Yeah. He should have some handouts. It's summer, but we're getting our weather and fog and this is David. Hi, David. I'm Walsh. Oh, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
He knows it's my friend who's like a meteorologist my friend's husband Okay. Makes me proud to be in the mountain. Nice cold. Yeah. Yeah. It's working really well in
the mountain. There you go. June like 90 in my office makes you lethargic. Yeah. Jimmy sandwiches. We could do it. Well, I don't know. I'll ask everyone. Sue, are you gonna want a
sandwich? I don't I don't necessarily, but David had asked about it. I said, "Well, how are we going to get him?" He said, "Well, they deliver." Yeah. No, we could pay for you. No, I just
Yeah. Or pass someone else with it. Were you? Were you going to want a sandwich? You want a sandwich? Well, David's the only one I think. I'm not starving. I ate breakfast
on the way back up from this trip. Okay. I haven't stopped at the pantry forever. Okay. Do you want any snacks? What do you have in mind? There's chips. There is bars. Well, we've got one more. I'll be here any second. Okay. There she
is. Hi, nice to meet you. All right. Well, let's kick this up. We better. Okay. I call this meeting order at 11:02. Roll call. Pardon me. here. Bates
here. Kimrell here. Patterson here. Wester Hall here. Okay. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Uh I need to ask for a motion for approval of the agenda. Ginger, that consent agenda item, did
you care if it's last? I don't I can go first or last. It does not matter. Okay. You'll be here for the whole I will be here for the entire Okay. Well, then we won't I won't ask for an adjustment to the to the agenda. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? Barkley. I
Bates I. Jim Bro. I Patterson. Hi. Mr. Holtz. I motion carries. Okay. Well, this is Walt. He's with McFersonen and Jacobson. And uh we appreciate you coming up and telling us
all about your guys's search abilities. Ready to just jump in? Do I need to use my uh Okay. I'll try to remember. Are you ready to jump in? Yeah. All right. Let's go.
So, thank you for the uh the opportunity to visit with you today. Um, can we can we turn up your volume just a little bit, please? Are we able to do that? Well, there that's good. Turned up the
volume. It's not you. It's my ear. No, it's my button. Oh, only my hair and my ears got old. Your eyes are Well, thank you for the opportunity. Um,
as Mick said, just by what way, just a little background. My name is Walt Cooper. Um, I'm with McFersonen Jacobson. I'll tell you a little bit about the firm here in just a second. Uh, but um, my connection with McFersonen Jacobson. I am a recovering school
superintendent. Um, I retired in 2021. I was superintendent for Chai Mountain School District Hill for 17 years. Um, and been county in the Pikes Peak region since 1998. Uh, second superintendent in a
couple of different districts. Um, but my connection to McFerson Jacobson began uh when I was retiring. Uh, the Cheyenne Mountain Board of Education engaged McFerson Jacobson to search for my replacement. That's how I got introduced and connected with some folks in the
firm. And then when I retired, I thought, you know, I enjoy engaging with superintendents. I enjoy engaging with boards and I thought this would be a way for me to stay somewhat engaged um in retirement. Uh I didn't plan on working nearly as much as I've been working in
the search world. Um but I thought, you know, I'm while I'm still relatively close to the work, I think I'm relevant in the field. I know a lot of the players. I know a lot of the the politics. I know a lot of the dynamics. And so I thought this would be a good
way for me to to stay engaged. Um as as each year goes by, right, I understand that I'm further and further away from the work. So, this is not a long-term gig for me, but while I'm doing this, it really is um both energizing and I think rewarding to do
this. And just by u very quick reference, there's a sheet in front of you. As I said, I didn't plan on doing nearly this much work when I started to engage in this, but I've done about 30 searches since I retired in 2021. Everything from student district in East
El Paso County to Albuquerque public schools and Reno Nevada public schools, Toronto School District 11, and the tens of thousands of students. So, um, as I said, I'll tell you a little bit about McFerson Jacobson and the firm because it's important to the way we approach
searches for clients. Um, but I don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking and and presenting and trying to sell you on McFerson Jacobson. I really want to make as much time available for your questions because I'm sure you have many and that would be um probably much
better information uh than I could just uh give to you in a presentation. But I do have some uh some information to share about our process about the firm. I have some uh samples of a couple of things I want you to look at. Um and then I'm happy to answer any questions
that you might have about any part of the search or anything that either questions arise present to you or questions you already have that I don't answer. So, um, if you just would like me to jump in and start, I will do that. Or if you have some questions right off
the bat, I'm happy to entertain those as well. Is there a preference of the start? Yeah, go ahead and start. I'm sure questions will be generated. All right. So Mike have the first
slide. So um first and foremost Jacobson uh is the search partner for both Colorado Association of School Boards and Colorado Association of School Executives. Why I say that and why we tout this, uh, many of you may
know, I don't know if you, but Colorado Association of School Boards used to do superintendent searches independently inhouse all over Colorado. Um, they had full-time staff to do that. Um, and they did the vast majority of Colorado searches.
Um, small, large, urban, rural, you name it. About four or five years ago, uh, as everybody was struggling with budget crisis, there was turnover um at the association. They realized that it really was not necessarily in their
wheelhouse and they really were they thought that their core competencies around policy support, board support, board training, those types of things were suffering as a result of them trying to maintain a robust search process. So they decided they were no
longer going to do that. So CASBY went out and interviewed a number of search firms across the country. Um there are about five of us that do the vast major five firms that do the vast majority of superintendents across the country. Um and so CASBY selected uh from those
interviews, CASBY selected Mcver and Jacobson to be their search partner. So now as boards engage with CASBY needing help with superintendent searches or superintendent evaluations or the other things that CASBY used to do internally, we provide those services through CASBY
to CASBY members. Um, same thing happened with Colorado Association of School Executives when Casby got out of search world case at that time because there was no little local presence, right, of of organiz membership sort of representation. They said, you know
what, maybe we got to start doing superintendent searches. So, three years ago, they started that. They brought on a couple of folks, retired folks like me. I didn't do it with them, but retired folks like me. They did about four searches and very quickly realized this is not exactly what we expected. We
don't have the confidence. We don't have the bandwidth. We don't have the capacity to do this. But we need to be able to support our members with, you know, close uh connections to that. Case did the same thing. We signed on with case as their exclusive search partner.
When I get to the end of my comments in this presentation, I'll sort of tell you how that works as a partnership and why that's an important facet to what McFerson James does. But we we are proud to partner along with these
organizations and think that really. So, next slide, please. So, if you could just click through this until it all populates, that'd be great. I won't have you go all the way. Three more if you click. Okay, that's great. Thank you. So, um, we are,
as I said, a leading national search firm. We've been around since 1991. We're based in Omaha, Nebraska. When I say we're based in Omaha, Nebraska, we have an office of two in Omaha. Um, but, uh, that's that's not our business model
is not based in in an office anywhere. Um but uh when I say we're a leading national search firm, that's by by volume of searches across the country as identified by American Association of School Administrators. Um I don't know who who else you're entertaining or who
you might hear from, but um largely among Rayan Associates, uh GR Consulting, Hazard Young and AIA and McFerson and Jacobson, those those firms provide probably well over 90% of superintendent searches across the country.
Um, McFersonen Jacobson has a network of over 130 consultants across the country like me. So when I say our business model, right, we have back office support in Omaha around tech, around uh billing, around those kinds of things, but all of us work as independent
contractors. We all work part-time. Vast majority of us are retired superintendent or district administrators. Um, and I'll tell you in a little bit why that's an important facet. You might not care. say, "Well, why do I care about what happens in Wisconsin or Florida or Arizona?" Um,
there's an important facet to that, and I'll tell you why in a minute. And then we uh we pride ourselves uh on using a combination of national recruiters and then Colorado consultants for Colorado searches. And and we say that in almost every state. We're across 30ome states
uh in terms of where we have no more than that, almost 40 states where we have folks. We think it's really important to have boots on the ground and folks familiar with districts, politics, climates, laws, all of that sort of thing. Um, but the the national
recruiting base is important, too. So, that's a little bit about the firm. Um, we really pride ourselves on those three things across the bottom. Number one, flexibility and customization of our protocols. You all got this, I think, soft copy and what and we're going to
talk about our protocols in a minute. Um, but as I said, I've done a little over 30 searches everywhere from a 100 students to 80,000 students. While we have our protocols and our materials and you know we have our schedules and our phases and we say we
do this this I can I can honestly and straightforwardly say none of those 30 no two of those 30 some searches looked exactly alike because we've got to we've got to meet your needs based on based on geography based on size based on
on everything that makes every district unique right makes the searches unique's a lot of stuff that goes on in every search regardless of if it's, you know, Twinland Park or Albuquerque. Um, but there's a whole lot that doesn't happen in many places that's replaced with
other stuff. We really pride oursel on on authentic engagement of stakeholders and we'll talk about how that happens in a minute. Um, and stakeholders is a very very broad category, right? stakeholders does not just include um just you know
parents or just taxpayers or it's it's very very relevant and then mo probably most importantly is our track record of successful placements and I'll give you some data points here in just a minute around that. Um but um that's that's what we're all after, right? I will tell
you um I am not in the business of repeat clients. I do not want to have repeat business with anybody. So um successful placements is important to us right next slide please. So here is a sample desired timeline that we'll come
back to later if you want to talk about it. Um, but so the reason I put this early on in the presentation is just so that you can you can think about all of the other things that I'm going to talk about through the presentation and the protocols with the backdrop backdrop of
when all of these things best happen, right? It's not the only time they can happen, but fess. So if we if if we had a completely blank slate and we could design this thing any way we wanted to. We didn't have any other parameters around time, any other parameters that
we need to work with. That's really what we prefer to grab the best candidates at the best time for the best possible outcome. And that would be around mid November. And especially in Colorado in oddnumbered years, right? what happens
in November, schoolboard elections, right? So, mid November sometime post election so that both the board, the community, constituents and candidates know who's going to hire them, know who's going to be their boss at least hopefully for the next two years, right?
So, post election, we would engage with stakeholders. Um, you're going to see in your materials and I'm going to talk a little bit later that is this document in them? I'm sorry. No, this is not the the PowerPoint is not. I can certainly we'll send it to
you. So, um so we reference we reference time frames in the document but this specific slide is not um but in in the protocols um again this is flexibility right in the protocols it talks about
stakeholder engagement after phase one I'm getting a little bit ahead but phase one is where we engage with the board and we build the blueprint for the and then we engage with stakeholders. I think that's backwards. I think the best thing to do again if we have time to do this is to
do our stakeholder engagement before the board even convenes. I mean you've made the commitment to do the search but you have not yet put your desired criteria. You've not yet built the schedule. You've not done any of those things so that that engagement of stakeholders like I said on the previous slide can
really be authentic. So if if you do a lot of work up front and say this is what we're looking for and here's what the timeline is going to be and here's what we're gonna pay and all this other sort of stuff and then three weeks later we step in with stakeholders and say okay so what do you all think right what do what is the
immediate reaction that you think many stakeholders have why are you asking me now they've already made up their mind right so is this just to so we can say oh we asked folks but you didn't do anything with it because you already had all this information laid out so I I think it's important to do stakeholder
engagement before we do what we call phase one, which is where we would engage in a workshop with the board and you build we build the the blueprint going forward with the with the search. So then you can see that if we got the vacancy posted by late December,
um we'd launch in right after, you know, at the first of the year when most candidates are now forward thinking to what is the path ahead. You know, in academia, we all function on this nine-month old school agrarian school calendar, right? But
that's the reality of it. And so, until we get past that midpoint, most folks aren't thinking forward to the next year, they're surviving in the current year. So, we get out uh and right after the first of the year, we're collecting applications, we're vetting candidates,
and we get around to midFebruary, we come back and re-engage with the board and say, "Okay, here's what all of your work turned up in terms of potential candidates. Let's talk about all of these candidates and who are there folks in here whom you would like to move
forward with more in depth in the search process." that would lead into um candidate interviews in late February um or midFebruary to late February. That's when you would make your selection, right? And now you know in late February
who's going to assume the role no later than July 1st depending on where candidates are what they're doing. Now you know might be if you want transition time with the members in the role at that time or whatever else that's always flexible but we wouldn't want it to go past the beginning of the fiscal year
July one. Right? So that's the that's the desired timeline. We can talk about other options to that later on in just a few minutes. But next slide, please. So overall, why do you want a search firm, right? Why would you want to engage a
search firm? You hire people in this district probably more frequently than you want to, right? Seems like seems like hiring used to happen in about a six six week window in the spring, right, Tori? Not in glory. It seems like we're hiring folks all the time. Um, so
why engage a search firm to do a superintendent when you don't engage a search firm for anything else, right? You rely on your quality people, your HR folks here in the district to do this. Really four four main reasons and I want to highlight. So the first is to make sure that the process is
structured, it's transparent, it's objective, right? We're an independent third party, right? So we don't bring uh we we bring as little bias. I will not say we don't bring any bias. There's not such thing as an HR process that doesn't have bias in it, right? We try to limit that as much as possible, but we don't
bring any internal bias from the district into the search process. We think that's important. Same thing about engagement with stakeholders. When we engage with stakeholders, we find probably no surprise, folks are willing to talk to us and tell us things they're not willing to tell folks who are their
neighbors or who are their bosses or, you know, who are their their allies or their adversaries, right? We're independent in that regard. um we can help because again many of these things I'm going to reference our network right the folks that we have across the country our capacity um we
know what's happening in terms of salaries and benefits and contracts not only here in the Pikes Peak region right in Ter County and El Paso County but all across the state all across the the country so we have capacity to bring that information into the mix but number
four is absolutely the most important So, um, we can absolutely recruit and vet candidates objectively, uh, reference checks, background checks, all of that sort of stuff much better than anyone internally could um, for a
number of reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is going back to that number of consultants that we have across the country. I'm still close enough to the work here that with with candidates that come from Colorado, I likely either know the candidate, I know about the candidate, I've had the
candidate in a previous search, or I know someone who knows someone who knows someone that knows the candidate. That's how we're going to get information from candidates, not because we call the four references that they provide to us, right? Nobody ever provided a reference that's going to pick up the phone and say, "Oh, well, maybe you better keep
looking." It's just not going to happen. Um, but about 50% of our candidates in every search come from out of state. So, I don't know those candidates as well. I don't know people I mean I know a lot of people across the country from the searches I've done but I don't have that
same connection or that same network across the country that I have in Colorado but I have 130 colleagues across the country much like they reach out to me when folks from Colorado apply in Oklahoma that we can that we engage with to do that same level of vetting.
Right? Just yesterday, I called someone, a former colleague of mine who happens to now work in Houston, and I said, "Hey, who do you know um in the Woodlands that would be the best person for me to call relative to this candidate?" And I made
that. I haven't talked to him yet. They have to call me back, but I made that connection just because of of a colleague that that is in that area. Next slide, please. So then why go ahead and populate. So why specifically McFersonen Jacobson? Like I said there
are other other quality firms out there both large and small. Um over the over time since 91 we've done over a thousand searches all across the country. In the last five years we've done nearly 80. Um actually as of today it's over 80. um in
Colorado. No, no, and I I'm not disparaging anybody else who may uh wish to provide their services to me, but nobody can even come close to the volume of searches in Colorado that we produce that my four colleagues. I have a colleague in London. I have a colleague,
excuse me, in PBLO. I have a colleague in Durango and a colleague in Grand Junction. Um and exponentially, we we do far more searches in Colorado than anybody else. But the bold bullet is is the most important and that's this that we stand on the strength of our
references. So I could I could stand up here and tell you how great I am and how wonderful McFerson Jacobson is all day long. I'm not a salesman so I'm not very good at that. But that's why I provided you that list of searches that I've specifically led and in the back of the book are searches that all of us have
led. all of those person Jacobson and I encourage my guess is you know somebody in many of those districts call them and ask them right cold call them and say hey you know would it be worth would it be worth our time and money to hire these guys to do the searches
because I could I could very easily have this presentation be one slide and this would be the slide and I would just say please call somebody and ask them and I can walk out but um that that's we really pride ourselves on that. Next slide, please. Go ahead and populate it.
Again, it's about flexibility and customizing our searches. Um, you know, there are some limits. There are some things that we just can't do or won't do um because they're inappropriate or we've been asked to do some things that we just are not ethical or maybe
not legal and we just won't do that. Um, again, our consultants across the country provide us with great capacity. We don't require much from the district. Um some help with with some organizing and communications, that sort of stuff. And then um we provide a guarantee
following phase five of our search protocol. We guarantee our placements for two. If you decide to fire the superintendent, the superintendent leaves for another search that we're doing, we come back and do it for free. Again, I'm not in the business of repeat clients. None of us want that. It's happened on occasion. I actually have
one right now, but it doesn't happen very often. So, um, we're we're confident enough in our process and and our candidates that that we offer that. Next slide, please. In addition to just the search, there's a lot of other capacity that
happens with McFerson Jacobson. Um, if you choose to use this, we do executive coaching. Uh, we're licensed to issue the Burkeman personality assessment. It's much like a MyersBriggs or some of the others that you might be familiar with. if you choose to use that. Um my
wife who's also a consultant um is a certified DISC leadership assessment administrator. So we can do that. Um and because she's licensed to that, that doesn't cost you anything. What does what does DISC stand for? It's an
acronym of I'm not the trainer. So um in so the ISC is inventory of specialized characteristics. digital inventory of specialized characteristics. So, um it's a styles
inventory, right? So, communication style and leadership style, right? So, you know, are are you looking at a candidate that's highly that's a large controller and highly autocratic or are they, you know, are they engaging all that other stuff. It's fun if you
haven't taken it to find out your assessment. Um we also provide support around superintendent evaluations if you choose to do that. Um why why we say these are now some of these are embedded just a little bit
like like the goal setting right that's a little bit embedded in what we do with what we call phase five in terms of services these aren't included in what you have in front of you um because we're not sure based on we don't know who you're going to hire right we don't
know what candidate is going to and we I or one of my co might not be the right person to be their executive coach it may you It's not just because you do executive coaching. Are you effective with everybody or the best fit with everybody? A lot of that is based on
leadership style. A lot of that's based on experience or whatever. So, so we don't want to upfront say, you know, we're going to put somebody in place and then I'm going to coach him for the next 12 months. That may not be the right thing. We'll put somebody in place. I
say, "You know what? Um, a non McFersonen Jacobson colleague that I know who happens to presently be serving in the in the San Louis Valley, but is an excellent uh leadership coach might be the best person. So, I'm going to connect you with them, right? So, it's
not a money maker for McFersonen Jacobson. We're not but more important to us for the sustainability and the development. So while we can provide uh a lot of this, we also can connect with a lot of this that's outside of McFverse and Jacobson and we're happy to do that
with whatever is the most effective. So next slide, please. Here's the here's the data points that I wanted to tell you about that last piece on the slide about our attention. These are not our numbers. These are verified numbers for American Association School Administrators.
So of the candidates that we've placed in the and these are as of the end of this last search season after five years 86% of our candidates are still in the job that they were hired for five years previously. You can see the next two data points 53 after 10 years and 43% um
after 15. Now if you put that on an academic grading scale right our 10ear number is an F at 53%. You all know though the data points around tenur of superintendent across the country, right? That said, if you were batting 530 in the major leagues, you'd go to
the Hall of Fame. So, um we are really really proud of these numbers, especially given that these same data points across the country. I'm also not naive enough. I don't I fully believe that
there is a measure of good luck in these numbers, right? But it's not all about luck. I think a lot of the because you do have to be lucky. But I think a lot of these numbers rest in the fact that we do our homework. We really there are a lot of talented people out here that
can do the job. But not everybody can do the job everywhere. So what we what we match to the district, what we match to your criteria, the manner in which we've met folks, um we're we're not rolling the dice by the time you get to final
candidates. We hope that and really work to have you have a slate of folks that can all do the job, can all do the job well here, is the right fit. That's what leads to those numbers, not just finding somebody that's in a pool and saying, "Oh, this guy needs a job. Let's put him
over here." Next slide, please. So here I'm not going to go bullet by bullet here but these these uh these this chart is in your in your protocol and in our protocol you'll hear
me relate to phases right phase one through five phase one through four is actually the search itself the candidate is hired after phase four and then phase five is the transition once the person is actually on board. So um if I could
have the slide. It breaks this down a little more. So phase one and phase four really are where you are involved significant. Phase one, couple hour work session. We come in and we build the blueprint for the search. A lot of this is statutoily driven. Colorado law
requires you at an open meeting to define the criteria for the position, to identify the salary, to build the timeline, all those kinds of things. So we walk you through that process. We build the blueprint. This leads up to the job announcement and the job
posting. Okay. Now, I'm going to skip two and three and I'm going to jump to phase four. Phase four is after the posting is closed. We've done our vetting. We've done our background checks. We've requested video interviews from the top candidates in the pool.
We've provided you with all the however much information, however much or however little information you want on all of the candidates through the process. Phase four, we come back and we share all of that information with you in executive session because no one has been named a finalist yet. So, Colorado
law keeps all of that information confidential. The ultimate objective coming out of that phase four meeting is for you to publicly identify who your final candidates are. Now, the laws change. Now everything becomes open. Everything becomes public information
including all of the processes, right? So, um, and phase four then culminates with your interviewing candidates. Does that make sense? Next slide. I'm going to jump into phase two and three. This is about
eight weeks worth of workish or so, depending on that calendar, where you may wonder really what you're paying us for and what we're doing because you're not directly engaged in this. But this is when we when we are vetting candidates, we're collecting applications, we're recruiting, we're doing all of that behind the scenes
work. Notice that in your chart, um the wording is a little different, but also on this chart that stakeholder engagement is listed in in phase two, but I have that highlighted with an arrow. And that's what I meant about customized. So, I really I prefer in the
searches that I do, um Albuquerque was the first search that I did where we moved this because we had a long runway. Um, and so we moved it up front. The board had all of that information in hand. I can show you what that report would look
like. Here I have a copy. Um, prior to that phase one meeting and working through that search, it made all the difference in the world. So I said, you know, we're going to do this. I think that will be a protocol that Jacobson will shift fully in the not too distant
future. Um, but phase two and phase three is where we do where we do all of our work, where we go to work before we step back in with you with phase four. So, if I have the next slide, then phase five, as I said, happens typically a month or maybe two,
not too much longer after your candidate is on board. So, sometime sometime late July, early August, right? It's another work session where we come in and we do some goal setting. We talk about target for the superintendent. Um, it can be as long it can be as much as a like an
inaugural strategic planning session or maybe it just focuses on specific goals in the superintendent evaluation or anything in between. But we want within the first four or six weeks that the superintendent is on board, we want everybody, you behind the dis and the
superintendent to be on the same page in terms of what the greatest priorities are, what the targets around those priorities are going to be and how indivi individuals whether they're board members or the superintendent are going to be accountable in the process to getting to the end and saying we made
it, we failed or we're still working. Right? So next slide. So as I wrap up this part, I wanted to circle back to why the partnership, right? Well, shortly after we finish that phase five uh in that
transition, um if you don't engage with us on some other things, we do governance training, do some other things, but we we want to stay in our lane and in our wheelhouse. Casby and case though are the sustainable organizations both in terms
of the sides supporting the superintendent and their role as the executive and supporting the board in their role as as the governance board. And so we like to bring um Casease and Casby into the mix as we go out of phase
five with only one objective and that is that we hope that those maintain for you um a sustainable path for support um both uh in terms of governance and leadership andor both.
And so that's why our our we're actually doing a phase five next week in which we're actually going to have a representative from cases professional development group and also Matt Cooker you might know from from CASBY um all three it's not my search
but all three of those individuals going to group facilitate the phase five so that folks can have a really good idea doesn't cost anything doesn't cost any more part of the part of the process. the stuff that Case does, the stuff that Casby does, right, is largely part of
membership. So, it's not it's not about a revenue generator, but it really is about ongoing Thank you very much. ongoing support. Next slide. I know you're probably drinking from the fire hose in this. Um, but that's part
of that is by design because I wanted to put questions in your mind with this so that I can specifically address what you what you would like to ask about. So, I will stop talking and start answering
any questions that you might have. Please, where are um the job postings and listed like where what kind of avenues do you guys use? Right. So, we use we have both free advertising
and paid advertising. The the paid advertising is what's referenced as part of the expenses that are quoted in there. So, so the free stuff first, right? Um case job center is free to us. Um all of our social media, right? So, we have presence in
in Facebook. Um X indeed we have we have those social media platforms available to us. Um the primary paid advertising venues that we use are American Association of School
Administrators uh their job board and um top school jobs.org which is the online component of education week um the journal. We've gotten away from chalkbeat education week, those those
typical print sort of pay for time frame advertisements. We don't we just don't get much from that. We also engage with um other organiza other membership and support organizations like the National Association of Black School Educators, uh Colorado Association of Latino and
Latina Administrators. um you are not a member of the council of great city schools so that's not an option for you. Um we have on occasion depending on what services from that phase one work we've gone to places like
Colorado nonforprofit organization if folks are interested maybe in semi non-traditional candidates right are getting out in that regard um Colorado Association of school boards um website obviously and then that to the larger
national network. So, okay. Um, and then forgot about probably the most important, we also distribute that. We don't have any clients. We don't charge anybody a fee. We don't represent clients. Uh, we're not a head hunting organization, right? We're a facilitator
of folks interested in jobs. But we do have a distribution list of just under 5,000 potential candidates. So once a person we use P school as our platform right once a person is interested creates an account in P school so that
they can upload applications and signs up they get those notifications which is why in the packet it talked about um and you might have to recruit some of these candidates and why you have a database. Okay. Correct. So you had said you don't actively go after candidates. Oh no no
we actively go after candidates. We don't represent any specific candidates. Nobody pays us a fee and says, "Hey, you know, go find me a job." Yeah. Right. But um yeah, we we
oftentimes I I would probably say 20 guessing around 20 20 to 25% of the searches that I've done have had candidates maybe not hired but candidates in the final mix who I've recruited into the pool that otherwise
probably would not have applied. And some of that is just just um their their awareness, right? They may not be looking for a job in Albuquerque, but I knew they were they were an applicant in Lincoln. So I said, "Have you ever
thought about this?" Right? They weren't the right match in Lincoln, but oh no, I didn't know that. So um but we don't we are not a head hunting organization. Well, that that does lead me to another question. Um on uh page six of it under
applicant diversity it says you're talking about you know in the past five years onethird have been female 1/4 of applicants ethnically diverse and in 10 years we've
onethird women placed. Um can you tell me about that? Why? I'm just curious why that's part of the So many many of our clients actually have existing HR policies that require
that to be part of what they choose to do even in phase one, right? Um and it just it it really is is district dependent on number one where that rises as a priority. what you know the diversity of the applicant pool, the
diversity of the hiring process. Um, for example, um, we just we just finished a search in California where the district is 82% second language learners, right? So, applicant diversity in that
environment is was super super critical for them. Um, other places it may not be such a such a priority. Um, but this is just a this is a data point regarding what our uh what our pools represent.
Um, and I will tell you that that while we're while we are proud of these these statistics, I will tell you that the pools just in general are still too far under reppresented uh both in terms of gender and ethnic diversity. Right? Um,
the vast majority, I shouldn't say the vast majority, but too many candidates in our pools look like you quite frankly. Um, and that doesn't mean that those folks aren't qualified to do the job, but um, just in in very general in
in an an industry that is at many levels predominantly uh staffed by women, we don't see that same uh percentage translate into senior leadership roles. And the same thing happens around ethnic or racial diversity. Yeah, that's why I
just wondered if it was intentional or otherwise. You know, I I could care less if it's a man or a woman or whether they're white or Hispanic or Asian. You know, I just personally I wouldn't want
intentionally going and looking and being biased in our look or discriminating against one group or another. Right. And again, I will just go back to the fact that that's why um flexibility and customization in our in our searches is so important and that
phase one. Uh so we have engaged in districts where the it where the very first priority that emerges in that phase one is that we we look for an applicant of uh of color. Yeah. I wouldn't want to discriminate against
any applicants, right? Um, and so but that that's why we're not telling you what the blueprint of the search is. That's why we engage in phase one and you design your blueprint. Understood. Thank you. When um when you're talking
about stakeholder engagement, um what does that typically look like? Is that like inerson meetings or interviews or more survey based or um That's a great question. Can you call up the PDF that
it's not the that says Thompson. So, here is a copy of the online survey that we just recently finished with Thompson School District. This is low. Okay. So, um so we ask I'm going to scroll through this just very quickly. Just so we ask for a demog,
right? What what group do they represent? Go on down and scroll to the next pages. We ask for one word that describes the describes the district in their mind. We create a word cloud from that. We ask about perception of these things. Communications, right? Um
transparency, student achievement. We go on down. Let's go through this very quickly so you can see this. Um critical issues facing the district and go slightly down. So at at the end of each of these questions where we ask for multiple choice, we also ask
for a constructed response. So we ask for critical issues, then we say, "Is there anything else?" Um and what we've learned over time is if you just ask for narrative responses very very difficult to generate thought but if you combine those u objective with constructive
response we get a lot more of those. We ask about characteristics of the leader, right? These are this is not rocket science. You've seen all of these in in various things. Um we also will engage with any small group. So we had um 1,600
responses to this survey in Thompson School District. That's Loveland um district of about 14 15,000 students. So quick question before we move on to how is it distributed? So that's so that's where we would need
help from the district, right? So we typically try to just do you use Infinite Campus or Power School? So we would ask for that to go to to parents and and caretakers through Infinite Campus. We put a link on the website. Um if you have a district
Facebook page, right? We would invite it there. Um it's not meant to be a statistically defensible, right? So we're not worried about people authenticating and logging in. We can we can restrict it to one per IP address. I don't like to do that because many
homes, right, you have more than one person on the same on the same router that would like to do this, but it's not about stuffing the ballot box or trying to sway the board or whatever. That's not the purpose of this. So, we try to have it as broad a distribution as possible. Um and then in addition to
this, we'll engage with any any small group or stakeholder group that you would like for us to engage. Um we're we're doing for full transparency, we are doing fewer and fewer and fewer in-person engagements because if you really want
to have an equitable process where everybody's voice is is heard equally, this is the way to do it. You have a small group in the cafeteria at the elementary school, right? In the evening one night, that that group is going to be dominated by the loudest and most
aggressive voices in the room. And is that truly representative of your larger stakeholder? You know, we've we'll engage with the Rotary Club. We'll engage with the Kowanas. You know, if there are groups like that, I would much more prefer that those groups helped us
distribute this and really engaged with this because now it's not the loudest or the most disgruntled and especially if you get largecale participation. You get a really good view of what stakeholders
are are thinking about the district. What other groups do you look for like the clubs, the parents, what other So, so we would not identify any groups, right? We would come to you and say, "Okay, you know, is
is there a is there a ministerial alliance that meets once a month, right? That that's a that's a group of thought leaders in the community, right? That it's not a not a representative group necessarily, but
you know, trying to find group. Um you have you have the the service clubs, right? Or social clubs, the Lions Kanas, roads, those kinds of things. Um do you have a really active PTO or PTA or booster club, something like that? You
know, all all of those are opportunities for engagement. All of those though still provide in my mind the same bias into the stakeholder feedback that's eliminated if we just engage those groups to say if I if I went to say the
Rotary Club and handed out a card with a QR code and a link to it and told them what we're you know explained the search process to them a little bit not said hey so tell me what you think explain the search process to them so they're in the know and then say and we need your
voice, please go take this survey. When we have a long runway, and we have an opportunity to do that over the course of three weeks, four weeks, you know, in a in a community the size of Woodland Park, in a district as small as Woodland Park, we can get a whole lot of
feedback, right? Um and and please don't don't misunderstand. It's not that I I mean, I live 25 minutes down the hill. It's not that I'm opposed to coming meeting with folks and sitting down with folks and talking in terms of true
authenticity of using that feedback in the search. That's your ticket. Well, I also think it provides uh just the way for people to express their opinions without, you know, not wanting to be the loudest or the most vocal. And so,
you'll get a time on their own time. I don't have to take off work. I don't have to find a babysitter. I don't have to worry about We're getting into tourism season, right? I don't have to worry about pass, you know, traffic going up the pass all
that stuff. So, with that, you know, if we if we went with that proposed timeline with a mid November kind of initiation date, when would you recommend starting sending out the survey? Um, we could work backward on that
survey. I mean, so that information is not going to get state, right? So, I don't know if we would want to depending on when you made your decision and when you know I don't know that we'd want to move it all the way back up to the
launch of school where you know you got notification into parents packets or you talked about the back to school night or whatever that seems a little early. Um, but I would say that if we had the window of opportunity to provide feedback around four weeks or so, we can
get a whole lot of reminders, you know, the launch, get reminders sent out. Um, do you guys do text notifications or links that way? You certainly we certainly can. What we um, again, what what we don't have is access to
the the communications databases, right? Um but through um and again it's only one particip one part of the constituency but um we've used IC messenger repeatedly right we try to do we try to do two notification two
reminder notifications strategically placed in the window that you could start you know early even before the transition I was thinking because that's usually when they start it's around October November get the data out there they can start the
process after the election. So yeah, that data is not going to change. Right. Right. Um but if you if you have if if you have access to for example I don't know if you use anything
like rained out or huddle with your team groups or par you know parent notifications we can easily integrate links with that do that all the time. Um the other question I had was around
your candidate pool. So I you have, you said you have 500 that are kind of 5,000, sorry, that have said that, you know, they're interested, maybe they've submitted their resume, whatever that what that looks like. Um, how like what percentage, you know, if you don't have
that on top of your head, would you say are already superintendent looking to change schools and what percentage are maybe administrators looking to move into a superintendent role for the first time? That's that's a great question. I don't have specific numbers, but I can
tell you trends, right? And the biggest trend that's going to be the indicator there is the target district. So, the smaller and the lower pay are going to attract the least experienced and least
uh mobile candidates. So, I'll give you an examp um we had in Thompson school district, right? That job was posted at a m at a maximum I think the salary range around 250,000
$260,000 right district 16,000 students really nice location much like but that was a that was a highprofile high attraction job right so of the eight candidates that we narrowed to the three candidates
that the board chose as finalists all eight were sittings seven of the eight were sitting superintendent all eight had superintendent experience Um, I'm re I'm just now closing out two searches, both in the San Louis at
different ends of the San Louis Valley. Um, no candidates that surfaced to the end in either of those searches had superintendent experience, right? They were jobs posted in the in the salary range of 110,000. Districts of a couple of hundred kids. So, that's kind of the
that's kind of the continuum there. Um, some of that is is then artificially determined by how you craft in that phase one job stream. So if you which I would not which what I would not suggest
necessarily but if you craft it as a requirement or even a preference for superintendent experience you're probably going to get more experienced superintendent percentage wise in your pool. But you may also by putting that
out there eliminate some really really quality candidates that maybe are at the cabinet level current. So there are several several pieces that play into that but primarily it's going to be
um Colorado is a desirable location. I say half of the half of the pool half of our pools on average come from outside of Colorado. When I do searches in Nebraska, that same thing doesn't happen. I can tell you that. So, you do have the advantage of who would not want to move who
wouldn't want to move to Whittle Park, right? Um, so that helps overcome maybe the size issue and the salary issue a little bit in that regard as opposed to if it was the same size district
in Worth County, you know, or something. I'm not disparaging county. I thought this all of those things are dynamics that feed into that. Yeah. And then do you I think you said it in here, but just to double check, but you guys do like pre-screening. I think it was
video calls and stuff, right? When you're conducting those, what is kind of your your process for those types of interviews? So you you know so let me let me provide one piece
before I directly answer the question. So when when you talk about hiring a search firm, right, it is still your search. You are the decision makers. We're not hiring anybody. We are helping
separate the the viable from the nonviable, right? However, we have had we have had candid we have had clients boards that have said not that we don't trust you but we
just don't trust you. So, we want to see every single applicant file u we can do that. The flip side of that is did a 70,000 district 70,000 student district in Nevada and they said we
don't want to see anything until you bring us the five top candidates and you name the finalists and then we're going to take it from there. So that's the range, right? So with the video interviews, we typically the the typical
protocol is your the bid, right? cost that that is in there um includes five video five candidates doing video interviews. Those video interviews are three questions. Um we craft the questions specifically to the most
important criteria that we meet, right? It's not just like tell us your leadership stuff. Um and so um we can do we can do 10 of those if we choose, right? They're not 50 bucks 50 bucks.
It's not today. Um, if you chose to see all of those, you could see all of those if you just wanted to see. So, but typically in by the time we get to phase four, we have at least at a minimum provided you with the short list that we
have identified all of the applicant, all of the files on those applicants, all the videos on those applicants ahead of that phase four meeting to you for you to review so that we step in and say, "Okay, what do you think?" Um, when I did the search for
the state board of education, they wanted videos on every single candidate at files on every single candidate and we still did the phase four where we facilitated that conversation but we didn't screen a person out of that pool
for the commissioners of Colorado commissioner of education the state board was was very adamant that they felt it was their responsibility not to abdicate any of that responsibility to you know the guy
that's the contractor which was fine So take that on one end of the spectrum and by Nevada and but again all of those are possibilities. What I will tell you is if you have a
history would say if you have a pool of 20 candidates easy numbers right 10 are going to be viable. Now your idea of viable and my idea of viable and your idea of viable may
differ right so we might not all so so and again that leads to well maybe we want more information and to see more than just what you say you're going to bring us there's no no pride in in that process let's
talk about the cost um so the amount total for all the phases will not exceed 12,900 unless we were to add some stuff. So, including those video interviews or anything. Now, would
it could it be less than? Yes. So, you're going to be on the hook for 10,500. Are you there? No idea what's going on. The second interview is it second interview is already Are you there? Aaron is not
here. you let them know the weight. So the okay so the fee is what you're going to pay for and Jacobson um which yeah that was on the top. So then the estimated expenses and they're broken down in on a subsequent sheet there. Um,
an advantage of my doing the search, you have no consultant expenses, right? I'm not staying the night, right? You're also well connected in the community as well as spring Colorado. That's a good thing. All good stuff. But
so, for example, if you wanted So, we will then run um we will run third-party uh deep dive background checks. not not checking the references on up to five finalists, right? That's that's 1,100 bucks that's included in the estimated
expenses of 250 bucks a piece. If you want on more candidates, happy to do that, but that's just going to tick that meter up a little bit. You probably don't want to have a pool larger than five people anyway. No. And as finalists, we hardly ever have five. Right. Right. Um but we like to do that
before you get to the point of offering somebody the job. and then St. Hoops. Um, and then the video interviews, those are we use a third party vendor. I mean, we do it, but it's through a third that license. Every time we add a license, it's 50
bucks. So, I mean, you could do you could do 10 additional. There's five in there. You could do 10 additionals for 500 bucks. So for the candidates um confidentiality um the the five finalists that you would
recommend would have um video um interviews the ones probably because what I I've learned on the board is a lot of people are sensitive and don't want to be interviewed if we're not serious because some of them don't want their district
to know that they are looking for another job. So, prior to those five, their names uh according um would be in the statute that they would be not revealed.
They they never see the light of day. Nothing about those candidates ever sees the light of day. And it's only once we actually announce publicly here are our our finalists. Correct. So, we would have a meeting with a short list prior to that because straight up the discussion and before you announce those
finalists um as you would give me direct you can't vote in executive that's an executive session you can't vote but you can prioritize candidates right so you all reach consensus and prioritize who you want to name as finalists I'm going to step out and I'm going to call each one
of them and say the Woodland Park board is about to name you as a finalist are you still in and if you are is there anyone you need to give notice to on your end because in about an hour the whole world. This is going to hit this is going to hit the website, right? Yeah. And we wouldn't need to have five.
We could have three if we wanted. You could have one. Yeah. Whomever you are going to put out there as a finalist. All of their materials now become public, including the videos. Um with limited exception. The letters of
recommendation are always by statute held in confidence. Um and we would redact personal information like we were at their that is good that you pulled them to make sure that like are you still in because you you know if you're not in
then right we don't want to also choose you as a finalist and some things you know I make that call and sometimes I hear you know what I just heard from steamboat springs today and I'm going to you know I'm going to stay in that search but I'm going to withdraw from the or you know all of those kinds of
things happen so and for public just so the public knows I was reading in the proposal that let's Say all five candidates decide they're just like completely out or they've chosen another school, we would go ahead and do this whole process with you guys again free of charge. Is that my understanding?
Until you hire someone. Thank you. Most people wouldn't want to go to steamboat. The moose are attacking. The moose are attacking here. They're they're out and about on speaker. Yeah, there there have been times when we have paused a search.
There have been times when we've got when we've reposted a search, right? We get down and we come out of phase four and the board's like we, you know, bait didn't work. Let's, you know, let's try again. So,
let's call that worst case. No, but so if but if that happens, obviously it's a much shorter timeline to repost. There's some revamping you might have to do to try and attract the right people, but if that
happen or when that happen. Maybe you've had that happen. Um what is what is the new timeline as far as how quickly you're trying to I think it really depends on when that happens, right? Because um what you don't want to do um
is push yourself back so far that you are where we would be today in the fact that almost any pool you're going to generate today is made up of folks that couldn't get a job. That's just the reality, right? When you're late in the search
season. Now, sometimes you get lucky, right? Somebody has a a relocation with a spouse and they weren't planning on looking for a job, but all of a sudden, bam. Right. It's holy cow, there's a job available in June. And that's you're getting leftovers.
Yeah. Very very t it's not the other side of that is maybe it's not a leftover, but I do have to sometimes question and I I ask very very hard questions around this. I question the integrity of a candidate who would leave their current employer
in a lurch in late May or June to go someplace else, right? Um maybe it's the dream job and maybe you know their family circumstance. Maybe it's all on the up and up, but I have to ask myself, well, are we going to be in that position when the next best thing comes along for this person?
Yeah. When would you say a late search becomes an early search? Um, do you understand what I'm asking? Yes, I do understand what you're asking. Um, I would say that you don't want to be too early,
right? Because you don't want to be ahead of the time that people are looking. So I would say if you're again go going back to the desired timeline if if you weren't wrapping up your search
by miday at the latest early May preferably and you had an opportunity for interim or some some other then I would say you wait until November and you hit that timeline that I put up there.
Thank you. because that timeline if if you would bail out of that timeline in midFebruary right when we do that phase four and you look at the candidates and you say not feeling it now to your point on a compressed
timeline we can be back in phase four again the third week of second or third week of March right and so really you're almost doing two search processes one shorter than the other because if we repost, right, if we extend it, we're not going to go back to stakeholder
engagement. We're not going to go back to the phase one blueprint, right? Um, you know, it we might do something like a salary adjustment if we're hearing from candidates, well, you know, I could do that job for 210, but I'm not going to do that job for 16 or that kind
of stuff. Make those kinds of adjustments. But those those are quick and on the-fly adjustments. We're not waiting for another meeting to be scheduled and all of that sort of stuff. So you could you could start in November, do a complete search. If you
had to repost and do an abbreviated shirt search, you could really go through that process twice and still hit by the end of April. And you you said you'll be able to get me that get us that timeline that you
talked about. I'd like to have that. Can you email to the board that that entire PowerPoint? I can't. Yeah. Awesome. So, I think the only other question I have is um just around communication
with the board on, you know, what is the applicant pool looking like? Even if you're not giving us the, you know, every person who applies, like, you know, are we getting the bites that we want? Are we seeing the the caliber of candidates that we want? so that we can make adjustments earlier as opposed to
waiting to phase four if it's not coming through. So um that is all on you to tell me. Okay. So some boards say everything flows through the board president. That's my
sole pipeline of of communication and the board president disseminates that. Some boards say don't con, you know, because of concern about sunshine laws or anything else, open meetings laws, everything goes through the the board secretary administrative assistant.
Often times it's it's a probably more times than not um because folks folks understand the rules. I get it right. More times than not, it's it's a group email that I email and and blind copy all the board members with my rep with my reminder at the top. Do not reply all
to this. reply directly to me, right? This communication is subject to open records request, blah blah blah, all that kind of stuff. Um, so again, we would talk about that in phase one and and that's an easy adjustment for us to
do as little or as much as anybody wants to do. I prefer more rather than less because I don't want to be on the hook for assuming something that is so far in left field from you all that
I missed the mark. We have any other questions? We have the other the other or any questions. Well, thank you so much for Absolutely. You bet. So, if you have um if you have
any questions as I leave here, right, if someone wants to to follow up, um I will be available until about 10:00 a.m. tomorrow and then I'm off the grid for several weeks. Really off the grid. Yes. Really off the grid. This phone number on the front here, is that yours or just the
companies? That is the companies. If you want to write my number if I have actually I will leave cards to the picture. Okay. I was say don't say your number unless you want everyone watching. Yes. It's it's well known anyway. So
yeah my cell numbers on that. Thank you all. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you all. You're welcome. Appreciate you coming down. Enjoy your trip. You're probably excited. Thank you so much. Very excited. Uh at this point, I think we'll take a 5m minute break for people to go to use the
facilities and we'll reconvene at uh 12:15. That's my first one. Are you ready? We're waiting for one more. It's okay. Can you hear me? Can you hear me
now? Can you hear me up? the sound on the computer. I'm hi. Nice to meet you, Mr. Patterson. Nice to meet you. I don't know about that. How about Yeah,
we're unmuted. Hey, can you turn the sound off on the computer? Not the not the muting on the meeting, but just the sound on the computer. You don't see echo. Yeah, because we don't want the sound coming from the meeting or the computer.
It's coming through the speakers. Happy viewers. You guys notice they never ask me to pitch in on the text. They know better. Can you hear me? space. Please do his
That's what you must have a little goodie sty. Once I start doing it, That sounds better. Sure. All right, folks. Uh, my name is
Mikeos. I work for my leader services and another company called CTNL, Coaching to the Next Level. And, uh, we're pretty much Colorado based. Uh, go to Myer Services is all over the nation. Uh we've started this Colorado group in the last two years and the reason for
that is uh myself and Chris and Jackie that are part of this Colorado connection are Alex teachers, principles, superintendents in the state and uh we're pretty well connected especially myself. Uh 42 years as a educator in Colorado. I taught I was a
an AD, a coach, a principal, uh an executive director of Grand Junctions and then I worked for 11 years at CU Denver. And uh I was the lead recruiter through the state for the two grants that we had. Matter of fact, I brought five teachers to Woodland Park in a
fiveyear span. So I I know a lot of people and this is home. I taught here for nine years. So uh when I when I heard what was going on and and and everything that was happening with the park, uh the whole thing for me was I I want to come back. Um, I got contacted
by a lot of folks, a lot of my ex- players, uh, some folks that are still around, some ex-teers. Uh, they knew what I was doing. They said, "Hey, is there any way you guys can come down and give us a hand, show us what you got? Let's see what we can get going." So, that's one of the reasons I'm here. Um,
the extended time with Mac and Jack was good. I I got to see my old house. It's a block away from here. Just drive around checking it out. So, so I'm pretty familiar with with everything. I got to walk through the halls, got to see my old office. Uh, so my reason for being here is because, like I said, this
is home. Uh, I know what y'all are looking for. I'm going to talk about that a little bit, but also know that we can, uh, bring that to you. Um, the lead consultant for us in Colorado is Chris Wetzel. And, uh, Chris took ill day before yesterday, so he asked me to step
in and make sure I came down to make the part of the presentation. And then Trent Grundy who is on the screen there, he's going to do the presentation. He is the CEO and the uh leader of uh buyer services. So Trent is here to do it all,
answer any questions and I'm just going to fill any gaps. But that's a quick piece for you to know where we're coming from. Thank you Trent. Yeah, thank you Mike. Appreciate that. Have a quick test here and make sure the board can see and hear. Okay.
Yes. Folks, thanks for being with us. I know uh taking time over lunch here on on a Wednesday is uh the emails don't stop. Uh I certainly understand that. But uh Dr. Trenire run leader services. We are a national based firm with a
local context in in uh Colorado there. Like Mike said, unfortunately Chris can't be there in person, but I hope you see that we have intentionally put together what we would consider kind of a dream team to serve you with Mike knowing the local context, Chris serving
the state, having the work there and then me nationally. Um, we really feel like we can serve Woodland Park well and bring different perspectives and networks uh to you. Um, I, in case you're wondering, I'm based out of De Mo, Iowa, and although I would probably
be doing primarily uh the work behind the scenes, I would also make an effort to get out there and support you and work with Chris and Mike as needed uh throughout the search. So, I'm excited to share with you. I know you just heard another presentation I want to respect your time a little bit on some of the
things that might be similar, but I'm going to focus our presentation a little bit on the things that we think are unique about what we do that can serve you specifically at Woodland Park well. Knowing some of the history, some of the turnover you've had with superintendents, trying to repair
relationships and really get this hire right long term for you, we we understand the need. So, let me throw a slide up here and if you have questions at any time, you can certainly stop. I want to make sure you can see my screen
here. And they have this presentation as well, right? Yes, they do. Okay. So, besides Mike and I, we do have a team um again across the country and focused on on doing superintendent searches and some behind the scenes folks as well.
But I want you to know there's a team and this is important because again this helps us recruit the best pool of candidates we possibly can for you. Here are some of our strengths. I just want I want to highlight some of the differences that we think um you know will serve you well. But number
one, you know, I talked to Chris as we prepared for this. You know, we believe we have 10 to probably 16 candidates that are actually excited about applying for your job already. Uh Once we open this up, we are confident we can we can
secure a diverse and quality candidate pool for you because we're constantly recruiting good people. It's just a matter of who's the right fit for Willow Park. Um, as the last gentleman said that you heard from, we will commit uh
to sticking with you until you get a superintendent who's truly the right fit and and up to two years. We guarantee our superintendent for two years. If happens doesn't go well, we don't get the right hire. Uh we have committed and will stay loyal uh to you to get the
right person. The other thing we take a lot of pride in is post hire coaching and support. Uh we have a new partnership with new era superintendent association and Chris offers personal coaching for a year after the hire to
just make sure things go well. support your new superintendent, understand the local context, and get off to a great start. So, we think that's really important uh to ensure your next superintendent is successful. And then last but not least, we understand that
our proposal might be slightly higher and we would honestly consider matching uh the other proposal, but we also would never charge you a dollar more than what we proposed, even if it's extra work or requires extra trips, travel, attention,
postings. We we take a lot of pride in making sure that our cost is our cost. We do as efficient as possible and there's no hidden fees. What you see is what you're going to get. And we've never built a district now that more than what we've proposed. And again, we're open to matching any other
proposal because we want to serve we want to serve you on the side. Mike, anything to add there before I move on? No, it's just the same thing with us is um the coaching that is offered afterwards is done by us uh by
Chris and and our and our staff. And that means we'll be here um either video or we'll come in person and and be able to walk you through some things, help you through some pieces with superintendent and also do some coaching down the road possibly with the administrators. That's that's a big
piece for us too. Colorado wise. Yep. And connect them nationally with other superintendents that they can network with. And yeah, their success truly is going to be our success, right? you call us back eight years or however long the superintendent, you know, tenure is if things go well because the
process went well and we helped you find the right person. And so we it's in our best interest to help them uh get off to a great start and support them. The other gentlemen talked about phases in the superintendent hiring process. We we do something very similar. Um this is
the process we would facilitate and as Mike said, we're there in person for meetings. Um although on remote today um and we're going to walk you through our goal is a no surprises and b we want to um be as transparent and objective as
possible in the process. We acknowledge even though we have some connections to the park we acknowledge we don't know the district and community like you folks do that have been elected. What we're going to bring to the table is the ability to recruit for you a larger pool
transparency to give peace hopefully and and and reduce anxiety uh for your staff and your community throughout the process and then objectivity to to narrowing down candidates to ensure that the right person in the end is truly the
right fit uh for the district. So that's the process in a nutshell we're going to walk you through and make sure there's no surprises. So, I'll just highlight a couple things in each step. And again, I'm going to pay a little more attention to the things that I think are unique that we can specifically offer you. When
it comes to planning, um, we would set up a planning meeting with you, and that's where we would solidify the actual dates and timeline. We'd help identify what are some of the desired traits you're looking for and you need. We would help narrow down the salary range and benefit so that when we're
recruiting, we can only get candidates in your pool where the benefits package is going to work for them. And then we're going to make sure that you're prepared to answer the grocery store or from somebody else the gas station what the process looks like so people have that peace of mind and hopefully save
you emails. Um now with that being said you I heard you ask a question at the end as I was listening there about the timeline and what if we have a failed search or we need to reopen it. Our recommended timeline is no roughly November 1st through December 30th. I
strongly with confidence would tell you you will have the largest candidate pool that you can leverage Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks because your best candidates are focused on district work. But when they have breaks to talk to their family at Thanksgiving, get their
references up to speed and actually complete the application process over Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks, I reassure you, you will have a strong and the deepest can you possibly can, which means um you're hiring uh roughly by the
end of January. And like the other gentleman said, if you you know you don't get that top hire, you want to reopen it, you would still have time to do that. But leaving it open through Christmas break, I say with supreme confidence, I think you have a strong enough pool that you will find the right
fit. I want to pause there, give Mike a chance to weigh in on that, and I want to give the board a chance for any any questions they have about that time. You know, I've been I've been saying to Mick for quite a while that there are candidates out there that want to come here. And that's how we know we've got
15 candidates. They've already contacted us. They say, "Hey, when that thing opens up, you let us know and that application is available. we want to jump on it and and and let me let me explain why I know that's the truth. This is a very very wanted place. Um
this is a as I said before it has a place in my heart because Woodland Park is a great place. I can remember when it was one one stoplight you know and now as we go through here and we have four or five and six and we got everything down the road and it it's changed but I got to tell you the heart that was here is still here. That's never left. That's
never changed. And the people that are here they're still here. So that their thought about a timeline is when can we get somebody in here that's going to help us? Uh how quickly can that be done? Can it be done quicker? Uh what's it going to look like? And and and my comment to that is they're available
right now. Uh we're just finishing up two searches in Colorado. Uh it's down to final four with with with some of those. And what we have with that is eight eight very viable candidates right there. And then we have the other 10 12 in each place that are still available.
So there's more than 15. I'm standing at the 15 that are top of the list right now. Got you, Trent. Yeah. Well said. Any questions from the board at this point? Not yet. We're good.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. One thing we recommend right up front is to get community input. We call a stakeholder survey. This is just an example. We produce this for you once we have the timeline and then we ask the district to push it out in all your communication chains, social media, newspaper, all of
those things. The more feedback we get in the stakeholder survey, the better. And it asks questions like what are the perceived strengths in the district right now? What are the perceived challenges in the district right now? What are the opportunities for improvement with the new superintendent?
And then we actually ask them to rank uh traits that they're looking for in the next superintendent. Um, and by the way, we get the survey now, but we're also willing to do any input meetings with administrators and community members to also weigh in uh whether they took the survey or not. So,
we have as much feedback up front to provide the board and what folks are looking for, getting input before we we even know what all the candidates are. And then we put together a report for you. Um, we analyze all that feedback. Uh, it's through us, so it's it's tr
truly anonymous. and we look for strengths. Uh we highlight those for you. We look for improvement and these desired qualifications. So you can see in this one the top thing that the the folks said they wanted is somebody approachable almost 60%. And so we
present this to the board and then have a follow-up conversation about the accuracy of this. Does this hit what the board is looking for since it's your privilege and responsibility to hire the superintendent? And then we ask you permission. can we share this report with potential candidates so they get to
know your district and what you're looking for and once you approve that we feel like we can we can surely help the candidates start to assess their fit uh for for the park as well. So survey reported input sessions as you request a
report in the end and then the board weighs in on those top desired question qualifications you're looking for. That helps us folks because then we can write questions, we can screen candidates, we can ask the right questions during references all back to those things you
said you want. When it comes to recruiting, go ahead. Sorry. um in in the report that you send out, the survey report, do you have it so that we can like I presume that you'll have a top uh either um
qualifications or personality traits that like everybody who took the survey wants, but do you also have it kind of divided out like okay, parents are saying they want this, community members said this was the number one thing, uh teachers said this was the number one thing. Yes, we we absolutely can out
those differently. We can present lots of different ways, but yeah, we're looking for commonality in those different things. And then the board, you you know, you have the final say, and okay, I see what teachers want. I see what community wants. And as a board, we're telling you collectively, these are our top priorities. Yes. Thank
you. And remember, it's it's you all who we are working for. We're not just going to bring somebody in here and say, "This is the best." You you all can make that decision immediately. you know, you're able to see everything that you want to see. Yeah. When it comes down to recruiting,
you know, Mike said it best. We're confident we got a stable of candidates that are looking at your job now. We we consider your job, honestly, a destination job. You know, locationwise, I just looked at some of your enrollment stats and finances. It looks pretty solid. You know, yes, there's been some
turnover that we can explain, but this is the next chapter for your district, and we understand that. hired. I want you to know we're going to get this out there, you know, this week. Uh we'll put it on the website. We'll get on social media. We'll start to context. We'll get
it to conferences. And so the advantage you have is that we can start marketing now through October before we even open the job application. And so I think that's a real advantage you have in recruiting. We'll get it posted on all
these sites. I'm not trying to minimize the state sites, you know, case and casa and K fall jobs spot and all of these we we recruit for some diversity here uh as well. But the truth is, um I don't care what any any search firm tells you. The
truth is the firms that will take the time to call the candidates that may not be looking is the difference because that's the one candidate you'll get that just needed a nudge to say I think you're a good fit for Whipland Park right now that we know all came out
of the survey. So, I'm telling you, with a team of three people, I trust myself, we're going to make the personal calls to get a candidate that may not be looking and I'm confident one of them might be your best person. So, we we will recruit farmwide.
I'm going to show you some stats here. Um, we our pools right now, our average pools are around uh what was it? 18 I believe. uh schools similar to your size I think will be closer to about 20 to 22
candidates. Um in case you're wondering right now this is stats from our past year about 35% of our candidates that apply have previous superintendent experience. So the trend around the country right now is candidates with less superintendent experience, more
internal candidates are actually getting hired. Um, and only 8% of the folks we hire tend to be candidates outside the state of Colorado. In case you're wondering some of the stats, that's what they are. Also very, very proud that we hired 43% female candidates. I'm very
proud of that. And as we do the followup survey with school boards, we have 90% of our boards that rank us outstanding on a fourpoint scale. So we again we we back up with confidence that we feel like we can serve you well.
This in front of you is once we get the timeline and some of the desired qualifications outlined, we put together a one-page flyer that kind of highlights your district on a page. And then this I just wanted you to see what we use on a lot of the marketing platforms to to sell your job in one page. This is not
everything, but it's enough to hopefully catch their attention and give them direction if they want to apply. So, we would customize this for you and you you'd finalize this at the future meeting. just a sample post throughout the application period.
I already mentioned we talked about transparency and objectivity. And so I want you to know one thing I think is different is you're going to see if if you hire us, you're going to see every candidate that applies. We believe if they take time to apply, you deserve to see their application. So throughout the
application period every week, we send you cover letters, resume, and any reference letters the candidates submitted. every week on New Canada. Behind the scenes, we're checking lure. We're doing confidential reference calls. We're looking at any um legal
issues that they may add or anything out social media. So then once it closes, let's say December 30th it closes, we're going to be able to send you more information on every candidate again, which is a summary of their qualifications, any disclosures we've
made, and more reference information. We strive to have at least four references on every single candidate that are confidential ones we've made, not just letters. So then, so again, you got a few faces information. Then we come in person, we go through all the candidates
in person there, and we're going to give you a summary of u of their full application. And boards really like this because it adds all their application on one page with any notes that maybe are a concern or a lens or issue or anything else. So there
should be no surprises and it's very very efficient to go from say 22 candidates down to six or eight that you want to screen. So very transparent and objective plan and you will see every candidate at
so um do you guys do all the background checks as well then? Yes. The only one we don't do is the the federal background check for employment. Um we we ask the district to do that one, but any other um social media uh
and background checks we take care of. And then all the candidates would be um public knowledge to our community or um cuz you know with previous searches you know we'll have uh candidates but
then we our finalists are are more public. How does that work? Yeah, that's a really good question. No. Um, we actually ask the candidates if they if they want their materials to be kept confidential until or if they're a finalist. Okay. And so, um, only your
finalists would be we would recommend that only your finalists once identified or made public. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And again, we could talk a whole lot more about that, but the truth is that if you made all your candidates public, a lot would
apply because they're not willing to risk, you know, applying and not making the cut, if you will. And so, you know, the more you can keep the confidential until you get down to those that are your top candidates, the better pool you're going to have. Yes, I agree.
Thank you. Yeah. Now, one other thing we do that's unique, and you might think, you know, we're goofy on this, but we've had great success with this, is if, and this isn't if, if you want to involve your administrators and your parents or staff in interview teams, we strongly
encourage you to do mixed teams and not a team of homogeneous uh career groups. for example, don't have your teacher group interview and then your administrative group interview and then you know a parent group because it's our
experience that number one good candidates will tailor their answers to what maybe a specific group wants to hear and number two if one group really likes one person another group likes another person it puts the board in a really tough spot to have to make that
decision that's not their job right so when you miss those groups we still ask a parent or teacher or administrative questions. We can still get their feedback separately, but you don't have that group think about who's the best candidate. There has to be a perspective
around the interview table and some credibility or honesty from the candidate just to answer questions because they can't tailor to a specific uh group. So, we recommend if you are going to interview teams that you actually mix the teams to set the board
up for success in the end. And again, I want to be clear, we pull out the data here. I'll show you. We have them fill out a form at the end of the interviews like this, a Google form, and then we still pull out the data and the feedback from every one of those groups like
administrators, parents, students separately. So you can see how they responded, provided feedback, but you don't have that group think in providing collective feedback. We believe that's a best practice. We've had a lot of good luck with that.
Which slide was that? I think it's a couple more slides. It's it's about four slides down the road. Uh let's see. That's I don't have them numbered. So this is the feedback form. And then these candidate comparison charts are how we pull the data together from
interview teams. Is that it? Y for the um for group interviews, if if that was the direction that the district decided to go, um do you recommend or have clients in the past crafted or or
at least created interview guides for the groups to utilize? Maybe not the questions themselves, but um kind of a formatting for people who maybe don't have much experience interviewing and or to make sure that you know the the
candidates they interview have similar questions. Yes. So two thing I we do this all the time. Number one, we're sitting in the interviews with those groups. Number one, it's not going to get off track because we're sitting there, you know, making sure legal questions aren't
asked, all those things, keeping the schedule on track. Number two, once we know what your desired qualifications are after the survey, we start to draft questions, interview questions, and we actually share them with you as board members and ask you to help us finalize
them. So, we don't ask you to do the work, but we ask you to help tweak them, finalize them, and then those are the questions that we take to the interview teams. And they can add a question or two, but other than that, they're sticking to the script for 95% of the questions. And then third, we do have
what we call an orientation. We ask interview teams to show up 15 minutes early and we go through questions about candidates. We go through how they're going to provide feedback. We go through how we're going to ask questions. And so we do an orientation before interviews every start so it's consistent. And so
legally it helps set you up for, you know, just an efficient legal process. Excellent. Thank you. And once again, we'll be there. Yeah. That that makes it very very much the way the process should work. Yeah, nothing's out of
hand. Is this I'm sorry. Is this um uh do we have to comply with the open meeting laws? Does this have to be a regular board meeting uh posted to the public so the people that per say are not in interviewing the candidate or
asking questions the other parts of the community can can listen and and glean information. Yeah. Uh we get candidates request this as well, but your interview with the finalist um as long as the candidate
request would be in exam session and not open to the public. That goes as well for the the community members that we choose to to be in this questioning as well. No, no, those would
technically be open because they're not a board board meeting. But here's what I normally do to get around that. And that's a very astute question. We have some schedules where if you're anticipating people from the community or the media want to be there, we try to
compromise with them and say, "Hey, listen. If we gave you some time with each candidate before the day started, would you be comfortable with taking the picture, asking some questions with the candidate before the process started, and then leaving the interviews to just
the interview teams. And so we actually craft a schedule that I I just did this this year a couple times where the candidates come in, meet with the media, and then once the day goes on, it's more of an intimate interview with just the folks you've picked and the candidates. Okay. So, so it's still an open meeting,
but the press wouldn't necessarily be asking questions as part of the interview, right? Okay. And it would not be it would not be a board meeting and uh in public because the board is not involved, but it would be open.
Did you get that? No. Tell me tell me the question again. So technically it would not be a board meeting. So we wouldn't be um subject to uh state statute as meeting. Yes. The other interviews
would not be a board meeting, right? Thank you. Okay. Yeah. All good questions. When we get down to screening, something to back up here. Say, you know, say we have two applicants. When you see all those applicants, uh, we narrow those down by to us doing our leg work to eight
candidates. What I'm going to talk about next is our screening process. We we have kind of a soft eight. You know, we try to narrow down to eight and then from eight, you get down to your finals. So, when it comes to a screening process, right, and first of all, it's
live, whether it's inerson screening with six or eight candidates or it's zoom if you have people that are further away, but you're asking usually six to eight questions that we help you write live like this um to narrow down those
six or eight candidates down to three or four finalists. And um couple things here. Number one, we walk you through a scoring process as a board. So, as you're asking questions, the board is rating the responses and then when we
debrief, you'll collectively see how your top candidates scored as a board and that creates the entity on the board. We're also making sure behind the scenes that as we're moving candidates forward, they are even more serious about making a job move. So, at this
step, we don't believe in courting interviews. we're only advancing people that are excited about being the next Woodland Park superintendent. And so that's really pivotal, you know, on your search team as well. So that's the screening process that we would lead. Here's just a graphic. Uh it's actually
me sitting in the front. You see a conference camera there. We're screening candidates. I've never done speed dating, but it's fairly quick. And uh you're narrowing down six or eight candidates to get down to your finals. So we would conduct I'm sorry we we
would conduct this a quick screen of of eightish candidates and then we would do a more indepth follow-up interview with our finalists. Is that how that works? Yes. The screening is usually 30 minutes whether it's Zoom or in person to narrow
six or eight down and then your finalist is always in person unless it's co obviously uh always in person and you normally have an hour to an hour and a half with those candidates and then they may have a tour and meet with other groups as well. I think I think I heard Walt say
something about viable and nonviable candidates. We're already past that once we get to this point. Now we have people that want to be here. We also take it to the next level uh with candidate tiers. I think Tren's going to talk about that. But we actually put them in a process where they're most qualified, qualified,
and not qualified. You see that that slide and it really helps once it comes to you because now you're looking at the things that you all ask for. You all want it to be on each one of them. That's where it ends up being. It it makes the the decision a lot easier and a lot more important to you because
those are the things you want. Yeah, that's us doing our homework behind the scenes. But here's here's the other thing I want to reinforce is it's you know, we're not picking the candidates for you. We're doing the leg work. We're doing the homework. We're saving you time. We're getting you a
larger pool and then we're guiding. I hope you hear that throughout the presentation. So, as Mike mentioned, when we present candidates to you on this slide, we're going to bring them to you as Mike, Chris, and I think are the top candidates based on their references, their qualifications, or maybe dealing with them. poor reference,
but mostly good. And then you get the final say how many you vote for at this step and then the next step as well. Yeah, I referenced this earlier. I'm sorry I was out of place here, but um the candidate summary we put together right we go through 22 applicants. We
put everything on one page. This is page one and then there's a page on every candidate and that just really helps make for an objective efficient meeting to narrow down your candidates. So this all the leg work we do behind the scenes. So I mentioned when we have
interview teams uh one thing we really like is to bring finalists in on the same day if at all possible. We have them fill out feedback forms at the end of the interviews. We synthesize that feedback for the board. And let me tell you it's beautiful when every group has one person that they kind of like to you
know average the highest. Makes it real easy for the board to identify a top candidate. which does happen. We also do and this is a difference I want to highlight uh for the board here because we believe in some science behind the hire as well. All the personal stuff, the
interviewing, all that stuff's really important. But when the candidates apply through us, we also have them take an advanced insights inventory. It's three parts. It's their desk profile, which is their observable behaviors. How are they going to interact with people? It's
their values kind of what makes them tick and drives them or motivates them. And then their attributes like self-esteem, self-belief, pragmatic thinking, empathy, things like that. And so it's a 70-page report they take with your finals. We give you this report on
them with some summary pages. You don't have to read all 70 pages. And I promise you this gives you real credibility and who you're getting in the next candidate. And I think this could be a game changer for you. So there's no surprises about who your next superintendent is, some of their
preferences, and how they're going to be perceived with other people. So that is a difference I want to highlight. What um what company do you use to run the attributes assessment? Yeah, it's it's the results group is the company. We are
the only search firm um that can use this tool for searches in the country. And uh the unique about the advanced insights is it is EOC compliant so it legally can be used in the hiring process
we do not I want to be clear we don't use this as a screener we use this as more information about the candidate outside the formal interview process who are you getting no surprises okay the other thing we do that I think is unique that will serve
would we implemented this uh this past year and I'll tell you it was beautiful and save some real headaches. Uh we do a public social media check on finalists. It's through a third party lead the company that's part of our search cost
but it does a 7year deep dive on all your finalists public social media domains whether it's Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter X, seven years public accounts, you're going to get a report on your final list again. So there's no
surprises and you know what's up there. We don't like surprises questions on that. I won't take a bird walk here for you, but you can see this is mine because I can't put somebody else's on the screen. But if you notice here on the right, if anybody's paying attention here, I have
one here with violet images. And I thought, what in the world is out there on violet images for me? Well, the funny thing is I bought my son when he was a six in sixth grade a BB gun for Christmas so he could shoot pigeons
and I posted it on and that shows up as a violent image so I know it catches still or not we're not running fairs when it gets down to the fun part about hiring you know we've done lots of
leg work behind the scenes. You know, we're only bringing people for formal interviews that the board is excited about and putting them in front of other interview teams. But when you get down there, again, Mike said this, we're going to be there in person to help guide the process, make sure it goes
well, represent the district. We're going to help you with press releases and the transparency behind every step of the process. Matter of fact, after every board meeting, we try to put some sort of press release out to your staff and committee so they know what came out of that meeting. And then the other
thing I want to highlight that that we help I don't think you can minimize, but we help with the contract negotiations as well to make sure it's smooth. And we do this, this has been another game changer that I want to highlight that's unique about our service. We do what we call a pre-negotiations questionnaire
with our finalists. And so when you get down to say those finalists, we kind of flip it and we say, "Okay, when you come in and interview next week, if you get the job offer, what are you expecting in a contract
claim and insurance and they they submit this to us and if there's anything that's outside of what the board's talked about, we just call them and we talk through it. And then at the end, whoever you decide to make an offer to, this helps us negotiate the contract and
get your top person hired pretty efficiently. Uh, I don't want to jinx myself here, but I've not lost a top superintendent candidate in the last four years because of this questionnaire in advance. And so again, really
important. And we will help you negotiate the final contract. It takes all the surprise out of everything. Yes. Anything else to add or questions on this? The other thing we do that's unique and again I hate to keep saying unique or
different but I I promised you I was going to highlight some of the things that we do different and then you can decide if if that's the right fit to serve you or not. But we also do you know there's always some anxiety about the next chapter of the district. who's the new superintendent, who's going to be the face of the district. We
understand that. We respect that. But we create an introductory video of the new hire. Um, and it's they're they're usually a lot of fun. They're personal. And then you get to share that out with your staff and larger community usually before July 1st. So, they get to know
the new person. And that helps generate some excitement around the next chapter of the district and lets people get to know who that new person is, what some of their goals are, who their family is, and what their experience is. So, that's another thing that I think will help
your district turn the page for the next chapter and um and be a real asset to the search process and introductory video. Again, all this is included in in the cost that we have um we have put in our proposal. Do you guys do this
inhouse or is it something that you guys hire like a production company? Yeah, we have a professional company that does that for us. It's uh it's called the Donovan Group. They specialize in uh videography, crisis, communication, and they are I I can send
you some draft videos if you want, but I I reassure you uh they are quality. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Matter of fact, um let's see. Uh a couple districts there will cl will be coming out. Pony Stratton, Julie Shu, Stratton was hired.
We just put out that video and so you'll probably start to see some of those as well for some of our new hires. Okay. And then I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but um we take a lot of pride in post search support. So you're not done with us. Uh once we get a
superintendent, we're going to make sure the next Woodland Park superintendent is successful long term. So, one of the questions we asked in the survey is, "What advice do you have for the next superintendent?" We take that advice, we give it to the new superintendent to get off to a good start. We have a leadership summit in the summer with all
of our new superintendents to go through legislative changes, do some team building. So, we bring them together and do that. We help the new superintendent set priorities for the the year and then that, you know, can help the board evaluate them on those those goals and
priorities as well. And then we also do some other soft things like we add to our monthly newsletter. We follow up with polls and surveys up some of those things just to make sure things are going well. So we we we take a lot of pride in making sure they're supportive
all the time. Quite honestly, if I was just to go off script here a little bit, this is the only reason I keep my name on the search firm is because I want to look you folks in the eyes and say I put my name behind the people we help you hire. And that's the
truth. Our B structure is your guarantee. Again, it's a two-year guarantee. With everything I've talked about tonight, there will not be any surprises. And again, I want you to know we're open to uh matching. If we're a little higher the other, we can match
that. Uh if there's things we can save time on, we would take this up. Long story short, it is important. The hire is important and we want to leverage the tools that we think are best to get you the right person long term. So, I'm going to pause there. I
hope we highlighted a lot of things that are unique, different that will serve you well. I hope you that there's value in Mike, Chris, and I working collectively for you. And if given a chance, um, I reassure you, we work hard to make sure,
uh, we find somebody who's a great fit for Park. And I'll stop there. Well, thank you. Questions? Anyone? If I may. The only thing I want to add is that um in in knowing Woodland Park
as I know it um there's been a lot of things happen in the last three years and I think a lot of times we're we get ourselves stuck in the emotion around the issues rather than focused on solving the issue together. And I think that's kind of the piece that we're hoping we can accomplish by getting this
new hire here to build that bridge and to make that bridge once again stronger with the the board, the community, the teachers, uh the folks that are out there in this community saying, "Let's let's get this back it used to be." Um I think we can bring that person. I I
shouldn't say I think I know we can because right now, as I said before, we've got them out there and and the need to heal the need to heal with some softness. I mean, uh, we'll also look at that in a candidate. What What kind of things are they going to bring to the table that provide that? Um, we're not
going to bring some out of towner who knows nothing about the community or what's been going on or what's happened in the past with positive things and and that is important. They need to understand a small mountain community because it is different. Exactly. And uh I I hope and what Trent said a little
bit ago about uh Clear Creek, Stratton, Pony, a lot of the things that we are doing is small school oriented because all three of us that are part of it is as I said before are small school people and we've been 45A but also we
understand uh Clear Creek reminds me a lot of Woodland Park in some ways um it's right off of where Blackhawk is you know Creek uh it's kind of like Denver in the springs and it's up and down and and it's got its own unique status in the state as to what it's
looking for in someone to come in and help with the education process and it's all about the kids come first. We know that but we also want to remind everybody of that and the way you do that is you bring in a leader that is able to do that immediately. U those are
the pieces that we want to bring to you and that's what I hope you see through us is that because of our connections because of who we are we'll bring that to the table in a in a very very quick manner and and and also something that you can trust. I think that's the most important thing is that you can trust.
So, you guys have a large database of people and you also work nation and wide. You know, um an estimated amount of that. Estimated amount. Goodness, Trent. Um when we talking about nationwide? Yeah. Yeah. We'll get up there
nationwide. Um but back to Mike's point, you know, I think it'd be an eagle and a hastack if you get somebody nationally that's going to be your right fit. I really believe, you know, just know a little bit of your history, you're going to probably wind up with somebody that can be objective and has some awareness
and connection to Woodland Park and it could be, you know, another survey in another state right now, but they have some understanding and connection to your district in your geography. And Tre, your question was nationwide, uh, what's the number that we have access to of candidates?
Oh my gosh. Well, I got about 5,300 in my database. uh of previous applications and pools. uh we have about 7,500 that our newsletter reaches and a lot of those people are have you know self- subscribed social media you know depends
on the platform uh I don't want to yeah you don't have to I was just curious about the database and the previous applicants um and it was in comparison to the other company that we were just speaking with and it's about the same so just asking the same
question I can tell you that in our last researches here in Colorado we probably had over 50 applicants uh for one or two of those jobs in their small districts. Uh it didn't have anything to do with the salary, didn't have anything to do with anything else except that particular community they wanted to
bring to that community. So once we get to that point, you know that those are the folks that want to be Thank you. And then as far as the the fee structure, I know you mentioned a couple times that you're you're willing to match. Um you know, obviously we don't want to ask you to do work that you feel
isn't worth time, but just curious how flexible that that um we'll we'll match whatever uh Mac and Jack gave you and if there are additions as they have addition uh we're very negotiable with
that. I mean that that's all part of what we do. I mean it's uh our idea is to be able to get to the point where we can bring any candidate. It's not about how much it's going to cost to get here. Anything else? Anything for Trent before he checks out
on me? Thank you, Trent. I appreciate your chance. Yeah, it's great. I hope I get the chance to meet you folks in person and again, I hope you see that, you know, just I'm a little bit matter of fact what we can serve. I've been at this a while and I'm confident we can serve you well and I appreciate your
time this afternoon. Thank you, Jeff. Take care now. Thanks, Mike. You bet. I'll be in touch. All right. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Thank you, folks. Mick, you have my contact information. Thank you for giving us this
opportunity. Thank you. I hope it goes well. Do you have any questions for me at all? We good? I think I think I have my next trip to the vet. Uh, not very good. German shepherds that are getting old,
it can be real sad. Yeah, I was thinking about that, but we just went through that, too. So, he'll be okay. He He'll He'll buy some time. We got him on doggy. I'd be broke. Do we have a copy of your Do we have your presentation or the presentation? Yes, you do. Yeah, the like the
electronic version of it. Um, we have to have it forward it to you I believe. Are we to discuss point of this action was it was there as an option if we just if it was just easy
decision, but I don't I am not I doubt anybody was really gonna see that. But we're going to have a couple options. We can ask for a motion to approve an engagement insert the name of the search firm going with after a second and for a
roll call or ask for a motion to postpone a decision to June 11th at the regular board meeting after. Can you talk just a little louder? I heard he
said we have Can I do we have Thank you. Thanks guys. I would like to ask for a motion to postpone um the decision to June 11th regular board meeting after um only so we could have it we can either have a discussion here
after we do that and so we can talk about it but then also that would give us some time in case there are further questions um to either one of the companies that we thought of or if we need to reach out to them but I need a second second
second I second okay discussion question. I think this gives us a chance now to go home and and review their proposals and do some cross referencing. Um I was so we'll do that and then we've got
an ascent a consent item. Well, I'm just killing time for a second, but So, um, is there you have a question? Oh, well, we're in discussion time, so we have a first and a second. Yes. Um,
the the motion is to not take action, but have discussion or just to postpone a vote. The motion was to postpone a vote on which of the firms we were going to go with until the next regular board meeting, okay, on the 11th. This way, we
have some time to review the packets. are seeing the presentations, perhaps have another uh special meeting or executive session to discuss it a little further as a group and then be able to come to the meeting on the next regular board meeting and make a final with with
some final results. And I'm I'm going to be Go ahead. Go. No, go. I'm going to ask for permission to hold off on that motion so Ginger can get this item out. I think we need to finalize it. We're
roll call we're in discuss discussion before I was just trying to do some negotiating you did I'm sorry uh okay so we have a motion to continue it and we have a second any more discussion yes
yes I wanted to discuss let's discuss u are is the intention to not have any discussion today about the two presentations and not take action or is this to eliminate all of four for today
just just to postpone an actual so we can have the discussion right now which is what we're doing but the motion was that we wouldn't make a final decision today but we so we can discuss it now okay I just warned you that was what I was asking clarification for
so we're just not going to have action I'm going to s well I was going to suggest that we wait to decide to take action or not until after we have discussion. Yes. But
okay, that's what the motion is. So even on June 11th, I don't know if we even want to vote. We have to take time. We can still postpone it, but we need to have discussion about it. And so that's I think something beneficial would be to vote on the motion, but then I'd like to
have some further discussion after that decision has been made because We're all here. Is that appropriate to everyone? That's what I was asking to do is have discussions. Okay. So, this is this is an appropriate time for us to discuss what we just heard. So, we can have the
full discussion right now. We can talk about cost. We can talk about what we liked or did not like about the presentations we just heard. We can do that right now. I was going to ask, we're leading into it. What are some things that we liked and did not like? And I think we need to discuss that right now. Okay. Well, then let's do that before we take a vote. Well, the
vote Okay, Ramy, do you do you want to go ahead and take the vote and then just continue to just No, we would have to do it. Yes, we would have to do it before we vote the motion. And the motion is only to postpone it. So, you guys could vote no or yay, but it's not a motion to vote on either or. I think we'd all like
to hear one another's thoughts fresh after the interviews. Well, I did like the discussion is supposed to be on whether or not we want to vote on this or why we're voting on discuss taking
action. You are correct. Yes. That's what discussion is supposed to be. Are you able to like just like are we able to amend the I know we've voted on the agenda already. Is there for us to add anything now or no? No. No. Once we start it's Yeah. Because
it's a special meeting also. So I would say for the June 11th that we have some sort of discussion before an action item. Yes. Or meeting prior to the next board. So the motion on the table is are we going to take action on this or not today. Correct. That is the motion on
the table. Yes. Yes. That's what discussion about. Yes. So all right. Roll call. I no restster holds I. Motion carries. I'm ready to take action.
Well, and and now having completed that one, uh Oh, yeah. Can because we're going to have a discussion after we made that motion and give share some of our ideas, would everyone be comfortable to go
ahead and have we we can actually discuss it because it was never added to the agenda. So, we should have had an agenda item on here that said discussion like Yeah. and then possible action. It should have been an additional item on the agenda
for discussion which is why I wanted to propose that motion not even to vote today so we can have the discussion at the next meeting and then have an action. Okay. Well, well that ship has sailed. We made that decision. That is what my question was otherwise I would have voted no. So then we would have be
able to discuss it and take action. So that's what my question is was after we take this vote are we going to discuss it? We are, but not today because it's not an agenda item. So, we can add it as an agenda item to an additional meeting or we can add it as an agenda item to
the next board meeting. I understand that part, right? But that's specifically why I asked the question before the vote. Are we going to discuss it afterwards? And the answer was yes. Well, we are, but just not today because it's not on the agenda. Well, and that and that I would have to do that because
I wanted to do that. You wanted to vote. What? No, I would have wanted to have discussion and that but anyway right but the the motion that was on the table was whether we were going to pick which firm we were going to use today. So the I understand that I absolutely right. So
voting no would have just meant you wanted to vote on which firm today without a business. No, I did not I did not want to take that vote today, but I wanted to have that's why I voted the way I did. Y I wanted to have discussion about it as though we
were going to be voting today and I would have voted no, don't vote today. Although I'm ready to go. I'm I mean I have my bias already. Okay. Well, now any of that I didn't want to vote today. I wanted to have discussion today and I understand that
it's not on discussion is not a separate item. Well, there was there was already a motion, David, to put it off till the 11th and there was a second. So, we were voting yes to putting that vote off
until another time. Is that right? So, so I understand your yes vote was correct. So now we have the opportunity to discuss it. Unfortunately, we can't today, but we can have another meeting or we can have a lengthy discussion. Yeah, work session um prior to the next
meeting or we can include it in the next regular board meeting. Yeah, it's been a bad decision on my part because I would like to have a discussion with a fresh on. That's what I had thought we were going to Okay, so that motion carried. Uh, next
item, the consent agenda. Ginger, you're going to speak to us about needing a motion to approve the consent agenda. So what I'm gonna present you so what I'm going to present to you is
you want me just to use my teacher voice. Yes. Easier. You want a microphone volume? Okay, try now. You like this one? I'm happy to use whatever
so I am just sharing the general asurances form and this is for the PSA consolidated grant which is our title grants and so just to give you I know that you know some information about title, but I did
want to bring to your attention that both Coline and Summit qualified this year as title schools. So, the purpose I'm just going to read the purpose statement. Um, the purpose of the form is to collect the requisite general asurances of the
administration of ESA title program in a single location. The ESA general asurances form replaces the single asurances form previously collected for the administration of all federal
programs. The ESA general asurances form includes the general asurances outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act as well as the asurances required of all recipients of federal funds. So, in order for me to start writing our new
grant that's due June 30th, so this federal government and the states are a little behind right now because of changes at the federal level. They didn't get the states um the information they needed for us to start the grant
yet. So, this is late this year and so and it's due June 30th. So, I need um action so that I can have you all agree to theurances. So then I can turn this in. Then they will share what um money
that the title schools will receive and I can start writing that grant and budgeting that. So I would propose a motion to approve the ESA general insurance form as proposed. Second.
Second. Discussion. What is the dollar amount? Do you know or approximately. So, I will not know until after I get this form turned back in. Last year, it was around it was a little less than 350,000, but that was
for title one, two, three, and four. Um, we are expecting to get a we're expecting to get a p a little bit less this year. However, we have higher percentages of students who qualify for title. So, it might even out, but I
can't really tell you until this is turned in. And then the state will send us a letter that tells us how much money we will receive. And then I'll really take that money and budget it based on um the needs of the schools and stakeholder feedback I've received. And
what are the what are the requirements or where may the money be used? So for title one, we often use some of that money to pay for interventionists. Um, we also used that money to pay for
like our literacy nights and this year we had a math night as well. Um, for title two, it's professional development. Title three, we partner with Cheyenne Mountain School District because we both receive smaller amounts.
And so if you if you receive less than 10,000 in in Title 3, you partner with another district and that is for our CLLD students or students who um come to us that need um English as a second
language. And then title four, you often have the option to move that into title two, which has been done quite often in the past. This this year, I used some of that to help fund um some extra materials for the middle and high school
as they were consolidating to make sure that the specialist had enough of the right equipment. Very good. Is this a reimbursement grant or it is a reimbursement? Yes. One other question that I have is often times when
you're receiving money from the government, it has strings, big strings attached to it and requirements. Can you name give some of those if you know what they are? So, I would say this is one of those um grants that does not have the
strings attached except for, you know, just making sure that we're spending it the right way, which I've been very diligent um and worked with CBE directly and everything is approved and I have my own also tracking it myself. Um so, it's
just really making sure that you're using accountability for the SP. It is. Yes. And they're very strict. So I was um I have worked with them diligently to make sure it's getting used the correct way. Now the interventionists, can you describe just briefly what they what
that Absolutely. What do they do? So these are usually our interventionists at the elementary level. Um they work with our students that are usually tier 2 and tier three. Um which are the students that need extra support with reading or math typically. Okay. Well,
thank you. One final question, the the reimbursement, is that tend to be like lump sum type reimbursement or is it as it as you go? I think it depends on the district. I believe here it'll be more of the lump sum filing like once or twice a year.
Absolutely. Yeah. And I I actually would assume that's how it is at most school districts. Was this already in our um proposed bud budget and considering and do you have plans um for the future of like where sort of this these funds
would go? My hope is that we continue to get about the same amount so we can continue to fund the teachers because that does help with our general budget as well and I think that we are at a point where that's very important to be very thoughtful to every penny that we
have to use it the correct way. Any other questions? Roll call. Barkley. Hi. Bates. I. Kimbro. I. Patterson. I. Mr. Holtz. I. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.
There being no further business. Motion. Motion to the special meeting. Second. There. There's some uh in Robert's rules, it says something different, but I was told to quit arguing about it. I was told you don't need a motion to, but
we're not going to argue here. Do I have a motion to close the meeting? We do in a second. In a second. Okay. Roll call. Bley. I. Bates. I. Kimbro. I. Patterson. Hi. Rester Holtz.
I. you know, working for government and schools, it's no wonder things aren't efficient. There's so many rules. I know. I never had in all, you know, this is the only one where I needed a mo where we needed a motion to close. Well, and that could be, but when when we went
and took that training down there, they said that the president just makes a motion and and ends the meeting. Yep. But uh the feed that isn't