the screen and getting our meeting set up and Elena thank you um for answering questions and
connecting me with people as we were trying to get questions answered and prepared for today um and Miss Boston Alice also uh made herself available um during her vacation so just want to express my gratitude for that
um board we have a looking here my my fingers got all messed up we have a Oh that's because I tucked it away um our next school board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow March 25th 2025 at 5:30 p.m and we have a special school
board me school board meeting scheduled for April 3rd 2025 at 700 a.m followed by an administrative briefing and work session at 9:00 a.m which we just mentioned uh if there is no further business we will adjourn this work
session at 10:46 thank you everyone [Music] [Music]