Hello. At this time, I will call tonight's special meeting of the Mthuan School Committee to order. The date is Thursday, August 6, 2026. The time is 5:03 p.m. and we are meeting remotely
via Zoom. I'll ask Secretary Dunovan to call the role. >> Okay. Me um Vice Chair Daglio >> present. >> Member Wlette >> present. >> Member Keegan
>> present. >> Member Bayz >> present. >> Member McCarthy So >> present. Member Donovan present. and Mayor Bogard >> here. >> Okay. >> All right. Everyone's present and accounted for. Uh we need a motion and a
second to accept the agenda. >> So move. >> Motions from member Daglio. Seconds from member uh excuse me, Vice Chair Daglio. Seconds from member Keegan. Any discussion? If not, we'll take a roll call vote on
accepting the agenda. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> Daglio. >> Yes. >> Wlette. Yes. >> Keegan. >> Yes. >> Bias. >> Yes. >> McCarthy So, >> yes. Donovan is a yes. And Borugard. >> Yes.
>> Okay. >> All right. Next on the agenda, we have the flag salute. So, we can, I guess, rise and uh do that even though we're on Zoom. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I have a flag here in city hall, so I can do that with a
straight face here, not a whole. Um, next on the agenda, just open it back up. We have public participation. Um I see some folks who are not members of
the school committee here. Uh if anyone would like to take part in public participation, I guess you can use the raise hand feature maybe or just chime in. U I don't have anything in writing. So we'll uh start it off with anyone
who's here to talk. Once, roll twice. All right. So, I'll close public participation at this point. Um, next on the agenda is the main reason why we're here. Uh, we have the superintendent
search discussion. I'll pass it off to member Dunovan. >> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. So, this is the first time we're all together since um we selected Zeal to lead our search. Um we had a brief meeting about three weeks ago, I'd say, to go over the protocols,
some of the policies, um how we would approach this, the decisions we'd have to make. I shared some of that at our meeting when we were all together um last time. we have some big decisions to make including how long we want the search to take um and how we would
build that search. I also mentioned how we'll have access to a portal. It's a very systematic approach that Zale has laid out for us um which I think we're going to find very helpful. Um so I think the purpose is Jeff and is that I
can't tell who's here. Matt, are you here? Perhaps Zeal can introduce it theirelves first um and then kind of do the rundown which everyone needs to hear because we certainly um are a team and we work together and um I know there's a
lot of real um a lot of questions and thank you to everybody who filled out that graphic or organizer to give zeal an idea of what our expectations are and thank you to Colleen McCarti for kind of putting it together and sending it
So, does that make sense, Jeff? >> Sounds great. Thank you. >> Um, so I'll just um I'll just for expediency, I'll introduce my my colleagues here uh that are on the call. So, Matt Freriedman um is one of our team members. He was I believe on the
last call, Mary, with you. Um Priya is um she's on her phone. She'll plan on joining us in about 10 minutes with her video. She's just leaving a meeting. Uh John Burrill, one of our other search team members, is um unable to come tonight. He had a family emergency. And
then my assistant Angelica is um just getting herself sorted and will join us soon. But um I think um we I first I want to say thank you so much for uh putting your trust in us for this
opportunity. I know that this is an incredibly important um project for your community and your schools and we're really honored to be here and um and look forward to working together. So, if it's okay, what I'll do is I'll start by sharing my screen. Um so, I think I need
permission for that. It says sharing is not turned on. >> We be able to any help uh with that. >> Yeah, I'm going to try to reach out. I'm sorry. That should have been done. It's coming from the host. So, whoever the host is. Yeah,
>> I know. Just give me Why don't you start and I will reach out to the folks who are um running this. Okay. >> Okay. Sure. Um >> Thank you, Mara. >> Oh, I'm the host now. We're good. They heard us.
So, let me share here. I'm going to share my screen. And I'll make this a bit bigger. Okay. So, um, what you can see here,
this is our website. I just want to point it out to you to make it easier for you to sort of access some things. Um, as Mary mentioned, we have the client portal, which if you click that, um, you have a login information that
will allow you to join, um, Muan's specific um portal access area. The main thing that you'll want to um be able to look at and refer to is the meeting agenda which is right here which is uh the
planning meeting document uh which I have already open on my screen right here. So that is pretty much um the you know the the main thing and and my colleague Angelica just joined and we can help you if you have any technical difficulties but it's easily accessed by
our website uh zealed.com and I also want to show you one other thing. If you go to the insights tab, and this you can if you're just scrolling and have some curiosity, you can go to the boards tab and there's a lot of sort of
frequently asked questions and some um some just articles for you to take a look at if you're interested. Um, one that comes up and that's very popular is open versus closed searches. So, we'll talk about that uh a little bit tonight, but um feel free to, you know, make
yourself um uh comfortable there. And again, here's the client dashboard, and that will give you access to this document which I have in front of me. So, um as you can see, if you had a chance to look at this, it's a very, very lengthy agenda for tonight. Um and
we are gonna you know walk through but I would encourage you if you have any questions uh to stop me at any point but this is basically um what we're going to go through. Each of these sections is collapsible. You'll see that there's a
number of them that are in blue that say board decisions um or school committee decisions. Those will uh need to be um something that you either this evening make decisions on or circle back and and make some decisions on. Um some of them
are for information. Some of them are require your um your input. Uh first is just contact information. Uh we have our our team and we'll have to add Prius cell phone there. Um but we just um want to make it easy to be in
contact. Uh, I believe we you had sent I think um Mary or Colleen, somebody sent me your calendar. We'll add your calendar in here. Thank you for sending that. This is a link to the portal. This is a picture of what it looks like. This here is an overview of
our search process. Um, just if anybody's, you know, getting questions or curious about sort of what's going to be happening and the and the order in which it happens, this is just an easy visual to reference. This one I'm going to show you right
now, but um we're we're not going to we we'll skip this, but basically we we talk about reverse engineering our timeline so that we can appoint the superintendent when you when you want. So thinking that way, we would we would
put that date in here. uh I believe your date is is some is going to be in July July one for when you want the um the person to uh be appointed or or sometime before then actually so that they can start on July 1. So if you think about
that um we have a tool that will show us um the order of operations, the number of days needed in between each of these steps to give us a sense for um how to reach that and achieve that goal. So we
don't have to talk about this right now. We'll come back to it. But I just wanted to share because I know this is always on the on the on your minds. Well, when are we gonna, you know, make a decision? when are we going to do interviews? So, this just gives you a sense.
This is a um uh this is we actually have a a date um tentative as 6:15. So, if that's if that's a firm date and if that's everybody's in agreement, uh here's our planning meeting and these are all the steps that we need to take
in order to get to get there. Um share this one. So one of the things that are really important and this is where we could have some dialogue at this point is around expectations that either you have for us as your search
partner and that we need from you in order to be successful. So um I see that you guys have um have um you know added some things here which is fantastic. Um, Mary, do you want to, you know, walk
high at a high level us through some of some of these ideas? >> Um, sure. I haven't um caught and thanks again for putting it all together. I'm just looking at um my copy right here. It's just a little easier to see. >> Sure. Um I think the big thing that we
talked well the big thing that was the concern and you know we didn't deliberate about this because we didn't have a meeting opportunity was transparency uh especially along the communication
piece. Um, let me find it. Um, worrying about confidentiality issues, which is something we discussed at our first meeting a while ago. Um, and how important that is to show respect only
not only for the process, but the people who are planning to be part of it, who are considering joining our community. Um, we want to make sure everyone's treated professionally. Um the theme appeared to be about transparency.
Um who and questions that there were questions about who would be part of the process. I don't know if that made that to the sheet. Um we want an accurate picture painted of Mthuan um and its atmosphere. So there aren't
any surprises for the people who may want to join our our staff methan public school staff. there. Um I think the one thing we need to talk about at some length is what kind of timeline we want to do
this. Okay. >> Okay. Yeah, I see that >> because there seem I I do believe there may be some um it might be important to hear your insight on what would be the best kind of timeline length for something now that we have a we have
several months to plan. >> Um what do you recommend? I think the the um committee would probably benefit from hearing some insight from you folks on that. >> Sure. >> Common themes were transparency, making sure there's a lot of professionalism,
confidentiality, um and of course, wonderful communication between us and zeal. >> Awesome. That's really helpful. I appreciate all this. And I've prepopulated uh some of our thoughts just to save some time. And I I'll walk through them
really quickly, but I think we actually are in agreement on on a number of these items. So, uh, you mentioned it earlier, operating as a team. We have to really function that way. Um, maintaining confidentiality. Um, I think Mary, you have been identified, correct me if I'm wrong, as
the board liaison who I would go to with questions, uh, where we need quick feedback. Obviously, if there's a more um important important um decision or conversation that needs to be had, we can certainly do that. Um uh providing
timely feedback on decisions that just helps us stay on on task. This is a big one which is you know Methuan better than all of us obvious than our team does and so we need your help in um in
making sure that we are uh honoring the the norms, honoring the expectations, honoring the the pace and and everything that makes your community unique. Uh we need your help in figuring out who the key stakeholders are. So, we'll get to
that point, that discussion a little bit later. We're going to need your help in communicating outward communication to your families and all the stakeholders in your community so that we can get their input as we put together the leadership profile. Um, which is
basically where you mentioned on this side paint an accurate an accurate picture of Matthew and that's that's our leadership profile. So that's that 15pageish document that um that we we create based on the stakeholder
engagement based on the thought exchange uh data and we create this profile that identifies your strengths, your needs, um the opportunities and that becomes the tool that we use to advertise and to recruit candidates and evaluate candidates. Um, if there's internal
candidates, it would be helpful for for our team to know how you want us to handle them. Uh, some school committees may say, "We want you to interview anybody internally, even if they don't necessarily meet the criteria as a
courtesy because they work in our community and we feel that they deserve that opportunity. We can do that at your at your discretion." Or you could say stick to the um the criteria that's in the leadership profile. If they're an internal candidate, they meet that
criteria, interview them. If they don't meet the criteria, don't interview them. But it helps for us to have your your insight into that because we don't want to offend anybody and we don't want to break your norms. Uh as we mentioned earlier, um again, you know,
communications fully participate. uh follow the interview procedures. I would add to that confidentiality agreements when um and we'll we'll definitely get more into that. We don't have to worry about that yet because we don't have any candidates. Um
disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Uh you added t um what did you add there, Mary Beth? Oh, you're muted. >> Uh I didn't add anything. Oh, okay. I
don't know. >> Okay, that's fine. >> Uh any conflicts of interest? So, for instance, if uh you have a a niece or a nephew that is uh potentially interested in superintendent positions in the
Northeast and is considering re relocating to uh Massachusetts, you definitely as a board member want to disclose that that conflict potentially and we can talk about how to handle that. So, um, oh, another one, re refer
any candidate inquiries. So, this is an important one. You may get people that in the community that might reach out to you and say, "Hey, I heard, you know, I know you're looking for a superintendent um and they might want to speak to you about it. It's really critical." And
this comes um back and actually um back to your own request training for the committee on how pro how the process how to interview interview the legality of questions. You don't want to give any preferential treatment to any potential candidate. So, please,
if anybody approaches you, refer them to us and we will handle um their inquiry. Uh we don't want you to talk about the position um and and be caught in the middle because that could come uh back and be uh problematic if uh in the
future. So, um let me stop there. Anything that we didn't >> No. address. How how's that feel with everybody? All right. Um, jump in if um if if you have a question or a concern later, but obviously this is my cell phone. If at
any point there's any concern and we're not meeting your expectations, please let me know immediately so we can address that. Here's the first uh one of several um items that we're going to need to um have the board decide on. And
again, you you tell me as we're, you know, managing our time here tonight if this is something you want to discuss and make decisions on right now or if it's something that you want to uh come back to. We don't need to have all of these decisions made. Um but this would
be this is one of them. So, I'll pass it back. Mary, do you wanna is this something we should discuss tonight? Is this >> I I' I'd wonder what the pleasure of the board is. Some of these I think people may have had have some opinions on. Mayor,
>> I defer to you. >> Um we don't need to vote on these, do we? >> You do not. I don't believe these are requiring an action on your part. These are just really um you don't need to vote on them, I don't think. Um, this would just be direction that you're
giving us as your consultant. >> Yeah, I don't think we need to vote on anything. Um, you know, I I view this as an opportunity for us to engage with Zeal and rely on their professional uh best judgment, best practices and the like of the process and provide
guidance, I guess, through our discussion. >> I see a hand is raised. I don't What's your first name? I'm sorry. It just says N Yeah, apologies. It's Nicholas Duglio. Nice to meet you. >> Hi, nice to meet you. >> Any members want to talk? Just chime in.
>> All right. Thank you, mayor. I just have one statement. I just I don't want to dis I don't want to put anyone at a disadvantage. So, everyone is welcome to apply. I think internal, external, they should all have the same rights. >> Yep. >> Um, anything below that, again, it's
same rights. No one should be guaranteed anything in my opinion. and and and the search committee should be able to make those decisions without um us saying it's a mandatory. It's guaranteed whoever the internal candidate is. Um I
think I think everyone should be treated the same and if the um selection committee thinks certain people should go in front of the board for an interview and they happen to be in internal or external, it's all it's all welcome in my opinion. And I'm not sure
if anyone else disagrees with that. Um but I I'm again open to conversation >> and let me clarify something too. Thank you for that. That's really helpful, Nicholas. Um so there's a couple of different phases that we go through and we'll actually get into those details in
a little bit. But um the first is where we get all the applications, we review them, and then we decide who we're going to present to you as a slate of eight to 10 candidates. So, what this is really referring to is we may be looking at,
let's say we get 20 applicants. Um, we're only going to bring you 10, but there's somebody that you want us to uh bring to you on the slate of candidates because they're an internal candidate. We want to honor that because it, you
know, that's your prerogative as the as the school committee. So, um, you would not this the search the search committee that's going to be making the ultimate selections doesn't really get that until we present that slate of 8 to 10
candidates. So, we're talking about this now because we want to know and it also goes to these these questions here. any candidates that you want us to reach out to or include in a slate. Um we we want to know that ahead of time so we can
make sure we reserve a spot. >> Thank you. >> I'd just like to jump in that I think um once we decide we want to interview people, I think we kind of um muddy the waters. >> I would like to see everyone go. I'd
like to hear what my colleagues think, but I'd like to see the people that we finally end up interviewing have gone through their have gone through the process and are recommended to us as potential finalists. >> I would agree.
>> I just >> I also agree. >> Yeah, I I agree. I think the process needs to be as open as and fair as possible. >> Yeah, >> that was easy, huh? You're a team. >> Yeah.
>> Got it. Okay. Um, great. We are going to move on then. Perfect. So, any these are sort of some specifications about the about the position. Anticipated start date. Is it
safe to say July 1? And would we offer a three-year contract? I believe that's that's um typical for Massachusetts. >> Okay. Have you thought of a salary range? Do you have any of that
information or a determination? Or you might have a subcommittee that's going to make that decision. >> I think can I just give my two cents? I I think we should go with market rate based off of what we're seeing out there, but at the same time, I don't
want to discourage any candidates. We should know we should know a little bit about what they're asking for, too. Um, just so everyone knows I'm in the HR industry. You know, the next guy across the street or gal across the street can add an extra dollar and they might go there. So
I I think we have to have that bigger discussion on what that number looks like and what the market is asking for >> and keeping in mind that we just settled a contract with the um interim superintendent.
>> That's at interim rate. That's not >> but we talked about that at length. Yeah. So >> may I just ask a question? Should [clears throat] we talk about um the deadline date to
approve somebody before the start date? Are we going into the spring to interview these people and then do the start date July 1? I just feel like if we if we choose somebody in December or by January 1, that's a whole six months
before they start. So, I'm not sure how would that work. That that's a great that's a great point. Um let's talk about that a little bit. So I would say if you wanted to have
somebody appointed by the end of the 2026 year, you'd really have to have a lot of traction between now and then. Um schools are just about to get started up. it's, you know, in September and I would think most superintendents are
consumed in that in their current role. Um, and I don't think you'll get the best response in in in trying to, you know, appoint somebody by December. You also make a great point, Martha, which is the there's a there's a a dilemma for
a sitting superintendent, if we attract a sitting superintendent, to announce that they're going to your district in January and then have to be there for six months um and and feel like a little bit inept in their in their capacity because they're leaving. So I think the
best time to actually um you know begin the process not not of the stakeholder engagement that can happen in the fall uh would be in the spring to actually you know post the position try to have interviews around February
um March and then go for a July one start. That is assuming your um your interim is willing and able to stay until June 30th. Do you have that arrangement made? >> Yes.
>> Okay. So that I think I think that you and you know the best the best time would be in the spring to to announce this and recruit candidates with a July one start. >> Jeff, not to interrupt, but yeah,
>> I'm assuming it's a six to nine month process right now. We're looking at if we're starting today, it's going to take it's going to take six weeks just for you guys to get probably a committee together and then start some traction. I mean, I'm thinking we are going to
appoint someone team before the budget. I'm thinking like April, right before April vacation is probably what we're looking at. >> Um, appoint someone to to the role. You mean >> to make the vote as a Yeah, I would
thinkification is probably the the the mindset we should probably be giving folks here. >> Yeah. Yes, I would agree. And I and in terms of the question you just mentioned about a six to ninemonth process, if you could see my screen, this is um you know
this is a an an aggressive but doable timeline um and that gives you essentially how many days are needed. We can flex this a little bit. It doesn't quite take six to nine months, but if you were aiming for a July one, um we'd we'd really be at a nice uh tempo for
that. And you're right, I think spring break would be a good time to to make a final appointment. >> Personally, I also think it's going to be hard to get people to leave their job starting, you know, we're starting September. You know, school starts in
the three weeks. There's some people that like their job today and and by Christmas they might not like their job anymore. >> That's true. >> I'm just saying the opportunity increases uh going closer into the new year, you
know, new school year uh post uh Christmas break. So I just just my two cents. >> Yeah. So now I understand better that it it'll take you about six months to set up the whole process to be posted in February or March.
>> Not quite. No. Um what the the biggest the biggest um you know this is about a month like when when we post the position we want to leave it up for about a month. Um it takes about a month to do the community engagement. So
that's like two months. Uh so far it takes about a month or so to do the background checks and the and the uh references and all those other things. Um, I am a proponent of and I think it
it it I think it's nice for candidates as well, the experience of not dragging out the interviews, meaning like we we go we do a a screening interview and then they don't hear for us for from three months and then that we call them for a a semi-final and then another two
months go by. So, as you can see here on the screen, we try to do all of that within a fairly tight timeline, like within, you know, two or three weeks. Um, because the the slate of candidates, they're not coming in. Um, so like December 9th to the 15th, that that
could be in a week. You know, we sometimes do them backtoback. Um, but but we need to base it on your availability and we have to consider vacations and other things that could um be an impediment. But does that it it's not really six months. I just want to
make sure we're not we're clear on that. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And then in terms of salary, you know, we're fortunate to have um Priya who is the superintendent in Brockton. So she she probably has a good sense on
you know salary expectations for for you know for the state. And um what I would encourage you as a board to do though however is if you have I don't know who your attorney or who your legal firm is, they sometimes keep um tabs on all
superintendent contracts and can give guidance on salary. What I would and this is always a a discussion and I know uh school committees um you know the superintendent's the highest paid municipal employee, right? And people always think the superintendent makes
too much money. Uh that's in every community I've ever ever seen. Um >> not in the >> Okay. [laughter] We we want to attract candidates and pay them reasonably. So I would like or would encourage you to to try to come up with a a either a no less
than number uh as opposed to a commensurate with experience. Commenserate with experience really doesn't or com you know competitive with the area. it doesn't really tell a candidate, especially if they're from outside of the state and they're considering what that means. Um,
the problem what I would advise you not to do is to not put a range because if you say it's I'm going to just make up a number between um 100 and 110,000. We know it's not. Um the the candidate in the mind is thinking well I should be at
the top of that range. And you don't want your first negotiation with your new employee uh to be no, you're not worth what you think you are. Uh so my recommendation would be come up with a a a number that is a a no less than number
that is as as high as you can comfortably accept and we can put that in the posting. Now we have we have plenty of time for this, but um it's just something we will need to come back to. Some some school committees actually do a little subcommittee to discuss
this, do a little research. Um, and that that was talking. >> Okay, maybe not. >> Sorry, Jeff. You you cut out I'm not sure if anyone else had that, but you cut out for like 10 seconds, 20 seconds. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I was saying some
school committees may want to um do a little subcommittee of the of the school committee to or an ad hoc committee to review salary and and propose a recommendation of a not to or no less than number potentially.
And then the last question to think about is if there's going to be a residency requirement. I don't believe you're you are required to have this in Muan, but um in case that comes up, is that a no? I see some head shaking.
So, there isn't a residency requirement. If that changes or if I'm wrong, just uh shout out. Um, okay. So, this is an important one and we can hopefully get to some of these decisions and it's around um
communication norms. Uh, so there's there's it would be very good to and maybe this is going to be Mary, but if if you want to um not do it, I it would be great to have one person that serves as that liaison and that can approve
communications that are going to go out. Um, who from the from the um school committee wants to do that? >> I don't mind doing it with the mayor. >> May I just ask communications to go out to whom? >> Yeah, great question.
>> Yeah. So, um, there's going to be a lot of different types of communications and actually um here here's a list of them. So basically when we send out um you know the the pro uh starting with a
press release, hey Zeal is your is your search partner, a vacancy announcement. Um it's going to include a little bit of community information. It's going to refer people to us to to um uh with inquiries. when it comes to um the
leadership profile and submitting uh encouraging people to come out to to hear the the school committee discuss the contents of our recommendations and ultimately approve them. When there's engagement opportunities and we want people to go out and come to an open
forum or participate in thought exchange, any type of or regular uh search updates that you might uh bring forward at each of your school committees. The key is and this is it goes back to your expectation. You want
people to feel like um that you know constant communications that there's a fair and transparent process that you were the public relations were really thoughtfully managed. It's gonna you're gonna need to communicate at nausea
because people will will claim at the end of the process, what do you mean? We didn't know you had um stakeholder engagement sessions. What what thought exchange? What are you referring to? And so we want to be able to make sure that these messages are going out um
regularly um that there's a cadence to them and that it's just crystal clear. >> Um and so yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was just going to say and all communication once approved would be also sent to the school committee so when people are asking us questions we
can see what they received. >> Uh you're talking about to explain that a little bit more Martha. Like you mean >> you're saying sending out communications in regards to what? >> To the search process. So >> the process. Okay. Okay. I thought you were talking about sending out
communications to different people or different groups or different unions. I wasn't sure what you meant by communications. >> Oh, thank you. Okay. Yes. So, um I would say the the the primary here from our
perspective, here's the groups that we need to communicate with. So, I need to be able to communicate with um with Mary and DJ as your liaison, making sure that they're informed. They will then inform you uh as the rest of the school committee. And then I need to be able to
have Mary and DJ communicate out to your community to make sure the community, faculty, staff, parents, you know, residents, whoever are aware of the work that we're doing to engage them in this process in appropriate ways.
>> And that will also include the school committee. Correct. Anything that goes out to the public or to the will be included in those as well. it. I I would I would assume so. Yes. But I don't I don't know what your regular communication
protocol would be. I would assume everything that is distributed on this topic to the community would also go to the school committee. But um >> well my thought on that is if someone from the the community approaches a school committee member about something
they received and we haven't received it. We just need to make sure that we're all going to receive a copy of what's being sent out. >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean I the way I would imagine it would run but maybe this isn't your practice. I don't know is anything that's going out to the
community, the board is is the first to know, not the last. >> And I apologize. I should have directed that to Mary Beth. I'm sorry. >> No, no, that that's good. And I see uh Nicholas has his hand up. >> I would I would just think that we probably should get it. And if we have
any questions, we reach out to the mayor and to Mary Beth before it goes out. >> Yeah. >> And if there's no feedback to the two of them, they automatically see that as an approved situation. and it moves forward. I think that's probably the best uh action so we're all in the know
and then uh again Mary Beth and the mayor are pretty good at taking our feedback and if it needs more discussion we we could have it as a broad body. I if everyone's in agreement with that. >> Yeah. >> And then at [clears throat] some point I
think we have to work through how we do it. Um like what medium we use. We are about to go live with the school district's own um social media which is so exciting. >> However, it's being controlled by the
superintendent and I would think though that would be I mean the mayor has you know we have our municipal side but I would think it would be great to be able to get in push information out because that's where a lot of our you know customers are
looking at that the school social media. So, we have to figure out how to do that without pulling the current superintendent in. And that's something we can work out down the road, but I think we need to put our thinking caps on about that because that's about to happen.
>> Is it is it appropriate to ask if the interim plans to apply or do you not know and have not discussed that? >> Is it is that why you're concerned? >> Yes, that's why. Thanks. She you and you qu you you made that a good question. Yes.
>> Okay. Okay. So, yeah. So, what I would say and that's not uncommon, right? So, what you could do is ask the superintendent to delegate the responsibility for certain things >> um to to a deputy or an assistant. If you have a communications director,
that's the ideal person. You might not be large enough for that. The other thing I would say just as a reminder, hopefully you can see my screen. you as school committee members have access to this. So you'll go you can go here view project status
>> and you'll have up-to-date information. This is these are all the tasks. I know it's overwhelming but this will basically you know like today um virtual planning meeting >> you know boom that's done. So these will all turn you know turn into a check mark
when we're when we're done with them. So you can you can see them um you can see them in a list view. So as a school committee you'll always know um where we are in the process and um and we put this tool here for that purpose.
>> I I just want to I understood what you said about having uh Mary Beth and the mayor be the liaison to review these documents and and I I think that's fine. I'm just talking about the after after you've reviewed them because I think there's going to be a lot of documents
that we're all if we don't look at our email it's going to stall things. I think that's a great idea. I just meant like after just as it goes out to include us. That was all I was asking. >> Yeah, I I don't see any issue with that, Mary. You
>> No, not not at all. I mean, and I would plea people respond that they got it, you know. that everyone took a little time to respond, do whatever, just so we know we're all on the same page. >> Yeah. And keep in mind also that um you
know, we and we mentioned this when we met when we met with you, we we're we try to um be, you know, provide a concierge level of service. We we don't want you having to deal with day-to-day operations of this process.
The goal is for you to be able to focus on the candidates and making their the best selection you can. So, you know, I don't think there's going to be a big lift on your part. This orientation is
probably the biggest lift um of logistical things that you're going to have to deal with. Um but Mary and DJ and I can uh and our team can can manage most of this. And so, you know what? I'll skip this
for now just so in case Mary you want to have some internal conversations. >> Um, and even Yeah. Who monitors social media and public response? Um, >> that's a good one. >> Yeah, that is a good one. And anonymous, you know, how do you what do you deal with how do you deal with an anonymous
and I don't think people give anonymous compliments that much anymore. [laughter] Um, but uh but how will you deal with anonymous complaints uh that might um that might come? >> So I'll I'll I'll let you guys you know spend some time thinking about that.
This is a big one right here. Um and so so basically there's two let me explain this because this is important. There's two um types of engagement that we will in we will we will use. One engagement will be where everybody is
asked exactly the same series of questions. This will be where we meet with the school committee members. We'll meet with everybody individually. Um where we'll meet with your um you know your union leaders. We'll meet with your comm your stakeholder groups um
teachers, administrators, parents, etc. We'll meet with all of those people and we're going to ask them four questions. What are the district's greatest strengths? What are the greatest challenges? What should be the new superintendent's change priority? And what should we did? What didn't we ask
that we should? What else should we know that we didn't ask? All that information is going to be recorded by our team confidentially. So, we're not going to say, you know, John Smith said this, but we're going to take all of that data in
its total form, and we're going to use that information as one half of the uh data that we'll use to inform our leadership profile. The second type of um feedback we're going to get is from uh the community using our thought
exchange. We're gonna ask and and the thought exchange as you might remember from the interview is a very different platform and process to a regular survey. We're basically going to suggest the question that's going to be posed. What is your top priority for the next
superintendent of schools that will go out as an open-ended question. It can be translated into a 100 languages natively. And people will respond and they'll say,"Well, we want somebody who can in, you know, um, improve our our
academic performance." And then what'll happen is it'll go into the cloud. If needed, it'll be translated. And then other people will be able to jump on Thought Exchange and rate that thought with one to five stars. Five stars means they really agree with it. One stars
means I'm not really I don't agree with that. the top the topics that have the greatest response from the others in the community, those will rise to the top and will get more attention. The ones that are not as um popular will be lower
in the in the range. Um in addition to that, we'll use the superintendent personas. I don't want to go into that right now because it's a little time consuming. And we'll ask for demographic information such as, you know, who are you? Are you a parent? Are you a student? or a community member. We take
both of those and Nick, I see your hand. I'll get you in one second. We take both of those data sets and we use all of that to um create the leadership profile and we get rich data from that. So, let me stop there. Go ahead. Um Nick, what was your
>> No, I just wanted for the record that we're going to need this in a few different languages. So, I just want >> Yeah. So, I just pretty clear up front. >> Thank you for that. And the and the nice thing about thought exchange is that the the first screen you'll see as a
participant is you select from one of those 100 languages and then the whole thing is done in your native language. >> So even if I respond to the question in English, if if if I speak Spanish, if another person speaks Spanish, they can
read my comment in Spanish and respond in Spanish and I'll see their comment in English. So it's great. The other thing I would say and just point out if there are multilingual community groups and you want us to have um um facilitate
that, but if you want to bring a translator, you can do that and we can we can schedule that. So like you might let's say you have a large Spanish speaking population, we want to do a specific meeting for um people that are Spanish speaking at the library. um you
can bring a a translator there and um and we can we can still facilitate through the translator to make sure we capture those points of view. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> How do you know that the people on the thought exchange are Mthuan stakeholders
and additionally how do you control for duplicate people like just crazily raising their thoughts and you know getting rid of other people's? So, okay, great question. Um, it this question comes up every time and it's and it's funny when you think about it
this way, like there aren't there's a very very very very tiny percent of the population that that have an interest in participating in surveys that have no no relationship back to that. So, it's a it's probably a minuscule percentage of
people that might do that. The second thing is that um we are going to target people with the opportunity because the thought exchange will go out like via text message via email. So those are your internal communications. We can do
it with a QR code which makes it more open. So that works well. Like if you want them to put it it put a QR code in a high school cafeteria so students when they're sitting there can scan it on their phone and respond that that's a
good idea. Um the last thing that protects that from happening is any type of inappropriate comment gets flagged and we will personally review those and if needed we will not allow them to be presented. Sometimes they get through
because the filter doesn't catch them, but if it's an inappropriate comment, um, you know, it will be flagged and deleted before hopefully it gets into that platform. >> Great question. >> How do you define inappropriate exactly? >> Yeah, good question.
>> Um, yeah, that it's sometimes it's sometimes it's it's a little tricky. Um, let me let me this is I'll give you an example of one that comes up all the time. If there's a internal candidate in the or an
internal candidate, some people may use thought exchange to say I think you should hire the internal candidate or I don't think you should hire the internal candidate. And you know that is a valid opinion and point of view. Um, what I
will do in those types of situations is I would I would want to get input from Mary and DJ whether you feel we should allow those types of comments to go through or not because it really is based on your community's norms and what
your expectations are. We we we don't and and here's and I'll tell you what I would say. I would say it's probably best to let that go through and allow that comment to be made. But depending on your circumstances and your political
climate and other things, you know, it's a fine line between censorship and, you know, um, and, you know, just sort of, you know, free speech, right? Free speech that harms is not permissible.
Um, and if people are making negative comments, that could be harmful. So, um, it's a there's no clean answer, but it's a great question and I appreciate that you're mindful of that and that you asked that, but that's something we'll
have to kind of create some some um we'll have to create some um norms around and some decisions around. >> I had a question and hi Jeff, my name is Alejandro. Nice to meet you. >> Hi. Um so something that I can
anticipate happening especially with these stakeholder groups uh students alumni teachers parents is um despite the fact that some of the some of the process might be surveys and open uh the question that we're going to get is who
decided which alumni get for example a chance to participate in stakeholder engagement who decides which teachers who decides right and so could you just explain for the public how um if people are being chosen, how might
that go down and if not to clarify that for the public. Absolutely. That's a great uh question. The answer is um everybody can participate. So we are not placing limits on um on the uh the number of people that can participate.
We're asking you this is this going back to the screen the stakeholder group. This is a list of that we've created as a template, but we need you to tell us, you know, who you want us to speak to. And I'll show you this. This is a for
another another search. Um, but what we'll wind up doing is creating a calendar like this during the week that we're going to do stakeholder engagement week. and you're gonna tell us who you want us to meet with, which groups
during the the the dates that that we're going to be there in person or virtually to hold to hold these meetings. So, um it's we hope to get lots and lots of participation. The reason we do this and we do this collaboratively and here's
like where it's gonna I'm gonna rely on Mary and DJ and probably the superintendent designate is that I don't want to set up a meeting for teachers at 3:00 when they don't get out of school
until 3:30 and then be surprised that they they are not participating, right? And and then be frustrated. So, we need to collaborate with your leadership team. so that unions are considered, contracts are considered, availability is taken into account. Um, and we want
to be very thoughtful about uh making sure that the schedule is accommodating the needs. You see that we start early, but we could start earlier. We could start at 7 a.m. We can go late, we can go at 8:00 at night, you know, if you want to have an event. We we want to make sure that this calendar um is
responsive to your needs. However, what we do suggest and and really feel this is important is that we do it in a consolidated time period. So, four or five days at the most is what we want to
fill up because here's what happens. We want you to be able to rush people with the information and have a consistent um consistent message about when they will be in asked to participate and be involved. We will communicate that the
thought exchange will be open this entire week. They can participate in it any time during this week. It'll be they could do it multiple times and and we'll just you know keep getting out the message this is stakeholder engagement week and get people you know like shark
week on the discovery channel like everybody knows when shark week is. Um so that's that's what we want to do. Did that does that make sense? >> Yes. Thank you very much. You got it. So we don't have to and I mean you can
if you have ideas um about who you want us to reach out to um we can we can start talking about them now or Mary and DJ and I can and maybe somebody on your admin on the um on the district admin team can um can make these
recommendations and we could begin filling out that calendar once we select the dates for stakeholder engagement Um, >> may I and everyone will see whatever we fill out. >> Oh, yeah. >> That's the important thing. Everyone will have access to this and and Yes.
>> and add to it. Okay. >> Yeah. What we actually recommend is that you publish this calendar. So, we'll create a letter >> that will we're going to create a letter that's a an invitation that will we'll work with your district to send to the
teachers, to send to the administrators, to send to parents, to send to students, all your different groups. And it's going to include like these are the dates and times we want to speak to you that our team has, you know, carved this time out specifically to get your input and this gets widely communicated to
everybody. We we should even and another example is we want to put this on your website. We want to have a link maybe have a dedicated superintendent search page and where you know people can see this calendar where they can see the QR code or the link for the thought
exchange. >> Okay, >> where the process is crystal clear. Um another Part of this is some of these decisions, you know, um to what extent we want to do some so like here's an
example. We might want to do two meetings for teachers, one in person and one virtual. So maybe we do let's say everybody and I know it doesn't work out this way, but let's say school ends at 4. We want to do a a 4:30 meeting on a
Wednesday, but we also want on a Monday night at 7 PM, we want to do another virtual meeting. So, if they couldn't make the in-person meeting, they have a virtual option. So, we like to do that as well to make, you know, as many different uh options for people as
possible. >> Um, this is a good one. you know, who from the district will schedule district employees. We again, we need to be mindful of your of your unions, of people's time, you know, um availability.
Some some districts may even want to use time that is um so for instance, I don't know if you have like a a common planning time where or a PD day where you know, we take 30 minutes. I mean I
hate to take away profession development that's not my point but you know making creating structures so that we can we can maximize our you know capturing input. So if it's okay we'll we'll come back to these maybe Mary DJ and I and somebody
on the leadership >> I just have a question on the last one >> where is how will underrepresented groups be reached? Could you just give us an example of um in a in a different search when this question has come up and you've guys come up with a creative
solutions to a problem like this in the past? >> Yeah, we did a search in um South Carolina and it had a large Native American population, a Kataba tribe. And so we made the district put us in contact with um a leader in that
community and they invited us to their reservation. we went to their reservation and we talked to um their community and we got great feedback. So that's where like it goes to the the norms and expectations. We rely on your
partnership and your telling us like we don't want to omit somebody because we didn't know. So we really need your help in um in making sure that everybody's covered, but we'll do whatever we need to do to make sure we capture that.
Great question. Any other questions like that? Things we've talked about so far. All right. So, this again, this is sort of like a calendar decision about when we're going to um when we're going to do the leadership profile. Um
something to think about is again, as I said, we collect all this data. We take about a a week or two to create the leadership profile. We then present the leadership profile to the school committee. Ideally, the school committee will vote to adopt our leadership
profile and that will become the tool that we use to advertise and to recruit and to evaluate candidates. Um it's the and when you talk about like we want stakeholder input and people want to have a voice in this process, this is
how they get a voice. Where where school committees or boards often run into trouble is if this was not clearly communicated what the community's role will be in the search process. They make
assumptions because they've never done it before. maybe that they're going to have a seat at the table and we'll interview candidates. So, it's imperative that the school committee make it clear and we will help you with this, but you have to communicate it regularly that your
opportunity to have a voice is in stakeholder engagement. um unless you choose to do a process that uh where other people outside of the school committee are on the interview committees. There are downsides to that
potentially. So, we could talk about that a little bit, but um but that's that that's important. Does that does that resonate with everybody? Do you do you follow? Okay. Actually leads right in. Here we are. So you'll see here I made it a
little smaller so you could see it. There's three types of basically three types of search. Um one is a confidential search, one is a a confidential search with finalists having um some exposure to the community and one is a fully open search. Is there
any statuto I think we might have touched on this Mary last time. Are there any statutory requirements in Massachusetts that or in your district or your bylaws that govern this decision? >> Yes, I did reach out to our attorney um
and he said under Massachusetts open meeting law, the school committee itself can only conduct a review of superintendent candidates in open session. What is done previous to that? the preliminary screening committee can conduct its review of applicants in executive session under purpose eight of
the open meeting law. >> So preliminary interviews >> yeah preliminary interviews obviously under purpose 8 can be confidential. Um everything that follows has to be in open session.
>> And how many candidates does the school committee need to evaluate in open session? He did not have that information, but I can get that. >> I believe it's the finalist, whoever like Okay, that's what we're Yeah, that's what we're talking about. But we're not limited by numbers for
finalists, are we? Although common sense would tell us that we'd have >> just a few. >> Yeah, I think there's always been two, but I we can decide how many. >> Yeah, I think we had three for the I don't know, but yeah, so they were very specific. Our attorney was very specific
about that. and I'll be happy to forward that to everyone. Um, I'll forward that email if you'd like to everyone so we all have the same understanding. >> Is that something that we need to vote on how many finalists we will
see as the board? >> So, we have recommendations on that. Um, but you can um these are guidelines. So, we recommend we'll present 8 to 10 candidates. I'm actually going to get through this in a little bit. Um, actually, maybe if I hold off, let let's
talk about this first and then and then we'll go into that detail. So, um, what I'm hearing you say is that you can h it is possible and permissible for you to have one finalist um, interviewed in person in uh, open
session >> open session >> and then the board deliberates on whether or not they want to adopt approve the appointment of that candidate. But that final interview does have to happen open right in open session. >> And in responding to another question, he uh says usually the preliminary
screening committee recommends three finalists. That's the number. And those three finalists are made public. >> Okay. >> But I'm sure we can wiggle >> we we can get more information from him on that. He comes back. >> Yeah. So that so this is something this
is great because make that's why we do this now, right? because we have to make sure we understand all the parameters around this and that we clearly communicate with the community what the process is going to be. Um, so if they're expecting and they've traditionally had three candidates in
open session, uh, being interviewed by the school committee and if that's what you want to do, um, then then that that does have an impact, however, on the candidate pool. And so I would encourage you and you can go back to Yeah, Nick, I see your hand in one second. Um, I would
encourage you to go back to our website and you can there's articles on sort of the pros and cons, but here's some some things to think about. um if you can see it which can attract or detract or make candidates not be attracted to the
position. Just as a quick example, if we ha if three people have to come and make a public declaration of their interest and only one gets the position obviously two others have to go back to their communities >> and and you know kind of like you know
report to their board and go to work the next day and it's not it's not ideal for them. So it could deter them from even wanting to apply. So, >> so what you're saying is at some point, Jeeoff, we will decide how many finalists we want.
>> You're one. It it could be one, I think, >> following us, or it could be three. >> It could. But here's here's the thing that we want to know in advance and then I'll get to Nick's question >> is if we start the process saying there's only going to be one finalist
candidate, I would consider that to be a confidential search >> because it's imperative or it's it's assumed that the candidate um is going to get the position. He or she is the only candidate. Um, what we don't want
to do is change that mid-process because if we then say to the three candidates that are finalists, actually, we're going to interview in public instead of in private, they may they may withdraw. That's happened before. Um, and you lose
candidates. So, it's we just need to be and and it was actually your expectation, your norm in the beginning. We talked about like being fair to candidates and you do that by communicating clearly what your expectation is. But go ahead, Nick. >> So, this isn't my first search. Um, you
know, we had four candidates um for the last search come to public session uh that was recommended by this the the search committee and those four we then did site visits at their sites.
We went to all well actually we went to three because one of them dropped out because of a an issue. But we then did three interviews on their sites with their superintendent and their folks that they worked with and then we did three open sessions and then we made a
decision. I don't want to deter the search committee on having a number. I want them to say hey these are our top four. Good luck school committee. Make a decision. If it's three, if it's two, then great. If it's one,
I would probably ask to go back to the drawing board to be fair. You know, I I would want to have something to compare it to. And in all my time here too in the city, majority of these major positions had multiple interviews. You know, I think of the police chief is a
big one where we we interviewed the police chief and then they we selected him. um you know and and and and I know the mayor did something different with the fire department, but it's good to have these things done in public and it's good to have more than one option because then it doesn't look like
anything is tainted. >> Let me thank you for that. That's that's a appreciate that. Let me ask this question. Would it be would it be an option for the entire school committee? So I are there seven or nine of you? I'm
sorry I don't remember. Seven. >> Seven. >> And plus, [clears throat] does that include DJ? >> Yep. >> So, what if all seven of you were members of the search committee? >> I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want any of that. I would want us to have the
final decision. And that's what most school department school committees do in at least in the Commonwealth. Wooburn Andover or or North Andover, they had their final interviews where they had two people come in front recently and and the school committee made a
decision. I mean, I >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Nick. I didn't mean to step on you. I apologize. >> I just I think personally the search committee should be strictly city um residents, teachers, union
workers. Um, heck, if you want to throw in a, you know, a firefighter, a resource officer, I think that it's it's the community that should be part of the search committee and then the school board makes the final decision. >> Okay. So, what I'm hearing, let me just
re rephrase what I'm >> That's just my opinion. I would hope that would be the same sentiment from everyone else. >> If I could chime in, this is reminiscent of the search back I think in 2018. Uh I think uh vice chair you were on the school committee at the time and I remember I was a part of I was actually
in the room as part of the initial search committee with uh secretary Dunovan at the time. >> Yeah. >> I was the principal represention represent. >> Yeah. And it was it I was a community representative appointed by the school
committee. Uh there were parents, there were teachers, administrators. Um it was a pretty diverse group and we were able to uh in essence serve as the Iowa caucuses in the New Hampshire
primary of the process where we started off with I don't know 20 people narrowed it down uh in essence called the field and then we were able to present uh three uh voted upon finalists to the
committee. I think as uh was mentioned, one pulled out of the running, but uh we were ultimately able to present a uh list of finalists uh that had survived our initial uh I guess time in the oven, so to
speak. And and I think that that's something that uh makes a lot of sense where it provides for an efficient uh process that incorporates um the whole gamut that we're looking for in terms of community representation
uh parents, teachers, uh folks out in the community and the like. Just my two cents. >> I'm just curious, Jeeoff, why did you suggest that? Have you worked in a situation where you've had a whole board serve on the search committee? Yeah. So
the Yeah. I think about it this way. Who is responsible for hiring the superintendent? It's the school committee, >> right? >> Who is responsible for evaluating the school committee? The superintendent. It's the school committee. The the superintendent is the only employee that
the school committee has responsibility for. In my opinion, um the and I and I think this is I think there's probably agreement in in the in the field. Um what makes a district successful is the
degree of trust, relationship, um camaraderie, not necessarily agreement, not rubber stamp, but um the the the relationships between the board or the school committee and the superintendent. And so whenever possible, whenever
permissible by statute, law, whatever, and policy, the ideal group that is going to make the decision would be the the ones that are evaluating and holding that person accountable. Um, let me give you an example as to as to a concern
that could come up. When you put um when you put a group of diverse stakeholders in, they're all looking for something different from the from the uh from the superintendent. Teachers may be looking for salary increases. Community members
may look for budget reductions. Parents may be looking for, you know, greater challenge in the um in the curriculum. students may be looking for um you know greater balance in grading policies and
so it doesn't it isn't as a focused of a of a group making a decision and it becomes a lot of more deliberation and concession around um those types of
topics. That's what makes the superintendency such a a challenging position. you have so many different stakeholders that have so many different interests and and then and then here's the other thing. It creates in the community a sense of who's selected to be on that
interview committee >> and and I think a way to mitigate that is when the community has elected you as board members has put you in in this place you're their representative you're their voice to make this decision. this
is the only, you know, hiring decision you make. So, whenever it's possible, I strongly urge um this the committee and the board to be the only ones making this decision.
>> Jeff, I'm going to be the conservative here and openly say I I I respectfully disagree. We have a very diverse community. the people know who they want as their next superintendent. I look forward to seeing who those candidates are and I
will make a decision from those candidates that have gone through the teacher review, the parent review, the police review, all that. My job is to make the final decision. I require consultants like yourself and my my
constituents to give me that that next step first. >> Fair enough. >> Appreciate it. >> Yeah. No, I app I appreciate your cander and we will conduct this process whatever way we're directed. We can absolutely do that. Not a problem.
>> So Jeff, this is my first search. Um and we you touched on my previous question about who gets selected to do certain things and I appreciate that because that was exactly my concern. Um, so perhaps if you or if people that have
done searches before can uh enlighten me, I guess as to how the process for selecting people for the preliminary committee or whatever it may be called goes usually or has gone in Methuan at least.
>> Yeah, I think that would have to be a school committee appointed. Um, and and Nick, maybe you can refer back. the school committee would say maybe put out a notice to the community and say, "Hey, we're looking for representatives." Maybe you're going to ask the the union
heads to make a nomination. And then you you want to try to stay as far away from from that as possible, most likely, and just ask for those nominations and for that team, that group to be formed. And then what we'll do is we'll lead as you mentioned uh we'll lead the the
interviews and um and you know facilitate those conversations and selections. >> I think this is a great discussion um because it's very like Nick I hear you. This is so far into what Mthuan has
always done I think. Um and I hope we can discuss this because it's just new information. I do want to just share though that um there's two things. Some of our members are having problems. Their cameras are just shutting off. So if you see me on the phone, I'm reaching out to Derek
>> um who's running >> my camera. I think it's internet connection on my end. Sorry. >> Yeah, everyone's dropping in and out. It's not being done purposefully. Um, and I do remember vividly going to meetings where people who put who had an interest or were asked to have an
interest by this um, school committee, all the names were put in a paper bag and pulled out. So that was fair as opposed to having, you know, one of my best friends um, serve. >> That what we did. What was that? Was that what we did?
>> Yeah, I remember vividly. That's how Yeah, I remember it vividly. the community members. Um I believe like administr I got put on the committee because my I don't think anyone else wanted to be on it from the principal group. >> Yeah. If I recall the union got to pick
a few. >> Yeah. They picked their own. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great discussion for us. >> Cor correct me if I'm wrong but the last superintendent and I apologize my camera I don't know why it's not working. The
last superintendent search, the two finalists, didn't one become the assistant superintendent and one become the superintendent? >> So, >> yes. >> Yes, in theory they did, but that was the selection of the that wasn't
selected by the school board. There was three finalists. I remember there was four technically. The North Andover one backed out. There was an assistant superintendent from >> Wemouth. There was one from New Hampshire. >> And then our our former superintendent,
uh, Dr. Kuang. Dr. Kong was selected. Dr. Kuang had selected the assistant superintendent as the runner up. And then we voted on their contracts. So, I'm just going to throw this out
here. Um, we've hired a company to do the search for us and I understand that we've done one in the past and a lot of us have participated in that one in the past. However, this company has a a process that they're introducing to us that we're
paying good money for. And I feel like if their process is that they bring the school committee 8 to 10 for the initial that they do the screenings and then they bring us the interviews, we do the interviews for for that and then we
whittle it down to three and then do the open things. Then I don't understand why we're not taking the advice of the experts that we're paying for and we're we're saying we should do it the way we've always done it. Well, the way we've always done it isn't necessarily the best way or the right way. And and
we're paying these people to give us advice, and I'm not sure why we're fighting against the advice. >> Remember, Keegan, are we saying that you would rather go the route of having the school committee do the full search with no community insight?
>> Absolutely not. I mean, he just got through telling us how the community um participates and how their their insights are added and how how they develop everything and the questions and the profiles based on all of that
community engagement. So, like I just don't understand why we're arguing against a process that they that we're paying for. >> I don't think we're arguing. I think we're having a discussion. I think if you want to put it to vote on if we're
involved through all eight versus a final four, I'm willing to do that at a next meeting. This doesn't have to be decided today. Right, Jeff? >> That's correct. It doesn't. And I and let me just say I appreciate the conversation. I think this is a conversation that's worth having. And um
yeah, if you want to if you want to deliberate a little bit further to get >> just know too, if we have 20 candidates and you want to interview 20 candidates and have the whole school committee on it, it's going to have to be an open session due to quorum. >> Uh just to clarify, you wouldn't we
wouldn't bring you 20 candidates. We'd bring you a slate which would be 8 to 10. And those those candidates don't actually come in person. Um we go let me actually jump. We would review them, right? >> We we review all of the candidates that
come in. We select the top. Let me just show >> just a quick point of information. Um, uh, Secretary Dunovan gave us a legal opinion and I would just like to go back to that. That preliminary could be done
in an executive session of a of a of the preliminary committee. Is that is that what the legal opinion was on that? Secretary Dunovan, and I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I just I want to recall back to >> You're not I'm just reading an email from our attorneys. Um
anything that we were involved in would have to be done in open session. >> Correct. >> Um >> perfect. Thank you for that clarification. >> Okay. So, I I would hope though, I know we have some other questions. Maybe we put this on on our next agenda so we could
flesh it out a little more because there's a couple of big issues that I'd like to hit upon when we're all together for the first time. What do you think, guys? >> Sure. >> And and maybe also um I was just texting
with Pria um who's a superintendent in Massachusetts. if I could just give her a second to to weigh in, that'd be great. >> Hi everyone. So great to meet all of you today and be part of the process. Um, so there's a mult like a multitude of
different ways that you can do it and I think you've mentioned many of them, but another option that you do have is if you wanted it to be the school committee that was doing that search is to have a subcommittee of your school committee doing it in closed in a closed um
session. and then referring that your finalist or finalists um over to the full committee. So that's another way to do it if you wanted to do it similar to how um Jeff mentioned where it would be a subset of your committee members and use the feedback that you receive from
all the focus groups and the surveys and the thought exchange. So that's another way to do it and I've seen it it done all different ways. >> Thank you Priya. So yeah, so definitely worth further discussion. Let me go let me go through and we can finish up sort
of these points at top you know to touch on and then we'll go from there. So again the screening process is if we get 20 applicants our team will review all the applicants. We'll create a rubric that looks at them and evaluates them based on the the um the um leadership
profile. We'll recommend 8 to 10 that'll be put in the slate. The way the slate works is we'll create a um basically a packet for each one of those candidates. It'll include their resume, cover letter, recommendations, transcripts.
It'll a executive summary from us, uh their completed application, and it'll have a 90 second video of them expressing why they want to be um your next superintendent. What we'll do is we'll walk the the school committee or
the whoever the interview committee is um through them each candidate one at a time. Takes about five minutes total. We'll present all 10 of those candidates and then that group will deliberate on who they want to move forward to the semi-finals. The semifinals will be in
person. We usually recommend um five to seven candidates and um and then from there you you know interview all those candidates and you'll then do um a further narrowing to two or three final
candidates and then um but we can you know like I said it's your prerogative on how we how we winnow this down. Uh but that is that's recommendation we've made. Another thing uh to mention is that on
the day of the semi-final interviews with whatever group or committee that consists of, we'll do a legal um uh pres a presentation on sort of like legal and ethical considerations about bias um and how we're going to keep the the notes
confidential and about inappropriate questions that we don't want to ask candidates. Um we usually develop the interview questions. We'll give you a pool of give that committee whoever that committee is a pool of about a hundred questions to choose from. You could modify those. You can select them as
they are or you can create your own. Uh there's also scenarios if we want to you know create scenarios and we'll prepare the committee for those interviews. The next steps are you know around the
semi-finals. Like I said, uh we do that with about five to seven candidates. We'll have to think about the location for that. We'll have to think about um logistics. Where do they come in? Where do they leave? There's a lot of sort of details that need to be considered. Um
finals again, will there be uh one of the things that was mentioned earlier I'll go back to was about a site visit. Um I don't really see that done. That's I think that's a little bit more uh of a traditional process that isn't I don't see I don't know that it gives you
incredible insight into the candidate. Um you know so much can be seen in terms of evaluating the district's performance through through recommendations and I think it's just it's a little bit of a dog and pony show to be honest if if you go to a district. Um so I don't know
that I would I would encourage that. If you did want to do it we could do it. Um uh but then you could decide you know is there going to be a written exercise, a public presentation um or a task that's given and then you have to make decisions about candidate
travel reimbursement. Will you do that? Will you not do that? Um background checks. Do you want us to do the third party background checks for how many candidates? One, two, or three? All the finalists only one >> contract negotiation. Yeah, I'm going
real fast. Go ahead. Stop me. >> Yeah. No, I know you're going you're um I know this came up when we first had our meeting. I Oh, no. When we met with you the first time, could you um talk to us about the background checks?
I know member Wlette, you had many questions. Well, you had some significant questions. Do you do you want to take this opportunity? >> And member Bayz just got knocked out of the meeting. So >> thank you uh Secretary Donovan. Uh I
thought looking at it very quickly that it was very comprehensive. Now the only thing is like if we have 8 to 10 finalists and then we're going to whittle down further to potentially uh three finalists. So it's like eight to 10 like let's say semi finalists and
down to three finalists. Would it behoove us to do the background checks for that cluster of eight to 10? or if we go to that final round and we're announcing these finalists and
something's a red flag that's popped up across the country unfortunately. Would it behoove us to really even if it's a cost and you know factor to us because you're talking about what was that $1,300 roughly for the third party
search for the 8 to10 cluster. Would it behoove us because of uh what has occurred across the country before we go to that next stage of the the three finalists whittling down that list? That would be something that Jeff that I
would appreciate your feedback on because I I thought looking over uh the checklist, I thought it was very thorough and very uh comprehensive because I know with the intelligence community down in DC, you're talking about if someone is compromised
financially, uh if they're in bankruptcy, there's credit reports, uh criminal background reports, FBI database. I thought the uh the checklist was very comprehensive, but I thought if you're talking about eight to 10 as a cluster and then you
whittle it down to three finalists, I don't want the community to be embarrassed where we announce potentially three finalists and make a final determination and a red flag pops up and we how would we announce that as a community? That's the the problem. I
would rather have that done uh beforehand, but I just wanted your feedback on that. >> Yeah, thank you. It's and and certainly what you're identifying is a would be a real um uh would be a problem if we had
if we recommended candidates that um and all of the finalists had significant background issues that would, you know, prevent them from being um candidates. I would say it's probably a little bit too invasive for the 8 to10 uh to do the
whole background check. But let me explain what we do do. We give we get re as part of the application process for that 8 to 10. We're going to get their recommendations from current, you know, employers, supervisors, board chairs, whoever it is that they they work with.
We we often do our own sort of reconnaissance by speaking to unlisted references. Um and and that's usually at the semi-final level. Um if we're bringing them before the before the school committee, um we're going to talk to somebody that they didn't list
because we want to know if there's anything that uh of concern. Um the the the downside of, you know, public um social media is that it you can't get rid of it. So, a lot of if there is an issue, a lot of that will pop up and
we'll find out in in the early parts of our due diligence. Um, but I would say to ask the, you know, if they're just being um Hold on, letting Alejandra back in. Um, if if we if I I think it would
be a little bit inappropriate on our part to ask for just applicants who have been selected for the screening to to submit to that. It's also expensive as you as you said. Um, but I I just think it would be a little too invasive because it gets into their personal
credit history and everything. What what most districts do is for the three finalists, they'll they'll run that report because if you only did for one finalist and then you found out there was something, then we have sort of that problem. But but for three, I think I
think it's appropriate. >> So I I think you're allaying some of my concerns. So you have 8 to 10 and we're going to go through a a review of their backgrounds on a preliminary basis. Then
we decide to whittle down that list to potentially three finalists. >> No, just semi-finalist. Five to seven semi-finalists. >> Okay. So, you have you had eight to 10 individuals and then we're going to have
um like five like semi finalists and then three finalists where we make a final decision. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Like this. Okay. So, it's going to be like three separate rounds. And then also too uh and I agree with the vice
chair is I don't want it perceived in the community as a fatal comp plea that we're meddling in the process. So obviously we will make the final determination and I have confidence and my fellow school committee members to do
the due diligence on each applicant and each finalists and review the packets uh and to review your website and what have you. I'm just concerned that I rather have uh community input like we did with
the cultural audit. have them uh scope what their impression of a future superintendent would entail, have that again initial cluster, then you said a round of a semi finalist and
then a a final round of of finalists. Okay. I don't want to be involved in that uh that form, so to speak. I don't really don't want to be involved in the surveys and I really would feel uh very
comfortable with the the mayor and the secretary uh and because he has a full-time staff them taking almost like a firewall. Um I wouldn't even want to have it with the school department. I would rather have it with the mayor and his full-time
staff. anything that you will ultimately post uh anything that would be in terms of social media and I don't know how we would be uh presenting that but I don't want to have any perception from the community uh and I know there might be
an element of the school committee that might be gravitating to someone internally I have a preference for someone externally and we can have that philosophical conversation and like uh the vice chair indicated I'm not good. I
don't engage in arguments. I engage in debates in the philosophical debates. And then I was elected by the the populace. I'm in uh interested in an outside candidate. But I don't also want to uh preclude someone internally from
applying. But the greater picture I have is I rather have that community forum through surveys, through uh talking sessions, uh through the stakeholders so to speak and it could be the community
at large. It could be uh the employees of the system and the the unions and the teachers and parents and maybe students and also uh community at large the taxpayers and maybe municipal employees. Once they have this perception of what
they conceive of a future superintendent, you will take uh that rubrics have the initial list of 8 to 10 uh individuals. We'll whittle it down to the the five
semi finalists and then the final round of three finalists with the proper betting. That's how I because we're going to be involving your services, but I think in Mthoan um rightly or wrongly there's a
perception that there's a fat compon plea on appointments and I don't want that perception to boomerang back to me. So, I just want to relay that to the school board and also to you, Jeff, that I'll be very leery. I almost want to I
don't want to I don't want to say a firewall because I don't want to cast dispersions against any individuals, but I'm very protective of the process. I'm very protective of making sure everyone is it's open and transparent. Uh and I
also like uh Secretary Dunovan indicated that relay my concerns is that I want to make sure we have a comprehensive vetting because we've had examples of red flags across the country where a superintendent wasn't even here like
legally was even authorized to vote in his uh community of uh De Mo Iowa and we that just blew up and that was a major city and a major school uh district. So I mean I think I have confidence in your
presentation vehicle. I have confidence in your nationwide capacity for a search. Uh so those are the parameters I wanted to say for the record. Now I think posting everything and having these sessions and whatever you feel comfortable with the school board having
for future sessions I will definitely participate in. I think at times we should be at the the school uh venue too for the school committee meetings as opposed to zoom uh and that might encourage people to participate as part
of the process. Obviously summertime it's the competing schedules but I want to make sure like again I think I have confidence in your team to make sure that this is transparent but at the same time too those are the parameters that I'm seeking. Thank you.
>> Thank you Ken. Well said. Um the the last couple of issues that are just you know for discussion at some point can be much later on in the process is around contract negotiations um the appointment. We have some
decisions to make around that coordinating press releases and um to what extent we'll help you with the um contract negotiation and um andor a governance retreat. We do include 30 days of coaching uh with a
member of our team um for the new superintendent. You may say, well, why does a highest paid municipal employee need a coach? um that we could spend an hour debating that and uh uh I'd love to hear different opinions of as well. But um one of the things we do do is we'll
review all of that ex uh data that we collected through the development of the uh leadership profile which is going to be considerable data from all of your community members and stakeholders and we unpack it. So what we put in profile is a representation, but there's raw
data that we want to go not names. It's going to be confidential, but um but we want to unpack that with the new superintendent and uh give them the leg up, help them with their entry plan, and so we do that as part of our service. So um again, this is 16 pages of notes. I
know we went through a lot. Um I I really appreciated the cander in this conversation. I feel like we have a great uh form, you know, basis for pushing back with each other and we should always do that. Um and that may that's healthy. So I appreciate I
appreciate the comments, the feedback, the thoughts and I'll um let I'll open it up. Are there any other comments, questions, thoughts that we want to touch on? >> I just had one. This is Martha. I'm sorry my camera has frozen again, so I
apologize. Um, so I guess my my question is to Mary Beth. Mary Beth, can we get printouts of all of these things we have to fill out or Yeah, I you know, Martha, I was just
thinking the same thing. Well, we have access to this. We can go in the portal. Um, the directions I'm assuming Jeff and Angelica um can you like resend an email to everyone? Yeah. Angelica, do you wanna do you want to walk them through
the process like share your screen? Would that would that be helpful for people to see how you just how you can do it? >> Yeah. Well, I I that's what I guess that was what I was asking. Do we just complete it right on the screen? >> Yeah. I What is the best like for the information that we shared uh this
evening? It's hard because we're always we don't want to get into a deliberative set uh setting when we're not sitting together at a school committee meeting. Um, so we sent everything to Colleen. I'm just thinking the best way we can go through this um without making a big
mess of it. >> Mary Beth, sorry to to interrupt um because >> it was important. So I tried to I guess we don't have the clear login stuff yet and I would assume that that should be shared with us >> in a secure setting. Um, but could you
guys just make sure that we get the login for the client portal because obviously I don't think I we have that yet unless um >> can you help us out with that? >> Okay. Yeah, definitely. >> Oh, Angelica is here. Sounds like >> she's here. >> Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. I thought you I
thought that was all sent out. Easy. >> Okay. >> I'll do that after this meeting. I'll send um a brief meeting notes and then also the login. >> Okay. And you do >> you want to just demonstrate? >> Yeah. >> Angelica, do you want to share your screen and demonstrate how they would
access it so that they can replicate that? >> Yep. I did send a request to share my screen. >> Yep. I just approved. >> Okay. So, let me just log that out and open SEAL. So the first step is really
just to search seal ed in Google or whatever browser that you're using and then click client portal and then um I'll share the login for this specific um for Mitwins's client portal and then just log use those login to check this
site and it basically has everything when you click view project status it would opens up Asana. So Asana is a project management tool. has um all of the tasks, all of the deliverables in each step. Um we would be just marking
this over once those things are done. So yeah, going back um here is the document center. So this just the drive specific for MUIN. So you'd have everything you need here right now. I think um the ones
with access is Mary. Yeah, these three basically. >> Yeah. So yeah, basically that's it. >> And then we have here agenda and then >> um every end of the meeting I keep like
um meeting summaries. So expect that after this meeting. >> So if you go to the open meeting agenda, Angelica, they should have commenter access. So if you're familiar with Google Docs, >> what it'll allow you to do is annotate
um this document. So if you wanted to put a note say um you want to put a note somewhere down below to answer a question you can just uh you could do that >> similar to what Priya did. So um you
could add anything for example yourself here and then we could just approve that and then it's all within the documents. So, do we have our own >> if we all have access to that and we're watch we're seeing what other people are saying on this that would be deliberative outside of open session and
we can't have that. >> Yeah. What do you >> That was my question. I was wondering if we all had a separate sign in. >> Yeah. We want to we just want to be careful for any open law issues. >> Okay. So,
interesting. Unless >> this is a working document. >> Yeah. >> Um the only thing we did in the past when we were looking at um companies for the search, we sent everything to Colleen
McCarthy who in separately and she put it like she did for the document we sent you today because we don't want to step our toe in the open meeting law violation pond. Good point. Okay. So, would you prefer
then that we just have one person that has access? >> One person that's not a schoolboard member perhaps that we >> but but what I will suggest is that we could have access to these documents.
It's just we can't have editing or commenting >> capabilities to them. We could make our own copies and send our input to Colleen that way, right? >> We could we could make it view only and then Mary Beth, you could you could get,
you know, be the spokesperson for the board >> when you do deliberate >> and just make it view only so nobody can make comments. Would that work? >> Yeah. Yeah. I was hoping we could do some of this work offline though, you know, um instead of having to meet as a
board. Although I I don't have an issue with it. I don't think anyone does, but some stuff we could do offline so we could spend the important time talking about important things. >> Yeah, >> I hear you, Beth. The thing is like for example in our policy subcommittee, >> we have a a working document with all of
our policy >> and the the the subcommittee >> we have viewing access so we can view the changes live changes made, but we can't have access to edit that working document ourselves. >> Right. Well, you Yeah. and we'd have a quorum
with our group. >> It's a good problem though to talk about. >> Well, we can we can modify permissions and accesses to suit your your needs. Um, so
>> yeah, perhaps Colleen is the only one that has >> editing access and the rest of us can view it. we can send our our comments to Colleen. Colleen can put stuff in as long as she doesn't put whose name is on it and then we can all view the
information. >> And you know what? Maybe we should also just run this by Mike really quick. He may have a even he may have a good solution for us. That's our attorney. >> What do you think? I I would recommend either Mary Beth, you reach out to Mike
about you or Colleen having access because I don't see a problem with one >> if we're delegating everything to you and and the man, >> I would I would think it would be okay for you to have the edit access as long as you have the back the documents
behind to to back it up. >> Let's just confer with Mike because he always has a different opinion. >> I just don't want to throw something else on to Colleen. >> I know. So, I just I want to I know she's going to be involved in this a lot. Um but
>> well, h how about we wait to hear from Mike who'll be back just to confirm and then we can we have a meeting coming up. We can uh firm that up all together. >> Yeah, I I agree, Mary Beth, because that's putting a lot on you also. So, I try to come up with the easiest way to
get this done. >> Yeah. And if we could do it without having to sit through a meeting together, no offense, I love you all. But we have important work ahead of us, we'll figure it out. >> So, while we're deliberating on how to
handle those logistical things and preliminary committees and or whatever we have to deliberate on, what is your guys's immediate next step? >> Um, and yours that was directed at me, I believe, right? >> Yeah. So what I would say is we just
need the answers to those questions. The first um and most important one being the timeline uh because that's going to govern you know when we do our stakeholder engagement and um you know we could if you want if you're up to it
we could try to go back and hash that out or do you do you need do you want to sort of take a rest for tonight? I would vote to do it now. >> Yeah, I'm always available to do the business of the city and the district, so I'm good with staying on and hashing
it out if everybody else is as well. >> All right, >> I might need another cup of coffee, but I'm good. >> So, this So, here's this is the the sort of the tool. Let me open it up so you can see sort of the the the back end of
it. Uh, let's see. table should open open source. It's nothing that fancy, but basically what this will allow us to do is change the the final date and and then if we put that in, it'll sort of
recalibrate everything else. So, what would be the latest that you'd want to appoint a candidate? >> Well, if we went with member Daglio's date of doing it before April vacation,
April vacation starts on April 19th, 2027. So, if we want to appoint the week before, >> do you have a board meeting that week? Uh we have it on the 12th.
>> Okay. So if we did that, this is what it would sort of look like. >> Take take a Can you all see this screen? Can you guys see these dates? >> Yes. Wow. >> Now, a couple of things. Remember, this
is a very very consolidated um set of interview dates. Um, and it doesn't give it gives about 14 days, two weeks for the due diligence, which is about what we need. Um, but
it's doable. This is doable. But we could we could start earlier if we, you know, wanted to spread out the interviews over a longer period of time. >> I'm just looking the um community engagement, that's the vacation week for
the students, the Christmas break. Okay. >> 24th. >> December 24th. That says, right? I'm sorry. It's kind of small. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's a bad That's terrible. That's a That just calculated it because it doesn't know that. We have to work around that. >> So, um, what we could do is I'll go back
into this document and I'll refresh. And so, this gives us something to play with as we as we think about stakeholder engagement week. So, what would be a good
what would be a good um date to to do that tentatively? What do you think? Because we're kind of like between Thanksgiving and Christmas, something like that. >> I just want to um interrupt for a
second. There was just an a thing that popped up that says the recording is going to stop in two minutes. You can reinvite to continue recording. We need to keep recording. I don't know how to do that, but I just wanted to make sure somebody does. >> I'll reach out to our friends.
>> They're on just so you know. Mary, >> are they? Can you hear us, Derek? >> Let me >> We can hear you loud and clear. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Derek, >> we're recording on our end. So, >> thank you. >> Okay.
I just had a question. >> I just I just had a question on that April uh 12th date. Um maybe this is uh non-issue, but I'm just wondering if we have candidates that have clauses in their contract about 90 days and we have
a tentative start date of July 1st. Um is there is could you see possible issues or maybe it's not an issue or what are your thoughts about that? >> Yeah, that's a great that's a great um point. we we haven't run into that as a as an issue. Um most boards are going to
be, you know, reasonable uh with their superintendents. Um but yeah, I mean >> I think 30 day I don't know if there's your current contract. Is that a 90-day provision? Oh, well, I mean, I'm just I I wouldn't
know what what to expect in other people's contracts, and I was just making sure that the timeline is is good in that sense. >> Don't forget, I saw that in um the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. There were some candidates that did have that clause.
>> 90 days. >> Yes. >> Okay. Some And some have 30, right? >> But >> and some have 60. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, >> some might not even have a contract anymore either. [laughter] So, I mean, we could throw out all the >> Yeah.
>> all the uh scenarios here. I mean, it's if they apply, they know what they're going to have to do. >> Yeah. >> So, so the question, let's get back to your question, Jeff. Are we looking at between November and December,
Thanksgiving and Christmas for the engagement piece? if if your community would be >> amendable to that we could >> I have to make sure our team's available too during that time period but
>> this sounds a little crazy but it might be good to do some of it during football season because a lot of people come to the football games just a thought >> okay well you have that fall winter um you know the that that crossover you'll have
a lot of participation at the schools. >> And by the way, if you wanted to do it even earlier than, you know, like if you wanted to do it in October, we could. >> Um, all that is doing is just um collecting the information to to create
the leadership profile. >> Yeah. >> What we typically want to do is post the position and then we want to give it about 30 days. We didn't, one of the things we skipped over was whether you wanted this to be a national search, and whether you wanted us to advertise it on AASA, which is basically the preeminent,
it's the Association for School Superintendent. Most postings go there. Um, there's an additional fee, third party fee for that. Um, and I think I might have skipped over it, but um, we do a lot of internal and external um,
notices, too. We use LinkedIn. We have a list serve. We have relationships with different organizations like Alice and um and things like that. So, we'll we'll get the word out. But it is it is a good idea to advertise it if you're if you're
considering a considering a true national search to put it on AASA. That's where most people go. But we'll also do like your local um um superintendent or associations in Massachusetts.
You know, as I look at the dates, we have our parent conferences where we usually get a really good crowd in the elementaryaries at least, right? That and that has changed this year till October 22nd and 23rd. I wonder if we want to look at that week. That's when
there's a lot going on in the community and it's not that far off if we started then. >> Which week did you say? >> It's October 22nd and 23rd is when we have our conferences that it's they usually are pretty crowded. They're uh
there's some virtual, there's some in person. Um people might be more in the mood, you know. Okay. Yeah. >> What does everyone else think? >> I like that idea and I also like Lor's idea about
>> the football games because a lot of people go to the football games that live in the community but don't have students in our schools alumni in that that had attended our schools and graduated. So I think that's a good idea what Lori had too. And I do agree with you Mary Beth as well. That's
also a great idea. >> Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how long how much we want to go out, but then we have Methooan day October 5th, which brings out everybody if it's a nice day, but we could do this all year long now. >> So, I'm looking at it looks like I'm
looking at your calendar. It looks like the 19th to the 23rd would be inclusive of those parent conference days. >> Yes. >> So, do you think so? So let me put that here 19 to 1023
as a tentative right. Um what I would do is once you um identify your administrative contact whether it's the superintendent designate uh or somebody in the district to look at like
calendars with school you know is that going to be a a bad time? Are they doing report cards right before conferences? our teachers going to be stressed out. So just things to consider so that we can maximize participation. >> But that's a good that's a good example
like uh actually no that should be 19. >> What what would we be asking them to do at at like are we handing out something that has the QR code on it for them to go online? Are we asking them in the present to do a survey? What what would be asking them to do?
>> Yeah. So there's two there's going to be basically two different opportunities for them to engage. One is through the virtual or in-person focus groups with our team and the second would be through thought exchange and they can do both.
So the calendar that I pulled up would be the example. We would make this, you know, we would change the dates and we would just begin populating this with all the um opportunities for your um for
your community to participate. >> Okay, thank you. >> And I could I could show you maybe it'll be helpful to visualize. Uh let me pull one up. So this is what it winds up um looking like.
So not every box has to be filled obviously. Uh the ones in yellow are the virtual, the ones in blue are in person. Um this is you know so like I mentioned the Kataba tribe. So, that's where we
went to the reservation. Um, you know, and then what we like to do sometimes is have a a virtual and an in-person meeting for for groups. So, like here's at 4 o'clock we had a certified staff in-person meeting. And
then we also had a virtual meeting later in the evening on a different day. So, we try to create opportunities where if they can't make one, they make the other. And where we need your help is in determining who do we need to contact, who do we
fill in in these boxes? And then the easiest ones to fill in are all of the school committee members because we'll just send you an invite and you can pick a time on our calendar to talk to us individually. Now, I heard Nick say he doesn't want to participate unless I
misunderstood. So, if you I think it's >> Sorry, re just Sorry. Just say that last part again. >> I I thought I heard you say it if I maybe I misunderstood. You didn't want to have a say in the um or you didn't want to participate in the focus groups.
Is that was that correct? >> Oh, no. No, we could I don't mind participating in the focus groups. I don't want to when it comes down to the candidate selection of the final folks coming to the school board. I do not
want the final say on what comes to us. >> Understood. >> To us is my final say. >> Thank you. Thank you for the clarifying. So yeah, you each of you gets an individual interview with our team. Um and we'll ask you those four questions about you know you know about the
district. is there a general consensus on the October 19 for to or that mid-oto early to mid-occtober to start the stakeholder engagement from from the body.
I think that's a perfect timing. >> Do you order? >> Okay. >> I think it's a great idea. >> That was easy. >> We just got to be careful though going into November because there is elections happening at some of our schools. So, I just want to be careful on certain dates
and there's also primaries in September. So, I just want to be careful of any crossover on dates there. I just wanted to call that out. >> Right. Tuesday, November 3rd is a full day of professional development, too. So, >> primaries on the 1 and then Yeah,
November 3rd. >> Yeah, >> I don't think we have to worry about September, but um it's more like going into that November time frame. >> Yeah, I think that'll work out. November is such a crazy month. There's no full week of school in November,
>> right? Veterans Day elections. So, let's give it a shot and see how this now plays out. >> Okay. Yeah, once you see it, I'll create I'll make I'll clean it up so you'll get to see it all sort of in a linear way.
Uh just quick, Matt and Pria, um any conflicts that you see um off the top of your heads? >> No, I was just looking at calendars. That seems to be pretty good right now. >> Okay, great.
Uh, and we'll talk about how to divide this up later. We, you know, but good. >> Um, what about the is there a board meeting in November, mid to late November, where we'd want to pres you want us to present the leadership
profile? >> Who has that? >> Does anyone have the calendar open? >> I do. It's the 23rd. No. Maybe if we could. That's the day before. Is that the day before Thanksgiving? >> Yeah. Or the 9th. We have two. The 9th
and the 23rd are the ones. >> Wednesday the 20 23rd. >> No, that's a Monday. >> The Monday. Okay. So, we >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> 23rd's fine then. Um, we could present the leadership profile.
Um, and then I think it might be a little premature to select interviews because if you're going to have a committee of other people other than just the school committee, we're going to need to pull their availability as well. So, um, we
can come back to that. But is the goal still Oh, no. We changed this. Hold on. The public announcement was April 12th and the start date hopefully we will we
will add as um would be July one. Right. >> Do we have a new date for posting of the position? Um, so we would post the position. I
think it would be better to do it after the new year. Honestly, even though we have the leadership profile presented and it's adopted, um, I don't think people are going to be looking for jobs o over over the holiday. I mean, they might start we could maybe do it in, you
know, the late initiate it over the vacation, you know, the late December. uh but then have it, you know, have about 30 days for uh the position to be posted and we could start the application deadline. I would say
something like, you know, February 1st, something like that. I don't know the exact date, but let's hold off on we'll hold off on these ones until we get cl, you know, clarity on how you want to proceed. Real quick, just housekeeping uh matter.
I'm still at the office, so I'm going to switch over to my phone. Uh so I'll hop on on my phone. >> I think we I think we got a lot done tonight. Um I'm I'm really optimistic. I
How about this? Why don't I reach out to Mary Beth and DJ um you know early next week and we could we could reconvene. Let some of these ideas ruminate and settle and um and then we'll we'll we'll go from there.
>> Do you want me to make a motion to adjourn, Mayor? >> Uh if we're if we're done for the night that that'd be fine. I'm happy to switch to my phone, but I do want to leave the office. Uh if it's up to the It's up to the committee.
>> We could I'll make a motion to adjurnn now that our consultant has said that we've gotten enough done for today. >> Second. >> All right. Motion's from member Bayz, the second from member Sro. We'll take a roll call vote on the journal.
Beth, you're muted. >> Oh my goodness. I'm sorry. Vice Chair Daglio, >> yes. >> Member Wlette, >> yes. >> Member Keegan, >> yes. >> Member Bayz, >> yes. >> Karthy Soy, >> yes.
>> Dunovan, yes. And Mayor Bogard, >> yes. Okay. All right, 711. >> Have a good night. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you everybody. >> Take care. >> Have a good night. >> Good night.