##VIDEO ID:fjBEutsVDbA## to chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the act in the following manner a meeting notice was published in the newspaper and on the district website on November 25th 2024 in addition the notice of the meeting was posted at the municipal building in the schools and a copy of the notice filed with the Township Clerk and transmitted to other newspapers The Daily Record Star Ledger parsipany Focus tap into parsipany patch uh in the district website this regular public board meeting is being video recorded as per bi 0168 the recordings of these meetings will be available on our district website and our and on our video on the Go YouTube channel we ask that you please refrain from using student or staff names in your statement professionalism is expected at all times may we have the roll call please Mrs Abraham here Mr baros he's absent in excused he's conflicted from this discussion okay Mrs kogan here Mrs mayor here Mr Rea here Mrs Chappelle here Dr Wright here Mrs gold absent Mr Choppa uh here uh may we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algian to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for stand na under indivisible for well first I want to thank everybody for uh coming to our our special meeting um don't make me censor you two [Laughter] sorry um so as I as I said in the memo I sent out a week a week or so ago and thanks Joanie for crafting a good chunk of that um we we do have some you know challenges ahead of us over the next several months and uh you know a big challenge to overcome and to um have a a process in place is to recruit and hire a new outstanding superintendent and I didn't want to wait until until the reorganization I I just thought you know waiting those 6 weeks and just doing nothing is time we don't have so the purpose this meeting is really to do a couple of things one to talk about a a strategy for a replacement for the superintendent to try to get consensus on that and depending on which way the board wants to go um then taking actions probably after this meeting to kind of finalize that direction so the two choices that we have in front of us U are hiring a search consultant which we have done in the past uh or having the board uh with the administration uh internally uh Source a candidate there's pros and cons to to both um I've asked Dr Suter and Mr Ricker to talk a little bit about that because we have had some discussions about the process if we did this internally uh the person who we hire to do our last strategic plan was also the search consultant that placed uh Dr Sergeant with us uh several years ago so we have experience with search Consultants um the cost for for those Consultants is probably in the $40,000 or so range or somewhere in there so there's a cost to it they don't do their recruiting for free um some of the pros is they can coordinate the process for us so we have a a central point of contact that can place the ad uh solicit for resumés pre-screen resumés send them to us for review or you know we can we can ask for all the resumés to come in I think in the last process um there was meetings that were scheduled where community members can be involved meetings where staff can come and and talk about what they're looking for a superintendent um a lot of time involved with that process um and again the Board needs to determine whether there whether there's value in that after all we are the employer of the superintendent and we're elected to um along with statue because it it does say quite specific specifically the qualification of the superintendent but um they are our employee uh so and we're elected to um to uh be be the voice of the people in the selection process so I'm not I'm not sure again this this is a board decision on directionally what we want to do uh if it were an internal search um which both Dr Suter and Mr Ricker have said they they feel confident in be able being able to secure qualified candidates that are hirable uh by doing this internally but maybe they can talk to what an internal search process might look like yeah I think um I think like like Mr Chao said there are pros and cons I think depending upon what you want as a board if you want somebody here by July 1st I think that setting a timeline which I think the board and and our administrators can do um would be beneficial if if you feel as though you want to go with a search firm I think you could talk to them about Expediting the timeline but you're going to have to go out for bid you're going to so so your timeline kind of kind of goes down a little bit there so I think you know you have the skill set as a board I think that you have the wherewithal as a board I think that you know what you want in a superintendent and I think that you can screen resumés and I also think that saving $40,000 is something that we really need to to look at I mean that's that's what I think um that's my opinion that's my recommendation Mr rer what what do you we have to say I agree with Dr Sutter [Music] um sorry uh I agree with Dr Sutter um I think we could do this internally um I think the board that's currently here has been through this um and some of you have have been through this already um I think we have some questions that are out there that we could put together pretty easily um and this is a really big well-performing District that I think people will be attracted to so I don't think it will be much of a stretch to get applicants I I think then it becomes our job to screen them filter them and then ultimately select a candidate that's going to be up to you guys to do that um but I I think as far as going out and one of the big reasons to use one of those firms is to um solicit applications and and I feel pretty comfortable that we will get lots of them um I think that the number not to make a correction to you guys but I think the last time it was around 15,000 um so it it may not be up to 40 but um it'll be over 15 right so okay thanks Joanie for providing the number that was how many years ago was that for Jud that right that was five years ago okay thanks yeah please joh can I um is it usually like a percentage of salary the a fee for a search fir or no no could be really it it kind of depends on what you want them to do yes so so you you you participated in a couple of these right yes and I just took a class on this at at the last Workshop um school boards also does this and they have different scales like you said of what they what you want them to help you with um and I don't believe their's got up to $40,000 even if you picked like all the bells and CAC plan um and they I mean obviously they have a vest vested interest because they want you to use their firm but they highly suggested you do not try to do it in-house it is not something that any District employee should be involved in and which leaves everything on the board of education itself so yes we are have all done this before um but it was a very long and involved process I think the search Consultants also help get the community involved and I think this may not be a time where we want to exclude the community in the entire process I also went on today to see um the people who are the other districts who are looking and there are some around here Wayne is right in there so you know this is a competitive field and anybody who wants an a superintendent by July first is asking everybody to have their applications in by by June 8th of January 8th so there really is is not a good timeline for this for us even if we try to do it ourselves to try to get it all done by July 1 because anybody who's looking for a job for July 1 has already put their applications in to the districts that have their openings so I mean I think we I think we really need to think this through I don't think we want to rush into anything and just I don't know I don't I do not want to rush this having been through this five times before so on the community involvement piece um I was conflicted when Dr Sergeant was hired so I wasn't part of that search how well attended were these Community meetings did we get any out of it that influenced our decision on a selection um just how how effective was that part of it I think there were different sorry Judy there were different Avenues she sent out surveys that were actually very well responded to and then she summarized it all so we didn't go through all the surveys and she held quite a few different forums I know the staff one was very well attended that's a good point um Judy you want to no no I was just gonna say can use your microphone sorry um yeah that's what she did and then last night some of us were on that um New Jersey school boards thing and they were talking about you know superintendent searches and it and it was interesting they were saying that you know survey for parents par in the community which is what she did um a timeline on our website to be totally transparent you know how many applicants and stuff so I don't know that you know we could get that all together so quickly I mean I I have faith in Dr suer and Mr Ricker but I think it's a very wide you know wide process and there are other districts that are like you said some have already put applications in and I think you know it's a tough time now to be starting this Michelle and also as a reminder every you guys have day jobs right and your day jobs are very full and and so I know that while you would give it a valiant effort and do a fantastic job you already have a very heavy workload which I wouldn't want to you know take away from jle thanks um I haven't been through this before so I have I'm sorry can you hear me I was saying I haven't been through except this past couple years with drct but um question for the consultant is it a full service consultancy or do they do like an alart kind of thing it depends on who you use but yeah you can say we only want you to gather information and hand it to us and then we'll do the rest or you could say I want you to gather everything I want you to sort it I want you to summarize it I want you to go through the reses and only give me the top 10 based on you know what we've selected are our criteria I want you to set up the interviews I and so so with Dr Sergeant was that a full service is what I'm trying to say no I think we really do um the um one of the things with Judy was she she worked very closely with me and I did a lot of the leg work the printing for the Board of Ed she was I was her contact we got everything out to the board but she was responsible for all the community surveys she did all the Googles the stack was about that high of what she got back she went through it all put it all into cohesion so that's why some of the other ones that came in that time were higher 25 30,000 because they were doing everything she was very good with us said okay I'll do this you do that and that that was her price okay can I yeah please um have we reached out to any I guess previous superintendent for advice or go closer to your I'm sorry I can't hear you I was saying can we there we go have we reached out to any previous superintendent for advice on doing this again no okay um is there a way to have an interm superintendent if we can't get it done by July 1 yes there's interim and acting so there's two different choices and that's it for now thank you yeah Wendy um could uh just can I get what would the timeline on bidding This and like how do we if we don't know what we're asking if if we're thinking like Alla Kart how do you structure that request we would actually with the board's approval we'd go through an RFP that Joan's put together today and some questions that would allow them to then send out an RFP all right and then my second um what's the difference between interim and acting acting as somebody that is already in your District having a job that you're now putting in for that inms generally are individuals that you're bringing either back in or from the outside for some the intent is basically the same ECS considers it differently but those are are differences uh so are are we are we thinking about using a consultant I'm I'm getting that that's the consensus that we want to go with a consultant probably yes yeah do we want to use consultant is that generally the feeling I mean I thought she did a really good job well may not may not be her again right but I'm saying when you get it if it was was her just throwing it out there she I thought she did a good job she knows parcion she knows the kind of District we are so I thought you know being that she would be a good choice to kind of interview but um to get another consultant that starting fresh here we'd have to go out with an RFP we couldn't just hire hire her I mean I would be interested in in hearing other Consultants but the first firm we used was not a good fit so there are definitely Consultants out there that we do not want to use so I don't I think we should see who I think we should go out for RFP see who puts their thing in maybe interview if there's enough but I don't want to tie ourselves to having to use one because some of them are not good and I do not want to get stuck using one that will not meet our needs do we still have and the last time we had three and we interviewed all three well that's what I was going to ask so we still have the list that we inter that we we got quite quite a few people just just emailed us that they you they're consultants and we're ready to help you no but from our last round when we did Dr sergeant if we have the list of Consultants that we kind of oh to interview the Consultants right yeah but we still have to put it out no no I get that but just to look at those yeah do we have a Lessons Learned From the last time or the last few times we've gone through this so to you know Allison's Point are there things that we need to keep in mind I know we're very fortunate that we have a number of people who have gone through this process for us but it would be good for all of us to just kind of Kick the tires as we're reviewing possible candidates I mean for for the actual people to perform the search as well as actual superintendent candidates I'm going to defer to you two I haven't been involved in the superintendent search in better part years don't have anything written but I think between those of us who have done this for several times yes I think we could come up with a good list of let's not do this again or let's make sure some things some good things that would make a consultant attractive would be would be helpful how long did it take from beginning to end with Dr Sergeant it was about six months you know what might be interesting if we could contact another District that did use a consultant and ask them what kind of groundwork what kind of questions did they propose to kind of choose their consultant not that we're going to but just to get an idea of what they thought was important yeah like Wayne maybe what like Wayne they're in the process right now they're in the process right now but how how far ahead are they no no they're just J do you want to say something no oh just okay uh okay so we'll we'll uh go with the consultant route um again we have to do an RFP so can I just Kate that doesn't bind us to accepting one of these right it it does not um and I would just add that if you go out for an RFP um the technical specs which is traditionally which your your board of board business administrator comes up with um are really kind of what you guys are looking for um overall for the s for the search firm but also potentially for the superintendent because as soon as you say that you're going to go out and people think that they're going to put in they're going to be contacting their um contacts um and so if you're going to say we want somebody who's only had experience with districts with 5,000 people um you know that's going to limit your pool um but that's who they'd be contacting so I think working through that a little bit would be um helpful and I do think we had a list of questions for the Consultants the last time um that are somewhere we do that would be great Johnny do you have any records of all of the work that was done be when we picked our consultant like yes all the interviews we had all the interviews what they submitted okay what we asked and all okay that would be a nice kind of place to help us kind of look what we did in the past and then because we've done it see how it would work out yeah Joanie I think has very good records of the past processes that we can we can use all right um sorry question so Janie I mean obviously you said before that you were very heavily involved in working with the consultant to execute this do you have a preference I can do it either way I have I have all my records I can do it either way okay she can do anything I I I know I just don't want to put too much burden on her so it's all right so so all in favor of using a consultant for the search maybe show hands one for well so say that again I I'm in favor of going out to RFP to hear from Consultants I am I don't I am not in favor of saying we are going to hire a consultant all in favor of going out for an RFP uh to uh interview search consultants for the superintendent search yes okay okay that's unanimous okay great um so we can we can do this in two ways my my preference is to name an ad hoc committee to work with the administration on the RFP to get it you know technically sound and then to um to send it out so I think we need to be a little bit Nimble again I'm concerned about time I know quality is important it's our Paramount issue but I don't want to uh belor it too long and I think um a Nimble ad hoc committee would be good um I'd like to just coincidentally the three people sitting together there Alison Judy and Jack um to serve on this ad hoc committee you were the first three to respond to the request uh Wendy I know you also did I want to keep the force spot open uh in case after the reor new board leadership wants to do something different or the president wants to be part of the ad hoc committee but I don't want to fill it up with four four people at this point so does that sound okay okay good so we'll vest with the committee um the the review of the RFP to make selections on behalf of the board on on the things we need to uh to choose and then it can be sent out and Robin will oversee that process okay you're good yeah can you say we have we need we have a resolution to read in um yeah we can do it when you do the superintendence I don't think there there is no superintendent don't we have this we have one super oh the hibs the hibs yeah sorry okay so moving along we're up to Super tennis bowls to number eight number eight um we have uh superintend M to number eight item one is our hibs me resol the Board of Education affirms a harassment intimidation and bullying report for the December 5th 2024 meeting and we have a resolution uh be resolved that the Board of Education hereby authorized the issuance of an RFP to solicit proposals from executive search firms to assist the Board of Education in its search for its new superintendent uh any discussion on that okay we are at the hearing of the public at this time if there's anyone who would like to address the board please come up sign your name uh and address in the book at the lecturn and state your name for the record please address the chair each person will have three minutes to speak to the board it would be helpful if You' like to address the board to please come up now sign the book so you are ready when the first speaker is finished as a reminder we are video recording this meeting if you are a student to wish to speak we ask that you not provide your home address but rather give only the name of the municipality in which you live if you are a parent wishing to discuss a specific matter pertaining to your child during this portion of the meeting you may request that the board temporarily suspend the video recording alternatively please consider speaking privately about the matter to the superintendent after the meeting speakers should refrain from using specific student or staff names in their comments and refer to bylaw 168 for further information regarding the videotaping of our meetings ah Council vice president NLEA good to see you this evening good evening everyone good evening board and Mr Chao president Chao I'm here with a request from the palal Nick brazo he's uh he's the new interim director there and he's got a lot of good things he wants to do at the palal and he asked me if I could ask the board you Mr Chao president uh if possible would there be uh any art classes maybe in the middle or uh high school that would be like to do maybe a project paint murials on the wall at the pal he has a couple of walls he wants to do some murals on and I told him that'd be a great idea and I happen to be coming here tonight so I I'll put in his request if you're interested he did ask me to give you his personal phone which I won't do in public session I'll write it down and give it to someone if you're interested and uh just uh let me know so I can let him know and I think it's a great idea if you're interested nice project for an art class maybe but uh he asked me for that request so I thought I'd uh come in and request on his behalf thank you Frank yeah sure enough and also wish you all a happy holiday season merry Christmas happy Hanukkah and have a great season with your families and enjoy them thank you thank you thank you Frank appreciate that uh anyone else wish to address the board okay we're going to close the public session um Dr s you here to comment on that or would you like to speak to Mr negia perhaps uh privately to discuss Mr NE if you just send an email to the superintendent's email address with the request I'll forward it to the proper parties and see if they would like to you know get involved in that absolutely okay or or uh councilman egley if you like to have the new interim director send uh Dr Suter that email that's fine too of course okay and again and then we'll forward it to our art Department that's awesome okay yeah thanks trank okay roll call vote uh may I have a motion uh on superintendent bullet number eight item number one and the resolution sheol second okay when uh roll call please Mrs Abraham yes Mrs kogan yes Mrs mayor yes Mr rehea yes Mrs Chapelle yes Dr Ray yes Mr chpa uh yes thanks again everyone for coming to the special meeting and we'll see everybody on December 19th meeting's adjourned thank you what's that thank you who's motion to close oh sorry motion motion to close Michelle second by Jack all in favor okay I