Welcome to this, October 17 Special Meeting of the Board of Education. Mr. Raikstra, can we take roll call to establish quorum pool? Yes, Madam President. We may. On the roll call to establish quorum, Student Director Simmons, Student director Smith? Director Lauter? Present. Director Williams? Okay. Director Hutchinson. Director Barry. Director Thompson. Present. Vice President Bachelor? Here. President Brohart? Here. Quorum, present. Thank you. Mister oh, mister Hollis, we have an interpretation check? Yes. For tonight's meeting,
we have three languages available for live interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. We also have a closed caption feature you can use on Zoom by clicking the closed caption feature on your Zoom taskbar. With that, we will move on to the interpretation announcements. I will lower all hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need translation or interpretation for the language being announced at this time, which is Cantonese. And if you are in the room and need a translation laptop, you can see,
you can see Ulfin or myself for a translation laptop. But with that, I will ask miss Ho if she can come up mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese. The Cantonese announcement is mister. Thank you, miss Ho. Mister Hawes. Checking the checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Cantonese interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Arabic, I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced, which at this time is Arabic. And I will ask
miss Abdi if she could come up from mute and do the interpretation announcement for Arabic. Arabic instruction is done. Thank you, miss Abdi. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to our last language for this, for this interpretation announcement, Spanish. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And I will ask mister Copenhagen if he can come up from you and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish. Thank you. Thank you, mister Copenhagen.
I'm checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised on Zoom for Spanish interpretation? Seeing no hands, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes this interpretation announcement, and I will pass it back to you, Madam President. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to our September 17 Special Board Meeting. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to allow Board directors to ask questions of the two executive search firms, HYA and Leadership Associates, who are finalists for the permanent superintendent search. These firms were selected by the search committee,
which included Vice President Bachelor, Director Thompson, Student Director Smith and me. We used a rubric developed by the Procurement Office to evaluate six firms that met the Board's search criteria. I want to thank our procurement team and Talent Director Tara Gard for guiding the Committee through a thorough and transparent process. Ms. Gard presented several timelines to the Board in closed session at our first September meeting. These timelines included key dates for the RFP posting, proposal deadlines and a pre proposal meeting for firms to ask clarifying questions, interview dates and selection dates,
all of which were shared with Board Directors. The Board decided to hold these interviews in open session, ensuring transparency and allowing time for public comment. I want to be clear that the purpose of this meeting is to select a search firm, not to set the criteria for the superintendent position. Once the firm is selected, it will work with the Board to design community engagement processes and to develop the criteria for the position. These engagements will include, but are not limited to, large and small community meetings, surveys, meetings with school site staff and families, central office staff, students,
labor partners, community organizations, and the Board of Directors. A superintendent search committee will be formed in the early process to ensure that the work is led collaboratively and transparently by the Committee and the Firm. In selecting a search firm, we are looking for an organization with a strong record of meaningful community engagement, one that ensures all voices are heard. We also want a firm with experience recruiting a diverse pool of candidates, both statewide and nationally, particularly from large urban districts with demographics similar to Oakland. And finally,
we are looking for a firm that can provide these services at a competitive cost. Tonight, each firm will have the opportunity to answer questions from the Board and hear comments from the public. The final selection will be made at our October 22 Open Session Meeting. Thank you for being here and for your continued engagement in this important process. We will now conduct public interviews with the finalist firms for the Executive Search Firm. The allotted time for each firm is twenty five minutes for Board questions. Please remember that consistent questioning ensures fairness and compliance with the Brown Act.
Board colleagues, please adhere to the following professional and procedural norms for interviewing candidate firms: One, treat each firm equitably, providing an opportunity to respond. Use respectful, neutral language at all times. Two, listen actively and avoid side conversations during presentations and responses to questions. Three, limit comments and questions to the questions provided in the consultation with our Talent Division and Legal Department to ensure fairness and compliance. Four, avoid commentary that could be perceived as an endorsement or criticism during the presentation.
Five, deliberations after public comment should focus on qualifications, methodology and fit, not personal attributes. Do not inquire about internal personnel matters, other clients, political affiliations or unrelated business interests. Finally, any individual Board member with prior consulting or financial relationships with a firm must disclose and, if appropriate, the cues. I believe Ms. Gard has a few more announcements for us. No? Okay. Sorry. The way we'll do, everybody has in their packets has these questions that have been vetted by,
both legal and talent. We'll ask them in order. So I'll start with one. Director Bachelor will do two. Director Latta will do three. Director Thompson, four, and Director Hutchinson, five, and then we'll rotate again. Director Williams will do six. Okay. And I believe Director Berry is joining, and when she joins, we'll adjust the numbers. I want to welcome our representatives from HYA. Before we start President Brohard, I would like to be able to make comments. So I would like to get on with the other thing. So, and I believe we have Micah Eileen from We're not gonna start off that way.
So I have comments that I wanna make before we start. And so I have the opportunity to make comments before we start. So I try to ask politely you're not just gonna storm through that so I will wait to be acknowledged but I'm not gonna let it start before I'm allowed to make comments. You have two minutes. I actually have three minutes under board bylaws, but that's part of the problem with what we have here. So I just really want to put clearly on the record my objections to this happening in this sort of way today. It was really,
unacceptable that this meeting was only posted twenty four hours before it was scheduled to happen. And we can see by the lack of community here, the lack of community that is on Zoom, that we didn't meet the mark. The student directors aren't even here. And so I know that there was I know that there was a vote made last week in closed session, and so I don't understand why this meeting was only posted twenty four hours ahead of time. And again,
if we are serious about engaging the community, engaging our students, engaging the broader people who these decisions are going to impact? Why are we doing this now at a time when nobody's here and nobody can engage? Like I tried to push for last week, these interviews should be happening at our regularly scheduled board meeting, when there would be people in attendance, when the students would be here, when I as a board member would have received information more than twenty four hours ahead of time. And so I'm gonna leave out the fact that there was a search firm who
was now being sued that was first included on the agenda until I asked for that to be removed. And that would have been scandalous if they were brought here. But this is not the way that we are supposed to do things and, this continues a pattern of this school board and this school board majority that on August 27 by just four votes the RFP was issued. By just four votes in closed session, this board forced these interviews to happen today instead of at a regularly scheduled meeting.
And it's really disingenuous to schedule a meeting at a time when not all board members can be here even. We see our student directors aren't here, and there's not one member of the community here in attendance. That should send off red flags to everyone that this isn't the right way. Unfortunately, we have a board now that doesn't seem to care about whether anyone else is involved in these decisions at all, and doesn't seem to care about the way we've always done things in the past. And so I object to this. This is offensive. This is unacceptable, and it does not set up anyone in a position of strength going forward no
matter who makes these decisions and who is decided as the search firm or even the future superintendent. And so this isn't how we should be doing things. And instead of waiting till next week, Wednesday's regularly scheduled board meeting, when we could have done these interviews and had full attendance like we've had at every other meeting, There was a decision made with twenty four hours notice to hold it on a Friday evening with nobody here. Again, this is not the way we've ever done things in the past,
but unfortunately, this is the new board that we have that by four votes over and over again, has led us to this situation. Thank you. I just wanna add that the student directors, did let me know that they would be here, so I'm hoping that they're late or that they're I don't know what they're You give people twenty four hours notice, they don't have the ability to be able to attend, and there's no excuse for this. So please don't speak after me to try to undercut what I say. I'm not playing those games anymore. Thank you. And I won't be asking questions that are given to me and I'm told these
are the questions I'm going to ask. That's not how I serve my constituents. Thank you. I would just like to remind all board members that when one board member is speaking, to wait your turn and not interrupt. And again, I would like to Director Bachelors, is there something you would like to add? Yes, thank you. I just want to first appreciate Director Thompson, yourself, Director Smith, and I for the work that we've done to get to this point and just remind our community once again that this is a conversation about the search firm. In the engagements that I've had with members of my community,
they were very excited that we were moving forward with the search firm. They didn't think that there needed to be robust community engagement around a specific search firm. And, they were very excited to be moving forward in the actual superintendent search because that is really the bulk of the work. I appreciate the search firms that are here today. I appreciate staff for all the work that they've done to make sure that, we have everything prepared to be legally compliant. I think one of the mandates as a school board director is to make sure that we do not, dive into any sort of, like, legal issues. And,
that's why I will be making sure that I, at least, will stick to, what we have planned here, because, I really appreciate our legal counsel and our talent department making sure that we are going to be legally compliant and not push ourselves into a legally challenging situation. So I appreciate everybody for making their time to be here. I know Director Berry is also going to be on her way, and, again, just want to appreciate folks for making the time to do this bit of extra work, on top of the work that we have with the budget and other issues in our district. And so I look again I look forward to having conversations with these search firms,
to be able to ask some of these questions and to, again, move forward to what we all want to do, which is make sure that we have a superintendent, that fits our district, that moves our district forward, and that supports our students Thank you. And with that, we will begin the interview process. I just want to make sure I know that, Micah Ali is here from Leadership Associates. H oh, h y a. Okay. I'm sorry. And then, Linda Harder and are you here are you from Oh, James Brown? Okay. And President, Jim Brown, I believe, from Leadership Associates is online.
Okay. Thank you. Yeah, we're gonna talk about HYA first. So if you could please begin, Mr. Ali, by introducing your firm. What core values guide your firm's approach to executive searches in public education? And then if there's anyone else from HYA, if you could also raise your hand. Good evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you very much. Beautiful. My name is Makai Ali and I'm very pleased to represent Hafzard, Young, and Atea, also known as HYA, this evening to the distinguished chair and members of the governing authority.
Again, I thank you for this opportunity. The initial question you asked, madam chair, was in reference to the the mission and and describing HYA. We are a network of national as well as California based independent education experts, dedicated to helping boards as well as administrators recruit and develop effective leadership, plans strategically, as well as evaluate the impact of superintendents as we work to place the best and the brightest in this country. Thank you.
Doctor. Batchelor. Thank you. Why do you believe your search firm is the right partner for Oakland Unified, at this moment? A very excellent question. I believe emphatically that HYA's guiding principles, as well as the mission and our vision, clearly aligns with that of the Oakland Board as well as the general Oakland community. We believe, as you believe, that every school system ought to be led by a strong leader, guided by clear plans and focused on measurable outcomes. I could take I'll give an example. You have a framework known as student outcome focused governance.
That framework is part and parcel to ensure that you measure outcomes and improve student success. Simply put, HYA does more than just talk. We walk our talk. We've been exceptional in providing school systems that are very much akin to that of Oakland Unified with top tier instructional leaders. I'll give you an example of the searches I conducted Atlanta. Right now, we're in the process of finishing the search in Seattle.
Was very instrumental in the search in Louisville, which is also a Jefferson County Public School Systems. Again, we've developed a comprehensive network of experts as well as a very robust website that features every single search in this country. This is all we do, and we're very good at it. If we truly believe that every school system must be led by strong leaders that would change the trajectory of a child's life,
then we must, as an organization, do our part in working with school boards and school systems to ensure that we're not just looking at revenue, but we're looking at results on behalf of children. Thank you. Director Lotta? Hi. Yes. Thank you, mister Ali, for joining us. Can you tell us about your knowledge of Oakland Unified and how you would tailor your approach to reflect the district's unique history, demographics, and local culture? Well, I'm down in Compton, so I I know clearly clearly what's happening in Oakland as well as
most of the urban centers in California. Oakland is very unique, school district that is a conterminous with the city. You have 78 square miles. There's one over 120 languages spoken, which linguistically Oakland represents one of the most diverse communities in this country. Oakland has a very unique history, a proud history, one of activism, as well as one of excellence. And what we aim to do is work very closely with you to ensure that we're able to find and locate the best and the brightest slate for which you
would then be able to select from as, relative to your next superintendent. Open, like most systems in this state of California, we've all struggled. Post COVID, we've struggled fiscally. We've struggled with IDEA, And Oakland is no other. But one thing I do know about Oakland, the resiliency, whether you're in the flats or in the hills, there's a resiliency that exists within the community of Oakland, one that is unmatched. And we believe, as you believe, the children in the community deserve a top tier leader in order to continue to
raise a level of student expectation. You've done very well managing yourselves out of fiscal insolvency slash state county control. You've worked you're working exceedingly well to raise your graduation rates, which hovers around seventy eight to eighty percent. In addition to addressing some of the chronic absenteeism issues that have continuously plagued, the system. So again, I'm keenly aware of what is happening in Oakland. And I will also add at this one point, something to brag about. You guys ought to be proud
as leaders of this school system to be able to boast school bus electrification. You've been able to accomplish something that many systems have tried but failed to ensure that students receive transportation on in vehicles that are environmentally friendly, net zero carbon emissions as it were, but also doing it very fiscally and very prudently, that underscores the level of intellectual aptitude in your community and which your community desires
to see a way of environmental justice as well as that of educational justice. Director Thompson, one more time. Unmuted. Okay. Mr. Ali, can you hear me? Yes. I can hear you. Okay. Thank you very much. Given what you know about our district, what aspects of Oakland's current landscape will make this search particularly complex or particularly promising? Director, I will tell you this. As a member of the school board for eighteen years, having served thirteen years as President, every search is complex because every community is very unique and very different.
That's the whole nature of diversity and understanding how to be inclusive within that vein. Oakland has a bright and promising future. If in fact we're fortunate to be selected, my desires to work very collaboratively with the board around sculpturing a strategy, but also looking at your current governance model and finding ways in which to assist there to really help entice a superintendent aspirants to your system. Every school system is struggling in urban America.
Oakland is like none other in that vein. What we're looking for and what we will be looking for are individuals who've demonstrated a capacity, aptitude, and ability to drive systemic change in school systems that are challenged fiscally, in school systems where there's a high level of student absenteeism, chronic absenteeism, as well as significant IDEA challenges. This is what we do. We work very hard to look throughout the country, as well as throughout the state, and find individuals who will not be afraid of the challenges.
One thing about Oakland, you can't come to Oakland being scared, and you cannot come to Oakland not willing to wanna engage your diverse community. You have to come to Oakland with desire that we that you can achieve and drive systemic change if, in fact, there's a palatable strategy, one that the community, including student voice, can wrap their arms around and, of course, get the support of the governing authority to move forward. So again, I tell you, and I underscore that point, none of these searches are simple. None of these searches are easy.
What helps and what matters is having a search firm that understands the complexities. Also, a search firm that has the relationships throughout the state and the country in order to deliver a very high quality set of candidates. Now, I continue to say a slate of candidates because a search firm, we do not pick the superintendent. My objective is to utilize all of the tools, listen to the community, listen to student voice, and then bring forth a palatable slate for which the school board would then select
from. Yes. Thank you. Welcome, mister Ali. Yes, sir. I have to say for full disclosure, I don't think I'm gonna ask you a question because I just had questions put in front of me five minutes ago and I was told this is what I'm asking. And that's not how I serve my community and I think it does a disservice to this process. I think everyone needs to understand that this meeting was called with twenty four hours notice. That was how long I had as a school board director to see the information ahead of time, that there's nobody here in attendance,
and maybe at best there's one community member on Zoom. And so I think these are some of the things that, anyone who potentially might be hired as the search firm that we use need to be well aware of is the real conditions that have been happening here in OUSD. This is the same thing that happened when we went through a principal selection process a few months ago for an interim I'm sorry, an interim superintendent where I had questions put in front of me and I was told this is what I was going to ask. We're in this situation because of a series of four to three votes that the
school board majority has put us in this situation. We forced out our long term superintendent eight months into her three year extension, and a new interim superintendent was hired in this sort of way. I think we're in a very dangerous situation here, as a school district. I, have a lot of respect for the work that you and your firm have done over time, but I can't, in good conscience engage in a process serving my constituents in this sort of way where I have people telling me that on twenty four hours notice these are the
questions that I'm going to be asking. And so I just feel it really strongly that it's important that both you, and I'll be saying the same thing to the other firm interviewed, and the community know what this process is really like and unfortunately, instead of bringing you forward for an interview next week at a regular school board meeting where our student directors and the community would be present to be able to engage, We have school board leadership that have done it this way on a Friday evening with nobody here. So I look forward to a future time to really be able to engage but,
this isn't how I get down and I think it's really important that anyone who might be contracting with OUSD understands the real situation that we're in. Thank you. Thank you. We have, some online, board members as well. Director Williams, would you like to ask question five? Thank you very much, President Breaux Hart. Yes. Question five. Welcome. The district seeks to conduct an equity centered approach with authentic community engagement. How does your firm define an equity centered
search? Two, what does authentic community engagement look like in your process? Okay. I'm just taking down the notice. I wanted to make sure. Okay. So just, the the last part again, please? Yes, mister Ali. I'll read both questions again. The first question is, how does your firm define an equity centered search? And the second question is, what does authentic community engagement look like in your process? Thank you.
Thank you. The most powerful outcome in any search is the community engagement phase, giving rise to community voice, as well as the voice of students. We deliberately and actively seek out community as well as student voice through a multitude of methods. We utilize on the ground community engagement meetings. Of course, we meet in each school board district if the members of the board are so inclined. We would involve members of the city council,
the mayor, county board of supervisors, your ecumenical community, all of your cultural affinity groups and or community. Parents. But more specific and more important is students, really allowing students to have a voice. That's done through focus groups, is done through community survey, community surveys, and of course we just aggregate that data. We work very closely with your community, and in this particular instance, I'd probably recommend about two months or so, a month and a half to two months of true authentic community engagement to be able to capture voices
literally weekends during the week, morning, afternoon, and evening, as well as the weekends. Why is that significant and why is that important? Because all of the engagement, we're using the term equity, what we're desiring, equitable outcomes. We utilize all of these tools in order to develop what's known as a leadership profile report. The Leadership Profile Report is derived as a result of authentic community engagement and serves as the fulcrum of the search, the guiding light as it were. We're taking community voice, all that data,
all the survey data and compiling it. That then is presented to the community, to the board, is then presented to future aspirants because if in fact the aspirant does not match what the community has articulated, now we have a challenge. I would encourage the Board to Google the Seattle Public Schools Leadership Profile Report, the latest search I conducted. Look at that leadership profile report and then you have an opportunity to ascertain exactly
how that report is structured. In that instance, we engaged countless numbers of community individuals. In addition to the search conducted in Atlanta, we also surveyed that entire community from the business leaders all the way down to students, as well as the neighborhood groups. Oakland has some 50 communities and perhaps within those communities or neighborhood associations. We want to engage all of those individuals to make sure that we capture their voice and develop what is essentially a blueprint for a successful hire and transition,
which serves as the foundation for the entire search. Thank you. Director Berry? How will you ensure that the voices of students, community, labor, and staff are meaningfully included in shaping the leadership profile? Yes. Yes. Yes. Very, very significant question. And I will tell you, when you talk about student voice, what we will include in that process is focus groups with high school students, whether they be ASB leaders or any of our, I promise you, the objective is to listen to
all, not just the four point o's, all the way down to our community day students. We want to hear each other one of them by providing a separate and distinct focus group during our community engagement process. This ensures that they have a safe and dedicated space to share their experiences and priorities without adult influence. I referenced previously the community survey. We would launch a community survey that individuals could take morning, noon, or night. Survey will consist of a plethora of questions,
and that data then will be used in order to shape the leadership profile report, but also examine the viewpoints as far as the community has vis a vis leadership of the system, the instructional quality of the system and then the school climate. All of that information then will be used to develop the leadership profile, which identifies instructional priorities as well as day to day effectiveness. All of that helps to inform the overall search. The other component is working very closely with your school district staff.
During your LCAP process, you're effectively engaging the community, you already have established conduits. We would work with your staff to leverage and amplify voice within those conduits, as it were, to ensure that we're capturing individuals who you would normally talk with. But the survey, the survey will go to every single resident in that, community, even if we need to go get the voter file down at the county registrar recorder and utilize that voter file to email each and every person.
We're going to do exactly that in order to make sure that we capture voice. I'll tell you this, the easiest part of the job director is searching for the superintendent. The part where it's most exciting is gleaning from the voices and listening to the constituents within the community share good, bad, and ugly experiences because this leadership profile report will then be used by the new superintendent as almost a strategic plan to address some of the issues and challenges outlined during the process.
We're not just allowing individuals or encouraging individuals to have a grievance session. What we're looking for is to hear them, but also ensure that the new superintendent coming in can react to the concerns for which they proffer. Director Smith. Hello, everyone. I'm so sorry I couldn't join in person. I'm just popping in for a quick second. But, my question was, I'm just trying to understand what your process is to show the community how their input influenced the candidate and finalist pool.
And I was just wondering I don't know if this was asked already, but how how are you gonna, be diverse in your choosing for a specific candidate? Director. Are you student director or director? What's that? Student director Smith. Student director. Okay. Perhaps a future director. Right? Yeah. Maybe, honestly. Alright. Student director, director Smith. I I tell you, our objective is to bring a very diverse slate of candidates reflective of the demographics within the Oakland community. That's essential,
post doc. Community voice. Once we're done conducting all of the engagement, we will present the report before the community. The report will then be shared via social media. We'll work very closely with the communications team in addition to ensuring that deep that we'll present the report as a draft and allow the community to the the board to provide feedback based upon the information they're receiving from their constituents. The objective is to get it right. This is not an HYA search.
This is the people search, and you would simply be hiring HYA to facilitate that process. Again, we're here as a partner to help to bring structure and to help to bring alignment with community voice, student voice, like yourself, student, Director Smith, make sure student voice is captured, but to bring all that information and share it with the community. This will be a very transparent process by way of ensuring that the community sees what they said and actually we're presenting what the community said.
We will not we will not attempt to nullify anyone's voice or silence anyone. The objective here is to uplift voices and provide agency to students like you. Did I answer your question, student director? No. Yes. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much. And I look forward to a possible partnership. And I thank you for your service to the Board member. Thank you. Thank you, Director Smith. Question number eight is: What have you learned from previous searches in large or politically complex districts that would help you lead this one successfully to find a superintendent who
can build trust, drive results, and reflect eloquent values? What I've learned in, from previous searches, if you fail, if you fail to capture all voices, not some voices, All voices. You're going to have a flawed process, a very flawed process. And what do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? Your directors are elected. You are accountable to your constituents. The constituents want to be heard. And those constituents not only includes the voters, those constituents also include labor, the business community, your other governmentmunicipal partners,
the ecumenical community and all of the various cultural organizations represented within Oakland. If we fail to do that, which is why I said, director, I do not want to rush community engagement. Now, I know you don't want a lengthy process, but I wanna make sure we capture all the voices. And if that means conducting fifty, sixty, 100 engagement sessions, we would do that. If that means leveraging Zoom, let's do that. If that means getting on the ground, with each of you in your respective communities,
we would do exactly that. We want to make certain that we do not make a mistake in Oakland. We want to make certain and be emphatic in our desire to listen, learn, and then lead through a process which will net a slate eligibles to which the members of the governing authority can select from. In this particular search and in previous searches, I can tell you this, and I won't name it the district, because we're live and this is public record. I can tell you a district endeavor to do their own community engagement,
not utilizing the expertise as provided by HYA, and the search was very challenging. During the process and post the process, oftentimes, I encourage boards to bring in help, bring in assistance, bring in individuals who demonstrated an ability to engage the community, to work with the community, who might not necessarily be polarized. Again, I I pardon the candor, pardon the candor, but the objective is not to politicize or polarize this process. The objective is to ensure that the community understands that we welcome them.
Without their voice, then then HYA would not want to be a partner in this search. Thank you. I appreciate your candor. Director Bachelor, next question. That's fine. Yes. Thank you for that. How do you manage competing, OUSD community members, partners, constituents, expectations while keeping the process fair, transparent and on schedule? I'll tell you this. Everybody receives the same information at the same time. We're not going to engage black families without engaging Latino families. We're not gonna engage Asian families, without engaging white families.
We're not gonna engage the Flatlands, and not engage the hills. You run into trouble when you begin to provide a measure of deference to particular communities. If we engage the Chamber of Commerce, then we'll engage the unions who may have opposition to some of those policies and practices within the community. If we engage the teachers, we'll engage the classified. If we engage the building trades, we'll engage all of the building trades, whether there's acrimony within their ranks. I've been around a while now, and I do understand that there may be divergent perspectives and opinions within communities,
but the objective here is not to play one side against the other. The objective here is not for h y to bring you a black superintendent, bring you a brown superintendent, bring you a gay superintendent. The objective here is to bring you a highly qualified individual who can deliver on the commitment that, oh, You affirm, director. We wanna bring someone who will help you fulfill that oath of ensuring equality and ensuring that the community receives high quality education so that Oakland can continue to thrive,
and you can continue to drive change within your community, and families continue to view Oakland Unified School District as the educational destination of choice. Thank you. Director Berry, next question. How do you ensure candidate pools reflect the diversity of our students? What are your sourcing strategies beyond your typical network? Excellent question. Excellent question. As I was stating earlier, HYA has one of the most robust websites in, in the industry. What do I mean by that?
What do I mean by that? We post every single job, whether we are in search from choice or not. We have 9,000 plus active leaders who develop leadership profiles within our system. It's almost like crowd sourcing for the search firm industry as it were. The objective here is to search for individuals who, a, reflect the leadership profile. I'm going back to that thesis because the leadership profile is the fulcrum.
The individuals we will recruit, they will have matched that profile, and they would have provided receipts. Remember now, many look at resumes. I look at receipts. I care not that you have an EdD or PhD. What I care about is you can actually document everything you stated on your resume, every single solitary element that you've written, you can actually bring forth an evidentiary trail to ensure that you've delivered on on your commitment for, for equitable outcomes for students. By doing that and utilize that leadership profile report and ensuring that community voice is
part and parcel to the process. As we're recruiting, we'll have conversations with individuals and explain, hey, if this is, if you don't meet and align predicated upon what the community has stated, this is not the job for you. The other aspect is passive recruitment, right? What does that mean? You simply put the job out into the ether and individuals apply. So then there's aggressive recruitment. Perhaps there are other superintendents who are leading systems very much akin to Oakland Unified. We're gonna simply present the system
to them and have discussions around, we believe they may be a fit in the ground to consider applying, for the job. We utilize a national network, as well as a state network of educational experts in order to help bring forth, palatable, candidates who we believe would make an an, a phenomenal slate to present to the board. Thank you. Director Latta? Yes. Thank you, mister Ali, for your answers. What will your first thirty days look like if your firm is selected? And what actions will you take and who will you engage first?
The first thirty days will be the team members, part of the HYA organization, pulling your data, looking at your LCAP, looking at your first and second interims. We're collecting data so that we can understand OUSD because the objective of an executive search firm or recruitment firm is to immerse themselves in that community. And, by understanding exactly what is happening, not just at the central office, where are the pockets of innovation,
where are the schools with an open, where we can showcase the areas that a potential applicant will ask about. Simultaneously, we will begin engaging students. The first group of individuals within the thirty days, collection of data, research, analysis, the engagement of students. And once we've engaged student leaders and captured student voice, we would then meet with members of the board. We would meet with individuals of the board individually, and we would meet with individuals, and we would meet with the board in closed session, of course, pursuant to the Brown Act as well as the advice of legal counsel.
We'd spend the first thirty days engaging your community. Then after we leave the Board, then we would move into the teachers. We would begin listening and working with the teachers to ascertain their thoughts and perspectives with respect to the next superintendent. And then, of course, work with the classified staff. So, it'll be a very busy, very busy first month. The reason why I'm recommending that we extend engagement past thirty days is to ensure we capture all of the
voices because Oakland is a very unique community in that your community is active. They're actively involved and engaged, not just politically, but socially. And so, we want to make sure that we spend ample time doing just that. Thank you. Director Thompson? What do you need from the board and district team to help you do your best work? That's a that's a great question, director. That's a great question. What I would need from, the district, if we're fortunate, is I would need a dedicated staff person
who would work with us around scheduling. In addition, I would need access to your attorney, the general counsel, and your head of HR. You ask why. Because we'd want to work very closely with this, the individual responsible for scheduling to assist us in facilitating the various engage From the sessions which will occur during the engagement phase. There there are multiple phases in this process. The engagement phase, the recruitment phase, and then the selection phase,
and the last phase of the transition phase. We would then need access to your communications chief or your communications consultant, so that we can then promulgate all of the various announcements with respect to engagement sessions, the virtual sessions, which will be held, the on the ground engagement sessions, which will be held. And then of course, we would need access to your translators. But make certain that each and every individual has an opportunity to be heard, but also to be engaged in the initial engagement phase.
Now, there will definitely be symbiosis and we'll be able to work through this. We've done this a plethora of times throughout California, as well as the country. It'll be a very seamless process. And again, many of your staff persons are already doing this. You are already engaged in the community by way of the LCAP process. So, we're not asking or placing any more onerous responsibility or work on the staff. It's simply helping us to move the process forward. We will appropriate an entire team
to this search. It will not just be me, but it'll be a host of individuals who speak English as well as Spanish, who will be assisting with various elements of the process in addition to an entire back office which will also support with translation, drafting of documents, creation of collateral and the like. And so, that is what will be needed in order for us to truly effectuate this search in the manner I know that we can. Thank you. Director Hutchinson, the last question is yours. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Ali,
for all your answers today. Again, I never operate, in the sense that when somebody puts questions in front of me and tells me these are your questions, that's just not how I get down. And I think it's really important again that I stress that, the questions that, you've been asked tonight were not collectively formulated by the entire board, but they were put in front of us, and I'm not even sure who came up with them. And and for me personally, I'm a I'm a little embarrassed. And again, I wanna stress that even though this is a public meeting since it was only
noticed twenty four hours ahead of time, we have nobody here in attendance. I really appreciated you stressing that this is a people search. Unfortunately I feel like I serve on a board where my colleagues don't share that same view of how things should be done. I have serious concerns about this process going forward, especially with what happened to our nationally renowned superintendent just a few months ago. I think it really hurts our ability as a school board to be able to find a high quality candidate. But I really wanna stress a couple of things that I know are important to
us as a community for our future superintendent. We want a high quality superintendent who can pick up the hard work that we've engaged in over the last few years and take us further and hopefully across that finish line. Excuse me Director Hutchinson, just wanna make sure that we have consistency for both interviews. I'll be asking the same thing to both people And and I'm not I'm not gonna Not a question? I'm I'm I'm not gonna play this game again. This is what happened with the superintendent selection process that we just went through a
few months ago. I have an opportunity to to make my statement or to ask a question. Nobody's gonna step in and tell me different, and I'm gonna ask the same exact things in the same framing to both firms. So what's really important to us here as a community is that we have a high quality super superintendent representative of us being the forty fifth largest city in the country. It's really important that we have that going forward. But just as important, it is we need to have a superintendent going forward who has a deep and intimate knowledge
of Oakland and OUSD. With what we've gone through over the last few years, it is important that we have a high quality superintendent who is reflective and hopefully a part of the Oakland community. And the reason why I haven't framed these as a question is I think that would be unfair to either firm with the other questions I hear being asked by my colleagues, that I had no part in developing those questions at all. But I know that my constituents expect me to put these issues on the floor, and this is what I'm looking for and what my constituents expect me to be
looking for as we choose a firm and potentially a superintendent going forward. So thank you for the time tonight. I'm sorry this wasn't a better process and we didn't have more community here because they should also be here to engage at this front end. And if we as a board wanna set anyone up for success, this sure isn't the way to do it. So thank you, Mr. Ali, and, hopefully I didn't step on any toes by how I framed, my comments tonight. Thank you, Mr. Lee. The final question that we have, is there anything that we haven't asked you that you believe the Board should know
about your firm or your approach? Thank you. I believe you've asked a tremendous amount of questions, and and we've definitely had a very hearty discussion. What I will say is, as a part of the transition phase, I would propose that HYA works work with the board around what we've termed the transition academy. We have a dedicated six month program which provides a scholarship for newly appointed superintendents, as well as the board leadership to attend the transition academy.
The deliverables, you participate in the academy, four deliverables from the board. A hundred day plan, KPIs to guide the district and share with your constituents an agreed upon evaluation and an assessment of your strategic plan. The objective here is to set the superintendent up for success, but also ensure that there can be some synergy around the board goals and objectives. We do know that there's a budget that's been approved, so the superintendent might be transitioning
before the next budget is approved, as well as might be transitioning during the approval of the LCAP process. So we like to be very sensitive of that, but make sure that we're able to build some cohesiveness with the board and superintendent leaning forward because the objective is for a superintendent to be placed in the system and would that superintendent be within the job for as long as the Board would have that individual. I thank you for the opportunity this evening. I look forward to any future questions. I do apologize that I was unable to be there in person,
but I will say this in closing, Chair, as well as members of the governing authority, we're committed to this work. I have a proven track record of working in very complex systems, and we've delivered on that. We're not going to shy away. I'll be very fearful in any aspect. Objective is to represent the board, as well as ensure that your community receives a very highly qualified slate of applicants so the board can pick an individual, hire an individual who can lead this system and address some of the systemic challenges
that have been persistent, that exist, and that can be corrected. On behalf of HYI, thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. Irrespective, irrespective as to whether or not we receive the blessing from the authority to proceed forward, we will still post the link to the job on our website because we believe in public education, we believe in the promise and the, and the, and the notion that all children can achieve when the board as well as the
superintendent are working very cohesively, and there's a measure of unity that exists in order to deliver on our commitment to providing a public education for students within this beautiful state of California. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate your words and, again, your candor in the interview. Thank you. And with that, if you are a representative of, Leadership Associates, if you could Sure. We'll check if there's any public comment on public speakers. For each. Okay. Is there any public comment? Checking to bring me public speakers.
And for the record, president, we have no public speaker. Thank you. So if you are a representative of Leadership Associates, if you could raise your hand. Okay. Mister Brown? Okay. Mister Brown, I'd like to welcome you to our, interview tonight. We will be asking, each board, director will be asking you a different question. The responses should be around two or three minutes each. And I'm going to start with the first question is, could you please begin by introducing your firm? What core values guide your firm's approach to executive searches in public education?
Alright. Mister Brown, if you can unmute your mic. You're still muted. Oh, there you go. There we go. Okay. Do you want me to repeat the question, or are you okay? Yeah. Would you please? Thank you. I think we're I think we're all set now. Okay. Apologize for that. Okay. No problem. If you could please begin by introducing your firm. Okay. And, I've What core values guide your firm's approach to executive searches in public education? Okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you very much for inviting us to participate in this discussion tonight about the selection of a search firm to help you find your next superintendent.
There are four of us from Leadership Associates that are directly involved with the search. That would be myself, Jim Brown. I was a former superintendent in California, Glendale, and Palo Alto, Lompoc, and a couple of other districts. Blanca Cabassos is from the Central Valley, the Taft Union High School District superintendent. She was once Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Mark Ecker from the Fountain Valley School District and a member of the FCMAT board, which should be of interest particularly at the challenges that you're facing with finance.
And Donald Evans, who was a former superintendent in Hayward and Berkeley and at one time worked for the Oakland Unified School District. This immediate team is assisted by our administrative assistants, Linda Harder and Serena Farrington. And Linda is helping coordinate the call this evening and she'll be one of the key point people going forward, which actually we think is one of the strengths of our firm that we have the people on staff who work with school districts who have direct experience as superintendents,
as board members, as executive assistants, as secretaries to the Board of Education. And there's a lot of communication that has to take place over the course of a search process. And having people to kind of know a little bit about the territory and the layup of land really helps. Our core values and beliefs are pretty clearly stated on our website, and I think they are well worth repeating because they have a lot to do particularly with the challenges that Oakland Unified faces and the finding of a new superintendent. We really started our work out of the belief that the quality of leadership in
our schools and school district is a significant contributor to the success of all students and staff. So, leadership is important. And every child in every school deserves a passionate, caring, and inspired leader who stays focused on ensuring all children receive the highest quality education. Core to our beliefs is the fact that high quality public education accessible to everybody is a real foundation of our democratic society. And the future of our democracy depends directly on the ability of our public schools
to educate all our students to become productive and contributing citizens in our democratic society. We also believe that education leaders have to have the knowledge, skills, and values that enable them to build and sustain the systems and structures which provide each student with the knowledge, skills, and values they'll need to make meaningful choices about their future. And finally, our core belief, our last one, is that education leaders should reflect the cultural and demographic dimensions of our local districts,
our state, and our country. And so, we work diligently to recruit and support candidates who represent the range of personal and professional backgrounds that arise from differences in race, ethnicity, and culture. Our core values simply stated are integrity, equity, excellence, diversity, inclusion, accountability, and transparency. And we believe those are key qualities of leadership at really all levels of the school system. We've been in existence since the early 1990s. We've conducted over seven fifty searches throughout California and a couple out of state.
We consider ourselves as a firm that you know, we were pretty busy just in California, which has the fifth or fourth largest economy in the world. That keeps us pretty busy. We like to stay focused on California because that's where we have our background expertise. And we are really committed to helping California school districts find and keep good leaders. So, that's a big commitment of ours to California. But one of the things that's helped us be successful over time is to maintain not just the reach within the state but the ability to identify,
recruit candidates from throughout the country. And once in a while, somebody comes from even overseas that fit the profiles that we develop for different school districts. So, that's a little bit about us. We're very honored to be selected by you for an interview tonight and we hope our presentation will provide you with the information you need to have going forward. Thank you. Director Bachelor? Why do you believe your firm is the right partner for Oakland Unified at this moment? You know, I appreciate that question because that's the first question we ask ourselves when we looked
at the RFP, which was a fairly detailed RFP, well thought out, well put together. And we talked at length among all our partners about why would we want, why would Oakland be an important district for us to support and help find a new superintendent. And I think there was unanimous agreement almost instantaneously about a couple of things. First of all, a general belief about urban education in this country, which we think is the key to the future of the country and the success
of so many students, if we can't make urban education work for all students in this country, we're in big trouble. And Oakland is an example of an urban school district that has had its struggles, it's had its successes, it's had its challenges over the years, but continually persists in trying to do better by its students and community. And I, you know, I was honored personally at some point in my past career with the Marcus Foster Award. And when I received that,
I was very honored because I knew about Marcus Foster's legacy in OPEN. And over the time, I've had the opportunity, as had Donald in particular, to be involved with OPEN before. We've helped OPEN with previous searches. And we have a good knowledge of the school district, particularly now with the challenges that it faces with the finance. And I have to say also getting the Board of Education on one page on some critical issues. There's a parent, there's some real divisions on the board that is going to prove a challenge in
the search process. But we like to take on those kind of challenges and we like to help our boards do their work to find good leaders. And then we like to help find the leaders that will do that. So, I think the idea of working in open specific and helping you get through the challenges you face knowing that what you do will have an impact far beyond open unified, not just in this state and in this country. Because you are a national school district in many people's minds. And that is one thing that will help us,
I think, in recruiting is the reputation of the school district. People know the challenges that OPM is facing. If they don't, we probably don't want to talk to them too much because there are some real challenges but our job is to find the right people that can do that. And I think knowing your challenges, learning more about the district will be really important for us to be successful in this project. Thank you. Director Lamotta? Thank you for being here, Mr. Brown. Can you tell us about your knowledge of Oakland Unified and how you would tailor your approach to reflect the district's unique history,
demographics, and local culture? Well, every district, I mean, you know, if you look at CERC processes in general, they sometimes can look a little boilerplate in terms of the process of meeting with a board, the community engagement, the position description, the recruiting and reference checking. Those are things that are common to different search firms. Some do it better than others. We think we do all those things very well. But what makes each search particularly successful, I think, and has for us, is that we treat each one not as a boilerplate program and just hauling out
the script. And script helps. But knowing and understanding the uniqueness of the school district that we're serving. The languages and multiplicity of languages, your diversity. There's a history of activism in Oakland that goes way, way back and spans most of my adult livelihood in working in education in California since 1965. I remember the traumas of the late '60s, the '70s, the '80s, and Oakland being at center stage in so many things and taking on,
I think, some of the real serious challenges that face our state and our country in a constant effort to make education work for all kids. And your relations and I think you have a had an interesting set, maybe interesting isn't the right word, but a complicated and meaningful a lot of times relationships with your labor partners. And you have a multiplicity of labor partners that many other districts don't have. And that complicates the negotiations process sometimes.
Your relations with the city, there are some tensions in those over time and your but your ability to work with the city and work through some of the critical issues that face both of you. The community schools project that you undertook years ago is, as far as I'm concerned, is a lighthouse project for many other districts in the country. But that involves working closely with the city and the county and even sometimes state agency. Right now, the fiscal challenges you face are severe. And there's no sugarcoating that.
I have been watching your events unfold over time. You know, we recently did finish the search in West Contra Costa. We talked to a number of people in Oakland during that search. I followed the newspapers carefully. Donald has I said because of his history in Oakland, we try to stay really close over time to what you're doing because what you're doing has impact not just in your district but many others in the Bay Area and throughout the state. So, those are some of the things that we know about the district. And also,
in terms of a search process, the priorities you place on the engagement process, it is very important, always has been to Oakland, to reach out to all parts of your community. That can be a very complicated and time consuming process, but it needs to happen and it needs to happen well and we'll probably have a chance to talk a little bit more about that later. Thank you. Director Thompson? Hello, Mr. Brown. Hi. Given what you know about our district, what aspects of Oakland's current landscape will make this search particularly complex or particularly promising?
Well, the complexity part, let's take that first. And I think given the dynamics in the community, relationships between the school district and the community, multiple labor partners, all those kind of things that suggest a more complex engagement process and one that not just involves identifying different groups and individuals, but holding the meetings and knowing how to listen to people in an empathetic way, in an understanding way so that they feel their opinions are valued and important to
the board. And in some ways, we are your representative to the community, and we go through this process. And we want to be sure that the community understands the challenges you face and that we reach out to such a wide variety. That's a complicated process. It's a time consuming process. It's a necessary process. And our commitment is to do what's necessary to make sure that happens well. The complexity part also and I don't want to sugarcoat anything on this, but there's tensions on the board right now.
And those tensions on the board will become apparent to candidates that look at the district seriously and want to do their homework. They'll watch board meetings and that sort of thing. And that makes the search more challenging and more complex. And candidates, you know, it's a big move to make for a lot of people to come into a new district. The job length of superintendents is not as long as it used to be. And people want to make sure that they can develop. There's the possibility, the hope of developing a good working relationship with the Board of Education.
And to the extent and complexity of this is going to involve our commitment to helping you come together in agreement on what you're looking for in a superintendent based on the community input, interview questions, the whole interview process, and how we finally select a candidate. And one of the things that we bring to the table, I think, are good processes to help boards, especially boards that can be divided, on coming together about this really important decision that boards of education make. So,
the promising part, I think, is, as I mentioned earlier, the challenge of being an urban superintendent and making that work for the students in this country is one of the best that any superintendent can have because that's where the future of our democracy lies and the quality of education that we can provide to all students. The groundwork is there in Oakland. There's records of significant progress in many areas. But that progress has to continue. And the promising part is that,
you know, I believe this, that we can get people to come together whether it's on the board or in the community, everything, about the selection of a new superintendent because that doesn't just involve identifying a person. It involves a discussion about your values and what you want to happen in the district. And we do a good job at that because that's the core of our beliefs as well. I'd like to see Oakland to be a lighthouse among urban districts in this country. People look to, for example, how to do things. In some cases,
like in the community schools, that's happening. But this community, this district has the potential to be the best there is. And whatever we can do to help make that happen, we want to do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Thank you. And, I'm not sure if you heard the previous interview, but, I'm not gonna be asking a question right now because unfortunately, I had these questions put in front of me five minutes before this meeting and told this is what I needed to ask. And, I think it's a little more than tensions that we have, unfortunately going on right now.
And so I'm I'm very familiar with your firm's work and and, whatever I'm going to say now, I don't want that to be considered a reflection of my feelings towards your firm at all. But we we have a lot of serious issues and and I really feel it's important to put it out there to both firms, that were being interviewed today. You know, for tonight's meeting, this meeting was posted on twenty four hours notice. So currently there's nobody here in attendance. We don't even have our student directors here, and there is no community participation. Our former superintendent was forced out by a four three vote.
This RFP was, put out by a four three vote. And again, it was a four three vote that led to this meeting happening these interviews happening tonight on a Friday evening instead of waiting till Wednesday for a regular school board meeting. And I think it's, it's very troubling in a process this serious that this is how we are engaging in the process. And so I just really feel an important, not just in serving my constituents, that I would never, just take the questions that somebody else puts in front of me,
But I think it's really important that anyone who might be contracting with the district has a clear vision of, what's been happening and even what's happening today, and I definitely don't think this is the way we should be doing things or things have been done in the past, especially as the one OUSD graduate serving on the board. So I wish things were different. I'm really concerned about this process, but I just think it's really important that everyone understands what's happening in the room today and what's kind of led us to this point. And so again,
hopefully nobody will interpret any of my comments as a reflection of my feelings towards your firm or to you directly, but I, in serving my constituents, I feel it's really, really strongly that I need to say these things. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Alright, thank you. The next question is the district seeks to conduct an equity centered approach with authentic community engagement. How does your firm define an equity centered search? What does authentic community engagement look like in your process? Okay. There are a couple, you know,
let me reflect on that a minute. That's, there are a couple of layers to this, I think, when we talk about equity centered. Part of it, a big part, of course, is how that principle, that value drives the community engagement process. But during the course of the community engagement process, there's a dimension another dimension to the whole equity centered conversation. And that relates to students themselves and how students are doing in the school district. Are the students that need extra support getting the extra support that they need to
be successful? Because not everybody can hit the starting line at the same time. And what's the result of, you know, how do the student performance reflect some issues about equity that need to be addressed? So, part of the conversation during the engagement process, whether it's with community groups, with staff, and with students, is about how the principle of equity is being applied in the district, in the classroom, in the schools, in the school board, and in relations with the community as a whole. As far as the community engagement process
goes, it is extremely important that we have a clear understanding of who the different groups and individuals are in the community with whom you would like us to speak. I mean, we have some you know, we've done quite a few searches. I've done about 80 myself. But I know each community engagement process is different. And I can't go in and my colleagues can't go in with a script right in front of us that says, Okay, this is what we do on Monday. This is Tuesday. The type of questions that we ask
the different people with whom we meet, whether they're students or teachers, education partners, people from municipal agencies, and in fact the board itself have to center around kind of the equity principle and make sure that we talk to the wide variety of groups and individuals that exist in the Oakland community and that really give it its fundamental strength. Because it's out of that diversity when we can bring people together, we can really have a much greater chance of success. So, we want to be sure that we tap in to different groups and individuals.
We know that takes time. A big chunk of that is through one on one meetings or small group meetings. Sometimes town halls are great. We've done a couple on Saturday mornings before sometimes that really worked pretty well in getting people out. And when we go to the board and, you know, with a slate of candidates, one of the things we want to be able to say is that anybody that wanted to have a voice in this had the opportunity to do so.
So even though we might schedule a calendar of meetings for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, we always say we don't care where it is in the search process. If you have something that you want to contribute to, something helpful, call us. We make our our phone numbers available. We make our emails available so people can reach us if they need to. So, that's a real critical part of the process is making sure that the different groups and individuals are not now, and we will need your help with that because we don't know those so we will
want to meet with you early on before we start that process to make sure we have it right in the first place. And that's where your opinions and help will be valuable as well as some of the key staff members, superintendent, and others in the district. Thank you. Director Betzal? Thank you. How will you ensure that voices of students, community, labor, and staff are meaningfully included in shaping the leadership profile? Well, for one thing, when we meet with groups and individuals, one of the points that we really want to stress and their role in this
process is to help to develop the leadership profile or position description, as it's called. Because your thoughts and your comments and your suggestions are going to be recorded and they're going to be reflected in that position description. Now, we can't get everybody's in. That's obvious. But it is really important for us to capture the major themes and concepts that emerge from the wide variety of discussions we'll have. And it's important that those people receive back some feedback on how their comments help
make a difference. So, we want to be sure we work with the communications department to get the word back to people. Also, the importance of the online survey cannot be underestimated. Generally speaking, it's very interesting to watch this develop over time. But the online survey is proving more and more to be the way best way to secure the maximum participation of a lot of people, some of whom don't always want to go to meetings or can't go to meetings or something like that. So, what we want to do is work carefully with your communication staff and to make
sure that we take advantage. It's not just enough to put a notice in the paper or bulletin, but to take advantage of existing communication structures within the district so that at any meeting let's say every school probably has a school site council or some kind of parent group, the union that these people know that they have an opportunity to fill out the survey and sometimes do that in conjunction with meetings. And so, anytime there's you know, one of the things we ask is anytime there's a meeting somewhere,
one good way to conclude it is now we're handing out copies of the online survey where we have some computers available. You can do it that way. And making sure we reached out to everybody as possible. And I think it's not just enough, as I said, to me just to put a notice out, but you have to work with your communications department to say, What are the existing structures in place that we can tap into to get the to get more participation in the online survey? I think we hit the record in a couple of years ago up in West Contra where we had over 5,000
people respond to the online survey in that district. And that was really encouraging. I actually think the person that was most helpful to us now works for Oakland Unified. So, that'd be a good source to tap into. Thank you. Director Berry? Thank you. What process will you use to show the community how their input influenced the candidate profile and finalist pool? Well, part of that I may have mentioned just previously that there needs to be some reporting mechanism back to the people that participated,
thanking them for their involvement, and making sure that they see the copy of the physician description and so that they can if they feel that we missed something critical, they have an opportunity to add something to it or make a suggestion. One of the parts of the community engagement process that we haven't talked about before though, and you do mention it in your RFP, is what involvement occurs during the interview process. And last time we worked in Oakland, we had two advisory groups that met and interviewed the different candidates.
And normally, you know, we well, we always want to make sure the process stays confidential. So, what we did last time, I thought it worked really well, was the a majority of the board was present in the background in those meetings. And so, they could see how the candidates reacted to the different questions from community people and all that. But again, we used the position description to develop the interview questions for the candidates either by the committee or by the board of education. So,
there has to be a feedback loop in this so that people know I mean, obviously, when we finish meeting with somebody, we thank them, we explain how it is going forward, but there has to be some kind of communication afterward. And maybe one of those comes from you on the board That's something you say to your community about how much you appreciate their involvement and all that. So, it's not just an outside consultant that's doing it, but you're telling the community how their input made a difference to you in the final approval of the position
description and developing the interview questions and making the selection of the finalist. Thank you. Director Latta? Yeah. Thank you, mister Brown. What have you learned from previous searches in large or politically complex districts that would help you lead this one successfully to find a superintendent who can build trust, drive results, and reflect Oakland's values? Well, I will tell you this, that every search we do, we learn something from it. And, one of the things our firm you know, because of the size of our firm and our proximity to each other,
we meet twice a month, all of us. And we talk about the searches that are going on, what we're learning. We talk about the professional development we are which we're doing with leaders in the state. We have a bunch of several superintendent networks and assistant superintendents for professional develop. So, we have our own feedback mechanism that we use to help us. Now, what did we learn from that search? What do we need to do going forward? Is there any change in our process that we need to do? We have two annual meetings where we spend a couple of days together doing a
lot of self criticism and everything like that. And because we're in California, because of our size, we can deliver, I think, of really high quality work constantly. And that's and we wouldn't stay in business if we didn't. We've also learned how important the engagement process is to most boards and that we really do a detailed job on that, but that we meet early on with the board. I don't think we should start a community engagement process without meeting with you first and understanding exactly what it is you want,
you helping us identify the key groups and individuals. So, the third point that we've always learned is that if there's any one thing that will undo the reputation of a search firm, and it's pretty easy to Google different search terms and find it, it's a poor job in reference checking. And there's a recent national example of that. So, we have learned how important it is in our reference checking, not just to talk to people that the candidate suggests we talk to, but to find and identify people who might not be on the candidate's list,
but who also can provide some valuable insights into the candidate's qualifications for the Oakland Unified School District. We've also learned that work with boards can be often challenging, especially boards that always don't see eye to eye And that we have to have processes in place that can help boards come to agreement and come together around this important thing. Most candidates will not take a job if the board is split. That's just the reality of life.
And, you know, I'm not saying it doesn't happen. But in general, you know, if you're going to take a job in as complicated a district as Oakland, all the challenges facing, you want to be sure your board is together and you can all work together. I think another challenge with Oakland is going to be the specter of receivership and your struggles to stay out of that and what needs to be done to do that. And, of course, our advice is whatever you need to do to if you can do it, please do, because that's not a route you want to go down to if you can possibly
avoid. We've learned the importance of communication with the board throughout the whole process. Don't just give us our marching orders. We have to stay in communication with you throughout the process. Usually, we do that with a subcommittee of the board or something like that. So, and finally, the other the last thing is always have a plan B. And just when you think everything is going to go right, something can get messed up and you've got to be flexible and adaptive into changes in circumstances. Thank you. Thank you. Director Thompson?
Yes. Yes. Mr. Brown, how would you manage competing OUSD community members, partners and constituent expectations while keeping the process fair, transparent and on schedule? Well, therein lies the why the answer to that lies and why search work sometimes costs what it does because it's very complicated. There are a lot of moving parts in the process. And one of the and as I mentioned just previously, one of our key points is the importance of communication
throughout the process to staff and community and the board of education. It is very important that on the district's website there be a section devoted to the superintendent search with regular updates provided on that so people can read that and stay in touch. You may want to give a quick update at your different board meetings that occur. But building a feedback structure throughout the whole process so that people so that people in group A know what people in group B are doing.
And we can help with that. We can help draft a report or something like that, some kind of communication. Working closely with your communication department will be really important on this because the sooner we can get something up on the website and the sooner we can get some kind of regular agenda process to give updates on the search and everything like that, the better. It's when people feel that they're not in the know that problems can start to rise. If people feel that they've reached out and tried to include them in parts of
the process and offered opportunities to do that, provided feedback and that sort of thing. But that involves a good communication structure. It involves our team working closely with people in your district and with the board throughout the whole process. It's not something you just hand off to us after you selected a search for. And it's something we need to start working on from day one. Thank you. Director Hutchinson, did you want to ask a question or Yes, thank you. You know, it, again, I don't know where the questions being asked tonight really came from. They weren't developed collectively as a board and,
you know, like I stated before, it's just not how I operate and I don't think it's the best way to serve my constituents. And I'm actually a little embarrassed about how this is being conducted tonight. And it's interesting the search firm that you mentioned in passing was scheduled to be interviewed here tonight until we made last minute changes to make sure that didn't happen. But I really wanna state on behalf of my constituents and, my community as a lifelong Oakland resident and a proud OUSD graduate that there are two qualities that I think we're looking for more than anything else for a superintendent
here in Oakland. Number one, we want a high quality superintendent, like the forty fifth largest city in the country deserves. And, and I'm really concerned given what's happened with our nationally renowned superintendent being forced out recently, our ability to be able to attract that kind of superintendent. And the second thing that, my constituents and myself really find, important is that we have a, superintendent who, has an understanding of Oakland and OUSD, and hopefully as deep of a connection as possible.
And I I know that needle is not going to be easy to thread, but, traditionally and definitely currently, I think those are the two most important qualities that I'm looking for and that my constituents expect me to look be looking for. So again, Mr. Brown, thank you for answering the questions tonight and I just want to state again, me making a statement instead of participating in these questions, shouldn't be considered any reflection about how I feel about you or your firm. Thank you. I don't feel that way at all. Thank you. I think,
I think, in fact, Donald mentioned that he didn't your mom work in the split book? Oh, yes. Mr. Evans knows my mother. Thank you. Director Williams. Thank you, president Brohart. So how do you ensure candidate pools reflect the diversity of our students? Question one. How do you ensure candidate pools reflect the diversity of our students and what are your sourcing strategies beyond your typical network?
Okay. All right. Well, let's take the first one, the diversity. I think I said at the beginning, one of the characteristics of the strengths of our firm is that we treat each district as unique and it's important that the candidates that we bring to the board and that's part of our core beliefs and values reflect the diversity of the communities that we're serving and helping. That's really now, it doesn't mean the finalists will be a member of one group or another. It means that the board is presented with a group of candidates
that are truly representative of the community in which they're serving. And we think if you talk to other boards with whom we are worked, I think you will find evidence that that's exactly what we do. Our sourcing strategies are there's the, you know, I think you're familiar with the concept of active and passive recruiting. You know, the not putting an ad in a newspaper. There are a number of key individuals and groups, both in the state of California and nationally, that represent Latinos, Latino administrators, African American administrators. And there's a whole series of groups that you need to be able to tap
into to find out if there are particular candidates that they might recommend, something like that. There's a group called the Great City Schools. I don't I'm trying to remember if Oakland is a part of that or not. Great City Schools serves most of the a lot of the large urban districts in the country. Groups like that. In California, we have administrators representing the groups representing the diversity. So, you have to reach out to a wide variety of groups and not and let them know what you're looking for. You have to and not just put an ad in,
but you have to make a phone call or two. You have to meet somebody for lunch and say, Here's what we're we're working in Oakland right now. Here's what we're finding. Here's the kind of candidate that we're looking for. Do you have any suggestions? And several of us have been involved in national associations over the years. And I think those ties can be helpful to us. And we just know that in order to do what you want us to do, there's a lot of reaching out to different groups and individuals, both in terms of advertising and also in terms of direct personal contact.
And we have a list of those groups, you know, for starters. And then we will go over that with you when we meet with the board. And if there's anybody else that we're missing that you want to help us identify, we'll do it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. The next question is what will your first thirty days look like if your firm is selected? And what actions will you take? And who will you engage first? K. Now, first thirty days. Okay. Well, now knowing the challenges of calendaring that exist occasionally in different school districts and boards
and area, the most important thing we have to do first is meet with you, the Board of Education. Now, that isn't going to happen tomorrow. It could happen at a regular meeting. It could At a special meeting. I don't know what you would decide is the best way to do on that. But we really need to meet with you ASAP if we're selected and certainly within the first thirty days. And at that meeting, we want to go over the timeline for the search, what works for you.
We want to talk about the community engagement process and start that underway. And we want to talk about any preliminary issues that might be with the superintendent's contract. We want to get your preliminary thoughts as a board on the qualities and characteristics of the new superintendent. We want to walk through each stage of the process with you, make sure there's a clear understanding of that. We want to talk about the communications process in the district, who are the key people with whom we should be meeting, and start those meetings fairly quickly.
We want to have a plan for community engagement emerge from that meeting so that in the next thirty to sixty to ninety days, we have that plan in place and up and running. But that just doesn't happen overnight. That has to happen with some careful thought and planning, our working with you, the board. So, I'm thinking, you know, we gave you a tentative timeline in our proposal, which is a little bit off now. But we do want there's a lot of work to be done in the first four months with the engagement and the meetings with the board.
We'd like to have the position description completed prior to the winter break. So, if we can get most of the community engagement and being with you completed by that time would be a good thing. If we have to go over, we go over. And again, I said, you know, as I said earlier, we will always tell people if we miss something or you want to talk to us about something, maybe it might even be a possible interview questions, here's our phone number, here's how you can reach us, and we'll be glad to talk with you and stuff.
So, the first thirty days is not just us. It's going to involve you as well. And, we'll really need your help and support to get this up and going, but that's critical. Thank you. Doctor. Batchelor? What do you need from the board and the district team to help you do your best work? We need your candor. We need your, direction. We need, We need you to have a really good understanding of the process going forward in agreement to that process so that we have the this is in the initial stages now,
correct? That we get the whole project outlined carefully with you. We need your help and cooperation on that To the extent we can all have processes where you can come to agreement among the seven if you do, that would be a good a really good thing. And if we can help, I know we can, but we will try to be as helpful as we can in that regard. So, that's what we need from you. We need to if there's issues that come up,
we need to have a communication process in place that you can bring something to our attention and we can bring yours. Generally, we want to work through some kind of defined board process for communication whether you establish a committee or you want us to talk to the whole board or whatever to frequency it with what that happens. And basically, you know, I think the bottom line is an agreement on the process itself going forward so that we've, you know, we've got all the nooks and crannies covered.
We haven't missed anything. And we have a process for making changes if we need to. In that we also want to see if you have any recommendations on candidates we should be recruiting, anything you think we should know about the district more in detail that would help us do our work and inform prospective candidates. So, really, you know, from our point of view, this is a partnership going forward. You know, we're not I suppose in some senses we're a contractor, But that's not how we see ourselves.
We see ourselves as your education partner and we want to work closely with you. And, you know, you need to push back on us. If you think we're not doing something that you wanted to have happen, that's fine. But we, we want to work with you closely through the whole process. Thank you. And our last question is Director Latta. Thank you. Is there anything we haven't asked you that you believe the board should know about your firm or your approach? Well, as I mentioned earlier, your RFP was about as thorough an RFP as we've seen.
It was very detailed. And, we are always very conscientious in responding to those RFPs. You do not get a boilerplate response and just send in what some other search firm just send in their standard proposals. We went through that in detail. We outlined our response to the RFP exactly the same way that you did. We also want you to know about the cost. There is a considerable cost variation among proposals. And we are very sensitive to the financial conditions in Oakland right now.
And we try to price this according to what we think will be our responsibilities in the costs that we incur. But we also tried to keep the cost range within something that will not be an embarrassment to you or anything like that because we think we have some obligation on our part to help you work through your finances as well. And so, if there's some way to structure that or something like that, that's part of the negotiation process in hiring a search firm.
We and finally, the whole logistics of the search, we want to make sure that you understand what the logistics of the search are, the timeline, and all that going forward. So, and finally, you know, it's our hope that the board has the ability to come together on this very important process. And if we can help in some way with that, we'd like to do it. But that would be very important going forward. It will also help us select really good candidates. Thank you. And thank you so much for spending time with us this Friday night.
And that concludes our interview. Thank you. Thank you. And is there public comment? President Bluejar, no public comment. With But but before we adjourn, do we do we have a date set for when the board is going to be making a decision on the RFP? Is that happening at our board meeting next week on the twenty second? And my understanding is that it has to be a vote in open session. So if not the twenty second, that leaves November 12, I think. No. I believe in the opening comments, I did say, October 22 in open session.
And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you.