noon. Today is April 28th, 2025 and the time is 5:30 p.m. I will now call this special meeting of the ISD 191 Board of Education to order. The purpose of this meeting is to one review superintendent applicant information and determine finalists, schedule for interviews, interview procedures, and interview questions, as well as discuss, decide, and schedule the steps necessary for the rest of the hiring process. Before we begin, since we are under a tornado and severe weather watch for our area, I wanted to remind everyone of our standard operating procedure for shelter. If the need for a shelter occurs, we will immediately move to a recess and then head directly to the campus cup. We will return to the meeting as soon as it is safe to do so. Sarah has the emergency radio available to communicate with other DEEC staff. Director Hume, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Moved by Director Chester. Seconded. Seconded by Director Mickelson. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. We have two main agenda items to review. The first is to review superintendent applicant information and determine finalists. Schedule for interviews and review and confirm interview procedures and interview questions. The second is to discuss, decide, and schedule the steps necessary for the rest of the hiring process. Leading us through the discussion will be Barb Dorne, director of leadership development and executive searches with the Minnesota Schoolboard Association. So, at this time, I will turn it over to Barb to run us through the items listed on this agenda. Thank you, Chair Worb, directors. Nice to see you again. Thank you so much for your time and attention for a really exciting evening in terms of the superintendent search for ISD 191. I want to thank you in advance for the time that you spent reviewing the applications yourselves and adhering to all of the data privacy laws. I know you were very careful with that. It does facilitate the conversation tonight to know that you've seen those um those applications and all the information contained within. I do have the list of recommended candidates that I'm going to share with you in hard copy tonight and then I'll ask you to turn those back into me so I can take them back and shred them at our office in St. Peter. So, if it's all right with uh the board, I think what I'd like to do first is do some of the housekeeping items around the schedule and those sorts of things. And then the um more monumental discussion will be about candidates. We'll close with that during tonight's meeting if that's okay. Okay, great. Thank you so much. I did send to you the selection packet which I hope you've had a chance to review, but you have it in front of you. So, I just want to walk through a couple of key things to make sure that you are comfortable and ready for how things might unfold depending upon your decisions tonight relative to the candidate pool. Uh, so if you have this packet, it's pretty brief. Um, I want to just point out that this is still a draft for round one. The times were adjusted to begin at 7:30 on Wednesday, next Wednesday or this Wednesday, the 30th, and then 4:30 this Thursday, the 1st, depending upon how many people you choose to interview. will circle back to this after you've decided who you want to bring in for interviews as your semi- finalist. So, just want to confirm that is correct. And then also where the interviews will be held, that is also correct, I hope, at the bottom of this posting. And Sarah will confirm that for me. I'm sure if it is, it is not. When I reach out to candidates tonight that you selected to interview, if you do so, I'll make sure they know what door to enter by, she has sent me some very specific information about um how those folks can get to the right place for their interviews on Wednesday and Thursday. Any questions on the first round one very draft schedule? Okay. The second page is the draft round two schedule. Again, that would be Wednesday, May 7th, beginning at 5:30. This entirely depends on how round one goes and if you choose and how many to bring back for the second round of interviews on the 7th. They would be held in the same location. So, the blurb at the bottom is also the same. And a reminder to everyone, it's on here and I know it's on your website that you've decided not to live stream the interviews in order to ensure that everyone has the same playing field when they come in for their interviews. All right. Thank you. So now I want to go briefly through uh some of the suggestions that we have because we don't facilitate these interviews for you. This is the board search. You will do the interviews yourself and facilitate them. A lot of it falls on the the shoulders of the chair. So the first page is simply a recommended script and you can put this in your own words chairworb however feels comfortable to you but welcoming people to be here obviously is the first step once they're sitting down and as we discussed at the last meeting I will give each candidate in advance of the interview maybe 10 or 15 minutes with the questions when they first arrive so that they're coming in but they'll be seated here cuz you're staying up there right okay so welcome them let them know you're going to take turns asking questions and that there are a total of 14. We did decide on those at the last meeting and so I'm going to get those into the electronic form that we have as well as hard copies for you to use at the interviews and a hard copy for the candidate to look at before their interview. So just let them know how many questions and that I'll be the time keeper. So I'll probably be seating sitting over here and I have time cards that I hold up at 30 minutes remaining and 15 and five and zero. So, and I'll talk to them beforehand, but they'll know that they want to keep an eye on those questions to get through all of them if they possibly can. And then the introductions, we would like you to briefly introduce yourself. You can do it in whatever order you choose. The only thing I would suggest is you keep it really brief so that it doesn't go into specifics about um if you have kids in the district or grandkids in the district or graduated from here. That's all personal data. We don't want to necessarily invite them to share personal data with the protected class categories that we talked about, but your name and how long you've served on the board is really of interest to the candidates sitting right here. So that doesn't take very long and it doesn't cut into the interview time that remains for them to answer their questions. So just brief introductions around the table and then uh typically the chair would start with the first question. Now when I bring them that day, I'm rearranging them if you remember so that questions that are similar are not one after another. and we mix them up. And so usually you'll decide if you want to go in this direction or in that direction. That's tends to be the easiest. And so you can decide on Wednesday of this week when you get that hard copy. If you for some reason really want to ask a particular question, make sure you let us know during the 15 minutes on Wednesday before we get started so we can put your name by that question. It's just real important that you ask the same question of each candidate and the questions get asked in the same order. That's really the most important thing. That's the outline. And then you conduct your interview when all is said and done. Uh the chair usually just thanks them uh for joining you and that we will be getting back to them once the board finishes their deliberations and we can escort them out. It's a really pretty simple script, but are there questions about what is going to happen during the interview? And I'll, like I said, I'll be right here in case you have any questions about the process or something happens and we need to sort of, you know, if the weather interferes, we're going to have to do a recess again as well. But that's the interview quote script, but you can use it as a guideline. Does not have to be verbatim. Okay. The second page um after that is the board deliberations. And this is where you get to put more of your um individual district spin on how you deliberate about the folks that you have just interviewed. This will be on Thursday after you have concluded the round one interviews entirely. If you have folks on Thursday at the conclusion of that you'll submit your EMD form exceeds meets disappoints electronically. You have the practice link which if you want to use that to just sort of test it out is pretty intuitive, pretty easy. Um we'll need that half hour break for us to tabulate that information, get the PDF back to me and then I'll ask Sarah to print hard copies for you to use during deliberations. But this is an outline of how that usually occurs. Uh typically the chair again welcomes people to the deliberations. This is being done in an open session. So everyone that is here will hear of it or uh if you are recording that portion that will also be recorded deliberations. First I'll go over the EMD form results with you very briefly. We're not going to dwell on them. They are not going to tell you statistically who to make um an offer for a second interview to. It's just meant to be a guide. You're not ranking any candidates. Ranking of candidates is public data. Just sort of an indication of how you're leaning with the E's and the D's. It helps you, I think, understand where your fellow board members are coming from. It is not, however, going to tell you who to bring back. It's just one tool in the toolbox. So, I'll do that for maybe a minute um and just let you have that in front of you during deliberations. And then we'd like you to talk about strengths of the candidates. Um if you've interviewed six for example, you just open by letting each of you acknowledge a strength that you noticed in you know Jane do and so you sort of go around the table and you notice what was the strength of the interview or of the candidate. I take notes on that because there will be disappointed people that are not being brought back for round two and I like to have comments about strengths for everybody that took the time and effort to interview with you so I can share that with them when I make a call that is bound to be a little disappointing. You don't have to dwell on it and I do ask that a different person start each time otherwise the person at the end always says well ditto what everybody else said you know so you don't want to always go first nor last so kind of mix it up a little bit um that's for round one talking about strengths it's the same outline for round two except the folks doing the reference checks will provide a brief highle overview of what they learned in their reference checks correct so that is a part of round two deliberations otherwise the deliberation ations kind of roll out the same way. Okay. Trying to keep the comments positive as we talked about in interview training is also important. Once you've just sort of laid out the strengths for all, we'll say six people. Um then you start talking about what you want to do next. For some boards that happens organically. Um someone says, you know, they were all great. I'm just most excited about Jane and John or I'd like to see these three people back. and you just sort of start to build on each other's leanings, right? Um if you want to, you could sort of do a straw poll. We talked about that as an option. Um if you're having trouble coming up with the ones you want to bring back. So you you just see what happens. And the chair again is facilitating the conversation to see where the board is at. It might be clear who you want to bring back. It might be really difficult if they're all really good. Um, if there aren't the right people in this pool, again, after the first round, you could choose to put, you know, pause on the process, talk about options, reopening it, finding an interim, whatever you want to do. So, that's sort of during the discussion amongst the board. If you feel stuck, I mentioned this last time, is probably the only time that we say you could go to deficits and discuss weaknesses in order to decide who to bring forth. We really prefer as a professional courtesy not to focus on that during your discussion of your candidates. However, if you are stuck and have two people sort of in a tie, you could talk about one candidate being stronger in this area than the other. And so you're sort of elevating one without saying this person doesn't have the requisite experience. You're talking more about comparison. You could do that if it helps you get unstuck about what to do in round one or even in round two. If you go to round two and you don't you don't really know who to hire because they're also great. You could go to weaknesses there as well if you need to. Otherwise, you can skip over that. It's usually not necessary. And then you take a motion, a second if there's more discussion, and you take a vote. Um, in any of these decisions, it does not need to be unanimous. Okay? A majority of board members can move people into round two. Does not have to be unanimous. Similarly with the hiring decision does not have to be unanimous. It's a good idea. It's a good sign to the community and the candidate if you agree, even if there are some that don't agree with that being the first choice. You could all support that candidate, but you're not required to. I also did not hear from any of you that you're related to people you saw in the pool. Correct. Okay. So, the special voting circumstance of being related to a candidate will not apply in this search. That's how the deliberations occur. And I know we talked about um the fact that you're not done once you make that decision. We do have homework. I'll be bringing round two questions that we're suggesting to you um on Thursday. So, you'll take a look at that and do much what we did at the last meeting for round two while I'm out in the hallway or in a separate room calling the candidates with your decision. and they'll come back in and we'll figure out the round two questions. We'll confirm the round two schedule if it's two or three people. Sarah can fill us in on the tour schedule for round two. Um how that's coming together. We'll confirm the reference check process because the people doing reference checks won't do that until after round one. Okay? And we will visit tonight if it's okay with both of you for a few minutes after the meeting to give you some a head start on how that process is. Um, and then you'll just talk once again about where you're at with the contract and confirm that we're ready to go should you have the right person in the the round two finals. Questions on deliberations. I know I walked you through it and you can read it yourself, but it just needs to fit this board. You do not have to do it exactly this way. Are we good? So, will it be similar to how when we had to vote in a new board member? I don't know because I wasn't here when you did that. What do the rest of you think? Well, similarish. I mean, you know, talking about strengths and, you know, I mean, the vote. Yeah. Like we we said I nominate this person and everybody went around and yay or nay. Is that how we do it for yay or reserve? Yeah. My vote. I don't think it needs to be that. Typically a slate. It's what? typically a slate someone would say I'd like to I and those motions in the packet here will go through okay to bring back you know Jane do John Doe and Jill Johnson and that slate is brought back you do not have to do it individually you certainly can if you're more comfortable doing it one by one you can do that as well your goal no I think it was to who of the two or three finalists or whatever the finalist brought back is we're selecting to extend an offer to I think it was the verification question, right? The final the final decision. The final decision of who to to who we want to be our superintendent. Oh, so it was one person. It wasn't the slate. Yeah. So like so I in when we did it we had a nom you know like seeking a nomination for this candidate and if there was a second um and then if there was if there was with their name called if there wasn't a nomination then that person wasn't we each had one vote we each had one vote you know which is I think different from when we did it as a super different from from a superintendent selection okay so it is It was it was almost like a a unanimous vote prior to the official motion. The conversation, we knew who we wanted. It was it was Yeah. And it kind of was the straw vote and and if if we discuss, you know, we share share who we're leaning toward and then um that's where the conversation comes in, right? Yeah. to kind of reach consensus and be able to have a unanimous vote ideally for the so we can have that conversation before we Okay, I was just trying to and I think it was almost like a a struggle. I can't remember if we like did it on paper or like some sort of blind something but ended up Yeah. But I think in terms of the slate, hopefully, you know, if we're if we're all pretty much on the same page, um I think it would be fair for the chair to say, you know, it sounds like we've reached we we've landed on A, B, and Candidates and then discuss it. Yeah, that would work. Yeah, that makes sense. If that's how it I mean, I don't suggestions are if you'd like to go to the last two pages, this might be a good time. We'll just reading One one quick clarification. I know that um after tonight, you know, there'll be some reference checks happening and then am I understanding that for even the second round, there's another reference check in between the first and second in between the first and second two. So there's like two rounds of reference checks. We've done reference checking on the pool. Okay. 23 people in your pool and then we turn it over to the board to select who to interview and then you interview your first round and then you have board members make reference check calls between the two between round one. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. One one reference check just on the however many finalist final final second round. I I I misread the deliberations. I just read it. Get cracking on those skills. Thank you for asking though. I'd rather there be clarity around how this is going to happen so we don't have confusion. Uh the last two pages are some sample um motions you could use. The first one is for tonight. The most important thing here is that it's candidate A, candidate B, candidate C. Do not make a motion with names in it in any way, shape, or form. And we'll see if that passes. If that is seconded and it passes, eventually at the end of this meeting, I'll I'll give you the real names of these people that are candidate A, B, and C. Um, so that's for tonight. You can use this language. You could use your own. There's not a rule about how you state it. However, if this makes it easier, you can use this language. Um, on Thursday, if you have interviewed your semi-finalists and you like two or three enough to bring back, you could use the second one. Um, an offer for second round interviews. And then, of course, it's names because their names are public tonight. So, it's names. The last one on the front page is what you could use to make an offer after your second round. If you have found someone you want to enter contract negotiations with, you could use this. Does that make sense? We always suggest including language in your motion that it's a mutually agreeable employment contract. It's contingent on that because if you don't agree on terms, there's no job offer, right? So that as well as the criminal background check results with um those being acceptable to the school board and we are doing those on all four, five, six or seven people you choose tonight. We'll start that process through Baker Eubanks on all of those semi-finalists that you name. So you'll have them back. You should have those back in time for round two. What if we were to do in this first round individual, you know, the chair would say, you know, based on say we know that basically there are, you know, say four or five people making it up. That that sounds like we want to bring it forward. Is there any reason not to do individual for the chair to do an individual motion for each candidate as opposed to a slate? It takes longer. Nominate. Yeah. However you want to do it for candidate B and and like do it just and everybody is yes, no. Hopefully by the time we're at that point, our discussion will have brought us to we're already in agreement. The only concern I would have with doing it individually is potentially creating the impression that there are a smaller number of candidates that are shoe ends and others that are kind of sure a little more iffy that we need to have more conversation about. So that that'd be my concern with doing one at a time unless we knew right these are the x number of candidates and just do them one at a time but then why not just do them all at the same time right? My concern would be ranking. Yeah. Even if it's not, it would be perceived, right? It would be perceived as ranking. Yes. And then just another clarification. So like when we're, you know, if we're recommending candidates, we're referring to the number assigned in the list that was provided for tonight. So that could be like we want to bring in candidate H and Q and Yep. you know A and you know F. Okay. All right. Cool. And what happens? So then if worst case scenario uh the conversation leads us to a place where we don't have a clear [Music] slate where you know it it for the first round for right now. For the first round yeah worst case just just playing devil's advocate. Oh, so like it maybe thinking we from this pool we may want to consider an interim, right? Okay. Right. Oh, I think we would have to raise that point when we get to that Mhm. point in the evening. I just wanted to raise the question so that we're thinking Yeah. So we're thinking about it. You always have options, right? And that is one of them. Okay. At any point at any point. Correct. The last page in this little packet is called plan A, plan B. This will only become applicable if on May 7th you have two or three outstanding candidates. You don't have the last page. Plan A, plan B. Leslie, look. Oh, there we go. Okay, you got it. Okay, great. Thank you. I wasn't reading the green highlighting. Sometimes you want to hire two people and they'd both be really great. And in the interest of time, some boards will say, "Let's make an offer to Jane." If Jane falls through for either of those two reasons that we had a contingent on, we authorize the chair to make an offer to John. So, you don't have to come back with a 3-day notice and make a motion that you, you know, it's just it saves time, especially in April and May. Um, it's only though applicable if you have two people you could see, even three, and we've had it happen. and where negotiations with the first finalist do fall through. They just can't come to an agreement. We've also had a candidate accept another job a day after the interview with you or something like that. So, it saves time if you have I don't even want to call it an alternate because it's it's a strong leader that you could see as your superintendent. You just can only hire one, but if there's two, you have an option to do it all in one motion so that you don't need that 3-day posting requirement and slow it down even more. So it just gives you some flexibility. Okay, that is it for procedural information. So are there any questions? I'm going to go back to the third to last page on our vetting process because we are now at the point in the meeting we're going to start talking about your applicant pool. Any questions on process? You feeling good about the scripts and how it's going to happen? Great. Okay. So the vetting process, I'm not going to read this verbatim either because you've all seen it. I just want to explain it for anyone who's watching this at a later time or here in the audience. How MSBA comes up with the folks that we suggest align most with your leadership profile, your strategic road map, and the public survey report. Those are the three things look at most closely when trying to decide who we're going to vet further. So, we look at the entire pool. We have a team of service providers who are primarily former superintendents and in this case they're former superintendents or associate sups in the metro area as well as former board members including one from the metro area that goes through and ranks everybody on a fivepoint scale you know one through five and so they do that individually. Then we get together as a group and we have a zoom meeting. Yours took a long time because we had such a strong pool and we meet for in this case two and a half three hours talking about those 23 people and everyone has come up with a different score but there are people that really bubbled up to the top for all five of those people as well as our staff and others that just didn't meet the criteria as well. So, we spent most of the time on the middle folks because there are people that are really strong in some areas, not as strong in others, and they they feel like they they do fit, and yet there are some questions about um background or experience or skill sets you're seeking. So, after we hash that out, we try to come up with a list of five to 10 people. Um those people we do pre-in. We call them on the phone. I don't, my service providers do call them on the phone, arrange a time for a phone interview. That can be a half hour to an hour walking through the profile, asking questions, probing motivation. And uh after those phone calls, the service provider let me know sort of where things stand. And there are some perhaps not as strong at that point. And so we don't necessarily dig much deeper, but there are some that we call all kinds of references that are listed in their data privacy that are listed in their application. So, they continue to call references, do some more due diligence, then they prepare what's called a presentation form, which is what I'll read out loud to you tonight. Very brief, high level, pretty vague because there's no identifying information in what I'm going to say, um, that we feel are the strongest folks for your district. If you look down at the three bullet points, you have choices then as well. You can accept our recommendation for the first round interviews as we're presenting them. You can accept some of them but replace others with candidates that we're not recommending and or you could simply ignore the slate of folks we feel align best with this district and choose other folks to interview. The one thing I want to remind um the board of and I think I mentioned this last time is the candidates we're recommending. So the candidates in yellow on the sheet I'm going to hand out those candidates um is what applies our one-year guarantee. If for any reason in their first year it's not working, you separate or they they need to leave even for family emergency or something, we do an entire another search for free. Uh we don't guarantee the others that were either on the bubble or um that we're not recommending. So just just to let you know that's the process. Are there questions on how we came up with that? Okay, I'm going to move into your pool then and start talking about that because um I really do want to congratulate you and I'm not going to hand this out quite yet. I'll give you a very high level overview of where you landed with this search. Um I mentioned it earlier, you did have 23 people apply for the position of superintendent here in 191. Of those 23, um they came from six different states across the country. So obviously a very lucrative position for folks who are not in Minnesota currently. Uh so six different states. 16 of them have superintendent experience either superintendent or assistant superintendent. So 16 of 23 is a very high number. That was really extraordinary. So a lot of experience in this pool. Uh you had about just over a third were female applicants and 2/3s were male. um that is also higher typically than uh female applicants. We do not usually have a third or more and so you were just over a third there. And of 23 you had 16 with doctorates and one in process. So 16 to 17 are doctors in the field of education. So um that's really good news. We were very impressed with the folks that are interested in leading you and your students and staff. I'm going to hand out what we call the highlighted list. if you could remember to keep this flat on the table and then I'll collect this when we're done and take it back to shred. [Music] [Music] Okay. I need more paper cuts. I do this. I just So to begin with, I will let the board know that we are recommending five semi- finalists to interview in round one. They are candidates A, E, H, M, and T. So, what I'm going to do right now is read those presentation forms that I referenced that our service providers wrote um for me to be able to share with you and anyone that watches this later what references said about these applicants and why MSBA is recommending them. So, if it's okay with the board, I'm just going to go ahead and talk for a little while here. Uh so, first of all, we are recommending that you consider interviewing candidate A for the position of superintendent in schools. superintendent of schools for the 2526 school year. Candidate A's experience includes uh assistant superintendent, principal, assistant principal, and teacher. Their current licenses are as a superintendent and a principal. And their education includes a doctorate, masters, and bachelor of science. References have described these candidates. And this is either from uh the phone conversations we had with references and or their letters of recommendation. But references have described candidate A as having several key qualities including their work ethic, consistency, respectfulness, energy, and collaborative leadership style. Their dependable performance and commitment to driving results have earned them the respect of stakeholders to foster enthusiasm for initiatives that benefit students. References say that this leader leverages their positive and optimistic perspectives on opportunities for all. Candidate A's transparent and honest communication style highlights their capacity to listen attentively while actively engaging in discussions. And so that's according to references. Candidate A. MSBA's recommended candidate A uh because they align closely with your district's leadership profile, bringing valuable administrative experience to the superintendent position. Their expertise and effective educational practices and unwavering commitment to equity ensure that all students have access to the opportunities they deserve. This leader is highly visible throughout the schools and embraces a collaborative inclusive leadership style. Candidate A is a prepared and motivated educational leader. That is candidate A. Moving on to candidate E. Their experience superintendent, principal, and teacher. Their current licenses are as a superintendent, principal, and teacher. And their education includes a doctorate, a master's degree, and a bachelor of science. Candidate E is described by references as personable, equity focused, collaborative, fair, and innovative. They exhibit a strong vision and consistently seek to include diverse perspectives in their discussions by treating all individuals with respect and promoting collaboration. Candidate E successfully enhances student outcomes. References also say they are dedicated to involving key stakeholders in the decision-making process and are not hesitant to challenge the status quo to tackle inequities. References believe candidate E exemplifies the qualities of a purposeful, thoughtful, and compassionate leader. So MSBA is recommending candidate E because they have um extensive experience across various positions within school districts. They also have a profound understanding of what makes schools effective. Their natural ability to unify people in addressing challenges in a constructive and purposeful manner is also a strength. Stakeholders value candidate E's ability to listen, reflect, and communicate their thought processes and decisions clearly. This person exemplifies integrity and operates from a strong foundation of values with the skills, vision, and charisma to inspire those around them. That is candidate E. The third candidate we are recommending is candidate H. Their experience is as an assistant superintendent, a principal, assistant principal and teacher. Licenses are as a superintendent and teacher and their education includes a master's degree and bachelor of arts. Candidate H has been described by references as a strategic and big picture thinker who is steady, reliable, and trustworthy. They are known for their ability to collaborate and build deep relationships and are well respected by peers as well as their direct reports. Candidate H has a broad knowledge base of all aspects of a public school system and follows through on initiatives as agreed to between the leadership team and the school board. Candidate H is known as being student focused and holding a strong belief that all students can be successful. MSBA is recommending candidate H because of their successful experience in leading the district through difficult circumstances with positive results. They are well-versed in all aspects of school district operations and values the schoolboard, staff, students, and the community. Candidate H is a systems thinker and works through collaboration to enhance the student experience for every student and family. They have a belief in the value of meaningful relationships and understand the importance of transparency and clear communication. That is H. All right. The fourth candidate is candidate M. uh their experience is as an assistant superintendent, principal, assistant principal, and teacher. Current licenses are as a superintendent, principal, and teacher. And their education includes a doctorate, a specialist degree, master's degree, and bachelor of science. References have described candidate M as honest, equity focused, knowledgeable, datadriven, supportive, and student centered. Their leadership style combines collaboration with adaptability, enabling quick decision-making when needed. Candidate M consistently achieves positive outcomes in their initiatives. And one reference noted that the candidates's visibility reflects their daily choice of comfortable footwear, which allows them to navigate efficiently through classrooms and buildings across the district. This candidates's commitment to achieving high levels of success has garnered the respect and appreciation of all stakeholder groups in their current district. Uh MSBA is recommending candidate M because they have collaborated effectively with leadership teams and staff to assess and enhance practices that align with the district's vision and strategic plan. Under their leadership, schools have made significant progress in closing the achievement gap among students with much of the success attributed to their guidance. Their extensive experience coupled with a deep knowledge of educational practices aligns well with 191's leadership profile. Candidate M exemplifies the qualities of an exceptional educational leader. That is candidate M. Finally, the fifth candidate we are recommending is candidate T. Candidate T has experience as an assistant superintendent, director of curriculum and instruction, an assistant professor in a master's program, a graduate instructor in education and human development, and a teacher. Their current licenses are as a superintendent and teacher. Their education includes a doctorate and a bachelor of arts. References stated that candidate T is a standout, highly collaborative leader affecting positive progress and change. They bring diverse groups together to listen, receive feedback, and find solutions while maintaining a calm presence despite any negativity. References feel they are genuinely authentic and can quickly build trust in relationships even when agreement is not reached. Their leadership and cultural competence helped move their own district forward, including careful policy language that leads to action. According to references, candidate T is supportive while still holding others accountable to goals and successes. MSBA is recommending candidate T because they are highly respected both in the district and beyond, and they have grown professionally through a diverse set of experiences and professional development. They provide oversight that is comprehensive, complex, and leads pro problem solving into action. Candidate T is a highly relational leader who leads with visibility, accountability, a supportive climate, and inclusive beliefs and actions. Candidate T's range of experience and successes has prepared them to be a highly effective superintendent. That is candidate T. So that concludes my report on the five candidates that we felt after our deepest vetting most aligned with again your leadership profile, your strategic road map, and your public survey report summary. So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Chair Worb to facilitate the conversation about what the board would like to do next. I'm happy to answer questions to the best of my ability about why or why not some of these other candidates. Again, you had an outstanding pool and there are people in your pool we would be recommending in other districts, but sometimes it's all contextual who else applied and in this case you had some real standout applicants. So, it was difficult to know it down to five, but that's what we did. Thank you, Barb. [Music] Um, so would anybody like to start or um I just want to uh mention that uh I looked at um the you know of course I didn't call any references so I wasn't speaking to anybody but you know looking at paper and and all of the information that was submitted for the applications I looked did all 23 um before we got the MSBA recommendations because I wanted to have a totally independent kind of view and opinion of them and uh you know before getting the MSBA recommendations and um I I hope it can give say anybody listening or or just what as far as this process of you know one yes we had access to everything we could look at everybody's information and the fact that at least for me personally the ones that were at the top of my list are also on the MSBA's list. Um and so that those things were aligned. Um you know it it sounds like the same kinds of qualities and and impressions that I was getting from the applications from the information that they were providing are consistent. Um so I just want to throw that out there. um that you know that was my impression of of the applicants about this process and about the MSBA's recommendations um that uh that the ones who are top of my list were also included in theirs. Thanks, Director Mickelson. I I did the exact same thing and I agree with that. I wouldn't I was in the interest of moving this along. Uh, I have no issue with these five. If we wanted to add another one, I' I'd be open to that. Uh, shift some out maybe, but if we stuck just with this, I'd be perfectly fine. Yeah, I did the same thing you did, too. And I was pleasantly pleased with that. I wasn't like out of the ballpark or anything that that Yeah. If we're looking at our three bullets of opportunity here that um I'm in favor of the moving forward with the recommendations made by MSBA. I did similar process and also came out with the same list. So it was very very much aligned. Interesting. Same. I think um having reviewed them, I was definitely thinking, "Oh, this one is really interesting. I kind of like this one." And then those are the ones that ended up being on the recommended list. So, I think I appreciate the work that obviously has gone into this so that the work that you and your team have done aligns with what we had kind of outlined as our expectations for our next superintendent. So, I feel like we're off to a good start on that. And I think it it's definitely reassuring um to know that that you all did this and landed in the same place. I think our community should feel really reassured that the due diligence that MSBA has done has is also reflected by the board. Um and that we're so well aligned. Exactly. Among all the board members and just Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so like all of you, I I reviewed all 23. I um I did look at the recommendations before I went, you know, the ones that, you know, I would have picked, but definitely when I um reviewed all of them, um I was definitely aligned with what MSBA recommended. I mean, just like everyone else, it was like those were the clear um top runners. Um, in my eyes, um, I'm very comfortable with the five. I don't I don't see us, you know, adding anybody to the list. Um, I think the five are, um, what where we're where we're at is good. So, um I think we would, you know, accept the recommendations my made by MSBA for first round interviews as presented. Are you making a motion? Uh do I need to make that motion now or do we at any point? You can make a motion and still have more discussion after the second if you want. Okay. So, so I think it seems like we're all in consensus. So, um let's see. I got to find my script. Um, okay. Um, oh yeah. Okay. Um, I move to extend an offer for first round interviews for the 191. Where does it say that part? It's 191. Our district. Just read their letters. The XYZ is 191. Oh. Oh. Oh. I don't like I thought that was supposed to be the letters. Too many letters. Okay. Anyways, for the 191. Okay. Where is that part now? Sorry. The top of the second. Okay. I'm sorry. Can I start over? Yep. Of course. Cheers. I move to extend an offer for the first round interviews for the 191 public schools superintendency to the following candidates. Candidate A, candidate E, candidate H, candidate M, and candidate T. Is there a motion to approve moving the following candidates forward to a first round of interviews? I would I think I'd second your motion. What? You just made a motion. So I I second your motion. Oh, moved by Okay. So moved by you. Is it moved by myself? Okay. Moved by myself. Second. Seconded by Director Chester. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Nay. The motion carries unanimously. Congratulations. Thank you very much. So, before I read the names aloud, I'd like to revisit this real quickly to see what you'd like to do with round one interviews. Okay. You have saved spots for six and you are at five. So, would you like to simply eliminate the last spot on Thursday? I move we eliminate the last. I would like to suggest for consideration um sorry to do this guys but in terms of equitable interviewing time and preparation time fit all three all five to one day I just don't know if we can fit all five I I don't I don't Yeah I don't know how we I think for anybody who would have to maybe distance that they'd have to travel to try to so trying to move every all interviews to one day. Yeah. Yeah. Um because it gives everybody the same prep time. True. And there's no, you know, people aren't losing that hours of the day for us to do that. I don't know how we would start. We would need to start earlier on one of the days on the first, right? Or something. the feather ceremony and everybody's going on the Wednesday, it would have to be Thursday. It seems like this is kind of a common schedule. Is it to break it up into two days? Two evenings if it's five or six is relatively common. And like doesn't mean it's right for 191 though. You do what really fits your district. I mean, as far as the candidates go, I hear what you're saying about prep time, but also, frankly, are our brains going to be mush at the end of the fifth interview? I don't feel like I are we going to be mentally in a place to make good decisions if we've been doing five interviews in the same night? We need to weigh that, too. Yeah. Cuz because my thought was that, you know, if this list was at all cut down to say three or four, it would all be Thursday, right? But if it's if it's split, you know, two and three, maybe at least kind of being cognizant of of like distance and travel time, for example, as far as where we schedule them or or try to prioritize like Wednesday versus Thursday to try to make it as equitable as possible. Yeah. Because of Yeah. Yeah. And I and I respect that. I just wanted to put it out there for consideration. That's absolutely I think it'd be different if it was like during the whole day like starting in the morning to the evening. I think it'd be a little different but because we're going to be in the evening to late it's a little more challenging. Yes. So, am I hearing two candidates beginning at 7:30 on the 30th this week and three candidates on the 1st? I believe so. Okay. And still wanting to start at 4:30 and the time slot we're crossing out is the 8:30 p.m. So, we're done earlier. Yes. We have more time to deliberate and create interview questions. Yes. Would you like to do three interviews in a row? Having two breaks on either side of that last interview is more breaks than you may need. You could do an interview at 4:35, an interview at 5:50. Uh it's mostly the break for food. Could reduce 650 to have the candidate five interview at 7:30. So we have a little bit longer of a break for dinner, like 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Or do them all at the same time and take one break after the interviews are done before we deliberate. Do that also. Yeah, cuz we still need the deliberation. We still need the half hour break at least after your third interview. So there's two breaks when perhaps with three interviews you could do them back to back dinner and then take a break half hour 45 minutes before we begin deliberations. We won't be eating until 8 but whatever. And these are approximate times um because sometimes interviews wrap up early and if the next candidate is here and ready to go, if you're open to it, they're happy to come in early. So that's why the little asterisks are there that it's approximate. If you chose to do that, you could have an interview at 4:35 on the 1st, 5:50 on the 1st, 7:05 on the 1st, and take your break at 8:05. and then MSBA could have um hopefully your EMD form compiled and back to you and we could begin deliberations at 8:40 8:35 or 8:45 doesn't I could give it a half hour but if you want to take longer and eat it is a little later for supper at 8:05 but if you're okay with that then we'll be doing our work during your break is that okay with everyone I do whatever. Yeah. Like I I can make that work. Yeah. And there's still 15 minutes between each break, each interview. So you do have time to get up and stretch your legs and get a drink of water, things like that. So I'm going to put that your deliberations would begin at 8:35. That's a half hour break if it takes a little longer. Sometimes we have technical difficulties on our end if Microsoft isn't working right. Um but we'll shoot for a half hour. So it will now say interviews at 4:35, 5:50, 7:05, break at 8:05, deliberations at 8:35. Okay, sound okay? Then I have a question for the board as well. What if when I call these folks um for whatever reason someone requests a virtual interview, are you open to someone interviewing online with you? None of them are terribly far away. I I think it's I think it's fair to have everybody in person. There are dynamics that you pick up on individually that you don't get on on camera. Well, and I'm trying to figure out how to make that work with open meeting. I think it would be very difficult. Yeah. It doesn't affect the open meeting law because you're all here in person. They're just joining you virtually, right? As other people do. If boards choose that, they do it in round one. I would not recommend it for round two to exact exactly um director's position there. But I think I would be very against it for round two, but I'm not too happy about I I think they need to be here. I kind of do too. Yeah. So if someone requests a virtual interview because of I mean if if during days of co everything was online so we did it quite a bit of course if they are ill and still want to interview and request virtual. I'm just trying to think of worst case scenarios that you would not interview one of these people just because of their availability to be here in person. That's what I'm hearing. So, I want to make sure I understand you correctly. I guess I'd have to understand the special circumstance in which they're seeking to have a virtual interview. We had someone interview from a cruise ship one time. We had the director of an international school in Costa Rica interview virtually. Those are extenduating circumstances. sometimes and our dates have been posted. Yep. For maybe a month. I can't remember. So if someone had before they applied, right, we knew what I guess the if there happened to be sick this week. I'm pausing a little bit about like maybe that's the only circumstance we would say like if they just can't get here for some other reason. But if they're sick and really want to interview, it probably won't happen. You know me. I always want to say, "What would you do at the end?" See, but I hate for them to them and possibly us lose out on the opportunity because they happen to have the flu on the day that we would have interviewed them, right? Yeah. I think that'd be like the only reason I' Right. Like it can't be because 35 is closed. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. We're all We're all dealing with it. You can't get from one end. This is fine. Can we meet on either side of the Burnsway the Burnsville Parkway bridge? Yeah, right. Yeah. So, I'm hearing for round one, virtual interviews are not offered unless the day of the interview they are ill in which case we will make it happen. And you might want to mention the construction because it is kind of allow extra time. It is right. Yeah. Right. That's a great point. Thank you. Yes. Okay. When providing directions, what are what are the most usable ways to get you'll probably be all right for your 9:00 interview, but Yeah. Yeah. True. Oh, yeah. True. I don't know. It depends. 35W is closed both ways. That was just over the weekend, though. Yeah. I will mention that to candidates when I call in this evening. So, what's going to happen is I will reach out to all five of these individuals with a phone call. I'll have a press release to Sarah Copy and Sher Worb. Um, hopefully within the first 10 minutes here and their names go public during this meeting. I'm speaking them out loud in this recorded meeting. If they choose to decline the invitation to interview, their name will probably just not be in the press release, but it's public tonight. Doesn't very often happen, but every every so often someone says, "I've been thinking about it and thank you, but I'm just going to decline." So, I don't think that's going to happen. and I'll let you know as soon as possible if it does. Can I maybe throw out to Chair Alt's, you know, uh, thing, um, that if we do end up dropping to only say three or four through then to everybody on Thursday? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yep. For whatever reason, if you know, if someone backs out go back to this original schedule, there isn't anything that you'd want to replace them with. No, we haven't talked about any other No, just making sure. Just checking. No, but if if for someone if someone does drop out or or takes another offer or something, then yeah, I would highly recommend that we move it all to one day. That we move it and go back to the original schedule that's printed here and all four would be on Thursday. Yes. Okay, got it. Thank you. That's that's great clarification. later. One of the things that I didn't mention as part of our vetting process is we do a social media sweep of all 23 applicants and I have about eight pages of things that we learned about folks. Um, for the five we're recommending, we did look into things that your constituents will find and call you or text you and say, "Did you know?" And they think it's entirely true. I'm just letting you know it's not always entirely true. And we are very comfortable with each person that we recommended that whatever they might find on social media, we still are comfortable in their candidacy. So be prepared to be lobbied. Uh we talked about that earlier as well. You'll be lobbied for and against candidates. Please thank people, acknowledge their input because you appreciate their their thoughts. Just don't engage in a debate about the pros and cons of each person. You know, you have to stay above the fray as best you can. So, but there there is obviously social media presence for just about everybody these days and you just need to take it with a grain of salt. If you have specific questions from candidate, excuse me, from people who let you know of something, if you want to ask me, I can forward to you what we learned about these folks and what we asked the candidates then about the things that we found online. Is there anything else on the minds of the board before we read these names out loud and then you can adjourn because that's all I had for you this evening. No. Okay, terrific. I also want to point out I'm not reading these in order. They're not tied to A, E, H, M, and T. It is totally mixed up. So, no one knows who we were speaking about when I read the presentation forms. So, congratulations ISD 191 school board. You have selected the following individuals to interview for the position of your superintendent uh this week in round one. You will be interviewing should they accept your offer of an interview. Dr. Latana [Music] Daniels, Dr. Tyrone Brookens, Rebecca Berd, Dr. Rainey Briggs, and Dr. Jenna Mitchell. Congratulations to those five individuals and also to the board. Thank you so much, and I will be back here for round one this week. Thank you. Um thank you Barb for um all the work that you've done and we appreciate um everything that MSBA has done to assist us in this process and uh we look forward to the interviewing process on Wednesday. Um so the time is now 6:29 and having no further agenda items I now call to adjourn this meeting of the board of education.