Special Meeting

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[15] SPEAKER_31: And at this time I would like to order the January 9th 2020 special meeting of the Newark Unified School District Board of Education. we have a motion to approve the agenda. Thank you. We're not number 2 of the agenda before us for motion a second I would like to remind everybody that our board meeting is being broadcasted live on the YouTube station which means that everything and anything is being captured on video will stay online since we are since we were able to broadcast like we move the meeting to the trip from the The agenda prior said it was going to be in the training room. So we moved it to the boardroom. OK. And with that, may I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda?

[77] Ray Rodriguez: I make the motion.

[79] SPEAKER_31: Member Rodriguez makes a motion. I second. Member Nguyen seconds it. Thank you. Oh, we've got a vote. And if we may vote by hand. Thank you. Motion passes. Four ayes. we're going to move on to number 2. Moving on to number 3. 3.1. This is a meeting for us the board to initiate the process of the superintendent search. So just to. And for everybody and then. I do have a speaker miss parts 3.1.

[137] Cindy Parks: Good evening. Just as what was read said that you're going to initiate the search. So I guess I'm a little confused regarding the process. I know with the December 19th. There was a whole debacle with how the agenda was put together and people weren't sure whether you could talk in closed session or anyhow. Things were moved around and all of that. So I'm a little confused on what the actual process is because they're in the packet. There is the letter from Leadership Associates that's dated December 19th. And then the letter from the other firm from Nebraska is dated January 2nd. Again, I'd like to know if you could explain to the public what process you're actually utilizing to go out and even acknowledge that there are firms out there. Because you have two presentations this evening, and I'm not sure how they even know to even submit package presentations. And then are these the only two that are out there? Because one is, anyhow, I just am kind of wondering what your process is. You're already moving forward with interviews, I would say, tonight based on the presentations that you're going to see. And I just wasn't sure what the back story was to all of that. So if the public could be informed what steps you've taken already, please. Thank you.

[220] Ray Rodriguez: that. Hopefully when the board discusses it that will be made clear.

[228] SPEAKER_31: And then. So at this point we will be. Moving on to 3.2. This here I would like to have 2 members of the 4 to 4 and myself are asking is if two members would help with doing some of the research and background on reference checks of the presenters.

[263] Ray Rodriguez: So based on past history, you're asking for a subcommittee of the board. So two board members would say yes, I want to do it. And I understand using that format. We didn't do that before, but that's fine.

[287] SPEAKER_31: What I'm asking. And if I may just provide some clarification, it's more of doing a background check?

[292] Ray Rodriguez: No, I understand.

[292] SPEAKER_31: So it's additional research?

[294] Ray Rodriguez: OK. I understand. So my suggestion here, after the two board members, is that we don't let this kind of pushes back in our search and And I can make a suggestion on how you they wouldn't do that. So the reason is that right now this is the time where where Individuals that want to become superintendent or looking to move kind of look, you know On the websites and stuff and we're in competition with a lot of other school districts. So the sooner the we can get everything going, the better off we are. So my suggestion would be, I'm fine with the ad hoc committee, and that's got to be, the board's got to say yes to that, and I'm assuming that we are.

[354] SPEAKER_31: We just need to have two members volunteer. And at this point, Member Martinez says she's come. If there aren't any other members interested, Member Martinez says she is interested. And myself, I would be OK with assisting her as well.

[366] Ray Rodriguez: So then normally what you would do in a case like that, you would ask the whole board to say yes to it.

[371] SPEAKER_31: Well, I wanted to ask if anybody was interested.

[373] Ray Rodriguez: OK, before we do that, sure. That's fine.

[377] Bowen Zhang: I just want to ask, at the end, we only select one firm, right? And then we go move forward with that firm, right? Ultimately that yes, so this background reference is about the process of picking the firm, right?

[389] SPEAKER_31: Currently of the two the background would be of the two firms that present if for whatever reason we are not they're presenting to us to see if For us to pick them So if we do on currently only have two if we're not comfortable with what we hear we can continue doing our research, right?

[407] Bowen Zhang: Does the board have any timeline about the absolute deadline that we need to pick the firm and move forward? Because member Rodriguez talked about that. This is the prime season of hiring. Prime season of hiring, so we don't really want to delay this too much.

[421] SPEAKER_31: And if I just may add, we don't want to delay this, but we also don't want to rush it. I think it's very important, especially for our district, that we get the best candidate for our district. So we want to make sure that we don't rush it just for the sake of filling timelines.

[435] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so. Member Nguyen. I'm sorry.

[439] Phuong Nguyen: I think miss parks was wondering if there was a request for proposal for. Yes or not P 2.

[450] SPEAKER_31: Come down to the 2 selected from so if it just in regards to the process and to explain to us how we got these 2 firms. It's it's open to anybody. There's a We send out like a communications and we're searching for firms, or there's an open, you know, but they come to us.

[471] Phuong Nguyen: That's correct.

[471] SPEAKER_31: So they come to us and they're presenting for us to pick them. So that's the process where we're at right now, where they come, they present.

[477] Phuong Nguyen: But usually an RFP has, no, because usually an RFP has a date of submission and an end date.

[486] SPEAKER_31: So with that, if I may clarify, Mr. Keno.

[489] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, we're asking for your help to explain how we got to this point.

[495] SPEAKER_29: So your history, you did a formal RFP process and sent it to a number of firms. They all sent the proposals in. Then you had an ad hoc committee to choose which firms were going to present. Your cost is under your threshold. You did not have to do the formal MOU. So basically, you did the same thing, but you did it via to this. Instead of doing all, when we sent it out to all of those firms, These are the firms who were able to come and present this evening. So they did it, but you kind of dropped a step off where you didn't get them, review them, and say, oh, I want these two firms. These are the firms that responded and were able to be here. And in their proposals, you'll see timelines. So you're speaking of timelines. They're kind of laying out your timelines in the proposals and telling you what the dates. So it'll kind of help in what you're looking at as far as a timeline for each of the two companies that are presenting this evening.

[555] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so can I, so we didn't go out and do a request for proposal this time.

[563] SPEAKER_29: You didn't do a formal request for proposal. You did request firms to offer to give proposals for a search.

[572] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so the question then would be how did we do that? Did we go on EdJoin or?

[577] SPEAKER_29: We went back to firms that you used previously and

[584] Ray Rodriguez: That was what I used.

[586] Phuong Nguyen: So why didn't we have a formal one?

[590] SPEAKER_29: I think timing.

[592] Ray Rodriguez: President Martinez, right?

[594] SPEAKER_29: Well, I think at the last meeting, too, you wanted to hurry and get people in.

[598] Phuong Nguyen: Well, no, because I'm sorry, but I think I'm in the lines of Ms. Parks here. I thought that we were just going to have a discussion as to how we're going to proceed and if we are going to do a formal RFP. So this is news to me.

[614] Ray Rodriguez: What we do here is, based on past factors, is the board, three of us, makes a decision whether we're going to interview the two that have come based on the fact that we went out to them. So basically, you looked at prior and you invited prior firms or? All of the prior firms. OK. And just to let everybody know, in the education field or whatever, Everybody knows when there is an opening, and people know. But we didn't formally put, did we do anything on EdJoin? We didn't do any of that, right?

[651] SPEAKER_29: I've never seen a search request on EdJoin.

[654] Ray Rodriguez: Well, on the AXA or, I know there, in the past we have gone on the website.

[662] SPEAKER_29: I think we did an email. We didn't do the large packet with the MOU with everything. That's the piece that wasn't done.

[669] Ray Rodriguez: And who made that decision? I'm just asking. to do it that way.

[673] SPEAKER_31: I think at this point, remember, Ms. Aquino just followed what was requested of her.

[679] Ray Rodriguez: Right, by President Martinez, right?

[682] SPEAKER_31: But since she's not here, I would not speak on her behalf, but Ms. Aquino just followed what was requested of her at this point.

[687] Ray Rodriguez: So the request, was that done by President Martinez to go that route?

[691] SPEAKER_31: At this point, I think Ms. Aquino just did what she was told.

[694] Ray Rodriguez: Right. OK. No, that's fine. So we as a board can decide to change that if we want to. But my suggestion would be not to do that. We have two excellent firms that have been invited. If you feel that a request for proposal is better, you might end up getting four or five firms. But normally, the board would decide on the two best. And then, because normally you only have about two presenting, maybe three at the most.

[730] SPEAKER_31: I do want to clarify that if for whatever reason we don't like what we, we're not picking two firms. They are presenting to us.

[736] Ray Rodriguez: Right.

[736] SPEAKER_31: And if we still don't like what we hear, yeah, we're not selecting firms. And if we still don't like what we hear, we can still continue.

[742] Ray Rodriguez: So if the board doesn't want to change the process, for instance, if member Nguyen wants us to go back and do the request for proposal, and the majority of the board agrees with her, then we'll have to do that, OK? But if the board doesn't do that and we proceed with the two firms that are here, then my suggestion would be if we don't do that, if we proceed with the firms that are here, because of the time issue, is that we still do the ad hoc committee. But since we only have two, we only have two people presenting. Is that correct? That's correct. OK. Then what you can do is each one of them can present their contract. And you can have both of them on the next meeting That gives the ad hoc committee a week to do their research. And let me just say that the two organizations that are presenting and the firms that normally present at school board meetings when there's a superintendent opening are normally really approved by the CSBA. And they wouldn't be doing that unless they were basically, the research has been done already for us. But so if you do decide to go the ad hoc committee, my suggestion would be that, since there's only two firms, is that we bring it back at the next meeting, and then with the board packets, I mean with their contracts, and then we pick one from there, unless the board wants to go another route. Because if not, you're going to be going into February before we actually choose somebody.

[841] SPEAKER_31: I think it's important just to clarify here again, I'm going to stress the point that we don't have to pick here they're going to be presenting their information to us. So the ad hoc committee is going to be the research committee to do a reference check. That being said once we move. Forward next week. We can decide the next steps those I don't think those that need to be decided at this point. the board can vote to... By all means, the board can, and if a motion is put on the floor, then we can vote on it. At this point, what I would like to clarify, and in order for the sake of moving forward, is they're just going to be presenting, and the ad hoc committee is just going to be doing research, background check based on the information that they provide to us. Okay.

[889] Ray Rodriguez: Okay? Okay, so we can... So then, what I would suggest is we allow them to present, and then when we have our discussion, then we could decide if we're really happy with the two firms, we can ask them to come back.

[901] SPEAKER_31: We're not going to have that discussion today. OK. That's not part of the agenda. The discussion as to whether we like them or not is not going to happen today.

[908] Ray Rodriguez: So just a straight presentation. They're just presenting to us.

[910] SPEAKER_31: OK. And so with that being said.

[913] Ray Rodriguez: What would be the timeline then since you and member Martinez are the ones that set up the agenda? What would be the timeline then?

[923] SPEAKER_31: That would be something that we can discuss in our next meeting as well.

[927] Ray Rodriguez: at the next meeting, okay. So it's probably going to be into February before we end up after the ad hoc committee searches. Okay, let me be very clear. I don't like that format. We have two excellent firms that are presenting and the board can decide to pick one of them and then have them come to the next meeting with the contract And then we can vote, and that gives us a week if you want to do some more research. Or we can ask both of them to come back.

[961] SPEAKER_31: Okay. Well, then, thank you, Mr. Martinez, Member Martinez, for expressing your opinion. At this point, I'm still looking for 2 members of the board who are interested in being at the ad hoc, being part of the ad hoc committee. If no one is interested, like I said, Member Martinez and myself will be the ad hoc members. Okay. Anybody?

[978] Ray Rodriguez: Is the board okay with that? Because we have to agree.

[982] SPEAKER_31: I know. Well, I'm asking first if anybody is interested in being a member. of the ad hoc committee. If I don't have any interest, then I'm going to suggest Member Martinez and myself, and then we can vote.

[992] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So I would make a motion that we, as far as the ad hoc committee, it would be President Martinez and Vice President Gutierrez.

[1002] SPEAKER_31: OK. I'll second that. Can I please vote? Ayes? Three ayes. Nays? One nay. Thank you. So at this point, there's a motion, Ms. Aquino for member Martinez and myself, member Gutierrez to be the committee members for the ad hoc committee. And moving on to number four, Ms. Parks.

[1037] Cindy Parks: Thank God I put in two papers. What this agenda says is that there's going to be a discussion regarding the superintendent search process. I made a question. You brushed me off and didn't answer it, saying that when the discussion happened, I would have my answer. However, you moved on to the very next item talking about the ad hoc committee. There was no discussion about the process. You had already made the process. The process has already taken place based on what you all said then later on when you were talking about the ad hoc committee. Now you're talking about how you're going to sit and listen to two presentations. There were items on the last agenda that did not conform to the Brown Act. There was an item on closed session for you to discuss the superintendent search. That was not a valid Brown Act discussion. That needed to be done, conducted in the public session. It then got moved to the public session, but since it wasn't properly noticed to the public, it truly couldn't take place in the public forum because you hadn't notified the public that you were doing it. So it got removed. when did you have the discussion on how you were going to look for search firms that you apparently sent out letters to to let them know whether it was leadership associates, which I know you've used several times. I'm not saying anything against them. I'm not saying anything about the firm from Nebraska. But what I'm saying to you is when did that decision made, when was that decision made that you were going to send out letters to these organizations and get what you got back and narrow it down to two without all of you having a public discussion. Because I have yet to see a public discussion from all of you, and now it's been narrowed down to the two presentations that you're going to hear tonight. I don't understand what's going on behind closed doors, how we've gotten to where we are today without stuff happening behind the scenes out of the public eye. And I'm not seeing that happen, and I appreciate the discussion as far as how things have transpired. So now we have a little bit better grasp of it, but I don't feel that you've done it in the public forum as you're supposed to. And that's my concern. Thank you.

[1181] SPEAKER_31: Thank you, Ms. Parks. I'd like to remind the board that we are not answering... It's on the agenda.

[1186] Cindy Parks: You can speak to what's on the agenda. Okay.

[1189] SPEAKER_25: Thank you, Ms. Parks.

[1191] Ray Rodriguez: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So at this point I would like to move to number 4 to have can I speak to yes. Super discussion of superintendent search that is on the I mean, I would second it if you wanted to do that.

[1229] Bowen Zhang: I agree that I am not aware about how we finish this discussion about search process. I don't think we actually discussed this. I don't know what's happened. Maybe something happened behind the scenes, but I'm definitely not aware.

[1241] SPEAKER_31: I would like to first make it clear that there's nothing going on behind the scenes. committee, as much as anybody in the community wants to say that, us as board members should not emphasize something that is not happening. There is no back doors. We, as the board, are trying to do everything following procedure. We're trying to do everything correct. There's no backhand, there's no backdoor, there's no secrets happening. We're trying to follow procedures as best we can and as best to our knowledge. So at this point, if The board wants to have a discussion. We can have a discussion, but there isn't anything that's being done secretly or behind closed doors. So I would like to please clarify that.

[1285] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, sure. Yeah, but I think maybe we should have a discussion about the search process. I feel like we could do that right now. We sort of rushed through 3.1.

[1294] Ray Rodriguez: Right, OK. So you want to have that discussion.

[1296] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, at least I want to see a timeline. What is the month? What is the first step? When do we finalize search form? finalized job description and then in the real process and when this we Remember when the I mean sorry member John.

[1311] SPEAKER_31: Thank you and that discussion and those comments should have been brought up at 3.1 We will be discussing it. However, that's what we have the agenda So if those concerns came up at 3.1, then please address them accordingly at this point We will be going back because there is concern. So going back to 3.1. What discussions would you guys like to have?

[1328] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, okay, so we're back to 3.1 Well, like I said

[1334] Bowen Zhang: I would want to have at least sort of a rough timeline about at what phase the board needs to act, and then what will be the... Well, that being said, Member John, that's to our discretion.

[1345] SPEAKER_31: So if you have a date in mind, then you can propose that.

[1350] Phuong Nguyen: I can share history unless, Member Duane, did you... Well, I mean, I do have a huge concern here because, one, Even though normally in a formal RFP process, we do put out a request, we get the firms, and then we sort through and pick the three or two or how many firms we want to be presenting. And then after that, a selection is made. But I mean, this whole, I don't understand why we're even having a presentation if we haven't even discussed like a plan on how to how to go about recruiting this new superintendent, and that's my main big concern, and that's why I voted no.

[1399] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. So, let me... We have already picked the... Point of order? Yeah, go ahead.

[1407] SPEAKER_31: I may ask Ms.

[1408] SPEAKER_29: Kino to... I'll try my best. I'm new to this as well. I did go back and historically look at what happened here in Newark. but also in neighboring districts, because we've not been through this process. As far as narrowing down to the two presenters, what I can tell you is, even if we did the formal RFP, my assumption, it would have been the same eight companies that I went to. Two are not doing it anymore. The others are already tied up in searches. So these were the only two available to do this tonight. So again, if there's other firms, then research for those firms. I don't know. I went to the original list that we had.

[1453] Phuong Nguyen: No, which is fine. But my biggest concern is that those firms, because it's not a formal RFP process, if we had piggybacked on another school or whatever, OK, that's fine. But coming from a government entity, I know that if we don't do a formal RFP process, other firms will say, hey, It wasn't a fair process. You guys didn't do a fair selection of, and that's my main concern. And that comes back to us. That's a reflection on us. I understand that all of, I understand that you went back and did what you had done, you know, past practice in the district, and that's fine. But a lot of it is that none of us were communicated on what the process was. So we weren't in the loop. I just think that if we were in the loop in this whole process, then we could openly agree to have a presentation tonight, you know? But because it wasn't made known to all of us on the board, then no. That's why. But I mean, I feel strongly about that. But I mean, I understand that we're not selecting anybody. And I'm OK with listening to the presentations tonight. But moving forward, I would really hope that we would change the way that we communicate and that everyone is included in the communication and in the process of how things are being selected. Thank you, Member Nguyen.

[1546] SPEAKER_31: Any other questions?

[1547] Ray Rodriguez: No, I want to add something. Member Nguyen, you can make a motion that we do the RFP if you want to. And then I will second that. What Ms. Aquino states, based on what I understand of what she said, is that she looked at the firms that applied before when we went out for an RFP. And she reached out to them. And then out of those, only two decided to come. So we basically did an RFP, but we did it in-house without going out.

[1578] SPEAKER_29: Well, and it was my understanding, the formal large RFP dollar amount wise, we didn't have to do the larger process.

[1587] Phuong Nguyen: Which is fine, but my biggest concern is communication. Right. We weren't informed that this is the process that we were going to take, and that these two works are here in front of us now. That's all.

[1601] Ray Rodriguez: OK. But we're being informed now, and we can vote to go out for RFP.

[1607] SPEAKER_31: Remember, because if you have a motion, and you want to put it on the floor, you can also put the motion.

[1612] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. What is it, Mr. Kino, if we go out to a formal RFP, what would be the cost for that?

[1620] SPEAKER_29: Well, we create the RFP.

[1621] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So it wouldn't be a cost.

[1624] SPEAKER_29: No, we would just send it to whichever firms. And then those that would respond would send everything. We would give them a date. Say, for example, we want everything back by X date. And then you would get those in. And then before, you had an ad hoc committee to pick the ones that were going to come to present. And then you move forward.

[1646] Ray Rodriguez: So based on what you said, it sounds like by us doing it in-house, it kind of saves time a little bit.

[1653] SPEAKER_29: I was under the impression at the time to start putting it out there to get the feel for the firms. And then we moved forward with those that responded.

[1663] Ray Rodriguez: So I would like to make a motion that we go out to a formal RFP.

[1668] Bowen Zhang: Can you also add the timeline, the beginning and the end timeline in your motion?

[1671] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. Ms. Quinoa, what do we do? Two weeks?

[1678] SPEAKER_29: what date you're looking at. You want the formal proposals back so then the firms know that they all have to submit by X date. And then we can move from there, then pick another meeting to have those presentations.

[1690] Ray Rodriguez: So today's the 9th. You don't normally allow more than a week to 10 days. And then so we would want it back, let's say, by the, what's the,

[1705] Bowen Zhang: 13th is the Monday. Can we start on the Monday and give one week the following Monday? Right.

[1711] Ray Rodriguez: Well, if we do an RFP, we would go out right away. And then we would we have to set a date.

[1715] SPEAKER_29: We have to create the RFP.

[1717] Ray Rodriguez: Right. OK. So you would create the RFP.

[1720] SPEAKER_29: The business services would create. They do that. So what we would need for the RFP is exactly what you're looking for. It has to be created. You could look at the past one.

[1731] Ray Rodriguez: So it could be the same as the past one, right? I assume, yeah. So my motion would be, based on past history, is that we use what we did before, but we go out for a formal RFP.

[1743] SPEAKER_31: So, Member Rodriguez, do you have a motion?

[1746] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, that's my motion.

[1747] SPEAKER_31: Can you state it again, please?

[1748] Ray Rodriguez: My motion would be that, using past factors, that we do what we did before in the last search, and we go out for a formal RFP, and it's my understanding that Once the RFP goes out, we normally, on this one, it's pretty, the window's very small.

[1767] SPEAKER_31: Member Rodriguez, just to be clear.

[1769] Ray Rodriguez: On the motion, I'm sorry. So the motion would be that we go out for a formal RFP as soon as possible.

[1776] Bowen Zhang: Do we get 10 business days or seven business days?

[1780] Ray Rodriguez: Do you want me to make that part of the motion? Yes, yes, I will.

[1785] SPEAKER_29: I don't know where you want me to find firms. I mean, we'll find firms and that's which is fine. I'm happy to do that. When would you like everything back? So then okay, so you want to date?

[1796] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so as part of my motion, I would want everything back by the end of next week.

[1803] SPEAKER_29: So you got enough time to turn an RFP around, get it sent to firms. That would be enough time, right?

[1808] SPEAKER_25: I think it's possible.

[1812] Phuong Nguyen: member Rodriguez, I really appreciate you wanting to put this forward, especially because I was the one that brought it up. But in light of everything, I think that we already have two firms here. I would like to allow them to present to us. And then for future requests, if we were to do this, then we can have a formal discussion, have a discussion on how we want to proceed on selecting new superintendents or whoever we want to hire in the future. But let's move forward with this.

[1846] Bowen Zhang: With this RFP, really, this is not going to be preventing these two firms from presenting, right?

[1851] Ray Rodriguez: No. My understanding is if the firms are here, the board can still hear their presentations.

[1856] Bowen Zhang: Yes. And the RFP can possibly yield more firms. Right. Yes. Exactly.

[1861] SPEAKER_31: So at this point, is there a motion on the floor?

[1863] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. The motion was that we go out for a formal RFP and we limit the response time to 10 days from the time the RFP goes out.

[1876] SPEAKER_31: Any second?

[1878] Bowen Zhang: I'll second it.

[1879] SPEAKER_31: Please vote. Right hand. Two ayes.

[1886] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so it doesn't pass.

[1887] SPEAKER_31: Motion denied.

[1891] Ray Rodriguez: Motion did not pass.

[1891] SPEAKER_31: So then we proceed. Motion, it was two ayes. Two ayes. Member Rodriguez and member Nguyen. OK. Sorry, member Rodriguez and member John. And the motion did not pass. And two no's? Correct. So at this point, I'm going to actually clarify that. I'm going to ask for no's and abstentions, even though it didn't proceed. Any no's? Any abstentions? No. OK, so two no's. At this point, we're going to move on to number four, the presentation of the law of the firms. At this point, the board will now hear from two consulting firms. Two consulting firms are McPherson and Jacobson and Leadership Associates. At this point, Ms. Aquino, if we could have Leadership Associates come in, please.

[1992] SPEAKER_11: Thank you so much for having us. First of all, on behalf of Leadership Associates, we want to thank you for giving us the opportunity, first of all, to submit an RFP, and second of all, to present to you our program overall and what we offer and our superintendent's services along the way. I'm Eric Andrew. Actually, starting my third year with Leadership Associates. I was the superintendent of the Campbell Union School District, which was the elementary district for seven and a half years. Retired two and a half years ago at this point. Tom?

[2026] SPEAKER_13: Yes, good afternoon. My name's Tom Chagnon, and I have been with Leadership Associates one year. For the past 12 years, I was a county superintendent in the Central Valley, Stanislaus County, the 14th largest county in the state. And I retired that position last January, and I've been with the firm. As a county superintendent, we conducted a number of searches, so I'm versed on the process. And I met with the leadership associates group in January, and there were two things that really Number one, the reputation of the firm. Number two, none of the 14 partners that are retired superintendents really need to be working. They're working because they still have a deep passion and care for students in school districts. And I thought this is where I wanna continue to give back and provide services as I can myself. So I'm delighted to be part of Leadership Associates and look forward to working with the district.

[2093] SPEAKER_11: Thank you. Thank you so much. And one of the things I want to be clear on is that our job is not to find you a superintendent. Our job is to find you the best superintendent for the Newark Unified School District. So we're going to get 40 different applications in and people are going to want to come to this district. Our job is to make it difficult for you to select quality candidates, best for the district that reflect, here's what the board says they want in the superintendent, and here's what the community says they want the superintendent. We're going to bring you people who understand equity, who understand diversity, and who will put your kids first. So those are types of things we're going to be looking for in addition to the things that you will tell us if we are the selected firm. So some of the things that impressed me was your STEAM and STEM initiative. I will tell you what impressed me about it most was that I came from a district that did a lot of work in that area. And so I understand the importance of giving students of all backgrounds work in technology, science, technology, math, the arts, as well as mathematics. The other aspect of it too is Stephen Covey talks about when you're having terms It's important to have what's called a shared pool of meaning. Not only do you have your core values, but you explain what they mean. So when the community says you're talking about this particular word, everybody knows what you're talking about. You don't have to make assumptions as to what they actually mean. I appreciate that. Preschool, Newark educates everybody from the preschool, through the K-12, as well as the adults. And so that's impressive overall. Looking at your state standards and the things that you've done overall, very, very impressive. Very few school districts have done what you've done, to be frank with you, especially when you take a look at things such as chronic absenteeism and some of those other areas. And then Looking at your new dual immersion program, again, being innovative, I was fortunate enough to have a dual immersion in the district that I was in and understand how it prepares your students for a more competitive global society. And there's nothing better than having students who have dual languages, which is something that the rest of the world basically comes automatically. Here are some of the districts that we've been a part of. in that we've done successes. I've been involved in each of these districts in the last year or so. So I was responsible for placing superintendents there with the direction of the board, obviously. One of the other aspects of it, of our firm, is that, and Tom mentioned this, every one of our partners is a partner in the firm. We don't hire consultants. We don't hire people just to come in and do a search or do other things. We also cover the state. If you noticed, From the top of California to the bottom, we also have people who've done WASC, including Tom, which gives us not only a national field, but also an international field in terms of understanding and getting candidates. Every other Tuesday, we have meetings with the firm. And each of these partners is on that call. And we talk about every search that we have. We talk about are there qualified candidates that meet the criteria based on the professional profile that we've developed. And so although, again, we're the two people standing here in front of you, the reality of it is you have a whole firm behind you if we are selected. Some of the things that we do, we are part of several different organizations. You can tell not only are we a part of more classic organizations, but we also believe in some of the ethnic and diversity groups that we are part of, which means we have connections and we work with several different superintendents. In fact, we have a superintendent's leadership network as well as regional networks that we currently have about 100 current superintendents that we are working with in leadership development. In addition to that, we also have about 50 assistant superintendents. So we have quite a few candidates and people who are out there that we have familiarity with. But again, it's not a case in which we're looking to have those people we have apply for your job. unless they meet the criteria that you said that they want. I've been in situations where I've had very close friends, superintendents who want to apply for a job, and I've had to say, no, you do not meet the criteria that the board is looking for. So we're leaving that much integrity in the work that we're doing, that it's about what this board, what this community says that they want in their next superintendent. You know what we do? Basically bring in leaders to help you find your next leaders. If you're familiar with the work of Simon Sinek, one of the things we've done recently is taken a look at our why. And our why basically is an understanding that every district deserves a passionate, caring, inspired leadership team, which is your governance team along with your superintendent, and that all children receive the highest quality education we can achieve. If I go back to your accomplishments, you really do look at the whole child. You do look at ways in which Every child has an opportunity, and we want a leader who can continue that initiative with you. Let me take you through the four-step process, basically. One of the things we would do if we're selected would be to meet with the board and ask you, what are the characteristics you want to see in your next superintendent? Because we will write a professional profile based on that. Now, in addition to what the board would like to see, we'll do a stakeholder output or input. And what we do, we come into the district, we give you a list of various stakeholder groups that we've worked with in the past, but then we work with you to develop others. One of the things I always encourage boards to do, whether we're the team that you select or another, is that look for opportunities to have outreach to groups you maybe have not had a chance to build those strong relationships that you want. Most districts have that, have groups that we think, you know what? You probably need to do a better job of outreach to those particular groups. Here's your opportunity to do that. In addition to having meetings here in the community, and we will conduct those meetings where you feel is the most advantageous. We've had them in community centers, in apartments, we've had them at the school district, we go to schools, whatever you feel is the best way for us to have outreach. And in addition to that, we have an online survey. And that online survey gives another opportunity for your community to give input to the qualifications that you want or the desired traits that you'd like to have. Once you do that, we do an extensive campaign. The first two steps there, we create the professional profile. That professional profile is placed on your website, our website, and in various publications, primarily in etc. which is the AXA group. And I will tell you, I already had a call from someone who was interested in this particular job along the way. And I tell them all, I can't tell you anything about the district. First of all, we've not been hired. Second of all, we don't know what the board and community has recognized us. Here's what we need in our next leader. That's followed up by a presentation of candidates, and we meet with the board. And during that meeting, we do a couple of things. One, we take a look at all of the applications. Oftentimes, we're looking at, I would say, for a district this size, between 25 and 40 applications. We will take those applications and say, here are the top five that we believe meet all of the criteria that you said and the community has said that they want in superintendent. Then we'll give you the next tier. And sometimes that next tier is pretty close to meeting all the needs. But let's just say the board says, we want somebody with a doctorate degree. That next five may have all of the other characteristics that you want. They may not have a doctorate degree. And the board may decide, you know, that's not a deal breaker. We may want to interview them as well. We're open and we'll accommodate for that along the way. Once we've done that, and during this whole process, we'll be doing extensive, Background checks on candidates. Because of our vast knowledge throughout the state, we have a lot of influence in terms of finding out more about the candidate. One of the things I always tell the board is, I've never seen a candidate submit a letter of recommendation that was bad. So we don't rely simply on the letter of recommendations. We want to find out who knows this person intimately, who's going to give us a fair, in an accurate description of who that person really is, their work, the things that they've done in the community, and which aspects of this person's background truly fit what the board has said they want in their next superintendent. Here are the phases. I'm not going to go through those overall, because I basically kind of went through them fairly quickly. But we do want to recognize the importance of getting community feedback and input as a part of the process along the way. When we're talking about the desired characteristics, we will make sure that we include all of that. Looking at stage four, making sure we advertise, making sure people know where to find out about this particular position. And then looking at application review, we're very diligent, doing a lot of background checks. We do extensive background checks. And again, we rely on our partners as well as some other processes to get a sense of what do we know Does anybody know something about this candidate? Because we don't want you to be surprised, but to be frank with you, we don't want to be surprised either. We don't want to be embarrassed. We have a lot of integrity. We do not want to bring you a candidate and find out later that there was a DUI somewhere down the road that we haven't looked at. And so one of the things we'll look at is we have a couple of programs that we use to go back and do a deeper dive in terms of their backgrounds and their checks along the way. We've given you a timeline. We are very comfortable with the speed of the timeline. We've given you some various dates in which we could conduct some of these things. If we are selected as your group, we've given you a few dates in which we would come back and meet with you as a board to get the specific characteristics that you're looking for along the way. We would set up the times for the community meetings, the location of those community meetings, et cetera. And we would go from there. Our outreach, as we talked about, here are some of the languages that we use. We do work with your internal staff if there are languages that we don't have the ability to translate. But we really try to work with the group because we want your community to feel as though they are a legitimate, authentic part of this process along the way. You see there in the middle under extensive stakeholder input, those are the things we'll be asking them in general. what desired personal and professional traits that you want, desired work experience and background, looking at strengths and the challenges along the way. That being said, we are very experienced in the search process. We've worked very hard to maintain our reputation. In fact, we conduct probably 60 to 65 percent of all searches. The other thing that's important about this is that not only are we committed to the work, but 85% of our placements are in their jobs five years or more. And when we're doing the recruitment, we have a rule of thumb, and that basically is we do not recruit people that we've placed if they've been there less than five years. That's not something we would do. If they choose to apply, they choose to apply, but we discourage that because we believe that longevity and continuity is important for a district to have their mission and vision established along the way. We're all former superintendents of various backgrounds, as I mentioned before, urban, rural, small, suburban backgrounds. And not only professionally, but also personally, we have a lot of experience as a firm. And then we stay involved. I mentioned the professional development that we do with a lot of our superintendents currently. We also are on boards of various organizations. Back next month, we have our retreat and we bring up topics that are important. I think this time we're talking about equity and and culturally responsive leadership. So what are we looking for as a firm in order to make sure those things are applicable? And then a longstanding deep relationships with people throughout. We have county superintendents, a lot of different things. So that's basically what I wanted to go over. I know we went over it fairly quickly, but you have a proposal, and I don't want to belabor any questions that you may have for us.

[2888] SPEAKER_31: Thank you. At this point, I'll open it up for any questions. Number one, member John.

[2897] Bowen Zhang: Oh, my question is you mentioned that you generally don't want anybody who you placed in a previous district to say be there less than five years to apply because you believe the commitment and the continuity in the district, right? Yes. So I guess my, speaking of finding potential recruits. Yes. Would you consider anybody who say a high performing superintendent in your district that's been there for more than five years but are not actively looking, but can be convinced to move if a good opportunity comes. Would you be actively reaching out to that so-called, quote-unquote, passive candidates?

[2935] SPEAKER_11: Oftentimes, those candidates are always looking. I will tell you, as a former superintendent, as former superintendents, we always have our eyes open. Always. Even when I was very happy in Campbell. But if you don't think I knew all the openings at other places that I felt, yes. And so if there was somebody who we, and we're going to be talking to a lot of our folks, and if they were to say, you know what, Eric, I'm interested in that. I've been here more than five years. I'm ready for the next move, which is very common. Very common. Yeah, we would have a conversation with them. Absolutely.

[2969] Phuong Nguyen: Any other questions? So I'm just kind of curious. Why would you limit the search to, candidates that haven't been in placement for less than five years.

[2984] SPEAKER_11: Say that again, I'm sorry.

[2985] Phuong Nguyen: Why would you limit and only recruit candidates that have been in placement for over five years?

[2991] SPEAKER_11: Because we believe in the continuity. We place them there in order for them to be successful. We believe we have a commitment to you to bring you somebody who's going to be there and not just in a job hop. Now, other candidates will be applying, as I was talking to the other board member, there are going to be people who have been in those positions five more years. It's just a matter of us not going out and tapping. We just do not believe that's fair to a district for us to go out and tap somebody who we just placed two years ago and say, hey, by the way, there's another job for you in this particular district. So that's just our own integrity, to be frank with you.

[3027] Phuong Nguyen: OK. So basically, it's just within your firm and who you have a place.

[3034] SPEAKER_11: Previously right exactly now their place and other by other forums, etc. All bets are off.

[3039] SPEAKER_13: Okay, but yes Constantly were bringing in superintendents every two and three years were always struggling because there was no consistency vision that could be followed for time and That was one of the things that really impressed me with Leadership Associates and to know that the large percentage of students or superintendents that are placed are there for at least five years and longer. So it makes a huge difference. And I saw the 50,000 foot view of that as a county superintendent.

[3077] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. No, I was just wondering because I thought that it was for every placement.

[3082] SPEAKER_11: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Just ours. Just the people that we placed. I'm sorry. There we go. Just the people that we placed. OK, perfect.

[3092] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for taking the time to, you know, make it over here and present to us. We've used leadership and associates before on a couple of our searches. One of the things on the five-year rule, now a lot of times there are exceptions, you know, family issues or, you know, sometimes things happen where superintendent, all of a sudden the board changes dramatically.

[3122] SPEAKER_11: You know this position well.

[3123] Ray Rodriguez: Right. And it's a mutual agreement that they part ways. But I appreciate the fact that you're looking for individuals that want to stay for a while. Because being a small district, sometimes we might get someone that is just looking for experience and then moving on to a bigger district, for instance. So we're hoping that the person that we get is going to be committed to at least stay with us five years. And I know to some of the newer board members here that five years may not sound like a lot, but that is the average, my understanding. And so my question is, both of you are here tonight. Are you going to be the ones that are going to be helping us throughout the whole process?

[3169] SPEAKER_11: Absolutely. OK. OK, great. We will be your face, and we will be doing the work Any meetings that we have, you will see both Tom and I. Got it.

[3179] Ray Rodriguez: And then our hope is that sometime in May, we'll be interviewing the finalists and make a selection. Absolutely. OK. Thank you. Thank you much.

[3188] SPEAKER_31: Thank you. Thank you for presenting. One of my questions is, do you guys specifically limit your search to California? Or do you also go out of state? Or is that only upon request?

[3200] SPEAKER_11: That will be upon request. I will tell you, remember I said, the person who contacted me today was from Washington State, for example. So when we go through the characteristics, you will, and the traits, you will let us know, you know what, we want this to be a national search, or we want to limit it to California. So we will make that decision, you'll make that decision as a board, and then we will follow suit with how we pursue the candidates.

[3224] SPEAKER_31: And is there any other district that you guys have worked with recently that has a similar similar correct characteristics in Newark which is smaller size district.

[3235] SPEAKER_11: Let's see. I think the Evergreen's a little bigger. I've worked. Here's my my my concern to answer that question. I did a searches last year. I won't do it this year. I'm trying to think back. OK. Yes I know we've had some like San Lorenzo may have been six or seven thousand. I cannot remember at the top of my head but I've worked with everything from the layoffs Stockton and Modesto to a lot. Districts are a lot smaller along the way. I worked in a district that was 7500. So I understand what that takes. I've also worked in unified districts and other capacities that were of similar size.

[3277] SPEAKER_31: And is your main intent to have candidates find you, let you know that they're interested? Or do you do also go out and recruit and tap people that you know?

[3287] SPEAKER_11: We do that. We do both. We do both. We want to make sure our job is to make it so difficult for you to pick that one person. And we I can't emphasize this enough. The job is to make it is to find the right person so our job to find a pool that says you know what here's what they said they want in Newark. These people meet that criteria and we're going to bring that group to you.

[3310] SPEAKER_31: Have you had any district that you couldn't find that these 10 candidates interested.

[3315] SPEAKER_11: No. No no I've never had one where we've had probably less than 15 applications and I've Never had a situation where we were able to, we had less than six that I thought, no, this is a good slate. Not trying to fill the slate, because that's not important to us. I will come to you and say, you know what? I have four incredible candidates. And then I've got six who are pretty good. But I will tell you that. I will tell you that in some cases, it's just go back out. Just go back out. You know, I don't feel as if we have the right people. I would trust that the board would say, no, we're looking for the right person for this district. And so I have no problems with that. I've done it even in searches where we've got down to the finals and say, you know what? Can't agree? Let's start it over.

[3374] SPEAKER_31: And lastly, you guys within the firms know each other very well. Yes. What would you say makes you guys stand out above all other firms?

[3385] SPEAKER_11: I think a couple of things. One, the commitment to five years. We ask the people specifically. We have personal relationships with them because many of the candidates who will be applying will be in some of the networks. And so, for example, the networks meet four to six times a year. We have a big institute down in San Diego. So we know the candidates pretty intimately. And if we don't know, we know somebody in our firm absolutely knows. who they are, or know somebody who knows them. And so we believe that, one, we're committed, because again, we are a firm whose members are doing that work. We don't consult out. 65% of the market is ours. The five-year rule. And we're serious about what we do, because we believe in that integrity.

[3440] SPEAKER_13: Being a newbie with the firm, I can tell you that the passion that is displayed by the partners is really incredible. The reputation is outstanding. And last summer there was a gathering where leadership associates brought people that had been hired within the last year or two to San Diego on their dime, not the superintendent's dime, but to just have a reflection time for two days and just say, what's working for you, what are you struggling with, and it was just these wonderful dialogues and conversations. And out of that group, when you put it in perspective, that have been hired and placed by Leadership Associates, they oversee over a million students in the state of California. There are six million students in the state. Leadership Associates has been responsible for putting and recommending people to be in charge of over a million of those students. The reach and the connections are really impressive.

[3510] Ray Rodriguez: If you're the firm that we select, I remember from prior, we were very adamant that we wanted somebody that was very strong. And there was a prior superintendent, a very strong budget. Our challenges right now, as a lot of districts up and down the coast, is that we have declining enrollment, which puts pressure on the budget. And we're also looking at possibly going from the number amount of schools we have and maybe closing down a couple of schools. So would that be something that when we talk about the process We talk about as far as looking for a superintendent that has had experience in that area.

[3563] SPEAKER_11: Absolutely. Absolutely. And hearing that and knowing that, yeah, we would absolutely go out and find people who have some experience. with school closures, with declining enrollment. And that would be a question we would ask in the interview process as well. So you get a chance to ask those specific questions to get a sense of, yes, they said it to us. Yes, it's on a resume. But now you get a chance to ask, so tell us how you would address it in this district. We know you have experience there. But how would you address it here based on what you know thus far about the Newark district?

[3597] SPEAKER_31: Any other questions? OK, well, thank you very much for presenting today. Thank you. It's an honor.

[3604] SPEAKER_13: One final comment. Just Tuesday night, my partner and I were in Colusa, a small farming community off Highway 5, and we were meeting with the board to go over applications and to try to narrow down those that they were going to interview. The meeting went beyond three hours because, as Eric alluded to earlier, the decision of trying to whittle down to just get to four or five candidates, it was really a challenge for them. And that actually made me feel really good because they have some quality people that will go into that community and make a difference and be the leader that they need. And just a final comment, as I was looking through the website and the little video on there, it's really a great video, and what really struck me at the end was when the individual on there says, you know, at Newark, we are big enough to matter, but small enough to care. And that's a great phrase, and we want to make you feel comfortable and be the firm that you are proud of to go in and know that we can get you that next superintendent that will be a leader for your district. Thank you.

[3673] SPEAKER_11: Thank you. And Charlene, hopefully our admin and administrative assistant will reach out to you or we'll be reaching out to you to make sure that if we're the selected firm that we have the proper support for her as well.

[3685] SPEAKER_11: All right. Thank you guys much.

[3689] SPEAKER_29: Oh, you can go that way.

[3692] SPEAKER_13: OK. All right.

[3694] SPEAKER_11: Good luck. Good luck. Thank you guys so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[3700] SPEAKER_29: Thank you. Thank you. So nice to meet you. Oh, of course. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yes, please.

[3723] SPEAKER_31: So the next presenters are McPherson and Jacobson.

[3751] Jodi Croce: Good evening. How are you?

[3762] SPEAKER_14: Good evening. How are you doing? Welcome back. Nice to meet you. We're ready when you're ready. We're ready. OK, all right. So we're with McPherson and Jacobson. It is a national search firm with consultants from California. I'm going to have to master the list of it.

[3816] SPEAKER_29: The arrow to, this will be your arrow to the right.

[3819] SPEAKER_14: OK, got it. OK, that'll get me forward. All right. So I wanted to mention a few things before we introduce ourselves. We are one of the three leading national search firms. We've done over, I think, 800 searches now nationwide for the last, and it's been in existence for about 25 years. We have a network of experienced California consultants. I think we have 14 consultants in California. And one of the things that we're known for is that our process leads to stable leadership. We like to say that nationwide, our leaders stay 75% of the people that are selected are in the same seat five years later. In California, a little bit less because we're a little more, you know, it's a little more volatile in California, but basically in the same ballgame. And we want to, we always want to emphasize that we work for you. You're the ones that hire, we recruit, but we lead you through a process that you'll see tonight leads to a very fine selection for your school district. We're known for stakeholder engagement. The reason we're usually hired over other firms is because we really emphasize including your stakeholders in the process. You'll see tonight that we talk about how we do that differently and what we recommend. But we tailor our process to exactly what you want. during the interview phase of the process, we encourage you to have a stakeholder panel that works within the process in a confidential manner to give you input. And that's something that we do very well and we're different than other firms in that regard. And whoa, couldn't get everything on. And I did want to mention that we also are the only firm that's sponsored by CSBA. So, CSBA recommends us to its districts. Okay. So, I have, I'm Bill Hewitt. I was the superintendent for, yes, let's pass those out. We're going to pass out our resumes. I was the superintendent for 17 years in DC. Dixon, California, Lodi, California, and in Berkeley, California. So I did work in this county for five years. I've conducted more searches than any other consultant in this firm. So you're getting the most experienced search firm consultant as one of your consultants. I would be doing this search. I also was a high school principal, a high school teacher, taught math and physics. I was an assistant superintendent, all of that in Elk Grove Unified School District. I'm very proud that I was a WASC consultant, that's the accreditation firm. My favorite network, I've networked with an awful lot, we'll talk a little bit more about networking. My favorite network continues to be the Northern California Superintendents Association. So I've been in the past an officer with that group and that's how I stay connected. I have been retired for seven years and largely doing this type of work as well as mentoring superintendents and working in the area of facilities as well in other school districts. And I'd like Daniel to go ahead and introduce himself and tell you a little bit about himself.

[4047] SPEAKER_10: Well, thank you. And it's a real pleasure to be back in Newark. And I say back because I've had a long history with Newark, believe it or not. I was born and raised in San Leandro. I served in the Hayward School District. And then I also served this district as the interim assistant superintendent for human resources until you hired a permanent person in that location. And then several years after I left, my daughter started her teaching career at Kennedy Elementary. So I feel like I've been around Newark quite a bit. Actually, I've had some family members who have lived here in the community of Newark. I have been a superintendent, and I've also been a state administrator. And if you're not familiar with that title, State gets taken over by, district gets taken over by the state, and an appointed state administrator is made. And that's the last assignment I had. And as we returned local control to that district, the board asked me to stay on as their superintendent. And I did. The issue was it was almost two and a half hours away from my home. It was out in South Monterey County. And so I said, no, it's time for me to go home now. So that's when I decided it was time to retire. And since retiring, I've been doing consulting throughout the state of California as well as across the country on cultural proficiency and equity. And that's a real passion of mine. I have been a teacher at all three levels, as well as having served as an administrator at the elementary and high school level. I was never an administrator at the middle school level. I don't know why I bypassed that one, but I did. And I've served in a variety of district office positions as well. And so I have been a member also of the California School of AXA. I've been a member of CALSA. I've also been a member in Hayward. We had the Hispanic community, you know, forgetting the rest of the name of the title. What's that? Affairs Council. Affairs Council. Thank you. I was rattling my brain trying to remember that. So I had the opportunity to serve on that as well for a period of time in my tenure in different positions. So I, again, feel a kindred spirit to Newark, as well as I believe I bring some background. had the opportunity to be up and down the state and across the country as well, getting to meet people and working with folks. So that's who I am.

[4210] SPEAKER_14: Great. Thank you, Daniel. And we've known each other for, well, probably longer than we want to admit. Long time, Daniel and I have been colleagues, done things mostly through AXA together. I wanted to mention as well, just that I think it's very important that the consultants that you hire know your area, know your community, and you know, know what your situations are. And I have to admit, Daniel knows more about Newark than I do. But I did do the search next door in New Haven twice in the last three years. So I've worked a lot in your neck of the woods, if you will. I know you share kids across borders and all of those sorts of issues. And we were quite happy with the process. I know the board over there was quite happy with the process both times. OK. All right, so let's talk about the process. It's five phases. We'll take you through all five. Are we going to have enough time to be able to take you through all five? We'll do it quickly, and then you can ask any questions about it. I think it's helpful for you to see everything we do and see the enthusiasm that we do it with. We work hard for you. We really put a lot in, and I think that's one reason why I joined this firm. I wasn't another firm who came over to this firm because of the notion that we really search hard, we really do a lot of work with this process for you, and we think we get a better result because of it. We may not do as many searches as other firms, but we do them really well. Okay, here we go. Okay, so our first phase, we're a very criteria-driven group. We really think it's important that we make a good match between you and your superintendent and your community. That's what leads to success is when you have the type of superintendent that matches your needs. So we spent some time with you right at the beginning of saying, what are the criteria that you need to have in a superintendent? In fact, I'm going to go ahead and, do you have the pamphlets? I don't even know if you all have them in your folder. I know I have one. Did you get anything that looks like this in your folders? No, I don't think you did. We got a couple and we'll pass them around. Take a minute and look for this. This is the first thing that we published for you and inside of it is the position and then the criteria. This is a really important thing that we do with you right at the beginning. It takes about an hour, hour and a half in our first meeting. Talk about the community, what your goals are, and so this hire this firm. The reason criteria is so important is that we use it to go ahead and form your questions. We use it to evaluate the candidates. The candidates have to write to the criteria. Nobody does that. We actually on our application form have the five or six criteria that you come up with and we say you have to write as a candidate to each of these and that's pretty rigorous. and that's demanding of the candidates, but it tells me and it tells you who's serious about your district. They can't just give you a boilerplate letter that they send out, you know, to anybody they want a job with. They have to talk about and examine your school district. So that's the first thing that we do with you. We also establish the timelines and the target dates for the selection process. You're in good shape. You're actually still a little bit early, so you don't need to rush. But we don't want to dilly-dally either because we know we're in competition with other school districts for high-quality candidates. And then we need to decide where it is that you're going to advertise. In California, it's pretty standard that you're going to use EdCal, EdJoin, but we have a website that gets a lot of hits that's nationwide, so we also do get some national candidates for you that way. Phase two then, really has to do with getting input from your stakeholders and recruitment. And so what we do is we solicit input from various groups in your community. And this is something we put a lot of work into. And Charlene, I hate to tell you, but we're going to ask you to do a little bit of work, too, on this one, because we don't know the groups that well. But I think the thing that's so unique about this is that we ask you to bring anybody forward that needs to talk to us, any individual that's important, maybe with the city or in the community, ask board members, whoever you want, whoever the board wants. We also then ask to talk to the traditional employee groups, and any stakeholders that you have. In one district, I said, how can we get to parents? How is it that we should best get to parents? They said, well, our parents, it was a Latino mostly school district where an awful lot of parents walked their kids to school. And they said, could you come in at 7 o'clock in the morning and meet the mothers that walk their kids to school? That's how you'll get them. And you know what? We went in there for three days. And every morning, it's actually 7 o'clock. We were there. It was great. We got all this input from the parents. But we go to that extent. We go to that extent, to listen to your parents, to listen to your stakeholders about what they want in their superintendent.

[4539] SPEAKER_14: We ask them, what's good about the school district? What's good about your community? We're going to use that to recruit. We're going to use that. We're going to take that out there and say, this is why this is a great place for you to be superintendent. Then we ask them about, what are the issues? What are the issues? That may be just a little controversial. But we think it's very important. Our theme is transparency. Our theme is to get things clear and in the open and up front. Because you're hiring somebody to solve problems and to solve issues. I was a superintendent for 17 years. And the reason that I was seen as successful is the board said, we have these big problems.

[4578] SPEAKER_14: And we made progress, or we solved them while I was there. So we've got to get those out. We've got to hear what those are. And then the last one is the traditional question. What are the skills, attributes, and characteristics that we're looking for in a superintendent? We use those last two questions to get the right match, to get the right match along with the criteria, get the right person for the job for you. So that's the large part of phase two is going ahead and doing that. And we report back to you in public. And we also have a survey that anybody who can't make a meeting can answer those same four questions. We put the brochure together. We do the vacancy announcement. All of that is done. And we recruit. I want to talk a little bit about recruiting. It's important that the firm you hire, and I have to say, honestly, both firms that you're interviewing have good recruiters. We had a nice reunion with our competition beforehand. That firm has a very good network of recruiters, and we do, too. We've got, you know, 14 folks in California. The thing that's different about us is not only are our recruiters superintendents, but they're also board members. They're also highly respected people in the field of training in California. You can see Daniel has done an awful lot of training. One gal that I work with in the Bay Area is a national recruiter and trainer. So we're a little broader in our repertoire of folks that we call on. It's just a little different. But you need to know that, is that it's not only superintendents recruiting superintendents for you, it's also board members that have been all around the state, very active in CSBA.

[4696] SPEAKER_14: We're well connected in that. We're very good recruiters in being connected to people. I've done so many searches and so many calls, especially here in Northern California, that I know most everybody in the different districts that's in a position to become or think about becoming a superintendent. And my colleague, Daniel, has got a lot of connections. I'd like him to chat just a moment about some of the diverse connections he may have in recruiting candidates for you.

[4726] SPEAKER_10: Having served in a variety of different roles, I have a real passion that in our profession we have collaborative high quality leaders leading our schools. So I make it a point, I continue to teach at the university level. for folks aspiring to be administrators. So I'm constantly on the lookout for folks moving up. I coach site administrators, district level administrators, and superintendents, not only here in California, but across the country. And I'm constantly looking for folks who've got skills and talents. I'm a member of the National Association of Superintendents Roundtable, which is connected, again, nationally. And there's a qualifying criteria to even become a part of that. and the folks that I have the opportunity to interact with are high quality folks who have a great deal of success already in superintendencies, who I have tapped on the shoulder and said, look, got a position you may be interested in, sort of thing. And I'm also very involved in the association, well, ACSA is one of the associations that gets me involved in the state, but also ASCD, which is a national organization where I present regularly, and again, on the constant lookout for high quality, collaborative leaders in a variety of positions. So I feel like I'm constantly nurturing, and because of the work I do around cultural proficiency and equity, I'm constantly looking for those folks that we don't always see coming to the forefront. So that's what I'm constantly looking to make sure we're presenting to you as possible candidates.

[4828] SPEAKER_14: So, okay. I moved you ahead on accident.

[4832] SPEAKER_31: Oh, you did?

[4837] SPEAKER_14: On phase three. You want to make sure that you have a firm that thoroughly looks at the candidates being brought forward. We get a lot of applicants, this firm does. We get, for a typical search like this, we get 25 to 30 applicants. We can get as many as 60 to 80 in some cases. And so we want to assure you that we read. I'm working on one search, finishing up one search down in Salinas. And you know, the first thing I do is sit down and read. I'm a night owl, so I'll read two or three hours every night, several nights in a row, because we read everything in the applications, in the letters of reference. And then we are very thorough in checking through the references that the candidate gives, but not only those. We go three deep on references. We check the references that are given to us by the candidate. Then we ask those people, is there somebody else we should talk to? And we talk to them. And then most importantly, and this is what I think is real critical, is that we use our network to ask people. Now, like I said, I've done so many searches and been around Northern California so much, I wouldn't say it's true in the South. in Northern California, that I know people in all of the districts. And I know people that know people. So I call them and say, what do you know about this person? Give me the real scoop about how this person has been. So it's important that your folks that you hire have that ability to do very deep reference checking. But that's not all that happens with reference checking either. We go ahead and sometimes, because of confidentiality, We have to wait on some reference checking. Some candidates, especially if you're interested in a sitting superintendent, they say, please don't talk to my board. I don't want them to know that I'm leaving. And that's legit. That's why we have a confidential system of interviewing. So when that happens, we have to say, well, let's go back and talk to the previous board that you worked for. Or I'll negotiate and say, I'm going to have to talk to your board at some point. But it has to occur. So you also need somebody who's sensitive to the candidates and confidential as well. During this phase, we also do your interview questions. Again, they're related to the criteria. And we notify all of the candidates who are being selected for an interview. We come to you and we say, here is a list of candidates we recommend. that you interview. But we give you, show you, all of the candidates. We talk about all of the candidates in different levels of depth, of course, because of the quality of them.

[5009] SPEAKER_14: It's clearly your decision who you interview. So let's talk about the interview. Well, I think we kind of did that. We did the recruiting of diverse candidates. But I just want to emphasize that's something that's important to this of candidates. Our track record is that our percentages are quite high on people of color that we've placed and women that we've placed. We're very proud of the interview process that we have and it's unique and it's different so you need to consider this when you decide whether you want this firm or not because it is different than what anybody else does. Our founder, who is Tom Jacobson, is a professor of human resources and has studied how successful recruitment and interview processes have worked. And he's looked at the business models as well. And one of the things that he found that was different between the business model and the educational model is that when business enterprises interview for their chief executive, they realize

[5091] SPEAKER_14: When you enter into what we recommend, we'll do it any way you want. If you want to do it traditional, just interview them and select, we will do that, and I have done that. But we recommend that you spend more time at it, that you spend two, maybe even three days interviewing candidates, two or three only a day, and that you have an opportunity during that day to meet them and talk with them in an informal setting, usually over a meal, one-on-one or one-on-two. So in a typical day, we'll have three candidates come in, and a couple of you, all of you will have breakfast with a different candidate, okay? Two of you might meet with candidate A, you meet with candidate B, you meet with candidate C. And then we have coffee at mid-morning, and then it's you or A, right? So you're A now, you're B, and you're C. And then you have lunch, and you're meeting with candidate A, you're B, and you're C. So when you get into the afternoon interview, we do do the traditional interview, you know that candidate. And you've gotten to know their personality. Are they going to be a good match for you? How do they interact? We tell the candidates in the board, don't interview each other. Just talk about who you are, and what you do, and what you like to do. Boards love this. I've talked to experienced board people and said, I don't know why we haven't been doing this forever. Because it was so much easier this time, and we really know who we have. And you know what else?

[5180] SPEAKER_14: It gets everybody off to a great start, but you kind of know the person and have a bit of a social bonding with them. But that's not the only thing we do that day. As I mentioned, we also bring forward a stakeholder panel of usually 12 to 15 people that are a combination of folks from your community and your staff. And we ask them to interview the candidates. They form their own questions. They interview the candidate. They don't tell you who to hire, though. They don't prioritize. They don't rank order. They simply tell you the strengths and the concerns of each candidate. They take it very seriously. We also have them sign a confidentiality agreement so that we hold confidentiality as very important for the candidate for our process. And then what's helpful for boards is that when we deliberate at the end, That's the first thing we do is to see what did your stakeholders say about the candidates. And sometimes it's the same, oftentimes it's not. And sometimes it differs amongst them. Sometimes teachers will like one group and sometimes the folks in the community like another person. But it helps you to see the candidates through several lenses.

[5260] SPEAKER_14: myself as a recruiter and as an administrator and past superintendent, I see these candidates in a certain way. You're going to see them differently. Your teachers are going to see them differently. Your students, you'll have students on this panel, they will see them, that's very important too, to see what a student thinks of the superintendent. But we think it's helpful to give you all of that input. So after we do that, then we go ahead through a process and once again we bring the criteria forward and we say who matches the criteria the best. And when this is all said and done, you have a good marriage, a really good candidate that meets your needs. Finally, we actually do an extra check on that candidate. We have a criminal, financial, and credential verification process that we do with them that's part of the package of what you have if you select us. But we're not done. We have, oh, I think I mentioned this.

[5318] SPEAKER_14: I've recommended is the one in the middle. We also do an open process where we have multiple panels of people that interview candidates. For a district like yours, are you interested in having a sitting superintendent? Yeah, yeah. So most districts your size are interested in having somebody who might have been a sitting, not only, but possibly a sitting superintendent in this position. And if you are an open process, you will lose many of those candidates. I'm talking to some candidates, as I mentioned, in another district, and I'd say about half of them say, boy, if this is an open process, I can't participate because my board, my current board would be upset. So we recommend the process I just recommended. But we will do, for smaller districts, I've done open process. We have lots of people participate, and we'll do that. Or we'll also do the traditional process. If you want to do that, you know, where you don't have that much input, we design it the way you want. Okay. But we're not done. We actually come back and help you set the goals with your new superintendent for their first six to 12 months. We look at what the board goals are, and then they're really objectives that we say. What is it the board would like to see you accomplish in the first six to 12 months? So you get off to a good start. And that's part of this package. It comes as no additional charge. And should you complete that, then we have a two-year guarantee that if things don't work out for whatever reason, it doesn't matter what the reason is, if a person goes and takes another job within two years, or if you say that's fine, then we'll do the search, the next search, for no cost, only expenses. Haven't had to do that very often. Had to do it one time when a superintendent decided that the marriage wasn't working with his spouse and he had to leave the city. So it wasn't a district issue, but we did the search anyhow at just expenses. So as I mentioned, there are some additional services. And we can revise the job description for you. We can help you with the contract, although most districts in California like their attorney to do that, but we can give you advice on what the comparable pay is in the area. We do some of that work. And we also can help arrange an on-site visit if you wish to do that. Our timeline for this typically is about three months, three to four months. We can do it in as short as, we've done searches and 10 weeks from when we signed a contract with you to when you signed a contract with the superintendent. But typically it's a three or four month process. So what's the difference between us? Transparency. We pride ourselves in bringing the issues out and bringing people out to say what they're looking for in a superintendent. It results in keeping your superintendent longer. Our superintendents stay in their position nationwide a longer period of time. And that's because, a lot of that's because how we involve your stakeholders. So, we can answer any questions for you. I think I have a list of questions somewhere. I don't know if you have any interest in looking at any of those, but we always suggest a few things that we didn't talk about that you might want to.

[5547] SPEAKER_31: Thank you. At this point, any questions? Member Rodriguez?

[5552] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for both of you for taking the time to come and present to us. Our pleasure. I had a question. Based on your experience while we're going through the process and we have get-togethers, is there any other occasion where it would be closed session or would it always be open session?

[5576] SPEAKER_14: No, there are closed sessions. Whenever we talk about candidates, we're going to go into closed session with you. Whenever we talk about the questions that you're going to ask, that'll be in closed session. Whenever we talk about the contract and the amounts of any part of the contract, either compensation amounts or the terms of the contract, that's in closed session. Typically, anything that deals with the process or deals with stakeholder involvement is open session so it's it's when you select the people you're going to interview that's all closed session so it's about 50-50

[5628] SPEAKER_31: Okay, I did find interesting one of your questions. It says discuss the process, no sorry, consultant number three. What is the expected of your consultants during the recruitment process?

[5639] SPEAKER_14: Right, so what is it that you would want us to do for recruitment? Who is it you want us to look for?

[5654] SPEAKER_14: We know, for instance, I'll just give you a for instance that always comes up.

[5661] SPEAKER_14: You know in California we can't. Some places you can. But some places the board really wants somebody who's going to live in the district. So you need to let us know that. You know, you need to let us know. We will talk to you about what is it that you're looking for that you have as an expectation for us. Do you have, do you want us to be, because we can talk to them about that. We're going to say we're not going to ask you to live in the district. It's up to you. But we just want to let you know that it's very important that they would really love it. So if you are, tell them. That's usually how I approach it with them. The recruitment part is critical because you want to make sure that you have consultants and a group of consultants. That's why all firms, well, not all firms, but the big firms like ours have a number of recruiters up and down the state. Honestly, we have a lot of, we have over 120, something like that, 120 recruiters nationwide. It's seldom we get somebody from outside the state that, we get outside of the state applicants, quite a few of them, but it's seldom that we place one because California is so unique. Now I have to say, I have done that. I have placed one, but he had been in California previously, so he had knowledge of California.

[5736] SPEAKER_31: Yeah. Would you two be the main consultants? We would.

[5741] SPEAKER_14: we would be the consultants that you would see. Now we may, from time to time, bring somebody in, one of our others, in case one of us has a conflict that can't be overcome or something like that. Or in case we need some help in something. I mean, I don't know what it's going to take to do the community input. I think probably the two of us will be able to handle it. It shouldn't be anything of the size. But I have brought in folks before. And sometimes there are unique language needs. And so we'll bring somebody in. Yeah. And I wanted to mention that I have worked with seven of our 14 consultants.

[5778] SPEAKER_31: So I have a lot of connection. And what was it about our district that you guys were interested in? Yeah.

[5786] SPEAKER_14: Well, so I'll let Daniel answer that to start with, but then I'm going to give a little response.

[5792] SPEAKER_10: Well, because of the location and my involvement with the district, there's a piece of me that wants to make sure that you're on you're on the right field that you want to be on. And so I have a kindred spirit, as I mentioned once before, to do right for your students here in the district.

[5810] SPEAKER_14: And I have an interest in the county because I was in Berkeley, and I've done Albany, I've done some recruitment work in Berkeley, and I've done quite a bit of work in New Haven. So I just like to work this area. I feel like I know the neighborhoods a little bit, and I know the the different groups of folks that you have here, and so I'm always interested when our firm says, you know, will you take one over in Alameda County? I live in the Central Valley. I kind of always jump at it. And, you know, honestly, I heard a little bit about you when I was next door. So I thought... No, that was good. You know, I mean, I actually was a little jealous. You know, you end up taking some of their kids sometimes. But we're, you know, both of us kind of have a local interest in doing it.

[5879] SPEAKER_31: Thank you. And ultimately, what is the one thing that makes you guys stand out above all other firms?

[5886] SPEAKER_14: Yeah. Well, I think the thing that stands out is our result.

[5898] SPEAKER_14: But in my mind, there's really a few reasons for that. One is the stakeholder involvement. Two is getting off to a really good start by knowing the person socially, by doing the goals and objectives. And the third one is because of the process that we use. The process of involving your stakeholders, involving everybody. It really helps Africa be successful. But I think that's, the sustainability probably is what stands out in this. And again, we don't do as many as others, but we really do them well.

[5934] SPEAKER_10: And I have to say, I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. I have to say, in my last position where I was the state administrator, While you don't typically want your superintendent involved in the process, the outgoing superintendent, because of my role, I had a different sort of involvement. I sat and listened to the various presentations. I've also had several different firms put me through the process as well. But what I really appreciate about this, and part of the reason I joined this firm, is that piece that Bill talked about in terms of transparency and the involvement of others. of the candidates that you have so that you have a better sense of, I would hope you feel much more comfortable about the person that you ultimately hire.

[5982] SPEAKER_14: And it gives you credibility with your stakeholders too. They appreciate you. They appreciate you. One of the reasons that CSBA said that they hired this firm is they were hearing a lot of concerns that everything was done behind closed doors and that boards were having to hear that criticism a lot and having to deal with it. So you don't hear that criticism much at all with us.

[6002] SPEAKER_31: Yeah. Member Rodriguez.

[6006] Ray Rodriguez: The cost of doing the superintendent search, is that pretty similar? And I'm just trying to get an idea of how much it would be. And is it pretty similar between different, you know, firms?

[6018] SPEAKER_14: It is pretty similar. We cost based you on two factors. One, what the fee is, and I think it's $15,000 for this search. And then the expenses on top of that. The expenses on this are not to exceed, I think, $4,900. So the total would be $19,900. I don't think they'll be that high, because he's going to go home every night. I'm going to go home most nights. And so we're pretty local. So sometimes we're flying in consultants, and it can become expensive. But this will be a little less expensive than that. And then we also, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. The other thing we want to say is that if another firm is less expensive but you like our product better, we will go ahead and negotiate that price a little bit.

[6079] Ray Rodriguez: Have you had on occasion been asked by school district when you help place a superintendent to maybe do some coaching? And do you normally charge extra for that? Yes.

[6093] SPEAKER_14: Yeah. Yes. First of all, we do a little bit of coaching. It's not a lot, but we do a little bit of coaching for a year after we hire the superintendent. We check back every quarter with them, spend some time with them, and see how things are going. But that's not enough, really. And so I've had one, two, three. I've had three occasions where I have actually entered into a coaching agreement with the candidates.

[6125] SPEAKER_14: And yeah, and the cost is roughly $120 an hour. So that's how that works. And it usually typically comes out to be anywhere from two to four hours a month. I would, no matter who you select, especially if you have a new superintendent, one that's been around for a while,

[6158] SPEAKER_31: One final one for myself. I was looking at the Venetia. Yeah. So that would be included for any search that you guys do?

[6166] SPEAKER_14: Yeah. OK. Yeah, that's part of the package.

[6170] SPEAKER_31: OK, I'll have no further questions. And thank you guys very much.

[6173] SPEAKER_14: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. It's really a pleasure talking to you tonight.

[6177] Ray Rodriguez: You mind if I keep this?

[6179] Diego Torres: Oh, yeah, you can keep it.

[6180] Ray Rodriguez: Sure. You betcha. My granddaughter goes to Venetia usually. Oh, there you go.

[6186] Nancy Thomas: Thank you.

[6188] SPEAKER_31: Thank you.

[6189] Rachel Bloom: Thank you very much.

[6190] SPEAKER_14: Thanks very much. I want to thank Charlene. Charlene bailed me out today, right? No, she didn't. For some reason, you

[6216] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[6219] SPEAKER_31: So there's no further questions and at this point a motion to adjourn. Second. Member Rodriguez makes a motion. Member John seconds. Meeting closed.

1. CALL TO ORDER

1.1 Roll Call

Type                     Procedural

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

2.1 Approval of the Board Agenda

Type                     Action

Recommended              Approve the Board of Education Agenda
Action

3. SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH

3.1 Discussion Superintendent Search Process

Type                     Discussion

Purpose: The board wll have a discussion regarding the Superintendent search process

3.2 Superintendent Search Board Ad - Hoc Committee

Type                     Action

Preferred Date           Jan 09, 2020

Absolute Date            Jan 09, 2020

Recommended              The board will approve two designated Board Members as ad-hoc committee members
Action

4. Interviews of Potential Search Firms For Superintendent of Schools

4.1 Presentations from Potential Search Firms

Type                     Discussion, Information

Purpose:

The Board intends to conduct a thorough search. The goal is to have a new, permanent superintendent selected between January � May 2020 .

The Board will hear presentations from two consulting firms who will submit proposals to conduct a superintendent search. The two consulting firms are: McPherson & Jacobson, and Leadership Associates.

File Attachments Proposal_Leadership_Associates_Supt_Search_Newark_USD_01_09_20.pdf (1,911 KB) McPherson & Jacobson supt search proposal for Newark USD CA Jan 2020.pdf (1,229 KB)

5. ADJOURNMENT

5.1 Adjournment

Type                     Procedural

No items of business will be considered after 7:00 p.m., unless it is determined by a majority of the Board to extend to a specific time. The meeting shall be extended no more than once.

No minutes available.