Good afternoon. The time is now 3:59. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday, November 3rd, 2025 will please come to order. We'll start with a quick introduction beginning from my right >> Heidi Kar Sheila Prior >> Dan Janestra >> Pisi >> Valentina I ears >> Sarah Johansson >> Chase Anderson >> and I am Millian Sony. Thank you everyone for your participation this afternoon. Uh we have one item on the agenda today and that is the superintendent search firm presentations. Selecting a superintendent is among the most important duties entrusted to a school board. We undertake this process with a with seriousness of purpose, transparency, and a steadfast com commitment to the students, staff, and families of our of our district. Our objective is to identify a leader who exemplifies integrity, vision, and a deep dedication to educational excellence. We look forward to engaging our community and conducting this search with thoughtfulness and care. I will now hand it over to executive director of human resources David Lloyds who will explain this first step in the search process. Dave, >> thank you board chair Sony, members of the board, Superintendent Anderson. Uh it's my pleasure to introduce Barb Dorne, uh director of leadership development and executive search with the Minnesota School Boards Association, uh MSBA. To remind the public, last month requests for proposal were sent to superintendent search firms with a history of recent searches in comparable Minnesota school districts. MSBA was one of three firms selected following a review of written proposals to present to the board this evening. Barb will present for the first 25 to 30 minutes of this 50-minute block, after which we will open the floor for questions from board members. All search firms presenting received a summary of initial questions from the board and were able to plan their presentations accordingly. At 4:50 p.m., we will conclude our time with MSBA to transition to the next presentation. I want to extend a quick thank you to Barb and the MSBA team for the time and effort invested in responding to our initial request for proposal and preparing for tonight's presentation. Uh I will monitor the time and let you know when we reach that 30 minute presentation mark to ensure ample time for questions from the board. It should also be noted Dr. Anderson is with us this afternoon to hear presentations and will be working with the school board during the search in an advisory capacity only. Having gone through the process himself as a candidate and serving and serving as our superintendent for many years. It is recognized that his insights will be helpful as we move forward with the search process. The school board will be the final decision maker on the person selected as our new superintendent. Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for being present this afternoon and for your willingness to offer your insights through the process. With that said, I will turn the presentation over to Barb Dorne. >> Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Uh, Chair Sony, members of the board, Dr. Anderson, MSBA is really honored to be here today to visit with you about the upcoming superintendent search for Wisetta Public Schools. I'm going to say a little bit about a lot of things in the next 30 minutes. It might seem like I'm going very quickly, but there is so much I want to talk to you about in terms of the superintendent search for your next leader here. Um, and obviously I'm really grateful that there are going to be questions at the end. And I want to thank you in advance for the questions that were put together um for our consideration as well, but there is a lot to cover. So, I'm just going to go ahead and get started right away. Um, whenever we partner with people who are different than us, the outcome is stronger. I think when we have collective uh different backgrounds, life experiences, lenses, the result is always better. So the first thing I want to do is introduce the team that we put together for the Weisetta public school search. On this slide here, I am the MSBA director of leadership development and executive search. I have been with MSBA for over six years now. I would also be serving as the search lead for Weisetta public schools. So you would be seeing me a lot and hearing from me a great deal. We also have service providers that support us in our work and specifically there are five people on the team that are former metro administrators and I have one with me today. I'd like to invite John Ward here for just a moment to introduce himself as well. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, you heard my name. Um I am a service provider. However, I did work for MSBA for three years after I retired from Mountains View. I have 25 years experience in the Mountains District. Last 20 of which were in the central office. So, our role primarily will be uh taking phone calls, venting uh vetting, excuse me, can candidates. Um so, Barb will be the search lead and and our how we're utilized is determined by her. Nice to meet you. >> Thank you. >> In the packet, which you have in front of you as well, um on the left side, when you open it up, you can see that we have a statewide reach. Uh there's a map in there. those this material was in the proposal as well, but I know that was a very long document. So, I just pulled a few things to share with you. So, the map on the front is the service provider list other than the four people in the yellow area, myself, Amy Jordan, Shelby Herrera, and Maria Shinbagger. We are full-time at MSBA doing nothing but superintendent search. We also work in superintendent evaluation, which is of course closely linked to superintendent search work, but that is all that we do for MSBA. Behind this sheet, you will find the resumes of the other service providers who will be joining John on the team for Wisetta Public Schools. When you look at these folks, I'm really proud of the differences between them because they do bring some collective wisdom to the search that I think is unique. Uh first and foremost, you have um Dr. Kate Magcguire. She recently joined MSBA search team and she was a longtime superintendent in AIO and again the resumes are here in AIO. When she concluded her work in AIO as a superintendent, she served as the interim superintendent in Anoka Henipin and the next year the interim superintendent of St. Louis Park and she is now assisting MSBA as a veteran searches here. Um Dr. Bernardia Johnson is also a consultant with MSBA. She was a superintendent of Minneapolis public schools. Dr. Johnson is one of the most fierce advocates for public education that I have ever met. her passion for all children just oozes out of her and it's very exciting to have her on our team as well. Josh Paulie is a metro uh metro service provider for us as well. He is a former school board member in the Minneapolis district and Josh's background is really in the private sector. Um he is our national recruiter because he attends an awful lot of AI conferences and brings a QR code with him for all of MSBA searches when he's talking to folks. and his business background in entrepreneurship is also another lens for us to use. And finally, Connie Hayes. Uh she was the superintendent of Intermediate District 916. Conniey's background is in psychology and she is one of the most insightful veterans that I have ever met. So, we feel it's a very strong team and all five of those individuals will be supporting myself as well as other other staff at MSBA in this search process. between all of them. I really admire and I'm grateful for their wisdom, their experience, and their connections and specifically all three of those things to Minnesota. Their connections are Minnesota based other than Josh as our national recruiter, but their wisdom and experience truly reflects what I think is so wonderful about Minnesota administrators in our public education system. So, I'm going to go to the next slide and really I want to talk about first the lessons learned in superintendent search. Um, there is no magic. The scaffolding for every single superintendent search process is really the same. Every search firm, regardless of who you end up working with, will do these things. They will create the leadership profile in partnership with the board and with stakeholders. They'll offer opportunities for your stakeholders to be involved in the search process. They advertise the position. They recruit candidates, vet applicants, recommend finalists to the school board, and facilitate the interview process. Nothing about that is really different in terms of what they do. However, I would say that there are significant differences in how they do it. Now, for MSBA, for example, how we do it is based on one clear premise, continuous improvement. So, I'm going to ask a real quick question of everyone here at the table today. in Wisetta public schools, are you still doing things the same as you were doing them five years ago or have things changed? How many are doing exactly the same educationally speaking? That's what I thought. So, the same needs to happen with superintendent search firms. Lots of things have changed and in particular 2020 was a turning point for the way that we believe superintendent searches can be run most effectively and most efficiently. So, first of all, on the left side, search methodologies must evolve with the times. About 10 years ago, our search processes were similar to all of the other firms. That was just kind of the way it's always been done. We learned a great deal as a result of the pandemic and also from some improvements that we made to our process and continually have improved upon since that time. So, I want to talk a little bit about um innovation and adaptability and the importance of that. And that's what I'm going to cover on the next several slides specific to our search processes. But also with a continuous improvement model, we believe that transparency is the most important component of any search. And it is my belief that no firm runs a search as transparently as MSBA. In fact, I would guarantee that. And we'll talk a little bit more about that right now. So these are the six steps that were highlighted in that first slide uh that all firms do. And I'm going to tell you a little bit about how we do it that might be a little bit different or which we have learned from our experience in the last five years in particular and changed as a result. So first and foremost every single year we refresh the hiring criteria which we use to help develop a leadership profile in partnership with the board. Things change in education and as a result the choices that you have to draw from in order to help create that leadership profile should be updated as well and we are always doing that. The leadership profile you end up should also um reflect the highest priorities in the district. One of the challenges that candidates face is sometimes there is a two-page leadership profile. If it's that lengthy, it's very hard to ascertain what is the most important thing to this district. You have priorities in this district. You have higher priorities and then you have highest priorities. Designing a leadership profile around those highest priorities does help you identify the candidates that best align with where you want this district to go. So, we do want to prioritize and winnow down the criteria that you are using for the next superintendent. It makes it much easier to recruit and to talk to folks about the opportunity when we know what is most important to the board and to your stakeholders. Now, your strategic roadmap obviously is central to all of the work that's going to occur over the next several months with the superintendent search and the board and stakeholder input really truly need to be married. So, if you look in the folder, I do want to show you just a couple of brief things. There's a very colorful sheet in there as well. So, this is an example or samples of the way that we compare stakeholder input to schoolboard choices because you as elected representatives speak for your communities. So when you are preparing a leadership profile, we want to find out from all of you what you feel is most important and that's what we often develop the leadership profile from. We also however ask the exact same questions of your stakeholders and we want to be able to compare apples to apples where the board aligns with or does not align with the folks that also are telling us what matters to them. So if you look at these three samples, you'll see that the hiring criteria down below, for example, if they match, you'll see some colors that are the same because that means the stakeholders and the board selected the same things, which is great. And occasionally there is some dissonance where some things the board perhaps missed and that came up later with the stakeholders. So when you look at this, there's a couple of examples. I'm not going to go through all of them, but it's just one example of what's included in the report that we provide to the board about engaging with your stakeholders relative to what is needed in the next CEO for Weisetta Public Schools. So, that's just one way of ensuring that you are in tune or in step with your stakeholders. I'm going to talk about the survey in a moment as well. I do want to talk about the timing to release the leadership profile. That is very important. You do have the luxury of time because you're out early, relatively early. You could choose to wait until you have gathered all of the stakeholder feedback to help inform the leadership profile or you as a board could help identify a leadership profile and then move more quickly with posting the position in recruiting applicants. When the results come in from the stakeholder survey information, then we compare and contrast it to your decisions. If it doesn't align, we can modify the profile. But more likely, we will then include the information from the stakeholders in the vetting of the applications, in the recruiting of the candidates, developing the interview questions, and ultimately deliberating who you'd like to bring in for interviews, bring back, or ultimately make an offer to. So, there's many ways to use the information you gather, but you can do it before or after you've gathered information from stakeholders. That's going to be completely up to you. You are unique. We know that and your profile should reflect that as well. You should not have the same leadership profile as anyone else because every district is different. Every school board is different. Every situation that a superintendent walks into will be different. Now, in terms of stakeholder, you're going to offer stakeholder engagement opportunities. There's really two primary areas or times that you can involve stakeholders. One is really early on and the other is toward the end of the search. That's why there's a little bit of a space under stakeholder engagement areas here. One of the things we do that's new uh excuse me that's only an MSBA offering is search preview meetings. What that means is very early in the search. We're going to meet with your um administrators and the leadership of your bargaining units. It is not a focus group. It is an opportunity for us to share information with them about what the board has decided to do moving forward with the timeline, the survey, the uh vacancy brochure. share information, answer their questions, and ask for their help because the people within the district walls are very connected. And making sure that we meet with them early to talk about the process helps ensure that rumors don't get started, that people feel informed, that they know where to go for information, and they all have my phone number and my email address. So, the search preview meetings are unique to an MSBAled search, as are the Q&A with MSBA sessions. Now, this is an interesting thing because we started them three years ago. I think it is absolutely one of the best things we do. Most people though do not appreciate the value of the Q&A with MSBA until after they've actually seen it. What that is is a half hour to 45 minute Zoom meeting that we host and everyone can log on to ask me questions about the process. I'll share information again, timeline, brochure, survey, etc., etc. I'll answer every question people might have about the process and we record it. The recording will go on the district website and there will be hundreds and hundreds of views of the Q&A session on your website. Now, not everyone's available at the time we have the live session. So, we do allow people to send me questions in advance. If they have a question about the search process, let me know what that is. I will answer it during the recorded session. They will hear the answer when they watch it at a later time on the district website. So I think the value of the Q&A with MSBA session has proven to be one of the very best ways to ensure accurate transparent information is in the community and in the buildings about what's going to happen, why it's happening that way, and when that is happening. Obviously, we'll want to do a public survey. We'll do that in as many languages as you would like us to do. Uh we will offer it not only online. 247 access is most helpful. Most people will take it that way, but you'll also want to do it in hard copy uh ADA requirements, and you want to make sure that people who can't use digital devices or don't want to use a computer have access to the hard copy survey in multiple languages as well. One of the things that we've added this year is a studentfriendly version. It's the exact same survey, but it's in plain language. So, to get students involved, one of the most effective ways we've found is to work with the high school, for example. And as an option, you never want to require students to take something like this, but as an option, perhaps during advisory periods, give them some time to take the survey on the superintendent search process. Um, plain language. One of the best examples was there's something in the survey perhaps about um fiscal management skills, money, just trying to speak more plainly for the teen brain to be able to participate fully in the search process. And we could potentially get hundreds if not more students involved for student voice in this as well. So the student friendly version I think does a great job of including those folks. Listening sessions and focus groups are a traditional methodology that most search firms will offer or automatically do. I would simply caution the board to think before we schedule those because we will definitely do as many of those as you feel are necessary and keep in mind that sometimes that traditional methodology excludes people. A uh there are barriers to people participating in those. they may not have child care or transportation or speak English um or they might do shift work. So there's all kinds of reasons for people not to be able to participate in those listening sessions and we will do them if you feel it is something that is valuable. We just want to make sure by trying to be inclusive you are not unintentionally being exclusive of a lot of people. We found the survey to be very valuable in terms of keeping the volume of input at the same level. So some people are not heard at a much louder volume or more often than folks that are not able to come to your meetings and speak with you or contact you directly. So it's an option for you and we will do them. But we want you to make an informed decision when that time comes. All right. The second time that stakeholders might be involved is doing uh during the second round of interviews or even in the first one. You can do all kinds of things with interview committees or input forums or online forums um soliciting feedback on the finalists. Uh district tours are always provided. That's important. All of those things are included. But the reason that I have it here under um first or second round of interviews, MSBA's process is not prescribed. We have not planned this search out from beginning to end. The reason for that is it needs to evolve one step at a time. We do not want the board making decisions about the interviews right now until you've gathered information from your staff and community and parents and student. Then you're going to make the next decision about the next step because you'll always have options. Our job is not to lead this search. You will lead the search, but we will support you, provide you with information you need to feel comfortable making the best decision for Weisetta Public Schools, and that includes the interviews. So, I'm talking fast here. I hope that's okay. The last one here about interaction in input or information, community Q&As. There's a lot of very creative ways to involve people in the interviews at that point probably in the second round. That is the only area if you look at page 15 of our proposal where there may be an additional fee. Depends how creative you want to be and how many sessions you want to offer. That is the only thing not included in our services. Everything else is in there for a flat fee and there will be no surprises. The next step that people do is to advertise the position. You can see where all of the sites that we have it on. It's local, it's regional, it is national as well. Uh, one of the things that's unique to us is Revelis. That is a national database utilized by schoolboard associations that do superintendent search. So, if someone is looking at um opportunities in Texas, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, all kinds of folks, places, they will see Minnesota openings in the Revelis database as well. So, that is a national advertising option for us. Um, the diversity postings, I did include that in here as well because it's not in the proposal, but in the AASA, we do boost it. This page has 31 additional sites that we pay to include all of the posting information for your position um, on a national scope. I mentioned earlier that Josh Paulie is our national recruiter and I do want to touch on the fact that our national presence has grown and solidified the last five years. I would say 10 years ago we did not have a national presence and as a result did not do very many if any metropolitan searches. That has completely changed and our national footprint is so much larger now. I'll give you a quick example. Um last year alone in our searches we had 376 applications come in. 376 applications for the searches that we helped with last year which was 30 or 31 searches. Of those applications they came from 34 different states outside of Minnesota. Currently in Revelis there are uh 744 profiles which is where people go to start uploading information like their work history, their transcripts, their license etc. waiting for the right opportunity to come along and apply. Of those 744 profiles that are currently interested um folks interested in working in Minnesota u that includes administrators from 27 states and three countries. So, I think our presence nationally is on par with anyone's. And I will also say the second to last bullet point that our Minnesota presence without question is stronger than any other firm that you will visit with. Uh we have done 126 searches in the last 5 years including um most of them in the metro the last couple of years and I know that list is in there. There's eight pages of searches that we've done in the last 5 years. So, we feel very good about that. I do want to talk about the recruiting philosophy we use just for a moment uh because it's different than traditional search firms as well. Um we do not serve as any sort of gatekeeper between the board and the applicants. So people know that they know that you will see their application as board members. You'll have access to every piece of application materials for every single applicant, not just the slate that we're going to be recommending. So people know you're going to see that and so they do not have to go through us through us to get to the board. That means it is wide open and um people do not need to be invited to apply. They know that they have access to you with their materials from the get-go. Now we do encourage people to take a look at the opportunity. The five folks that are on your metro team again are exceedingly connected across the state of Minnesota. Um we also partner with MASA and BOSA and all kinds of stuff. So, we have very strong Minnesota connections in addition to nationally, but currently in Minnesota, there are 1,549 people who have superintendent licenses. No single search firm can possibly know who are the top of the top of those, 1549 people. You just can't. So, by getting the word out, by spreading it strongly through our networks, you will have, I believe, an exceptional pool in Weisetta. I really truly do believe that. Now, I'm going to talk about BOSA just for a moment because that license figure comes from them. We have Minnesota knowledge like no one else. One of those is that Minnesota does not have reciprocity for out of state licenses. Many people assume if they're a superintendent in another uh state, they'll be able to come here and work. That is not the case. So if we see any applications come through for weisetta from out of state applicants, we contact them and make sure they have talked to BOSA, that they are aware of the fact that they need to at least begin the wheels turning on their provisional license before they be are interviewed by the board. We also let them know that their name will go public if name if named a semi- finalist for this position. That's not the case in every other state. Data privacy laws, open meeting laws vary from state to state. So we want to make sure any out of state candidates understand what lies ahead. We do not want you to interview someone who's not going to have a Minnesota superintendent license by July 1st of 2026. So, our partnership with BOSA we believe is very important. And finally, we reach out to an awful lot of people. I will share with you what candidates have told me. This is not meant to be critical of any other recruiting process whatsoever. I have however had candidates tell me after a search whether they were successful in securing the position or not that it was the first time they felt not tokenized. There are some candidates that are phenomenal in Minnesota who might be women or minority and there are times they said they have felt that way in other searches. So they are very cautious about throwing their hat into the ring knowing their name is going to go public. And to me that was one of the highest compliments I've ever received is when a couple of different people told me that. and I appreciate it because I understand what that means and um we welcome any and all applicant. We want to find the best person for your district. All right, I talked I didn't talk about NAS but I don't think I need to. No one else will be a member of national affiliation of superintendent searches, just us. Uh okay, onward. Vet applications and recommend finalists. Again, you will have no barriers between you and these applicants. However, while you're looking at them, we will also be looking at them. We will also conduct bias training with the board and I'm sure all of you are familiar with MSB's trainings in many different areas that carries over into superintendent search as well. We think our support of school board and the education we provide to school boards is absolutely unparalleled and that carries over into the superintendent search process as well. Now um our bio or our our vetting team is exceptionally strong. Um, oh, opportunities to talk to me about the recommendations that we're going to be making. You'll be discussing private data in a public meeting. So, you'll be discussing candidates ABC. You've seen all the materials. You will know at least 2 days before that meeting who we are going to be recommending because our team of service providers have taken a pool of perhaps 30 people. We've narrowed it down to maybe 12 to 15 that we want to get a lot more familiar with. So, we do pre-in, social media um, reference checks. We talk to people on the phone about them. We do have to be careful because our name is private data to not vet outside of their provided references and we'll talk more about that if we are fortunate enough to get the search. However, um you'll know who we're recommending. We're going to try and get it down to six probably. You can call me oneon-one and ask me why not candidate D or why candidate C. I will be happy to share that information with you one on-one. I will not do it in a public meeting. nothing identifiable can be um provided in that meeting but I will make sure that you are comfortable if you contact me you do not have to about why we are recommending the people that we are and then it's your prerogative at that meeting to either take the recommendations or go in a different direction you're not required to take our slate of candidates our search guarantee is contingent on one of those six ultimately being hired but you're welcome to hire someone not on our list we simply then don't guarantee the results of the search all right um let's See, I would encourage you to check, I'm assuming perhaps over the next week, someone is going to be doing some reference checks. I would say please talk to anyone on those eight pages or anyone else who's not listed as a contact person but worked with us on a search and that includes candidates. There was a question in advance about candidates and I'd like you to feel comfortable to talk to the superintendants in the searches we've recently placed. See how they felt treated as a candidate. We survey our boards, the contact people, and all of the candidates every single year. We've been doing that for 5 years. It's the foundation of our continuous improvement model. So, I think candidates have had some really great suggestions for us to continually get better for their experience and we know that board members have suggested things that we've incorporated. Especially, we've come up with the search preview and the Q&A as something that makes us different that came from that survey and the needs that people shared. As far as the interview process, I would say it just means communicate, communicate, communicate. Um, we coordinate everything. We try to make it as light on your staff as possible. Their plates are full and we know that. So we do almost all of the heavy lifting. We would need a point person inside the district from the communication side, but we have templates. We create all the links that are necessary. We share that. We do all the press releases. They share it then in the Wisetta format. We'll do everything we possibly can to ensure that they do not have to do very much work because they have enough to do already. There was one of the questions I think um oh here we go. I'm going to actually pass something around. One of the questions was how many of uh districts that you have worked with before have rehired you? Every single one. If we have done a search for a district, if they have needed another search, we have done it. Um hopefully they don't need another search, but occasionally even in that first year, family circumstances or medical conditions or something between the board and the superintendent is not a great fit. We do another search for free at absolutely no cost to the district. Um and yet if hired again at a cost, we also are the ones that they will turn to. John, could you share this with um this isn't something this is an internal document, so I didn't provide it, but if you would start down there, please, and just hand it out there. This is a list. It's only one document. You have to share it. That's a list um of the responses from the last five years of the surveys that we've provided to our schoolboard members and our district contact persons. Uh 459 people have filled that out over the year. So, that's just an FYI um as to how we rate with the folks that we talk to. I'm going to move on now to two quick quotes. I'm watching the time myself. Um no matter how good you get, you can always get better. And that's the exciting part. Do you know who said that? Anybody a fan? Tiger Woods. And the next to improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often. I won't say we change often, but we change every year. And we actually during the year add things that make our process better. So, we are continually in motion to get better and better. I'm going to talk very briefly about this because this is also in our proposal, but these are the things that make MSBA different. Again, school boards are what we do. It's what we know. It's all we do. And that carries over into superintendent search as well. Transparency is the hallmark of every single search that we do, as is communication. There are no hidden fees. On page 15, you can see specifics of our fee structure, but there will never be a surprise for you. fee wise during our searches post hiring support. Our transition workshops allow people to get off on the right foot. We do that within the first six months of their tenure in your district and we talk about expectations for the coming year. We're doing them right now with our clients from last year. So, we want to set expectations around performance review. What process will you use? How will you use it? Does everyone agree on the priorities? And so on and so forth. It's a very important conversation and the transition workshop is included um at no cost. There was also a question early on that said, "How long do you stay engaged after the hire is made?" Forever. Um you know where we are. We are always there. We will never leave a district hanging and we will be there even 15 years down the road. If you have the same superintendent and a question about the process that you're working together on, you can give me a call and we will talk about it. Unparalleled depth of Minnesota knowledge. There's a lot of obscure statutes that affect superintendent search. Um, veterans preference doesn't apply to the superintendent. Uh, if you're related to a candidate within the fourth degree, it must be a unanimous vote of the full board. All of those things are Minnesota specific. And on our team as well, Terry Morrow, Tiffany Gustin, I always turn to them if there's something I need to know if the law has changed, if the legislature changed something, and they have been phenomenal to help us as well. We also partner with MASA here in Minnesota. superintendent contract as a model contract with MASA. The evaluation process we recommend is supported and was designed by both associations, the superintendent and the school board. So, we really emphasize partnerships. I'm going to start to wrap up here with this one. I might not leave time for John to talk about Weisetta, but um we believe recency also matters. These are some districts we've worked with in the last 5 years. In fact, most of them are in the last two years. Uh some of the folks you talk to might have done searches for these districts. We have done the most recent search for every single one of these districts and we're um quite proud of that as well. Um there's a question about how long do people stay in the position. More than 90% of our placements stay throughout the entirety of their first uh first contract. Now something to consider in terms of scale is that Minnesota in 2004, the legislature changed the law that superintendent contracts could only be a maximum of three years. So that's been in place since 2004. You'll find some firms that say that our average tenure is 12 and a half years or something like that. Keep in mind that other states, if you're talking to a national firm, have very different contract lengths. So it's possible that some of those contracts are 10-year contracts or 15-year contracts. It used to be that way before 2004 in Minnesota. They could be much longer or automatically roll over. Not the case anymore. And as a result, every three year three years negotiating a contract with your superintendent and the board sometimes it gives an opportunity to seek new opportunities for either the superintendent or for the school board. So that is just one thing to keep in mind. It's not always apples to apples with how long people stay in positions just because of our limitation on how long those contracts can be. I've given some time here for John to talk about Wisetta in particular with his experience as an administrator. Do we have another three minutes? >> We're at about 30 minutes. So three minutes is fine. Yeah, >> John Ward, >> I'll be very brief. Um, if you look at the slide, the bullet points there are really what a candidate's going to look for. Um, and you're spot on. It's uh the the tradition of excellence that isn't just academic, it's across the board. Um, solid financial footing, enrollment that's steady. Um, it's nice to come into a position not having to uh work hard to stay out of statutory operating debt. Um, high expectations and meeting the needs of all students. A very proud uh a supportive and involved community. Um, and dedicated staff. I took a little bit of license. I know people that work in the district, they all like working here. Um, Barb talked about the survey. Um, most healthy school districts we get on your survey, you're going to see people say we really like our staff, we like our teachers, we like our paras, we like our our maintenance folks. Um so you know I'll wrap up but it destination sure there'll be a lot of interest a lot of interest for just some of the reasons um that are listed there. >> Thanks Rod. Sorry I didn't leave you much time. So, we are going to open it up for questions and thank you very much for listening to all of those things that we had to say about MSBA's search services. So, I'll turn it over to the board. >> Sure. Thank you. Um, I have one question. Uh, what makes your approach to community engagement stand out? >> That's a great question. Uh I think because we customize it to the differences within each district, each community depend upon what you want. And we're going to emphasize over and over again that this is your search. So we're going to give you a lot of ideas for a community engagement and we will give you the opportunities and pitfalls with every single one of them. Uh make no mistake that there are pitfalls to involving stakeholders as well. Expectation management is extraordinarily important when you're inviting people into the search process. And we also want to be sure that people are crystal clear that the board is the hiring authority for this position. This is the only employee that you will hire and oversee. So we really recommend against creating a hiring committee. That language alone sets up unfair expectations for people that might be on that committee. So input committee is fine, search committee is fine. Um whatever terms you might use, we just are very clear about the delineation between the responsibilities of the school board and the input from all of the stakeholders um that come through. We also understand the emotion of this and we have seen a lot of instances where people's anxiety level goes through the roof when there's a leadership change. It's very difficult for people. Um, I think this will not this will not be an easy transition due to the legacy of Dr. Anderson and how long he has served as your superintendent. So, I think we understand the emotional side as well as the procedural side of a superintendent search and of gathering that input from stakeholders. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Hi. Um, uh, this seems like a very comprehensive, you know, service that you guys provide. Um, when we think about other districts also searching for superintendent and the possibility that you would be representing those districts as well, can you speak a little to that about how would would it be possible that you would be recommending the same candidates to both districts ultimately? I know it's up to the board to make an offer and up to the, you know, candidate to accept the offer. Um, but how how might that affect things? >> Great question. Thank you. Uh, yes, there is always a possibility. U we do the vast majority of searches in Minnesota including high performing districts like Wisetta. So um we see it as an advantage because there are certain characteristics of your district that might be similar to others and there is a certain kind of leader who is attracted to that kind of opportunity. Whether or not we're going to recommend them in the same districts is completely dependent upon two things. the leadership profile the board has developed and the stakeholder report from the surve uh survey as well as maybe listening sessions and focus groups. Those are the two things that are the yard stick against which our vetting team will measure each and every single applicant. Sometimes applicants will be surprised that we're recommending them in this search and we're not recommending them in that search. It might be because of those two factors. the profiles are different enough. Um the needs of the stakeholders are different enough. Where the district currently is is different enough. Um and sometimes it's because the pool is different. You know, if the pool has 12 people, that's a whole lot different than the pool having 32 people. So there's someone who might look very strong in this pool and against all of the other applicants in this pool, maybe not as strong. So it's dependent upon an awful lot of factors, but I've gotten phone calls um as soon as Dr. Anderson announced I was people are curious curious um people want to know if the opportunity is going to fit them and our answer is always wait and see what the board does next. It's very early. Please watch what's happening in Weisetta. Uh but we really do feel it's an advantage because we are plugged into multiple districts at the same time and we don't represent candidates, we represent school boards. You know, I spoke at MASA's fall conference last month or the month before, I don't remember. Um, I also speak at MASA's aspiring superintendent academy. Uh, so when I'm speaking to candidates about the superintendent search process, I'll make a point to say that our job is not to find you a job. Our job is to help the school board find the absolute best person to lead their district. So, the lens that we use is different enough where we don't see any conflict or conflict of interest with our pools, even if there's people that might be in both. Um, because that does happen sometimes, but that's up to them if they want. Would we necessarily know as a board if a candidate was recommended to another district? >> You would if the finalist had already been announced in the other district. Otherwise, you would not. Again, that's private data. So, until a school board selects who to interview, and statute's a little fuzzy on that. Statute says that a finalist is someone who's selected to be interviewed by the school board for a position. Well, if you select people to be interviewed, that's going to be a semi- finalist in round one. Correct? They're still considered a finalist in statute. So, if a school board in another district has named their semi-finalists, yes, you would know, but we're bound by confidentiality. So, we would not be able to share that with you. >> Just so everyone's aware, we have about 10 minutes remaining. >> Can I add? >> Yes, John. >> And then there's one piece that missed, but as a veter um we have long conversations with the applicants and in that process, um we try to flush out do they really want it? Um, and while we don't work for the candidates, we will tell we've had candidates with that that four different places. And we tell them if you don't get them in all four places, you you've set yourself up. So, what do you really want and why? And so, there's that vetting that goes through too. And that's how we try to match up. >> Appreciate that. Yes. Be discerning candidates. Please be discerning. >> Hi. Quickly, I just want to um get a sense on timeline from your perspective. So I'm thinking about timeline from start of you know start of the process to getting us a slate of candidates to an actual hire. What does that look like? Most searches are 3 to four months and the timeline I've suggested in your proposal is about three and a half. So by the middle of March you should have a contract signed. We can speed it up or slow it down accordingly. We've done searches in eight or nine months. We've done searches in five weeks. Depends upon where you are in the process. And you are early again because high search season is generally November through a excuse me January through April. It started this year in October, but January through April is high season and so you are out early which is really great. I wouldn't go a whole lot further than middle of March, however. Um I wouldn't get into late March or April. So it's it's going to move at a pretty fast pace. Sure. How do you define >> how do you define the success once a superintendent is hired? Just the just three top things you know I'm sure there are 10 15 things that define success but >> I read this question and I absolutely loved it. I jotted down a thought about that. Now of course I won't be able to find it. Um, I think success after a superintendent is hired is that people feel like the search was um accessible to everyone, that the information was accurate, that it was transparent, and that the search had integrity at the core of the process. Obviously, there's going to be a bit of a honeymoon period with a new superintendent. Um, a high functioning board and a new superintendent will work very hard together for the benefit of their students. the students are the heartbeat of every single thing and every decision that you make. I would think though those four things with integrity being at the center that no one is going to be able to say, "Well, we didn't know or that wasn't what she said." I will always make sure to speak the truth about what is happening in this search and why. >> Thank you so much for being here. You mentioned that this second phase where you do the community information sessions that that's the unique part that you tailor to a district and what our needs are. Can you give us an example of something that you might do with a district and why you thought that was successful or what you learned from it? >> Um sure. Uh we did a district a few years ago um community Q&A all day on a Saturday and so each candidate had about two hours um separate. they were not up there all at the same time and community members could come in or staff or students and write questions on um a card and we would facilitate that and ask qu uh ask questions of the candidate you know I think there were three so it took all day on a Saturday so that was something that worked pretty well now we want to be careful to avoid open mic open mic for people ask questions of candidates is um I would never recommend that because some candidates don't like the questions that are being asked or the tone in which they're being asked and their interest in the position could and be dampened. So, we want to be really careful with that. Also, online forms can be very helpful uh for the finalists if people are watching them online and providing feedback, but you have to be careful because people can campaign for or against a candidate and spam the results negatively which affects the data and it can be useless. So, lots of options for you to consider though. Sure. >> Hi. Uh thank you for um very informative presentation. Question I have uh which kind of superintendent uh would you bring and as an example uh that you are proud of? Let's say that the district was in real finan financial um crisis and because you were able to find such a leader uh the uh superintendent was able to change change uh uh academic outcome change um of how finances had been taken care of. Would you be able to bring at least one example please? >> Yes. Um, I won't mention specific districts, but we have had four districts where superintendents have taken on statutory operating debt their first week on the job and they knew that going into it and three of the four are out of it and one is beginning their plan right now to get out of it. So, people feel very good about that. Um, several districts we've worked with there has been trust broken and so they're looking for a healer and a superintendent is going to come in and repair relationships and rebuild trust and create both inside the walls and outside the walls a sense of community. that has also been very very successful. Uh in your case, I don't know that you're looking for a change agent because again, you are an extraordinarily successful district. So, someone who's going to carry on the legacy that the board and Dr. Anderson have built, but we have great success bringing in people who are able to address challenges and challenging circumstances and do very very well. >> Thank you again for all the details. Um this is really helpful. Uh my question is have you run into any situation where you just couldn't find the right candidate within the given time frame could be of because of number of things right again and you walk through the process maybe it's a stakeholder input maybe it's a leadership profile maybe it's candidates's interest so as we go through this process halfway through suddenly you realize like hey the parameters have changed either we have to start all over or now we have to fine-tune as we go um how have you have you run into that situation How have you managed it? How have you communicated with board? How have you sort of changed the course if you will? >> Thank you. So, if circumstances change midarch, the number one thing we do is support the board. We let you know that this is perhaps not unprecedented because it does happen. There are also searches that are more attractive to candidates than others. Candidates are looking generally for three things: location, salary, and reputation. You have all three of those. to the nth degree, excellent location, very competitive salary, and an outstanding reputation, particularly the reputation for your relationships between the school board and superintendent. That's what they're looking for. That is not the case in every district in Minnesota. So, there are times we have very few applicants. Location is tough. There are some areas along the border in the Northwest where we might have two or three people apply. We had two searches last year with one applicant, and it was the right applicant for both those searches. If we don't find the right person, many options, extend the search, um, pause, revise hiring criteria, which I wouldn't recommend, but you can always do that. Worst case scenario, we help you find an interim, and the interim steps in for a year to keep everything steady, and we do another search next year. There is never a charge from MSBA till you have a signed contract with a superintendent, not an interim superintendent. So, we would never charge anything till you are done and you have a signed contract with your superintendent for potentially two or three years. >> Uh, I lost my train of thought. Um, >> sorry. >> Oh, the it goes back to we don't work for the candidates, so you won't have to worry. Barb's a search lead, so she'll be your point of contact if she's if we're hired. But, um, we won't try to sell a candidate to you. Um, that's part of the fairness. And the candidates give us positive feedback on there. And we usually use the term and you probably heard it, you know, don't settle. If you don't find what you want, if you don't see the right qualities, you will if we, you know, take another route, deposit, look for an interim. Um, so you won't have to worry about that. You won't have to worry about MSBA trying to get you to hire just somebody. >> Sure. No, that that's great. So the interim candidate is part of the same fee structure. Correct. >> The interim candidate, let's say if we were to go down that path. Um, so that's still an interim step. So until we find our final superintendent, it could very well be the interim superintendent eventually, but until that final decision is made, that's all part of the current fee structure that you have provided. Yes, that >> Yes, absolutely. There's no charge to help you find an interim superintendent and we will never invoice you a penny until you have a signed contract with the superintendent, even if it takes two years. um completely. Thank you for all of those questions. That was a lot in 50 minutes. Are we done? We're done. >> Yeah, we're right at 50 minutes. So, uh thank you so much uh Barb and John for uh coming in and again I'll echo what I said to start. I know you've invested a lot of time and effort into this presentation and process and for that we're very appreciative. So, um at this time, uh members of the board, Superintendent Anderson, um we'll take a pause between uh search firms. Um, I also believe there there might be some some uh um refreshments uh in the back as well. So, we'll pause between firms, but again, thank you so much to MSBA for coming to present tonight. >> Thank you. Thank you everyone. We'd be honored to assist no matter what you decide. We wish you well with your superintendent search. Thank you. >> All right. Uh board chair Sony, members of the board, Superintendent Anderson, it's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Deborah Taylor Taylor, lead associate and von FA Pressert. I I think I didn't say that right. Can you say it one more time? Fraert. Fabricert. There we go. Associate with Hazard Young AIA and Associates. Um, and I'll refer to them as HYA. So, uh, to remind the public, last month requests for proposal were sent to the superintendent search firms with a history of recent searches in comparable Minnesota school districts. HYA was one of three firms selected following a review of written proposals to present to the board this evening. Deborah and Von will present for the first 25 to 30 minutes of this 50minute block after which we'll open the floor for questions from board members. All search firms presenting received a summary of initial questions from the board and were able to plan their presentations accordingly. At 5:50 p.m. we will conclude our time with HYA to transition to the next presentation. I wanted to extend a quick thank you to Deborah Vaughn and the HYA team for the time and effort invested in responding to our initial request for proposal and for preparing for tonight's presentation. Uh I will monitor the time and let you know when we've reached a 30 minute presentation mark to ensure ample time for questions from the board. It should also be noted that Dr. Anderson is with us this afternoon to hear presentations and we'll be working with the school board during the search and advisory capacity only. Having gone through the process himself and uh as a candidate and serving as our superintendent for many years, it's recognized that his insights will be helpful as we move forward with the search process. The school board will be the final decision maker on the person selected as our new superintendent. Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for being present this afternoon and for your willingness to offer your insights throughout the process. With that said, I will turn the pres uh the presentation over to Deborah Taylor and Von Prasert. Uh no, FAERT. Got it. Okay. Um uh thank you so much and the floor is yours. >> Good evening. We'd like to thank you very very much for inviting us to present this evening on behalf of HYA. My name is Deborah Taylor as you know and I'm the lead associate for the search proposed for the Yazeta district. Um we are we have some information to share a limited amount of time to do so but let me first introduce my colleague or have van introduce himself briefly. >> Thank you Von Faber sirer. It was perfect that the pres the pronunciation was perfect. Uh thank you uh school board for having us here tonight. I've been with HYA for the last five years and uh most recently doing active searches for the last two served as a site principal uh assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools in a school district in California and I know how important this process is. I too had a chance to sit u with the school board to assist um my own school board in finding their new superintendent. um and the latest search that we've done these last couple of years. It is so important. It's exciting. Um and thank you for having us here tonight. >> Great. All right. Thank you very much. My background is also as a retired superintendent and one of your questions had been, will you be devoting all of your time and attention? Yes, we will. We do not have a district to oversee. So, we're um thoroughly available for uh this work if we were to be chosen. Okay. So, we'll jump right in. Are you able to see the proposal? Okay. Excellent. We want to acknowledge the role of the board and how important your work is. Um and one of the most exciting pieces for the school board is to select, supervise, and evaluate this top executive this of the school district, which is the superintendent. And from our experience and from our learnings of past searches, um the board really has two monumental responsibilities as they search for their new superintendent. And one is to really understand the entire community's desire for professional and personal qualifications of the new superintendent. And then number two, to really find that leader that is the perfect fit not only for the students and the faculty and staff but for the parents and the the entire stakeholder community at Wisetta and we're here to support you along the way. And uh speaking of finding the best the best fit for your next outstanding leader, it's also we were very impressed with the fact that you have a a detailed strategic plan and that will certainly guide the firm and certainly the board as well in determining the profile for your next leader. >> And we understand that Dr. Anderson has been in his office since 2008 and his predecessor Superintendent Osland many years before and that speaks to the wonderful work that you're doing as recognized by this particular document. Uh we would be remiss not to mention that you all were named the number one public school district uh by Nich's ranking for 2026. That is amazing. um when you think about all the accolades um you have been top performing um not only in the Minnesota region but across the nation as well. Um although not on this particular document, we also want to give a shout out to your athletic department. Um, we understand that both your boys and girls, um, cross country brought home some awards from your local conferences and certainly a shout out to the, uh, girls track and field for bringing home that state championship. And so what we know by that is that not only are you nurturing the academic piece, but you're also nurturing the physical and social uh, social emotional well-being of your students. So um we just passed by the strategic planning slide. Uh but again this is uh something that you're certainly well aware of and I referenced it earlier but in the interest of time I'm going to we're going to proceed on to the following slide which provides you with a little bit more information about our firm. HYA has provided searches across the country. Uh we have also provided search supports for school boards in Minnesota. Uh the individual one individual from our team who was unable to be here this evening, Mr. Ted Blazing is actually in the air uh returning from a trip. So he had was very sorry to miss uh this time with you, but he is a former superintendent from Minnesota. We are uh both Vaughn and I are from the Midwest, but not specifically here. He completed over 50 searches up to this point. Um certainly very very uh knowledgeable and capable. Has a lot of connections as well as well as uh uh Vaughn and I myself I had um done some work at the University of Minnesota. I have connections there and we also have made connections with the superintendence association here in Minnesota which is a great place for one to make connections to move uh recruitment forward in a positive way. So I wanted to point that out to you. But here in this slide we talk about human interactions. Um, our goal is not simply to be the party that recruits and provides you with a leader, but truly to engage with you as board members with your search committee and with the members of your community. As Fawn mentioned before, that community engagement is going to help you in making the best decision about your next outstanding leader. So, we certainly want to be sure to do that. When it comes to your search, uh it's your process based on your district's needs. We do have a researchbased guide that we utilize, but if we are selected, we will work with the board to set the specific details of the search in terms of timing and exactly how and when you wish to have community engagement occur. The leadership profile is one that we would draft, but you would approve, etc. So we would want to work side by side with you to customize the search for you. We are an accomplished firm. We have been in the position of providing support for school districts for 38 years. Uh we have many validated client testimonials, one which you'll be seeing shortly on in our presentation. But I wanted to point out that in our proposal, we also provided you with a five-year review of the uh school districts around the country with references. So, not only do you have that short list in the proposal, but there's an attachment that you may have noticed that provides you with a very lengthy list of folks that can attest to our firm's um success and supporting those. Uh we also provide you and your team, your administrative team with communication support. Um one of the questions that you all had raised was how can we keep our community apprised of the grow of the growth and development of this process and where we are in the process etc. Well, the timeline will certainly provide us everyone with a general idea, but from along the way, you'll receive documents that you can share like the leadership profile, summaries of your survey, summaries of the information that we gathered from interviews and focus groups. So, that will be uh very very helpful as well in terms of communication. This next particular slide is um our search activity. And as you can see, our search firm just does me so much more searches because we're able to we have local and national connections. We have over 130 or so associates across the nation. Um we we are at a 94% um superintendent rate in terms of staying at their first contract um year. We have an infrastructure that supports the entire process. Um, as you can see, there are some recruiting advantages that we have. Um, we have a database that houses our current registered candidate users. It's up to 7,000 or so. Um, we are the the goto um not only necessarily the website, but um our firm. Um, one of the things I wanted to mention was that um, our infrastructure allows us to support this work. As Deborah had mentioned, um, our work is researchbased. Um, we refine our practice. It's been 38 years and so we reflect often on what has worked, what hasn't worked, what do we need to do different. um and across um the regions um we just pick up the phone and say, "Hey, we have a candidate just that just applied um for this particular school district. Tell me more about them." And we're able to either say, "Wow, they're a good fit because of the school district leadership profile or let's um let's let's hold on to them and see if they're a better fit for a different school district." >> Okay, we've given you some feedback about the firm. This is another statement but uh very very similar. But as you make your decision which is a very important one as to which firm you would like to present represent the school board in your community and recruit very very in a very strong manner for your next superintendent. Keep in mind this experience and this background and the research base that we have available to support you. >> I also wanted to mention that um our relationships go beyond just the executive searches. Our firm also specializes on strategic planning, um, executive coaching as well as general consulting. Um, I share that because the relationships that we've made with certain school districts and school boards also continue. And so, um, for us that is the partnership. That's the relationship. We know district leadership. Um, they reach out to us when there are some items that may be needed. And so our relation relationships go far beyond just the executive searches. >> Well, and here we are minus our uh third member. And I did want to mention that um one of our members had to step down uh won't be joining us as a full-time member of the team. Uh but I think that the three of us are going to be able to support your needs very well with our backgrounds and experience. I know that one of the things we talked about was making adjustments and changes to support the and communication needs of districts. This is a really important example of a recently developed system which will support you and your search committee. Do you just write to that? >> Sure. Um what we've learned throughout this entire process is that there will be a lot of information uh a lot of communication to the board. Um and so we have designed um from the back office a confidential board portal. Um each um board member will receive it will be linked to your uh district email and in this um portal is the information that you see on the PowerPoint from the beginning phases of the initial search. um all the way to the select phase where um the board will have access to applications um um drafts of of of interview questions just to be very specific. Um and um this information is is at your disposal 24/7. Um, the working relationship is when we update the portal. We inform you so that you have the latest information on the entire process and any information you may need should questions arise during the the search process. We mentioned we have testimonials. Here's one from uh Littleton Public Schools. And as you can see, we've received quite a few accolades from districts where we successfully supported uh search recruitment and placement. So the first part of our process is called the engagement portion of the process and this is extremely important. Um it is really a time when HYA uh your search team would be able to work with you to outline exactly what you would like us to do in terms of timing individuals involved uh reporting out to community preparing press releases etc. um which all lead up to helping you develop that very important profile which is utilized for your leadership profile as well as for the questions that we will design together when you do have your interviews uh come forward. The board planning meeting is really crucial and we're going to share a slide which shows you more about what that's all about in just a moment. >> Okay, you go ahead. >> Sure. This is a draft um timeline that was presented to the board in the proposal. Um as Deborah had mentioned earlier, we uh customize the timeline per the district needs. Um we try to um ensure that we hold forum meetings when there are natural natural cadence of meetings that are happening in the district. Um we try to hold meetings with the board when there are natural board meetings that are scheduled. Um there will be times where we will have to go outside for special board meetings, but certainly that's part of the planning phase. Um we have recommended time frames as we go out to engage. We have recommended time frames as we recruit. However, certainly working with the board, we will um collaborate to determine that time frame. Um and so we um we indicated here is just to search the draft. Um during our planning phase as Deborah had mentioned we will outline the very specific dates um as it as it supports the needs of the district. >> So part of the engagement process of course is representing you in the district. So as we conduct our interviews and focus groups uh and also work on community forums etc and distribute and provide access to the survey that will assist you in selecting your new superintendent. We will introduce ourselves as representing the firm but most importantly representing you. We represent the school board when we are working with the community. Uh we have um both of us between the two of us and Mr. Excuse me. Dr. Blazing as well have extensive experience working with groups and uh supporting groups, gathering information and and writing um summary reports for you. So, we think that you'll be very satisfied with that. We're also going to rely on you to help us identify some of those most important groups in your district. uh whether it be specific individuals who you feel would form a good focus group or existing meetings that might be in place that we could work with. Uh for example, a a community group might have a regular meeting once a month. We might either join in person or join virtually to gather input from that group in terms of community support. So again, we're very open to make that engagement extremely important. We wanted to also point out that we uh represent a very diverse firm and you probably recall from our proposal that uh our associates approximately half of them are women. Uh we also have a a number of other individuals who represent a diverse race and culture which is extremely important we believe at this time and um HYA is also a womenowned firm. So it it again I think is uh important to point out that we not only look for diversity and inclusivity as we work with your community and as we recruit but also we represent that the recruitment phase is I would say the most exciting um um after engagement phase um to include the survey that is included as part of the board's proposal um we will gather the information to design what we call a leadership profile report. And that particular report outlines the professional and personal characteristics that were gleaned from our conversations from your stakeholder groups to include um all of you and each of you. um as we um as we engage in the recruitment process, um if you were to take your phone now and and and scan this QR code, it just takes you to every single search that HYA and every other organization or search agent is doing as well. And so, um as I mentioned in an earlier slide, we are the go-to, um recruitment, uh firm. Um we list um um superintendent searches from other firms as well. Um one of the items that I didn't mention from the earlier um uh PowerPoint slide is that um 75% of our searches in the last couple of years have been personal recruitments from HYA associates. Um which really tells us that we don't just accept applications that come in to our system, but we actually take a look at the leadership profile. We have a database to be able to log on to say, okay, out of all these applicants, who has this particular experience? Like district, like communities um or like numbers in terms of student um um enrollment. And so we have that capability. We have the infrastructure that supports that work. Um and yes, we reach out to call folks. we will say, "Do have you heard about the is that a school district? Have you heard about the amazing work that they're doing?" And what we've learned is some folks aren't ready to jump out to look for new positions yet until they get our call um because we're able to share with them that their expertise and their background matches the leadership profile and it's just a starting point to a conversation. And if we have an applicant who happens to be from a inside or outside of Minnesota, we will also rely on our associates, we'll reach out to them and say, "What do you do you know this individual? Can you recommend them as someone we should seriously consider or follow up with?" And that associate network, which is national, is truly uh very very helpful. uh we're again we don't know for certain if you'll be selecting a leader from the state of Minnesota or from another location but wherever you choose uh that outstanding person we will also be sure to inform them about the state's requirements for certification and be sure that those are followed through and that they take responsibility to be certain that they are prepared if the author should come for that position. Okay. So uh the next phase we are going to be speaking about is our select phase. And here as we mentioned before uh the process once we have um provided you with a slate of candidates is we need to help you uh utilizing a scientific process come to consensus through objective evaluation. And there is a link on this slide uh to an article at Harvard Business Review which speaks to reducing personal bias when hiring and that's something that you know might be of value and we would provide workshops and support for you as you moved into that next phase. Uh but it's very important to keep in mind that um you might think right now how could we ever possibly come to consensus about a next superintendent and again this is not to say that you aren't a very cooperative and compatible board but it's a big decision and uh but we believe that the processes we use and the profile that you develop will really help you to make that decision when the time comes. Also, as we mentioned in an earlier slide, u our relationships go beyond the districts and the board that we're working with. We also have personal relationships with candidates and we want to ensure their success as well. Um, what HYA has built in is a support for a transition. um nonha clients would have to pay roughly 4500 or so. But this is something that we have implemented to support the district and support the new superintendent. And that is to provide a six-month uh structured support new leaders academy. Um, and this academy is um a live academy that's uh taught by sitting superintendent or past superintendent who have done this work and understand how important it is to transition into a new district. And some of the key deliverables, as you'll see here, are creating a 100day plan, uh, performance indicators, evaluator process, and certainly the strategic plan assessment for continuous years. Um and so I know that this was um um a piece that we've been working on at HYA in terms of how we support our candidates that we place in um school districts. We also will providing uh informal support uh coaching support for that first year in addition to this formalized but I think that we are unique both in our coaching follow-up and certainly in this transition academy. It is something not offered by other firms to our knowledge. We believe it would be very very helpful. All right. Um so how will HYA support the search process? So um one of the things that you were uh kind enough to incorporate into your RFP were areas that you felt would be very important for uh us to keep in mind as we uh developed our proposal. And I wanted to point out that I believe we did touch on each one of your points uh from the project planning perspective to the engagement perspective, the recruitment and sourcing and our strengths there nationally and locally uh and then the candidate management piece uh which has to do with communicating with and supporting the candidates and and actually of course encouraging continuing to encourage them to remain engaged along the way as the the uh interview process process continues. Vetting and due diligence is uh something that you had mentioned and as we mentioned earlier and also in our proposal it is extremely important. Uh we have a a very deep process that we utilize for vetting including our national connections, our local connections. And if you are interested in doing something more formalized, uh there is an additional option for uh having a outside firm to um indepth type of um investigation if you will on a candidate. And that type of investigation would look at things like is this individual actually a graduate of a particular university or college or uh are there licenses in force? Well, you know, certainly we would be doing some of that, but you you would want to you would make a decision as to whether that was something you wish to pursue, but we have been very fortunate to have excellent outcomes in our own vetting and due diligence uh program. and then advisory service. So part of this is we know it's been 18 years is that right Dr. Anderson since uh you joined the district. So um you may have questions about how do we go about carrying out this search and it's as we said in the beginning a monumental process and um a large responsibility for all of you. So, as experienced superintendents ourselves and HYA associates, we are happy to provide you with advice and support and if we can't answer it, we will find the answer, get back back to you. Okay. So, I think that summarizes or finishes up our presentation for you for today. Welcome. Thank you again for your time. >> We really appreciate it. It's been a pleasure speaking with you and open to any questions you may have. So can you tell us a little bit more about your experience within Minnesota? um again especially the similar size school district how have you done it and again looking at your profile I know you have national presence but speaking specifically for Minnesota and what's sort of you know your success rate and so on >> within Minnesota >> sure well again Dr. Blazing is our Minnesota link. He resides in Minnesota, has uh had been a superintendent in the White Bear Lake District, which is neighboring to you. um and um myself and he has retired and has been working with HYA as a consultant as I mentioned has conducted many searches in the state knows very well knows personally for example um the leaders the um administrator association here and again we apologize for his absence it couldn't be avoided the scheduling just did not work out but um he certainly has that connection um myself I spent the majority of my career in neighboring Wisconsin and I've had links with Minnesota just over the years as one might. Uh the districts that I had worked with uh were very similar to Hawaii Zeta in terms of size and also to uh if as you mentioned out your high achieving program. One example of a district where I was a senior leader in Wisconsin was a district of Shorewood which is outside of Milwaukee and at the time I was with that district was about eight or nine years. We were number one in the state and had the number one high school as well. So um I'm accustomed to and frankly have high expectations for staff and um reflect that in the work I do for certain. Do you want to add anything about yourself? >> And I'm I'm currently working um with the Indian uh Prairie School District in Illinois, a larger school district, but profile is um a a huge match. Um and what we've learned and what I've learned through the various searches is that our process that we have in place really speaks to the work that we do. And um even the two school districts that were close to each other in Illinois, we followed the same process, but the desire of the board were completely different. And so we were able to tailor and to really work, as we had mentioned with the board in terms of how they would like to see that search play out. >> We were recently uh in conversation, the three of us, in preparation for today's meeting. And um believe it or not, we were already starting to brainstorm individuals you might want to recruit from Minnesota. So we have those connections for sure. Uh looking at the price tag, would you be able to give approximate uh what kind of uh from the beginning till the end uh seeing how much you charge and then uh there is um also information about that you would be charging for traveling because you have to come here understandably. So what uh what kind of um what do you what do you think it will be like average cost for uh district? Sure. Uh I don't know if you received our full proposal. Um okay. Uh the fees are outlined on page 11 of the proposal, but I'd be happy to answer that question directly. Um, we have the $35,000 is the consulting fee for the search, which incorporates all of the information that we shared with you. There are some optional add-ons uh including additional days on site uh as well as uh changes to the survey that we're going to be providing. We did include in the survey, which is a value of $2,500, the the superintendent search survey. Uh so that would not be an additional cost for you but it is part of that additional that original fee. We also um offer possible uh we we provide or included in our fee is an extensive amount of advertisement but if you wish to go beyond that then there's some costs associated with that. Uh and as I mentioned before, we have a very deep background check, a very deep reference check. Uh and um if you wish to utilize an different one, there are some options available for ranging from,00 to,900 per candidate uh company that the HYA firm contracts with. U due diligent services are offered there. And if that's a choice that you would have say for your finalists, that could be an add-on. As far as travel is concerned, we gave you a uh travel maximum. Hold on one second. Not to exceed. Um and it's 3,000 to 5,000. I'm a a car rideway. I live neighboring Wisconsin. And as you know, Dr. Blazing lives in Minnesota and um and Vaughn lives in Northern Illinois. So, we're not speaking about an extensive amount of uptra, but we do include that and ask that the board reimburse us for that travel. Um I think does that get to your point? Okay. Okay. Very good. we with three people working and again with um the recruitment itself, you know, if one takes it seriously, which we certainly will, is something that you devote quite a bit of time to and the community engagement pieces is a very important. So, we would want to stress to you that um it's a good value for your money, I guess I would say. And again, you'll have experienced people who um can provide not only good faith in your community for the search that's ongoing, etc., but also just bring that wealth of experience on engaging with the community, working with candidates, etc. So, >> hi, thanks so much for joining us this evening. Can you give us an example of a way that you have worked to introduce the finalists to the community and the successful techniques that you use to allow the community to get to know the the finalists and and feel some ownership in the process? >> Do you want to do one or I'll offer one? What we've learned about uh Minnesota is um up until the board up until the board selects their finalists, it could be done in executive or close session, the interview process. Up until then, um we've seen it done in many ways. Um um one um we had a we had one night of finalists and the finalists came in each to do a presentation. It's a 20 to 25 minute presentation um one right after the next and then we did an engagement session with the community where it was an open um um it was agendaized and we just opened it up to the community. Um after the presentations the uh candidates just went around to have conversations with folks. Um there was a shakuderie board, there was fruit, there was just um you know uh students playing um from the band. It was a fun evening. Um and we had a way where um it was a QR code that was developed for community feedback and the um standard question the there were really four standard questions and by the end of the night the board has access to that information um from whichever community members that were there. That was one design. Another design we've had was to choose one specific day for finalists. Um we had finalists come in for about four to five hours. They met key stakeholder groups throughout. Um there was a board um of trustee session. There was union leadership. There was um um central office staff and site leadership. And so we had those stakeholder groups who actually were part of the finalist interviews. The board selected that process. uh we had the same process in terms of providing feedback. They too had QR codes to be able to provide that instant feedback for the board and by the third day um or by the fourth day when the when when when the board wanted to deliberate they had all the information to bring forward. So um depending that that is part of the design process and we would be more than happy to share more specific examples but when we get to that phase it would certainly be up to the board on how we designed that evening that day or that night. One additional add-on is that sometimes a board will invite the finalists to do to visit the district for a day and you obviously not necessarily visiting every school but perhaps highlights of that. And it it's also an opportunity for them to interact in a more relaxed setting and uh gain some information because as you know you're not only hiring someone and but you're also in a sense trying to provide them with a your best foot forward so to speak so that they will um look at this position as as highly prized and will be looking forward to the possibility of being able to work with you. >> All right. So, I'm going to be I'm going to try to be fair and I'm going to ask you the same question that I asked the first presenter and I'm going to ask the third one. How do you define success once a superintendent is hired? >> Okay. So um the success that one would have as as a new hire I think will be defined by the 100 day plan that you as a school board will approve upon hire of that new individual. So, it's going to be driven by your strategic plan, by the priorities that you've established in the district and that 100 day plan, which as you might remember is part of an outcome of the uh the leadership academy, the transition academy that we offer to all new superintendent. Uh so I certainly have my views as a former superintendent as to what that might be, but it's more important that the board has identified the outcomes that they wish to see. So let me give you an example. Um, one of my transition, um, 100 day plans, just to offer you a suggestion or an idea, uh, included a way to address, uh, challenges within the facilities that I was going to be working within. Uh so it provided what I did was I stepped out as one of my goals two or three different specific activities that I was going to undergo during that first 100 days to first of all acquaint myself with the facilities. Understand the maintenance needs that might be in place. uh take a look at um highest priority and possibly engage an individual firm if that was necessary to help make those decisions and then bring back a recommendation to the board if if there were some crucial or critical issues that needed to be addressed. On the other hand, another example might be let's suppose that you are in the midst of adoption of a curriculum and you really uh want to be sure that that's an effective choice and it's going to be providing students with the necessary support as they move through their instructional programming. Um, one of the things might be an immediately engaging with a curriculum committee and um, supporting principles in walkthroughs to determine how effectively that curriculum is being implemented. Those are a few examples, but once again, that's based on my experience. This particular person is going to be moving forward in a direction that you set and that was going to match with your district's long range plans. Thanks for being with us. Um, my question is around I see that you do 80 plus searches per year and your timeline is kind of from nowish until uh March or April. How many other searches are you engaged in right now? I'm personally engaged in about a six-month process with another district on strategic planning uh in neighboring Wisconsin, but I'm not engaged in any other searches at the moment. I am engaged in one um uh search and we are done on December 1st. >> Thank you. >> So I'm intrigued by two things. One is your kind your national footprints and footprint and experience. Um the other was when you mentioned you're like actively recruiting people who might not have been ready but you kind of call them up and say you know this opportunity is available. So, you know, with those two things in mind, can you tell me in your experience what kinds of things you see? first of all with, you know, how long somebody's willing to stay in a position. Um, and how successful, you know, the the partnership is when somebody is hired. When you have people from out of state, you know, coming from one state to another and also people that you've essentially cold called to not, well, maybe not cold called, but you know, who didn't know weren't in the market for moving, but then you convinced them to. Mhm. >> I think um part of our process is the intention behind creating the leadership profile. When we create the leadership profile, um it really speaks to the board and the community's desire. Um most of the boards that we've worked with will say, "Von, longevity is important for us. Can you can you tell them to commit to a hundred years?" Well, um certainly, right? we do share with candidates that that is very important to the board to the community. Um, in addition to all of the items that that will be produced from that particular document, um, there have been times where candidates will call us because they we've worked with them from other searches and they will say, "Hey, Van, what do you think about me applying for this position?" And then I will be very honest with them to say, "Hey, check out the leadership profile because the board desires to have someone who has experience with expansion in facilities and also to change um enrollment boundaries." And so I need you to be cognizant of that particular piece. And truly the candidate said, "Okay, maybe a different a different district." Uh we're honest. We have to be um we're honest with all of you. We will at some point or uh throughout the phase we might say wow we've only have 20 candidates we were hoping for 50 we were hoping for 30 we need to restructure um and we have the infrastructure to do that our behind the scenes is able to say we had so many clicks from this particular site we had so many um uh you know calls regarding this particular post and so we would just ren what we need to um but in terms of your specific specific question. Um the boards that we have worked with desires longevity for the district. We know that that's important for the health and maintaining the success. Um and if if there are certain leadership profiles that will say that on that particular document. Um um and as you know um not everyone not every superintendent can be successful. Um, and so it it could be a give and take, you know, when when when the day happens and when the superintendent is running the district, but we are honest 100% with the board, honest 100% with candidates. And I believe that that is what has u really led to successful searches by us. >> You may decide that you have an internal candidate who you would like us to consider. So, please understand that if you were to inform us of that, we would definitely include that person in the process and the search application through all of the vetting, etc. And uh so we we want you to know that it's not simply a national search, but it might be very local. It might be self-contained in a sense. Um, it's also important to understand that when we make a cold call, it's because we have a connection with or a knowledge of an individual and their expertise and um that they might be in a position of looking for a change moving to a new district from a smaller to a larger etc. But um I think the point is that it the national reach allows us to um attract people who might not be not might not know very much about YSEA but they might learn about that through our uh information that we provide through your district through the advertisements etc. and they're going to say this is exactly the type of district I'm looking for. We also find that oftentimes individuals who for example might have grown up in Minnesota and um after 10 or 15 years outside of the state have decided that they'd really like to return. This is one way that they might choose to do that through an application for a superintendent position provided of course that they have the qualification. So that would lead to that longevity that you were speaking of because they likely have friends, family ties here as well. Um, but again, it's really helpful for us to have all of the information from you that we can about what you're seeking and that will help us make the best match for your next outstanding leader. >> I have one question. Um, thank you for being here. um how is your approach uh to community engagement unique to your organization? >> I can start if you like. Okay. Sure. So um we have a um a unique approach in that it it is tailored to each community that we work with. Um we have in our slides I believe we pointed out we'd have 30 or more sessions would be available to you whether they would be interviews or focus groups or community forums but you need to help us understand what you feel would be the best way to reach out to your community everyone even those who are don't have time but are very interested will have access to your survey and that will be widely shared by the district. uh that will also provide you with a list of stakeholders who are completing the survey and they'll provide you with direct feedback uh into your individual profile. But the point is that it's we won't say to you you must do this number of focus groups or this many interviews. It's really dependent upon what your needs are. We're extremely flexible and we're dedicated to each search that we do. I have to add um because the there's a high school in your district, we would certainly reach out to the high school kiddos as well. Um from the last uh search that we've done, we invited high school kids to come at 7:30 in the morning. No one showed up. And so what we did was we shifted, we went to their lunchtime and yes, um they were more willing to have conversations with us. Um um as as uh Dr. Taylor had mentioned, we will navigate the uh stakeholder groups with you. We tend to um engage in community meetings that are already happening because they're more apt to be present. And now that Zoom and Google Meets is a thing, um we've we we recognize in our past searches that we get a very high number of participants in our Zoom and Google Meet invites. >> Thank you. All right, thank you so much. So, we started a couple minutes early, so this is actually right at 50 minutes. So, that's great timing. So, um I just want to say thank you again, uh Deborah and Von for coming in to present. Um and so, we'll take a pause here between our our next presentation. So, thank you again and and hope you have a good evening. >> Thank you all very much. We truly appreciate your time and we wish you best of luck on your search as things go forward for you. Board Chair Sony, members of the board, Superintendent Anderson, it's my pleasure to pleasure to introduce D uh Dr. Dan Bitman, managing director with Ray and Associates. Uh to remind the public, last month requests for a proposal were sent to superintendent search firms with a history of recent searches in comparable Minnesota districts. Uh Ray and Associates was one of three firms selected following a review of written proposals to present to the board this evening. Dan will present for the first 25 to 30 minutes of this 50 minutes minute minute block after which we will open the floor for questions from board members. All search firms presenting received a summary of initial questions from the board and were able to plan their presentations accordingly. At 6:50 p.m. we will conclude our time with Ray and Associates to transition to our next board meeting. I want to extend a quick thank you to Dan and the Ray and Associates team for the time and effort invested in responding to our initial request for proposal uh and for preparing for for tonight's presentation. Uh I will monitor the time and let you know when we reach the 30 minute presentation mark to ensure ample time for questions from the board. It should also be noted that Dr. Anderson is with us this evening to hear the presentations and will be working with the school board during the search in an advisory capacity only. Having gone through the process himself as a candidate and serving as our superintendent for many years, it's recognized that his insights will be helpful as we move forward with the search process. The school board will be the final decision maker on the person selected as our new superintendent. Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for being present this afternoon and for your willingness to offer your insights through the process. With that said, I will turn the presentation over to Dan Bitman. Great. And thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here and I appreciate the warm welcome. It sounds like it's been a busy day for you and still will get a little longer. So, I will try to make this time meaningful for you. Uh, just a couple notes. I've done a number of of these presentations around the country, but never have I done it on the board chair's birthday. So, happy birthday. Uh, I've also haven't done it in the another birthday as well. Okay, happy birth happy birthday. And uh I haven't I haven't also done it the night before an election after a long day when you have just got done with a number of proposals and a meeting after. So I hope that you get some opportunity to rest after tomorrow uh and that you uh have enjoyed your night. I have tremendous respect for Dr. Anderson as well as the Weisetta public schools and want to thank each of you for the work. Served as a colleague with Dr. Anderson for the last 16 years as a Minnesota superintendent. have just appreciated his leadership not only in Weisetta but in the state and in the country at a number of things. I am sure that you've had a number of outstanding presentations tonight and that each of the firms would do a great job for you, but I'm here to just take a little bit of time to mention a few things of why we might be different recognizing that there might be some overlap in a number of them. First and foremost, we are the longest serving superintendent search firm of uh anyone that you have interviewed. We are we have like a couple of others are very very aggressive in our recruitment and our searches. You'll see in our presentation that we have over 28,000 hits a month from interested superintendent throughout the country. We have done a number countless uh searches across the country. This is what we do as well as a number of other services we'll provide that are similar to other organizations in amazing places like Palm Beach uh in a number of places like Vancouver and Seattle and other high-erforming districts like Weisetta Public Schools. different than some of those other firms uh also is the fact that I've been a Minnesota superintendent already uh for the last 16 years. I've already been contacted n by nine different superintendents, four of which were out of the country or out of the state rather uh asking about Weisetta public schools. I was superintendent of the year. I was a seven-year board member on the national uh superintendent company AASA for representing Minnesota as a governing board member. And as I said, I've worked closely with superintendents throughout the state as president of MASA as well as a number of other roles that I've served over time. Not to mention, I am a neighbor and uh I am close by and happy to lead this search. If we were fortunate enough to get this search, I would be your lead. The other person that would work behind the scenes with me would be our vice president, Molly, who some of you have engaged with. And also we have a large team throughout the country that would help with some of the administrative type things that we'll do throughout our process. So again there are a number of things that you may see that overlap but again it would be an honor for me uh as a superintendent here with my respect foretta public schools to lead this search. You know that you are a leading district not only in the state but in the country and you have an interesting time right now when you think about elections, when you think about the growth that's happening, future needs around facilities, future uh things related to achievement and innovation that the district is thinking about an 18-year superintendent in a district who has led well and right throughout our communities. And so this isn't a time to take a chance. This isn't a time you need to get this right. and I would be honored to help you with that. I'd be happy to go over some of the things about Weisetta, but I'm going to assume that you know that I know a lot about Weisetta and I know that you know a lot about Weisetta, but I also know that you're in a process where like I said, you're growing, you're going to need new facilities, budgets are a challenge, some overlapping challenges or elections uh that might create some change, etc. So, it's important to have some level of consistency and involvement. Here is Molly, our vice president of leadership. She's a great resource, has led, has been with the organization for many, many years, and she would be my right hand in this particular search. Uh, another thing I did not mention, if you haven't had enough about how we are different, uh, the president of our company has two students in Weisetta public schools and so it's personal for our president. So, who are we and what do we do? We started in 1975 and we're known for executive searches throughout this country. We're on the cutting edge and we do a number of things that are similar and a number of things that are different. And I'll go through some of those things as we go on. We have diverse backgrounds throughout our team. Not only ethnically, but socially and from a diversity standpoint in terms of attorneys and um clerical staff, people who work throughout the country and specialize in things throughout all the areas that we provide support in. We ask questions. We listen fully. We work with everyone. And we act meaningfully. This is who we are as Ray Associates. This would be your search. You get to decide how this search goes. We are here and have a deep bench to make sure that you have all the answers you need and all the characteristics and the things that you need along this process to make sure that you and our community are supportive. We engage in intentional conversations. So if we were fortunate enough to do this, one of the first things that I would do is to work with each of you to interview you individually, to talk about your experiences in Wisetta, to talk about what's important for you, not only in the school district, but in the community, and to learn with you about what the characteristics are that you are looking for as this would be your only employee and one that you continue to lead with. We encourage relationships. So every firm has a little bit different standpoint in terms of their stakeholder groups and listening sessions. We would work with you to do that. We are used to having conversations with stakeholder groups throughout the country and we work closely with our boards to see what feels right and what makes sense for them. We do that in person. We do that virtually and we do that uh with all sorts of groups that you would recommend and feel important to be part of your process. We pride oursel on this level of engagement and make sure that we bring people along in a transparent and engaging way. We also make sure that we do each and everything not only with integrity but communicating along the way to make sure that you have as individual board members and as a board as a whole that you have what you need at all times to move the work forward. So, we have I know that you've seen this before, so I won't read everything, but as I said earlier, we have nearly 30,000 people that come to our website on a monthly basis looking for positions throughout the country, but twothirds of those placements come from outside the registered candidates that we have. even though we have a very large presence in a database. Again, we are very aggressive with recruiting and that starts when we understand better about what you want as a leader, not easy use, not easy shoes to fill with Dr. Anderson. Um, and it will have to be someone who's right for Weisetta and someone who's going to be here, engross themselves in the community and want to be here as a part of the not only part of the community, but for a long time. We continue to have ongoing conversations with people throughout the country who are interested in having uh being a superintendent. Not only just being a superintendent, but being a superintendent that matches the profile that you and your families, your community, and your staff select. I think that's extremely important. Just because someone has a superintendent license does not mean they're right for Weisetta. And if you do not thoroughly and know what Yisetta is about and haven't lived what the things that they're not only going through now have been through and will be going through, um we would not be able to make sure that you had a candidate. So again, it'd be really important that we continue to work with you on that. Ideally, we'd work with you on a timeline of the search. we put a draft document in your prop in the proposal so that you could see but we'd also want to work with you on what feels right around the many things that you have going on. Um so we would work with you on that. We have a number of things that we do for profile of a candidate some similar to other firms in terms of surveys. We do what's called a 31 characteristics survey that allows in multiple languages. Allows folks to really weigh in on what their characteristics are most what characteristics are most important to them and then being able to rank them. We would provide all that information to you. So, you will be able to see the types of groups uh that filled out the survey, what stood out to each of those groups, and then I would be here to present that information, answer questions, and to work with you to develop a leadership profile. We also do the community events as we talked about, as well as any surveys or any one-on-one interviews, small group interviews that you feel are most important to really be able to have a profile that represents what you're looking for in that next leader. We'll also work with you and guide you from start to finish, which includes things like semifinalist interviews, finalist interviews, and we also, like other search firms, have a number of opportunities later on to work with you if you're interested to work you through the contract to help settle the contract for them. Uh, to be able to provide coaching, to be able to provide support throughout the next year in terms of making sure that they're successful. You may have some ideas of how you would like to do that. And again, we'd be happy to provide some of that support for you if that's something of interest. In other words, we're able to provide the services, but we want to work with you to decide what you really want in this search. Again, this is your search. We talked I talked a little bit about the 31 qualities as well as in-person or virtual stakeholder meetings. One of the things that makes us us unique is when you identify car candidates for a semi- finalist or finalist view, we also do video interviews for them. We we would work together. I would work with you as a board to identify questions behind the scene that really you want to know about without them having the questions in advance. And so they would do virtual interviews where they would not have an opportunity to review the questions. you would have access to that along with all of their candidate materials, letters of recommendation, uh, and things like that. It's one more opportunity to get a face-to-face look on how someone reacts to questions that are pertinent to what you're hoping for here in Weisetta Public Schools. So recruitment, we talked a little bit about this, but there is no firm that uh in my humble opinion that recruits more aggressively to find folks that fit what we needed. That's not just in Minnesota, but that's throughout the country. So we're able to with our our connections and the work that we've done since 1975 to make sure that we're identifying the most elite and highass quality superintendent for you to consider. you will have access to that material along the way. And so you will have that information to be able to review all of those things, not only uh in the advance when the application closes, but as we're talking about candidates you might be interested in bringing forward to have conversations with. We do use that nationwide network of associates. A a bonus would be the fact that I am ingrained in the Minnesota superintendency as well. So I would certainly be able to um have both the national and the local flavor. We like other organizations, we advertised uh through various folks including AESA and a number of others, but we would work with you to decide what type of uh excuse me, what type of um advertising you would like to have throughout the country. Each district does that a little differently, but we would work with you to do that. And in your proposal, you will see various options and examples along the way. Once the surveys and the interviews are completed, we'll then uh work with you to screen each of those candidates who have applied based on what you and your families have decided is most important. That is the criteria framework that we will use. We also, as you can imagine, do extensive background investigations and internet checks. We would not want any school board to be surprised at what comes forward. So, good, bad, and in between, you will have what we call a candidate report, which is typically a 10page report that we put together identifying things throughout an individual's career that you may want to know about. Um, and I will share that I share information about those candidate reports with you should you decide to bring them forward as we move forward. We also complete, as it says up on the screen, complete criminal, civil, social security, and other checks throughout the time. Again, we would never want a school district to be surprised uh at what happens throughout the without the process rather. Um and then we will bring all of those things, the video recording, the candidate reports, the applications, the letter of recommendations, etc. to you so you have it along the way. And then you get to decide. In my prop in the proposal, we did use a link that gives you an opportunity to watch what one of the videos might look like for the candidates who provide that as part of their application process. When we are looking at candidates, I would then facilitate a consensus building matrix that allows each and every one of you to identify how each of the candidates you've been interested in compared to each other. So by the end of that exercise, you would have seen as a board who ranks the candidates where as well as the top five, top six, top 10, however many you are interested in having brought to the table. That is done so that it can focus our conversations and so that board members are able to to talk candidly about things they're looking for in the next superintendent. Each district does things a little different in terms of semi-final and final interviews, but again, you would have the opportunity to do that. Some school districts around the country will do a semi-finalist round with a group of board members so that it is a nonquorum type situation while other board members have all the information. Other ones will do the full board in each of the processes along the way. So, I would work with you to see how you wanted to move forward in those types of things. you, the board would also get to decide on questions that you would want to to ask throughout each of those processes. We also have, as you can imagine, an extensive database of questions and situations that would reflect well on the things that you're looking for here in Weisetta and the I would work with the board to identify those in advance. So, in summary, we're the oldest firm. I'm not going to read each and every one of these because you have them, but we have done the most searches over 1,600 and growing quickly. We have a deep bench in terms of the number of people who work behind the scenes to get you the information quickly in an organized way in a quality fashion. We have associates throughout the country and we have a database and folks that come to us regularly on a monthly basis looking for the position. We protect you in terms of the candidate information, making sure you're not caught off guard and have no surprises. And we also work with you to make decisions in terms of timelines and compensation for the interviews. And again, the board gets to make all of those decisions. So I would, if I was fortunate enough to serve with you, I would be guiding behind the scenes giving making sure that you had what you needed to select an outstanding candidate. And again, we always will work with you to finalize the contract, giving you uh clear compensations and give you an opportunity to help you set the range uh in districts that are elite and in districts that are similar to Isetta. And then we'll continue to follow up with you. We typically do that a minimum of a year to continue to follow up with you to see how things are going. We also uh do a cost match for the same services. And so we're not going to let another search firm beat us on the on the price for the same level of services that we provide. And as you saw in your in the proposal, you'll also see that there's a guarantee for one or two years depending on the situation. If it just wasn't a good fit or something happened from a health standpoint, we will continue to guide and support you uh along the way to do that. We are committed to Weisetta Public Schools and it would be an absolute honor for me to support you along the way. So again, on behalf of Ray and Associates, on behalf of school boards and superintendent, depending on the role, just want to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and I'd be happy to take any questions at this time. >> Thank you. I have one question. um how does your approach to community engagement make you unique among your peers? >> It's a very good question. Our our search firm prides itself on community engagement and I know that's a core tenant here in Weisetta as well. So um one thing that you the benefit would be that I would be close by. So I would be able to work with you and also able to facilitate not one not only one-on-one but small group as well as large group things. So we'd like to think that we are innovative. We meet the needs along the way. We're able to react to the different groups that are that you're interested in having be part of the table. And again, as you'll see in our proposal, uh it's something that stands out for us that we're proud of. >> I'll go next. Um if the search lasts, you know, a long time, what are what is the commitment that your company would have to Weisetta to see it through? till we find somebody. >> I'm here. You know, I'm committed. I would be the lead on the search. So, you're not successful until or I'm not successful until you're successful. So, our commitment would be all the way through, no matter how long that took. And recognizing uh the number of things that Weisetta has upcoming, it may take a little longer and we may need to do that thoughtfully. >> And if we had like an interim superintendent in the meantime, we needed that. I mean, that doesn't count, right? >> We'd be happy to help any way that you need. So, we do we do work with groups through interims and through regular placements. And like I said, our commit would be commitment would be for the long haul. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thanks for being with us tonight. >> Happy birthday. >> Thank you. Uh I have a question that it's specific, but it's going to tell me a lot. Um, so my question is, how do you help our school community understand the role of a superintendent so that they can truly be engaged in this process? >> Yeah, it's a really good question and one that's um asked quite a bit actually. Um, and it's through conversations. It's through accessibility. It's providing my own information and numbers for people to reach out to me when things are on their heart and mind. It's my time in your school district and community meeting with folks that uh you're interested in hearing from. Part of that is training and conversation transparently upfront. Being able to talk a little about the process, talk about the transparency, talk about the engagement and the role of the board to use that feedback to ultimately make that decision as the superintendent would be your only employee. You're welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. Bitman, for coming and presenting. Um, I'm going to ask you the same question I asked the other two firms. Uh, how do you define success once a superintendent is hired? How do I define success when a superintendent is hired? Uh, student achievement one, you have so many great things that are happening in why I would want to make sure that the legacy that Dr. Anderson have is this district and the board can continue. Your strategic plan defines the work that you're doing. So someone who can adequately do that in districts like like Weisetta, it's also community success. Weisetta does such an amazing part within the school district, but also it's a key component. You would not be growing as a school district if it wasn't innovative and the best in the country. And so really being able to make sure that a person wants to be fully part of Weisetta. It's leading. It's going to the same grocery stores. It's living in the area if we can have those conversations. It's also someone who just makes sure that that they want to be here a while so that they can carry on the good work that's happening and that that they're not going to flip. Also, ultimately the board has to be happy. The board and the superintendent is such an important relationship. And so when the board is happy and they're working collaboratively to get meaningful things done to lead the work and to move this community forward, that will be success for me. >> Thank you. >> Thanks again for coming to Weisetta. Um my question is about we've talked a lot about the ways that we engage stakeholders and the board and developing the questions and the profile and then and then the ways that we do sort of the formal stuff about checking references and things. But now that when we have the finalists, can you give us some examples of things that have worked or things that you've learned about the ways that boards would work with you to roll the finalists out to the community so the community gets to know the potential candidate, but also so that the potential candidate can get to know our community. >> Yeah, I really appreciate it. There's no more important decision for the board to make than hiring their next superintendent. And so I've done a little bit of everything based on what boards uh and communities are looking for. I've done visits with the board and team out to their districts that they've been in with very structured opportunities so that the board can have an authentic way of doing that. That also includes time in their communities being able to talk with with employees, you know, city officials, business leaders, nonprofits, etc. Being able to do that. But in terms of a more structured repo structured system, if you were to want to do something like that, it always includes an opportunity to work closely with the different groups in the community to have targeted lists as well as open sessions for the community so that everybody feels like they're part of that. That could include and often does include business leaders, nonprofits, staff, community leaders, religious leaders, and down the list uh of making sure that we do that. Some boards also like the opportunity to to break bread to have a meal with the person. Some of them around the country ask that they have their family involved in that recognizing that it's not just a a system for a superintendent, but also it's a family decision, someone who wants to be part of the community. Um, and so those are some of the more unique ways, but again, we really try to craft that to what you as a board are most interested in. for Weisetta personally so important, right? To have people that are really engaged in our community. They care about our kids. They're doing all the things. We want them to be part of Weisetta. And so it it won't be enough in my humble opinion just to have a really good superintendent because we will definitely get you that. But someone who really knows what they're doing in Yisette and wants to be part of this community. >> Yeah. in your experience, what is the best timing for to have a um the bigger pool of candidates? >> Yeah, it really is. It ideally we would want that to be uh posted or available or advertised around that November, December because a lot of the superintendents around the country really use those holiday breaks to really do a lot of that work to talk with their families etc. And so sometime by late November or early December, we would want to have uh the posting and information out there so superintendent can really do their homework and start thinking about Weisetta. >> Uh for some reason from other districts, I also heard that um February uh from February till April for some reason is also the best time for some >> Yeah. Our I think everybody does that a little differently. our experiences is that that December and January are really important times um because they're making those decisions oftentimes uh while we have done searches late into the year and even summer really difficult from a transition period if someone's not interviewing till April because by the time they're hired then the new superintendent would be leaving July 1 typically after everybody leaves for kids and staff and families for the summer and for holiday it doesn't give a lot of people time to do to really get to know the candidate, work collaboratively with the candidate, etc. And so again, we would we would certainly work with the board on their timeline. An average search takes between three and a half and four months typically, but again, it's a matter of uh what works for things like referendums or elections or what's happening in the district and how much time you would want for a new superintendent to collaborate with Dr. Anderson, etc., uh before he retired. And so a lot of factors but that has been our experience. You bet. >> Thank you for all the details. I have couple of questions. Um so the first one is what is the average tenure um for candidates that have been hired through your firm? >> Yeah, it's a great question and ours is about 6.4 years which is slightly above the national average and significantly above the more urban uh districts that are there. We pride ourselves on that. Um, and again, that's because of the hard work upfront in working with our boards and communities to see what those characteristics really look like. >> Okay. >> We also do not within the first five years recruit folks that we placed in other districts because we want them to stay with the district that they're at. So, we're very thoughtful about that. And have you had situation where in between the process either something didn't work out with candidates with board with leadership profile and either you had to kind of reset the expectations and not really restart the process but you have to sort of change the course like have you run into that situation? Have you guys how did you guys handle those type of scenarios? >> Yeah, it's a great question. So those situations happen from time to time across the country. most of the time those are out of our control when for example one board would have significant turnover uh and another board would be the hiring board and so that's one thing that we continue to not continue to have but we've continued to think about um when those types of things happen. We've also had things that have happened in terms of like major natural disasters and things that have happened in communities where the superintendent has been with those organizations for a long time sticks on for another year. Sorry, Chase. Um, so that we can make sure that they guide, you know, their community, they they're well trusted, they've done good work in the district, things like that. And we've navigated that with our the team out. And we typically put a pause on the search uh in those types of situations. And when the board is ready to start that up again, we come back. In the meantime, we just work closely with the districts. So those are a couple examples. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We have some more time for questions. additional. >> Yeah, we do have some additional time. If there's a follow-up question on the board, if you don't have an additional question, it's okay to pass at this time. >> Any anyone else? Sheila, go ahead. >> Can you walk me through um you talked about aggressive recruitment and when we think about the candidate profile um and you know, finding a good match for the district? What what would a conversation like that look like? >> It would be very direct. We have an amazing elite school district that has led leadership for 18 years and are doing amazing things. They're a growing district. They're they're going to continue to remain on the innovative list. We provide opportunities where they see all the amazing things that are happening not only that year but for a period of decades that has happened. Um we work with them closely to identify the achievements and the success that they've had in their different districts um to see if they might be a a candidate worth considering. We are because of our presence throughout the country. We're at all the major conferences. We're at all the state organizations. We're able to work with folks directly in doing that. Having served on the national governing board for ASA for seven years and termed out have a lot of those connections still. We also have a consortium of them consortium of elite districts throughout the uh United States that meet twice a year fall and spring. able to talk amongst those districts throughout the country of the great things that are happening. That also is a great avenue to work through because those are really special districts that are really amazing in everything they do. So, it's not only about conversations within their districts, but who in your organizations are ready to make that next steps andor are you uh to be able to sell it. It'd be my responsibility to to sell the great things that are happening and also to evaluate whether they're quite honestly worthy to step into the role in a district like Weisetta. >> Great. So I have an additional question. So you know you and the previous firms that that that were here everybody says it's the board's decision. The board decides eventually what who who they select. So sometimes there is no consensus. So do you how do you support a board in help with with reaching a consensus? How do you handle situations where the board is divided on candidate preferences? >> Well, we have that consensus matrix that helps quite a bit. And in my screening, as we're evaluating criteria based on the leadership development, we're very specific to provide data and opportunities that directly tie candidate success to the leadership profile. And so at the end of the day, every board member gets a choice. You know, they they use their vote to decide on who they would like. And there are times when school boards um individuals on a school board will not select a particular candidate. But in those situations across the country, oftentimes uh that school board, the majority if not all of the school board agree on a particular cab uh a candidate. And oftentimes there are not oftentimes from time to time there are individuals who regardless of the process, regardless of the candidates, just aren't going to be interested in a candidate for one reason or another. And so um I lean into the different searches that I've led. I learn into the deep bench that we have at Ray and Associates and I spend lots of time with individual board members and the board as a whole to guide them to answer questions and to be transparent. Our process is so comprehensive that by the time you get to selecting a finalist with the final two or three or however many the board chooses, you've had so many touch points and you've heard from communities and business leaders and students and families and all of all of that in between that you will have so much information as a board that you you'll make a good decision that's right for you and and Wisetta. >> Thank you. I guess uh there are no more questions, Dave. >> All right. So, at this time, I just want to say thanks again to Dan for his time and presenting this evening. Um, and for the members of the board, we will take a break uh until our next meeting at 7 o'clock. So, thank you, Dan. >> On behalf of Ray Associates, thank you so much and thanks for the work that you do. Not an easy time to be on a school board, so we appreciate you. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. A pleasure. >> So, thanks to the three search firms that um that took the time to present this evening. And thank you to my board colleagues for all the uh good questions. Of course, Dave played a big big role in this B by with the coordination and the communications that you have have done and we look forward to this to your participation Dave in guiding us moving forward. Okay. So this completes our work session for this evening. We will reconvene at 7:00 for another special work session. This the time is now 6:37. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday, November 3rd, 2025 is adjourned.