Special Meeting

Introduction

• Special meeting held on March 6, 2023, focused on initiating the superintendent search process.
• Key themes included stakeholder engagement, candidate profile development, and timeline planning for hiring a new superintendent by July 1, 2023.

Agenda Items

Superintendent Search Process

• Description:
  • Leadership Associates, the search firm, outlined the search timeline, community input strategy, and candidate review process.
  • Key steps:
    • Community Input: Online survey (March 7–17) and in-person/virtual stakeholder sessions (March 13) to identify desired superintendent characteristics.
    • Recruitment: Aggressive timeline to attract candidates during peak hiring season, with applications due March 17.
    • Candidate Review: Board to review tiered applicants on April 5, followed by interviews on April 22.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • Board designated all members as liaisons for communication with the search firm.
  • Translation services and outreach to underrepresented groups (e.g., Latino community, Avanzando, Parent Partners) prioritized for input sessions.

Contract Parameters & Recruitment Strategy

• Description:
  • Discussion on competitive salary ranges, benefits, and contract terms to attract qualified candidates.
  • Emphasis on aligning with neighboring districts’ compensation and addressing Newark’s cost of living.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • Board agreed to review former superintendent’s contract and market benchmarks to finalize parameters.

Public Comments

• Key themes:
  • Cary Knoop raised concerns about closed session legality, questioning if discussions exceeded Brown Act limitations. The board clarified the closed session was for personnel matters (superintendent appointment).

Follow-Up and Commitments

• March 13, 2023: Community input sessions with stakeholders (parents, staff, students, city officials).
• March 17, 2023: Application deadline for candidates.
• April 5, 2023: Candidate review meeting (6:00 PM) to evaluate applicants.
• April 22, 2023: Finalist interviews (8:00 AM start).
• Ongoing: Translation of surveys into Spanish and outreach to non-traditional groups (e.g., families who left the district).

Conclusion

• The board finalized the search timeline and priorities for the superintendent profile, emphasizing community engagement, academic improvement, and transparency.
• Next steps include analyzing stakeholder feedback, refining the candidate profile, and preparing for April interviews.
• Goal: Hire a superintendent by July 1, 2023, with a focus on addressing declining enrollment, staff retention, and district reputation.

1. CALL TO ORDER

1.1 Meeting Practices and Information

[421] Nancy Thomas: Good evening. Welcome to the March 6th special meeting of the Board of Education. Please join me in the pledge.

1.2 Pledge of Allegiance

[428] SPEAKER_16: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

1.3 Roll Call

[450] Jodi Croce: Thank you. Student Member Torres? Here. Member Nguyen? Here. Member Jones? Here. Vice President Hill? Here. President Thomas? Here. Thank you.

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

2.1 Approval of the Agenda

[462] Nancy Thomas: I move to accept a motion to approve the agenda.

[468] Jodi Croce: I move to approve.

[469] Aiden Hill: I second.

[472] Nancy Thomas: Member Nguyen moves to approve, and then Member Hill seconds that we approve the agenda. Please hold.

[481] Jodi Croce: Student member Torres, how do you vote?

[482] Diego Torres: Yes.

[490] Jodi Croce: Thank you. Five ayes.

3. OPEN SESSION

3.1 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[491] Nancy Thomas: Next up, do we have any trouble with comments on agenda items?

[507] Jodi Croce: There were none.

4. OLD BUSINESS

4.1 Superintendent Search Process

[511] Nancy Thomas: Seeing none, we will go to our main purpose in this agenda, and that is the superintendent search process. Acting superintendent, Nicole.

[522] SPEAKER_28: Yes, we have leadership associates here this evening. So I'm going to immediately turn it over to them today, and they're going to start walking you through the process. If you don't mind introducing yourselves again for the public. Absolutely.

[536] SPEAKER_06: Eric Andrew, leadership associates. I've been with the firm 60 years.

[541] SPEAKER_16: Jackie Horsch, Leadership Associates, and I've been with the former firm, I think it's two and a half years.

[549] SPEAKER_06: So thank you guys so much for having us tonight. We're really excited, really excited to be here. This is one of the fun parts of the evening and for the process for us because we get a chance to hear from you in terms of what you would like to see in your next superintendent. We're going to walk through one of the documents and documents titled Board Initial Meeting Discussion. And we'll start there, and I'll just kind of walk you through this process, because this will help us with some of the logistical aspects of things. So for example, we'll review the entire process. We'll talk a little bit about who's going to be your board liaison. We'll talk about, and that basically means Sometimes a board has all five or four, in this case, four members or five members be a part of the process of communication. Other times, the board has a subcommittee, and they'll identify two board members who then will serve as the proxy for the board. Doesn't mean the entire board doesn't get everything, because they do. But if we're going to contact the board, typically, it's either all of the board members or a committee of two. So the board will have a chance to have that conversation tonight to determine which is the best way that works for the Newark board. We'll also talk about the executive assistant and some of the work that she's done. I know that Jody has already met with our executive assistant and they've had their initial meeting. So they're on board ready to go. And I think tomorrow we start to fire it up. Next, we'll ask you for your personal, excuse me, your emails. Because as we decided, we'll decide, even if you decide to go on the committee, there will be items and things that we want to make sure every board member gets. And so we want to be able to have your accurate email addresses for that purpose. Some cases we'll even ask you for your personal cell phone numbers, because sometimes we'll just say, hey, sending you an email on this particular topic, be looking for it, and so on. So we'd like to be sure we are. that you're available and that we're available to you and that we can have rapid responses. In addition to that, number five says we'll discuss the community input. This is a section where we want you not only to identify the groups that you typically would bring to the forums that we're going to be conducting in person here, But also looking at groups who in the past may have felt as though they've not had a voice at the table. So here's your chance to say, you know, we've been hearing this voice. We need to bring them to the community input sessions and make sure they have a scheduled time. Looking at that, we'll take a look at and the stakeholder information. We'll go over the list that we typically ask or provides a template, but it is only a template. Every community is different. There may be other groups, there will be other groups that you may decide this is an important group that we're going to be part of. Our group may have names and things on it that you may decide we don't have that in our community, so we can cross that one off. But we'll talk a little bit more about that. Going to number six, we'll talk about the final timeline. And so we'll discuss what we have as a perspective timeline, and then we'll work with the board to really finalize what will the time frame be, particularly for the community input meetings, looking at the deadline for the candidates to apply, looking at when we bring you the candidates in the two tiers that we've talked about earlier, which we say, here are all of the people who applied for your particular district. Here are the top tier who we believe meet the criteria that the board and community has identified as with the characteristics and the skills that they want to see in the next superintendent. We will bring every single applicant who submitted an application to you for your review. And in fact, you will get a copy of their information, their application and letters before we have this meeting. So you have a chance to do your homework on it, to get a sense of the candidates themselves. One of the things that will be a little different will be keeping in mind that although you will have an opportunity to look at the applications, the reference letters, and the other aspect of things, we will have done the reference checks So we're going to have additional information that you may not have privy to as you preview the documents themselves. We'll talk about publications, when it's going to go out to our publications that we use typically, and then we can talk about are there other places you want to have it published. You know, sometimes people want to have it in their local newspaper, for example, and some of those types of places. We'll talk a little bit about that. The closed session, we talked about earlier about the review. We'll have an interview date, and we'll decide how we want to run that interview. Oftentimes, depending on the number of candidates, we'll do it in one day. Sometimes, depending on the number of candidates, we may decide, you know, it may take us two days to do this one. And so we'll get a chance to have that conversation. We'll talk about what's called a validation visit. Sometimes the board, we decide that if there is a candidate who's local or even in Southern California, The board sometimes will say, you know what, we want to go to that site, talk to some people like their board, talk to their union reps, talk to their parent groups, and say, hey, tell us a little bit about this candidate. It helps validate that candidate themselves. And you'll do that. We'll talk about contract parameters. In the end, when we identify the four to six finalists or however many the board decides they want to interview, we're going to ask them to put together what's called a contract parameter sheet. And that contract parameter sheet will have, here's what they're asking prices, meaning their salary. Here are their health benefits they're asking for. Here are the vacation days and any other of those types of things, which will be important because as we move to number nine on that list, we're going to ask you for your current superintendent's contract, meaning the superintendent who just left, to get an idea of here are some typical things that the board has approved in the past. Doesn't mean you're going to approve them this time. In fact, we're going to talk much more deeply about what are the contract parameters that this board would like to see in the new contract for the superintendent. We'll also have questions of clarification. I don't understand this aspect of the search, or can you give us more details, and so on. So this is just an overview, and then we'll finish the open session with the three questions or prompts that we ask every single group that we're going to be interviewing. What are the characteristics you want to see in your next superintendent? What are the strengths of this district? What do you want to brag about? This is your chance to brag about here are some great things that are going on in Newark because we want to be able to tell candidates that, hey, by the way, did you know this is happening in Newark? And so this is your chance to brag. And then we'll follow that up. What are some of the challenges and things that you see as a board that the district is facing along the way? Every group that we talk to, we're going to ask the same three questions. Doesn't matter if it's a teacher's union, parent, groups, civic leaders, et cetera, students, we ask the same three questions. We take that information, and we look for trends. And through those trends, we say, OK, here are the trends that a lot of the groups or most of the groups have identified that are the characteristics they want to see. Here are the personal characteristics, the leadership characteristics, and the overall characteristics that This community wants to see the next superintendent. So we want to be able to do that. We'll bring that to you as a executive summary, as well as in a final document that we will have what's called a position description. And that's what we'll be putting out for candidates to apply towards. Because we always tell candidates, you want to know what the districts want before you decide to apply, because you want to make sure your school's skill set is in line with what the district said that they wanted. By the way, I don't know about you, Jackie, but I've already had five candidates reach out to me about this particular position. And what's cool about that is, and they've not seen the position description because we've not done it, obviously, is that I would say they were five pretty high caliber people. I would think, yeah, I could see, based on the characteristics that we come up with, that you probably could be a good fit for the district overall. But we tell them, wait until that position description comes out, because that is what you need to be writing to. That's what your cover letter should have. That's what your application should look like. That's what your resume should look like. And then we do the background checks to get a better sense of who these people are. Some of the five we'll look at and think, yeah, you're pretty strong in a lot of places. Not quite what Newark is looking for. And that's OK. That's OK for us to say that, because every district is unique. We want to make sure we find people who meet with the board and your communities as they want to see. So that's kind of a quick run through of what's going on, what we'll be talking about tonight. Should take about between an hour and a half to two hours to do that. Then we'll adjourn to closed session. And during that closed session, we'll talk a little bit more about some of the specifics of the search that are much more confidential that we want to go over with the board. So I've taken the liberty to take a look at some of them. So we've done number one, kind of discussed the overview, et cetera. Number two, the board designation liaison or subcommittee or the full board, how would you like for us to communicate with you? And this is for you guys to have that conversation.

[1147] Kat Jones: My preference would be all four of us being communicated with.

[1155] Aiden Hill: I would agree.

[1158] Nancy Thomas: I agree as well.

[1159] SPEAKER_06: OK. So it sounds like. And Board Member Nguyen, you said yes as well. OK. Yes. Good. So we'll make sure we contact all of you. Any communications that go out, it'll go out to every one of you. We'll make sure that we are cognizant of the Brown Act. And so it's one way, typically. We're not going to ask you to respond back to us. We're going to basically say, here's information for you. If there is a situation we want you to respond, we'll tell you, you'll respond to us at this particular meeting in public. So that's how that will roll. Looking at number three, the executive, Jody, has been identified by the district as our liaison. And so she'll be sending out information to you that we'll send to her. She will be working with our admin from our firm to put things on the website, to update the website, to any changes that need to go out in terms of publications and so on. She will be a part of that process. Yes, sir.

[1220] Aiden Hill: And one of the things that you mentioned in your sales presentation was that one differentiator for leadership associates is that you are providing dedicated administrative support. And I would say that given that we are going through a transition right now, that we could really use that. And I'm sure that Ms. Croce would eagerly accept as much help as I don't want to speak for you, but my intent is to not try to put more on her shoulders and to try to the degree that you can take things off of her plate. I think it would be appreciated by everybody.

[1257] SPEAKER_06: Thank you for saying that out loud. We've actually had a conversation with Jodi this evening about that. And we've been very clear, and she's been very clear in working with our admin about the help that she's going to need. Because we recognize, too, her position, as you said, in terms of having to cover this and her day job as well.

[1279] SPEAKER_16: And she's already mentioned to us that she had a great conversation with Penny, that Penny's been very helpful so far. I think the ball is already rolling.

[1289] SPEAKER_06: But thank you for saying that publicly. That's important.

[1293] Nancy Thomas: I have a question or comment. There may be things that you would like to know. Is it OK if you ask a superintendent, our interim superintendent, any questions? I mean, I don't want to. have you just only communicate with us if there's something that he can probably better answer?

[1320] SPEAKER_06: In most cases, we will keep him out of it. However, there are going to be times in which we're going to say to him, we need their responses. I'm going to send them this email. I need you to really do a check to make sure that it's coming back. So we'll do a lot of that for sure.

[1339] Phuong Nguyen: OK. So I think he's just in for the coordination with the board.

[1344] SPEAKER_06: leadership associates. Exactly. So he'll help. And that's what he's done so far. He'll help coordinate. But in terms of the specifics of the search itself and those details, we'll keep him out of it.

[1353] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah. OK. The searches are the responsibility of the report. It's ours.

[1357] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, I understand that. Yeah.

[1360] SPEAKER_06: Absolutely. OK. And so we are going to task Jody with giving us your emails. So since she probably has them.

[1372] SPEAKER_16: And if you prefer that we contact you with a personal email rather than your district email, just let Jody know. Sometimes board members prefer that. So whatever your preference is.

[1386] SPEAKER_06: And also let us, you can talk with her in terms of how comfortable you are with us having your cell phone numbers. Because we will also give you our cell phone numbers back and forth. But not everyone's comfortable with that. So we respect that. And if that's the case, we're asking you for both. And if you say no, you say no. No worries. Let's take a quick look at the next document, which is the stakeholder group. It says input sessions, sample groups. These are the groups, and just kind of scroll through, that we typically have focus groups with during the process.

[1441] SPEAKER_16: And some of these groups aren't necessarily standalone the way that they are here. So for example, if you look at number four, it's leadership team. Well, if principals are part of your leadership team, how you define it, then those groups would meet together.

[1458] SPEAKER_06: And that's where we would probably talk to, for example, your interim. Just say, OK, what are the groups, your leadership groups, what do they look like? Because he would know that we have a leadership team, and it's consistent of principals, directors, coordinators, et cetera, et cetera. And that would be his input to that. But overall, we would like for the board, we're going to give this to you. You don't have to finish this tonight. However, we do want you to finish it pretty soon. We'll talk more about it in closed session. But we do need this back, because at some point, we're going to be scheduling the groups, particularly the groups that we know you're going to talk to. We know you're going to talk to the teachers. We know you're going to talk to parents. We know you're going to talk to some community. We know we're going to talk to students. We know we're going to talk to classified employees. And so those, we can kind of get rolling. and get them scheduled because we want to make sure that they have some priority in terms of the slots that are available. The other thing that we will do is if there are more groups than slots, we figure out how we're going to do it. And so if it takes us extra time to come the next day, or in some cases, some of your city officials, if you choose to bring the city officials, they often like virtual because it works better for them versus coming to your district, et cetera. So we'll keep that in mind as well, because we want to make sure that if you say you want us to talk to this person or this group of people, we want to make sure we provide the time, even if it's not necessarily during that particular window, to reach out to them. Yes.

[1557] Phuong Nguyen: So I know that the list can be extensive, but is it possible to just group them? you know, into groups. I think last time when we did the last search, we had a stakeholder group that included every, like a couple of people from these categories. Yes. So I figured that would be more useful of your time.

[1581] SPEAKER_16: Right, exactly. So for example, sometimes school site council reps get combined with parent committee leaders, get combined with PTSA or PTA, you know, So putting those groupings together gives you the economy of efficiency.

[1601] SPEAKER_06: Thank you for that.

[1603] Nancy Thomas: I think the former mayor would be a good person to talk with. He was mayor for 18 years and on the council for 30 or 40.

[1616] SPEAKER_06: Excellent. Are there other groups who aren't here that you can think of off the top of your head? that you'd like for us to make sure we reach out to?

[1625] Aiden Hill: Yes. In our district, particularly in terms of people who are attending our school, we have a large Latino community. And I think that we want to make sure that they're properly represented. And again, that could be a combination of parents and students, but maybe also other stakeholders But then the other thing, and this might be a little bit trickier, but one of the challenges that we face in our district is declining enrollment like in many districts. And is there a way to reach out to, and maybe we can brainstorm this with you and talk about it, but to identify the people that aren't a part of the system right now and a part of the discussion to get them involved and to get their input because maybe based on you know, their participation, and if someone's selected that, again, they feel good about, that maybe we can turn around some of these enrollment challenges.

[1690] SPEAKER_06: Absolutely. And one of the ways that we do that is through the online survey. We get a list from you guys that say, OK, we want to put a blast out to all of these people to say, there's an online survey in which you can respond to the same three prompts. And that group could be listed as one of the outreach groups that we put out there. In addition to that, what we find, and we'll talk a little bit in a few seconds about the online survey, it's a great tool that we use to get even more input. An example, sometimes you'll have a teacher who's going to fill out those three prompts from a teacher's perspective. But I'm also a parent. And I may want totally different characteristics for my superintendent for my kid's school. And so sometimes there will be two or three categories in which they'll get a chance to respond. Sometimes as a school board member, you're a school board member. But if I'm just a citizen, a community member here, there's some other things I may want to look at that I want our superintendent to be able to do. So it's an opportunity for people not only to attend community forums, and also the focus groups, but also the online survey. And that's really where we get a lot of rich information. Because even in settings where we have groups, sometimes people aren't comfortable speaking in that group.

[1782] Phuong Nguyen: Correct. And also, I just, following up on Member Hill's comment, I just wanted to be mindful that we have translation during the focus group.

[1798] SPEAKER_06: That was the next thing I was going to ask you. Because even on the online survey, we want to make sure that what languages do you want. And we will tell you that here are the languages that we have available for the online survey. And then if there are other languages that you want that we don't have, then we'll talk with you about it. OK, are there some systems that you already have in place that do an outreach and so on? We're looking at interpretation in person, interpreters in person, as well as taking the online survey and saying, OK, we know we want English. We know we want Spanish. Are there other languages that we would like to use? In fact, let's have that conversation now. Those are two primary languages that we

[1842] Phuong Nguyen: Those are currently the two primary languages, but I do believe there's additional languages in the district, but I don't know the percentage.

[1850] SPEAKER_06: Percentages? OK. And so maybe we can have a conversation with the district to get a sense of, OK, there seems to be a significant number of this particular language. Maybe we should do an extra outreach to do that. So we'll do that for sure.

[1865] Nancy Thomas: Getting back to what Member Hill said, I think we need to capture three organizations, Avanzando, promotors, and parent partners. There are three organizations, I think, that should be included in groups that you reach out to.

[1887] SPEAKER_06: Can we ask Nicole to take those names down and maybe give us that contact information? The other thing I always ask as well is, are there faith-based organizations that could be helpful? And I often look at the churches where and for guidance to say that, hey, in churches, depending on the languages, et cetera, there's another place where we can get the word out that we're doing this and that people have a voice in the process as well. Yes.

[1918] Aiden Hill: And then one last question. I'm sure it varies depending on the district, but do you have some best practices around community engagement? And what are really key things that make that successful? And again, I would suggest that we maybe think about following those if they're proven. But what's your viewpoint on that?

[1941] SPEAKER_06: There are certain opportunities for us to go to some of the places.

[1948] Mark Triplett: In person?

[1949] SPEAKER_06: In person. Because what we tend to do is bring everybody to the school site. And I think school districts have a tendency to do that, to say, we're going to have a meeting here. Please come. And oftentimes, there are other places that would be much more comfortable. We've done them in churches. We've done them in community centers, in a neighborhood, because that's where people are going to come. So those are types of things that have been our best practices, being able to get the voices heard from people who have not necessarily been heard because they're not comfortable coming to the school site.

[1984] SPEAKER_16: And also I think one of the things that we found most recently is one of the unintended consequences of the pandemic is that there are a lot of groups that are much more willing to participate if they can do it with their bunny slippers on at home. So we have found Zoom to be just extraordinary in terms of being able to, I mean, we have had more responses from teachers employee groups when they're able to go home, take care of their kids, get their kids fed, and then, you know, join us on a Zoom. So I think that's another, you know, really positive way that's evolved over the time.

[2024] SPEAKER_06: Another thing is we were here last time, and there was a group meeting right over there. And so that group will be a group I would say, hey, they're here. They're accustomed to coming here, et cetera. So in some cases, we may say, you know, they meet on the third blah, blah, blah. Can we just slide in and have a conversation with them? Because they're here. They're accustomed to being here. And so that's another way of having outreach that's really meaningful, that you're really talking to people where they are and where they're most comfortable. And we talked briefly to the head person of that group. And so they trust her. And so they would come and listen and participate if that person is involved in the process. So that's another way we do it.

[2075] SPEAKER_16: So do we need to check with, are there any other particular groups that you want other than the ones, so, you know, when we look at some of the, you know, like the Rotary and things like that, are there any groups that are especially partnering with the school district that we want to make sure that we meet?

[2097] Nancy Thomas: I would say Optimist Club and Rotary are two very important organizations.

[2104] SPEAKER_06: And I would like to ask, if you guys are OK, a student board member, are there groups at the schools that we need to reach out to?

[2114] Diego Torres: There's definitely a couple of clubs that you can reach out to. One of the big clubs on our campus that's a very diverse club is Puente.

[2124] SPEAKER_06: which it would be a good club to talk to. Good, good, good. Thank you so much for that.

[2128] Diego Torres: And I have a question. How long do these meetings usually last for? And what happens to them?

[2133] SPEAKER_06: OK. So basically, let's just say you're going to experience it tonight. You're literally going to experience it tonight at the end. And typically, they take about 30 minutes because we want to, first of all, get to know who's in the room, who we are, what we're going to be doing, what we're going to be doing with this information because it's important in some cases that the groups or the individuals want to be anonymous. And so they want to feel safe to be able to say, here's what I want to say, but I don't want to tie it back to me because there are going to be situations where it's obvious who it comes from because, oh, I can tell this is the teachers union. This is going to come from this group. This is why we put it, look for trends to say, so they're not a lot of outliers. Doesn't mean you don't get that information. It just means that here are what the majority of your community says, and it doesn't matter where they fall, classified, to certificated, to parent, to student, that they all said they want these qualities.

[2195] Phuong Nguyen: So you'll be asking the group the same three questions?

[2199] SPEAKER_06: Yes. Every group gets the same three questions.

[2204] Aiden Hill: And just as a follow-up, because you were asking what are key organizations that you should reach out to. And you already sort of mentioned it, but just to emphasize it, our teachers, right, NTA, really, really critical. I mean, not only because they're teachers, but also because one of our initiatives is to try to improve recruitment and retention. And so we really want to get their insights into that. And so that's one thing I wanted to comment on. And then the second was a question, because I was looking at your timeline on a different document. What's your sense of how long it's going to take for you to meet with these different groups and to come together with some feedback and maybe sort of a profile?

[2250] SPEAKER_06: So our plan is, taking a look at the online survey, that will go from March 7th. Yes, you heard me, tomorrow. And Jody's ready, or will be. We've already had some conversations with her. And it'll go to the 17th. So we'll start getting feedback there. In addition to that, it's going to be on the 9th. It will go in our EDCAL. It's an online. This is to all our administrators and people who subscribe to EDCAL, which is basically our publication that most administrators use. It'll go out on the 9th. on their online platform. It will be in their physical document on March 6th. So it's going to be out there. Once that's done, March 13th, I'm sorry. March 13th is when we're going to do the input sessions. So we'll be here for the 13th.

[2305] Aiden Hill: So next week. Yep.

[2307] SPEAKER_06: Yep. Yep. We'll start next week. And then approximately once we have completed the online survey, We've completed the focus group sessions. Approximately 10 to 14 days, we're going to give you a document that says here's what we've come up with. Here are the characteristics. Here are the trends that the people in our district said they want to see. Here are the district's strengths based upon that same group of people. Here are the challenges that they see as well. And so we'll give you a profile about 15, 10, and 14 days after The 17th we'll give you that document and we'll we'll present it to you We'll have and you'll get a chance to Comment etc about that and and before we and then at that same time We'll commit we'll put together what's called the professional profile, which is a document that the applicants will start to write to Now, before we send out the precision profile, we're going to send it to the whole board to say, here's a draft of what we saw. Give us your feedback. Because we will not put anything out of that sort without having your approval.

[2388] Phuong Nguyen: So based on the timeline, you'll be presenting to us on March 16, because that's the next board meeting that we have. Before.

[2399] SPEAKER_06: For which one?

[2401] Phuong Nguyen: Before the deadline for applications, because you said you'll present to us before.

[2408] Carina Plancarte: Yes.

[2408] Phuong Nguyen: OK. So that is our next open board meeting.

[2412] SPEAKER_06: Let me tell you what's most likely going to happen, because you're, it's the application review six. I'm looking at intercession. So I'm going to say it's probably going to be a little later than that.

[2424] Jodi Croce: OK.

[2424] SPEAKER_06: A little later than that. because the applications are due on the 17th. So somewhere in that vicinity, once the online survey is done, we're going to, even almost before, because we'll start getting trends early, it'll be very clear where people are. We'll start putting things out to you and we'll start sending things out. In addition to that, what we'll do is about every other Friday, we'll send you an update to say, at this point we have 340 responses from the online survey. We've got 22 people who've requested applications. We have six who've submitted applications and we'll keep you informed from that as well. It is a tight timeline.

[2475] Aiden Hill: And just to be clear, so you're going to go out, as you say, and do a blast, reach out to a bunch of different communities, stakeholders, get a variety of input. You're going to compile it into some findings. You're then going to bring that to the board. And then you're going to work with the board to then basically put that into a profile, to compile that into something that would then be used to then advertise with, out to the candidates?

[2507] SPEAKER_06: We'll actually already have a draft of that profile. So once we send you the trends, et cetera, we're also going to give you a draft profile to send to you.

[2515] Aiden Hill: Right. But then the board will ultimately look at that and then say, you know, provide input and then it'll get finalized. Correct. OK, great. Thank you.

[2525] Phuong Nguyen: Sorry, I'm still having issues with the timeline because if deadlines for application is due March 17th, it doesn't give us a whole lot of time.

[2536] SPEAKER_16: Right. And actually what we try to do is this evening we're going to find out from you what you're looking for in your next superintendent as well as the strengths and the challenges. Monday the 13th we are going to the two of us are going to get that broad brush with your stakeholders. By that time, we will have a pretty good idea of what it is, and we will have the first results from the survey in as well. So while this may not be an absolutely complete profile, what we're able to do at that point, however, is we'll give you a draft. You can look and see, does this resonate with the kinds of things that you, you know, had expected to see? And then we're also able to use that information when we're talking to candidates because just as Eric said, people are already contacting us. You know, they want to know what you're looking for. So we use the preliminary results as, you know, kind of like a baseline for us to try to explain to them. Probably the most important thing about this profile is that when you're making your questions up for what you're looking for in the candidate, You want to make sure that you're hitting all of those areas that the community as well as you yourselves have said that you want to see in that next candidate. So it's kind of a multi-purpose tool. It's not like in the corporate sector where, you know, there's a very legal prescriptive thing that you have to have in the position description. This is more something that, you know, gives everyone an opportunity to have a voice in what you're looking for and also it's a tool that we can use as we talk to the candidates and that you can use as you're screening the candidates to see which candidates meet what the community as well as you are looking for.

[2653] SPEAKER_06: And so to your point, yes, somewhere around the 16th we will have something for you.

[2657] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Yes. Well, I mean, I'm assuming it's going to be earlier because by then you guys already have, you mean you guys already, you guys have already started the recruitment process without having a complete profile for us to approve on the 16th.

[2675] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it will be. You'll get it earlier.

[2679] Aiden Hill: And maybe building on Member Nguyen's point, and correct me if I'm wrong. It sounds like what you're saying is that this evening you're going to have these discussions with the board. Correct. And put together our thoughts on what the profile might be and the different requirements and characteristics, et cetera. And that that will probably serve as kind of the initial high level summary that then goes and gets sent out. on the 16th and 17th, but then the subsequent meetings that you have with a lot of other stakeholder groups, that's going to then be filling in a lot of the blanks and the white space, and maybe that won't affect the actual advertisement that's going out, but it is going to affect as we have candidates come in and we do screening, and now we're going to apply all of that to the screening. So is that a correct interpretation? Absolutely.

[2740] Phuong Nguyen: So my only issue with that is that while we are applying what our stakeholders are, you know, giving us in feedback as input, we aren't really taking their consideration in terms of like what the characteristics they would like in a profile for the superintendent. So that's my only issue.

[2762] SPEAKER_06: Sure. And that will, on the 13th, we'll have a lot of that. On the 13th, because that's when we're actually meeting with almost everyone. So at that particular point, we'll be able to take a look at what the board says today and what the community says on the 16th. On the 13th. On the 13th, I mean. And so we'll have a pretty decent idea at that point. Because we're going to get somewhere in the vicinity of 300 to 500 people who are going to respond during that period of time.

[2790] SPEAKER_16: And the initial survey as well. Right.

[2797] SPEAKER_06: Questions, thoughts, comments? Good? OK. Thank you. You're very welcome.

[2806] SPEAKER_06: Let me go back to this document. So we were taking a look down at, let's look at number, yeah. I'm looking at the candidate review. I think we talked a little bit about that. You're going to get a portal for that. Candidate review is scheduled for April 5th. So check your calendars to make sure that that would work for you. And that's where we're going to go over all of the applicants. In addition to that, somewhere around April 3rd, we're going to send you the applications. And we're going to have them tiered for you. So you have an idea of here's who we consider your tier one. Here are the ones we consider your tier two. Here are the ones we consider tier threes. Tier ones pretty closely meet the criteria that the board and the community said they wanted to see. Tier two, there may be something missing. They're close. And then we'll have conversations whether or not we want to move them up. And then tier three we're looking at to say, no, we just do not feel that that group truly meets the criteria for a variety of reasons along the way. Questions, thoughts about that process? Yeah.

[2899] SPEAKER_16: Do we know on that day what time you'd be looking at? Because it is a midweek. It's a Wednesday, the 5th, and it'll take how many hours? At least two and a half? About two and a half hours.

[2913] Aiden Hill: Talking about the fifth? The fifth, yes.

[2919] SPEAKER_24: Mike?

[2919] SPEAKER_06: If it's the following week, we just have a spring break.

[2923] SPEAKER_16: Right. Is that your spring break week? No, the following week. The following week. The spring break week is the following week.

[2930] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, we take that into account. That's why we're, it's kind of compressed because we're looking at that week.

[2937] SPEAKER_16: Will that work for all of you, that Wednesday? Is there a time that's best for everyone?

[2946] Kat Jones: We're looking at you, because the schedule's the most tight. Would that work for all of you, 5 o'clock? OK. All right.

[2952] SPEAKER_16: It's 5 o'clock. It's a Wednesday, right? Yes. We want to start at 6 o'clock.

[2969] Aiden Hill: Yeah, let's do that. Six? OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to do a Cupertino.

[2976] SPEAKER_15: OK, perfect. I can make six. OK, good. And we'll make sure there's food here. No worries. Jody, did you hear that?

[2990] SPEAKER_06: OK, next we have the day of the interview. And so we're looking at the 29th. of April? All day? Say more.

[3010] Aiden Hill: I'm going to be in Sacramento.

[3013] SPEAKER_06: OK.

[3014] Aiden Hill: For future business leaders of America.

[3017] SPEAKER_06: All right. Nice. What does the 15th look like? April 15. April 15.

[3024] Phuong Nguyen: I'm going to be in Hawaii.

[3030] Penny DeLeon: OK.

[3032] Phuong Nguyen: But I can be on Zoom, if that's OK. If that works for everyone, I can be on Zoom.

[3044] SPEAKER_16: When are you back from Hawaii?

[3045] Phuong Nguyen: I'm not back until the 19th. So the 22nd is OK, too. But since you guys are looking at weekends to do that.

[3062] SPEAKER_16: You can do the 22nd?

[3064] SPEAKER_06: What's your schedule say? I probably could do it. I am going to be in France on the 22nd. I'm so sorry. I know. I know. However, Jackie can do it. That's not an issue.

[3080] SPEAKER_16: Would the 22nd work for everyone?

[3083] Phuong Nguyen: I think I'm joining him in France.

[3088] Richelle Piechowski: I'm changing my trip.

[3092] SPEAKER_06: OK, let's do the 22nd.

[3093] SPEAKER_16: Does the 22nd work? OK. And it would be probably, oh, I'm sorry, Kate.

[3098] Kat Jones: No, I walked out without my phone, but I will make it work. It's not my fault for doing that. I had it on a charger thinking I needed it, and then I spaced.

[3110] SPEAKER_16: And we usually start around 8 o'clock in the morning. Is that OK?

[3114] Nancy Thomas: That's fine. Sounds good to me.

[3120] Kat Jones: So that's April 22nd. Second. Until 22nd? Right.

[3126] SPEAKER_06: And we'll talk more about the validation visit on that particular date, because depending on where the candidate defines what's coming from, you'll determine whether or not that's necessary. And then typically, the contract is set up for the start July 1st. You'll have to ratify it in an open session, depending on the candidate themselves. prior to that in a regularly scheduled board meeting. So you can look anytime after the 22nd and or if you decide to do a validation visit anytime after that. But we'll talk more about that at the candidate review meeting. Questions, thoughts?

[3174] Kat Jones: Does it need to be either May 4th or June 1st? Because we do have a meeting in between there. On, I believe it's May 18th, let's see, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

[3189] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it is May 18th, because I remember looking that up. So the May 18th would be fine. Would be another option. OK. Yeah, as long as it's a regularly scheduled board meeting, it's fine. OK.

[3222] SPEAKER_15: It's Delilah's birthday party.

[3227] Nancy Thomas: Wait, on the 22nd?

[3229] Kat Jones: OK. No, no, no.

[3239] SPEAKER_06: Family first. Absolutely. , no, no. We're not doing that. Family first. Always. That's right. OK, let's come up with another date.

[3247] SPEAKER_16: Another date, then.

[3250] SPEAKER_06: Don't be. 23rd. It's a Sunday. 23rd?

[3256] SPEAKER_16: 23rd works for me. 23rd works for me.

[3260] Nancy Thomas: Well, how about the 16th, if we're going to go to a Sunday?

[3263] Phuong Nguyen: She's in Hawaii. I'm in Hawaii, but. Oh, oh, OK.

[3268] SPEAKER_06: No, let's go to 23rd. That works for everyone? 23rd? That's fine. Thanks, Nicole. All righty. Questions and thoughts so far before we move you into We'll talk a little bit more about the contract parameters. We are going to ask for the current superintendent or the former superintendent's contract. So that gives us, as I said, just some general ideas itself along the way. But does the board have any ideas in terms of contract parameters? And we're basically always looking for salary. We just want to be able to have a range. And this is for the board to have those conversations.

[3324] Nancy Thomas: Right now? Yes. I mean, I feel we have to increase the salary over what our current superintendent is making. Because if you look at a scattergram of the size of the district and where our superintendent now lands, it's low. So that's my general thought.

[3356] Aiden Hill: And maybe you can provide some guidance on that, because you probably know. different districts, et cetera, and benchmarks around salary. But I think that, as you're indicating, the first thing they're going to pay attention to is going to be the salary. I don't know if there are certain benefits that need to be advertised either. But I suspect, though, that from a contractual perspective, that we would want to have our lawyer take a look at this and make sure that we've got a really strong contract going forward, going into that.

[3390] SPEAKER_06: So yes, and in fact, and to your point that we will encourage both parties, meaning the candidate and the district to get legal involved because you want to make sure you have a contract that stands up to the scrutiny of any aspects of it that you want to make sure that are included. and that, but most candidates are going to look at salary. In terms of the benefits, most will tell you that they want the same benefits as the rest of the management team that gets and so on. Talking about workdays, it varies. But they're going to look at your former superintendent's contract to say, well, it appears the board approved this many workdays or a positive work year, so I'm OK with that. There are going to be conversations about whether or not phone allowances, car allowances, and some of those types of things. But they're going to look at their old contract Well, they didn't allow for it, but it is negotiations, so they may throw some things in there that you may not have had. But the number one thing is salary and what that range is going to be. You can take a look at the former superintendent's current salary and say, OK, here's our baseline, but we don't want to go any higher than this. And that's basically what we look for. We look for a range. We don't look for a specific number, because that's part of your negotiations. And it also has to do with the experience of the candidate. Correct. So if the candidate is a first time superintendent, that's one salary. If they're coming from a district where they've been a superintendent for five years and have that experience, et cetera, that may be another salary point.

[3489] Kat Jones: Yeah. That makes the most sense to me. Yeah.

[3494] Aiden Hill: And then I think you mentioned before that we are in the season, right? Although we're maybe a little bit late, but we're still in the season. But obviously, as I think Member Nguyen is alluding to, we're going at a pretty fast clip. Yes. And I guess kind of the question, that's where we really need to rely on some best practices. And obviously, there are certain things that we want, but also there's things that a potential superintendent wants. And so, you know, so some of it involves marketing and based on sort of your experience and what you're seeing going on right now, are there certain things that we should be paying attention to that would incentivize good candidates to be coming to us?

[3540] SPEAKER_06: Salary, salary, salary.

[3542] SPEAKER_28: Okay.

[3543] SPEAKER_06: It's always salary and it's based on a number of things. One, cost of living. One, retirement. Those are the things. They're all going to look at the salary. and say, I can't afford because I'm making more than that now in my current position, or yes, this is in my range.

[3565] Nancy Thomas: Another consideration, I think, is that it's a lot easier, I think, to start at a good salary because it's difficult to grow a superintendent's salary after he's hired because he'll always be compared to what are you giving the unions, what are you giving the other management teams. So that's another reason I think to really look at how much we can afford and stretch it if we have to, if we can.

[3597] SPEAKER_16: And you know, another thing is you're going to have to be taking a look at your neighboring districts, those people that you're going to be competing with. What is their entry level salary, for example, and making sure that you're not too far below that because Usually people have, you know, kind of like a circle in terms of distance of where they live, where they might want to, unless you get somebody who's from out of the area. But even so, you're still competing with all of those districts that are your neighbors. So you have to make sure that you're competitive.

[3630] SPEAKER_06: So my suggestion is to take a look at your current, your former superintendent's contract, and then for the board to meet again to talk about here's where we think we will land. We don't need that tonight. But we do need to have it fairly soon to be able to say to candidates who are coming from various places, the salary is competitive. And that's what we write. We basically say the salary is competitive in our advertisement. We don't put a number. However, we need to know that that number is so that if they're coming from a place where they're making significantly more or significantly less, we can let them know that you price yourself out of this particular position, which is realistic. So something to keep in mind. Other thoughts and so on regarding the process itself?

[3685] Jodi Croce: No.

[3689] SPEAKER_06: This is an aggressive timeline. And it's intentional because we wanted to make sure that we can get the best candidates in the height of the season. And so for us, some of the timelines to your point, we would have stretched it out further. We absolutely would have. But we can't. Because we feel like we're getting calls now, we're getting calls from people who are looking at multiple districts. And we want to be able to say, no, this is the one we think is a great match for you based on what we're going to hear from you guys tonight initially.

[3731] Nancy Thomas: I'm really heartened that you've already had folks asking about us.

[3735] SPEAKER_06: And I'm telling you, quality people.

[3738] SPEAKER_16: I just got a text today. I haven't even opened it.

[3741] SPEAKER_06: Yeah. Quality people, people who we would say, even if they didn't meet what you said you wanted, they're still quality people. They're people who we would look at and say, yeah, you're ready, or you're a current superintendent, and so on. So that's really good that they're asking specifically about this particular district. That's great.

[3760] Nancy Thomas: They must be looking for a challenge too.

[3763] SPEAKER_06: They have confidence in you and themselves and the district.

[3768] Aiden Hill: And is there a way that you can somehow advertise out within our community, and I don't know whether it's just simply putting it on our web page or something like that, your contact information, because, you know, you never know. There could be people within our district that know somebody else that would be great. Could be the former mayor maybe knows somebody. Could be a variety of people. And so, and we want to try to drive as many people, you know, to you as possible. 100 percent. Absolutely. Okay. And so is the best way to do that, to put it out, put your contact information on the website? Yep. Okay. Exactly. Great.

[3804] SPEAKER_06: 100 percent.

[3807] SPEAKER_16: And another thing that we usually do when we finish the input sessions, we usually ask, are there any people that you know out there who might qualify and might be interested? And they give us names to contact. So that's always a good way to get some information, too.

[3825] SPEAKER_06: OK. It's showtime. We're going to ask you the three prompts, the first one being desired characteristics and qualities, experience you want to see in your next superintendent. We'll follow that up with strengths of the district and challenges as the third category. Keep in mind that it's fluid. So let's just say we're going to ask you, what are the characteristics you want to see? We've moved now from that to what are the strengths of the district? And you think, oh, I thought of another characteristic. Just say, hey, I thought of another characteristic. The second aspect of it is this. Sometimes a strength is a challenge, and a challenge is a strength. So it can be in both places, and that's OK. 100% OK. So we're just going to have you popcorn it out. So what are the characteristics and qualities you want to see in your next superintendent? Diego. Oh, pressure.

[3881] SPEAKER_15: He's prepared.

[3883] Diego Torres: I was probably on the spot there. It's OK. Characteristics. Okay, well, I had to think about this for a little, but I would definitely say that they have to understand our community, what we go through, and just know that there's ups and downs with our community. So whether that's attending the school events or not attending the school events, that's something that's important to me, seeing that they care about the community and they show up when things happen and when it matters the most. So that's something that I would look for. And I would also look for someone that's bilingual, too, because we are a heavily Spanish-speaking population.

[3920] Nancy Thomas: Great. Thanks. I think the superintendent needs to be collaborative, collegial, ethical. He needs to, or she, needs to encourage and grow their staff, needs to recruit competent staff members, needs to be transparent, have excellent, or communicate broadly and often. and not hold anything back. You know, talk about the challenges we face as well as the good things. Don't always try to paint a rosy picture if it's not rosy. But sell the district. So be positive about the district. Those are, I think that person needs to be skilled. You know, someone that knows, maybe has been involved in a superintendent's cabinet. So, has seen the trade-offs and discussions that take place between or among finance and among HR and ed services. You know, everyone has needs. How do you balance those needs? And to be part of conversations where they know the kind of issues and trade-offs that come with their department if they're moving from a department now and they're not a superintendent.

[4006] SPEAKER_06: that kind of thing.

[4022] Kat Jones: One of the things that I had on my list that she didn't mention was their longevity intent. Like wanting somebody who doesn't think of this as a two year stop off place. Somebody who's willing to that really wants to be here. They want to be here for the long term. You know not literally not using it as a puddle jumper. The other one that I was thinking about was having experience with the at least at a super assistant superintendent level. Like President Thomas said in having, oh gosh, I hate this, but working with the whole, with the cabinet. And then a really good listener, somebody who will really listen and hear what is being said and then be able to take that and succinctly turn around and guide. I don't think that that's a skill that everyone has. And it's something that I personally really value in someone is that they can really listen and then turn around and say, OK, let's do this, this, and this, willing to delegate, definitely willing to delegate, and understands how to plan and then delegate, and to be a part of that planning if they're working with cabinet. But then being able to release and delegate is important. And I will definitely go with the experience with the diverse community and potentially a Spanish bilingual. Important, but I wouldn't say it would be a deal breaker. But it would be great.

[4164] Aiden Hill: So one of the things that I've mentioned at the beginning to the board a few meetings ago was this book called Good to Great that initially was used in the corporate area. Jim Collins. Yeah, exactly. And now it's being explored in a lot of other areas, including education. And they've talked about what were the characteristics, and they've talked about the leaders. But one of the things that I think sticks out in my mind, and it's a little bit of an intangible, I think that there's a way to connect, to put data to it though, is they call it the Stockdale Paradox. But it's basically that you can confront reality and understand the challenges that you face, right? And you don't try to kill the lily, you don't try to dismiss the challenges that you face, But at the same time, you've got a vision for where you want to go. And I've used the analogy with the board, talking about going to the Super Bowl and giving the example of the 49ers in 1978, where they were the worst team in football. And nobody would go to their stadium in candlestick. And they were totally written off. But then Bill Walsh came in. And three years later, they were in the Super Bowl. And so I think that from my opinion, we want somebody who wakes up every day thinking about how can we make Newark a high-performing school district. And there's a lot of aspects to it, but particularly from an academic perspective, because the academic perspective drives everything else. It drives the enrollment. It drives the teacher retention. It drives the ability to get bond money, et cetera. And so it's somebody that has that competitive desire to say, we really need to improve educational outcomes. And I think how you can tie that and have it be more than just lip service is somebody who has some level of record of doing something like that.

[4298] Phuong Nguyen: All right. All right, I get the floor. So for the closer, I would, one of the characteristics or two of the characteristics that I would really want to look for somebody who's innovative and drives innovation and thinks outside the box. I don't, you know, I think it's nice to have people who have experience, but I also want someone to be able to create a new vision for the district and help guide us through into the next century, you know. But definitely, you know, like student board member said, I think the most important aspect of all of this is someone who truly understands our community and is also bilingual. That's a definite plus. someone who is collaborative and making sure that their leadership style is really caring for staff, making sure that, like Member Jones has said, growing staff to be able to improve on their own skill sets and also allow people to have some growth in their own journey and in the workplace. So I think that's really important that he is able or she is able to delegate responsibilities and trust staff to be able to do the work. So trust and respect also.

[4398] Sean Abruzzi: Other thoughts?

[4408] Diego Torres: Oh, I would just like to really emphasize the point that Member Jones made about doesn't think of this as a two-year job, because as a high schooler, every year there's always a new administration, and it's so hard to get used to a new person and another new person and getting to see how they work. And I want someone who actually wants to work here, not just someone who wants to put this on their resume for future jobs. I want someone who's dedicated to this job and sees this as an opportunity to grow this community.

[4437] Phuong Nguyen: But I also want to put that back on the board as well, because I do believe the last superintendent we had here really was committed to this community. And unfortunately, we're here in this search again, and we're moving forward. But we also have to be mindful of the fact that we make those decisions, too. So we're part of that decision making. So just, again, be mindful of that.

[4470] Kat Jones: I think one of the things also, getting back to what President Thomas said about communication, just over the years, in the 34 years I was in the district, seeing the difference between the communication of styles of different superintendents in terms of community communication, but also staff communication with all stakeholders in the district. But I think it's really important that they want to do that. They want to communicate with the community what's going on. A recap of important things that the board decided at a board meeting and putting that out there and letting people know so they're not wondering if they didn't watch the YouTube or they didn't attend the meeting. They're not wondering what's going on. They're getting that information. in another way and I I think that's truly important in it it also To me it represents the transparency of these are the things that are going on and we want you to know about it We're proud about this I'd like to see a superintendent that reaches out to the city and creates a partnership with the city I think we have a lot of opportunities to do that and so

[4553] Nancy Thomas: who joins the Rotary or the Optimist Club. And so he's involved with the community, shows up at community events, and really does forge that relationship with the community.

[4569] Kat Jones: And as a teacher, a love of kids. Somebody who really wants to be here for the kids. Because that's real. I mean, that's what it's all about. It is all about them. And so I need say no more.

[4587] SPEAKER_06: I'm going to shift you to, what are the strengths of a district? This is your chance to brag. Yeah, again, if you think of something that's a characteristic, just say it and we'll put it right back on the list. So what do you want to brag about?

[4603] Kat Jones: I like to brag that we are a very diverse community. We really are. I mean, when I think about the different populations, the different groups, and It's wonderful that we're so small, yet we are so diverse, and really celebrate that. The other thing that I think is really cool about our district is that so many of our employees live in town. So the community is the district, and the district is the community.

[4642] Aiden Hill: Kind of building on what Member Jones said, So some people see small maybe as not attractive, but in my opinion, I think it's one of our biggest selling points. So we're a self-contained district, and because of that, right, we can actually, the superintendent can have an enormous impact here. You know, going to LA Unified, forget about it, right? Even San Francisco, San Jose, way too big, way too many stakeholders. Very, very complicated to get stuff done. We can get stuff done here. We can build a vision, and we can accomplish it.

[4685] Phuong Nguyen: And to Member Hill's comment, we have been doing that the last two and a half years, despite the pandemic. We rolled out the STAR Academy, which I would love for the new superintendent to contribute to and collaborate and expand on. It's our STEM program that stems from the elementary school. with Makerspaces and to the junior high with coding and robotics. And then at the high school with more computer science, advanced AP classes and robotics and rocketry. What else? And also in joint collaboration with our media arts special programs at the high school. they've been doing that. And so I think that adds on to the STEAM part of it, right? So yes, I would like them to be able to build on that. And then obviously our environmental literacy and making sure that all the elementary school sites students are able to go to science camp and also have additional programming, life science programs in the area come in and continue to explore with the district. And then our DLI, Dual Language Immersion, and making sure that that is expanded. And hopefully, we'll be able to get it to other school sites, not just the one elementary school site that we currently have. Thank you.

[4775] SPEAKER_06: I will tell you, those programs you listed were one of the reasons why I did the search. Because I did a lot of that in the district while I was superintendent. And so I saw that, and I know the value of it. It really was a calling for me to say, ooh, they have these things. I'm really interested in this district.

[4794] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, especially since our academy, there's not that many school districts in the state that have it. So we're one of the 40-something percent that has it. The aeronautics portion of that was amazing, too.

[4809] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so it really was. It was the reason why I looked at this district and thought, Yeah, I want to see somebody who can really expand that, because that was my passion as a superintendent. Thank you.

[4821] Nancy Thomas: I think we have a very talented community. And I think we've been tapping into some of that talent. But I think we can do even more, because our parents are talented. They will volunteer. We have businesses in town. that are being involved in our STAR Lab and other activities. I think the more we can, it's a potential, it is a strength, but I think it's an area where we can even grow further.

[4857] Diego Torres: I'd like to say some of our strengths is that, well, especially Newark days, none of them mention that, where it really builds community. We have a parade outside, like, I think, I don't know what street we're on, actually, but it's around here, where, like, the high school, the elementary schools, a bunch of clubs, like, outside of the, like, in Newark, we'll parade around Newark, and then we, there's the carnival, too, and none of the Fremont schools have that, so they'll come, like, here, too, like, some of their bands will perform here, so it's really nice to see that, like, the community that we build around here, And it's so fun to see the elementary schools get dressed up. And Newark even did a float this year, the high school. And then at the high school as well, we have a lot of cultural clubs as well. So we have Puente, which is a really big club because it's a statewide program. And the Fremont schools don't have that. So we're the only school that has it in this area. Logan has it as well. And basically, it's a cool club because it's a program that gets students into a four-year university. So that's like the main goal of the club. So there's fundraisings and there's a lot of other things that go into that club, but that's the main goal. So it's a really cool club to have on this campus because I know not a lot of other schools have that on the campus. And next week, we actually have our multicultural week coming up. So that's always a fun week for me at the high school because it's so cool to see all the different cultures that we celebrate at the campus. They have dances. We celebrate the food, too. We hear from different speakers about the different cultures that they come from and the different aspects of their culture. So it's a really good opportunity for students to learn about other cultures. And so I think that's the biggest strength of Newark is just the community that we have here.

[4949] Nancy Thomas: Member Hill. Yeah, that's hats.

[4952] Aiden Hill: So one other advantage, and again, if we're marketing ourselves to a superintendent. So when dot com 1.0 happened, I believe that the Wall Street Journal wrote an article and they identified Newark as the geographic center of Silicon Valley. And we are. And I actually chose to live in Newark for that reason because my former profession was as a consultant. And so I wanted to be able to easily go and out to a lot of different communities. And so whether it's hop up to San Francisco, jump over to Pleasanton, go down south to San Jose. And not only is that nice from a lifestyle perspective, but if you think about the richness of the Bay Area, and if we want to start collaborating with other districts and other resources, it's much easier to do that if you're in the middle versus if you're at one end or the other.

[5011] Nancy Thomas: Another program is our athletic program. It's just far and above. And our athletic director was just named the athletic director of the year for the whole state of California.

[5023] SPEAKER_24: Oh, wow.

[5024] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, so I mean, we, huh? Of the state, what did I say? Right. Oh, OK. Anyway, so I mean, it's an amazing program. And how many students participate? It's hundreds, but I mean.

[5044] Diego Torres: Yeah, it's a lot, because we have a lot of sports on the campus.

[5047] Nancy Thomas: 30 or 40% of our students.

[5049] Diego Torres: Yeah, a good portion. And they also do a lot of community events, too. We have the Special Olympics, which we just had in February. Special Olympics. That was hosted on our campus. That was really cool to see. And then we also do the holiday gift-driving event, where community members that don't have presents, we will actually, the school will fundraise for them to make sure that they have a Christmas, which is a really cool event, too. So it's not just athletics. At our campus, it's the sport. But it's also the community, as well. We make sure to involve the community, as well. which is really cool.

[5078] Phuong Nguyen: We do have a large community here. I mean, well, we're small, but we have a large, generous community of parents who participate in those events and donate to those events.

[5095] Nancy Thomas: And of course, we have a lot of caring and highly qualified teachers and classified staff. and administrators.

[5109] Diego Torres: And what's nice about some of the teachers, too, is that they come through the Newark schools, they go to college, and then they teach right in Newark. So they really know the community by heart.

[5121] SPEAKER_06: Other thoughts? Being a teacher, normally kind of.

[5133] Phuong Nguyen: I think there's a lot of homegrown teachers in the district, and that's what student board member Torres was alluding to.

[5142] SPEAKER_06: How about the challenges?

[5147] Phuong Nguyen: Low enrollment. Yeah, the declining enrollment. Yeah, declining enrollment.

[5159] Aiden Hill: And again, as I mentioned earlier, this has been going on for a long period of time. We've had middling academic performance. And I think that we have the opportunity to improve it. It just means setting goals and going after them.

[5179] Kat Jones: We've had a large turnover in administrative staff, whether it's principal or at the district office, as well as teachers. But the administrative staff has also had a turnover. So the longevity of the DO staff in particular and principals is not as long as it has been in the past, which, you know, does make it a little more difficult because they don't have the history. But that's easily remedied through just conversations with people that have been around for a long time.

[5220] Nancy Thomas: I think one of the challenges is the fact that we tried several times to go for parcel taxes and bonds. We did have two bonds that were successful. But the last two times that we've tried to quiz the community They don't see us as strong. They don't see the district as they point out the district leadership. I don't know. Their opinions are such that we don't think we can get a successful bond pass. So we've got to find a way to have the community see some of the good things we've been talking about that the district is and does, so we don't have that kind of a survey result that we want to be able to go for a bond or a parcel tax. We need more, especially with declining enrollment, we really do need more resources.

[5297] Phuong Nguyen: Right, currently I think every district is facing this is teacher retention and turnover. So hiring qualified staff to be able to fill all of our classroom needs.

[5315] Kat Jones: I would also add that in the past we've had At least in my awareness, we've had better relationships with corporations in town and businesses in town, ones that could, you know, potentially, I remember when I was, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago, our school was paired up with one of the companies in town and that there were benefits to that. And I think that partnership has kind of fallen by the wayside. And it was a really good program. It was nice to be partnered up like that. And I'd love to see that happen again. But I'm not quite sure why that fell on the wayside.

[5366] Phuong Nguyen: And I think the last one is like really selling the district story, because we don't actively, you know, I mean, we've been trying to market the district and we're doing, we're in the process of doing that, but I think the challenge is that, you know, there's people who are parents, new families that are coming into Newark, they look at obviously the scores, the test scores, but they don't really understand where their child is going to be in, you know, or how they're going to be performing based on those scores, right? I was one of those parents when I first started in the district. I didn't understand, oh, my gosh, you know, I can't put them in that school because or that school site because the test scores are so low. But, you know, I had to go back and look at the test scores and say, hey, my child is going to do fine because you know, based on where they're going to fall, this is how they're going to be performing. Right. So that's a that's the other thing that I don't think that parents really understand why the scores are the way they are. And we need to do better. You know, we need to better educate parents who are coming into the district if they're wondering, you know, solely, you know, why are the schools underperforming? And that's not necessarily true. And I think that and if I had if I did that, I wouldn't have sent my kids to the district. And my kids thrived in elementary school and at the junior high and at the high school. So basically, we have successful stories in the district, but they just never get out because all of the negative narratives tend to rise above those positive ones. Overshadow. Overshadow, yes. That's a better word.

[5483] Nancy Thomas: If you look at other districts that have the same demographics that we do, they don't seem to have the negative input from the community that we sometimes see. In other words, parents seem a lot more happy and accepting, and the community seems a lot more happy and accepting in those school districts that are not scoring even as high as we are. So you have to say, how can we How can we reverse that?

[5519] SPEAKER_06: Any other characteristics you want to see? Any other strengths you want to brag about? Or any other challenges?

[5531] Kat Jones: I would say somebody that would have experience in helping to turn around that image from their position. and getting all those positive things that are going on out there and seen more than they are right now so that they aren't overshadowed because we do have some fabulous programs that are going on.

[5557] Aiden Hill: Member Hill. Going back to good to great, one of the things they talk about is they talk about level five leadership and one of the comments that they make is it's not the flashy you know, big name CEO that is the one that is, you know, accomplishing these results, oftentimes it's a lower key person. And they describe them oftentimes as kind of oddballs. And, but at the end of the day, they're committed to results, right? And I think that that's really what we need is somebody who's really committed to results.

[5598] SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you guys for this. We have quite the extensive list.

[5604] SPEAKER_16: And we'll find that unicorn for you. Good answer.

6. ADJOURNMENT

6.2 Adjournment

[5608] SPEAKER_06: Awesome. Good, good, good, good. So with that, if there are no more questions, we can move into closed session.

[5621] Nancy Thomas: We are leaving for closed sessions. Just a minute. Oh, we do have a public comment for closed session. OK, Mr. Knoop, Kerry Knoop.

[5638] Julienne Sumodobila: Thank you.

[5644] Cary Knoop: I learned that last time I should not speak too loud into the microphone because the decibel meter just goes past zero, and then it's all bad. Just one comment. I'm a little bit confused why you would need to go into closed session now. Because, of course, the Brown Act has a very limited scope of why you would want to go in closed session. Now, if you have already a potential candidate that you want to discuss, then, of course, closed session is good. But a sort of general discussion about, you know, I really want to talk about what I like to see the superintendent should be, but I don't want the public to hear it. Obviously, that's not the intent of closed sessions. So I suppose you could discuss some salary things that probably is within the bounds. But beyond that, I don't really see much to be that there is legally to be discussed in closed session. And then forgive me if I don't see it, and I would like to be educated. I am rather surprised that we're already going into closed session, because closed session for an hiring is typically about specific people that you then want to go talk about. So if you go into closed session, always remember it's not a sort of group discussion about the features of what you would like to see, because that really needs to be done in public session. Thank you. And you know this, OK?

[5745] Nancy Thomas: Good night. Yeah, thank you. OK, we will be going to closed session where we will discuss public employee appointment, appointment employment, and the title is superintendent. Thank you.

5. CLOSED SESSION (Closed Session)

5.1 Public Comment on Closed Session Items (Closed Session)

5.2 Recess to Closed Session (Closed Session)

5.3 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT/EMPLOYMENT (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1) Title: Superintendent (Closed Session)

6.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting (Not Found)

[421] 1. CALL TO ORDER

[421] 1.1 Meeting Practices and Information

[428] 1.2 Pledge of Allegiance

[450] 1.3 Roll Call

[462] 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

[462] 2.1 Approval of the Agenda

[491] 3. OPEN SESSION

[491] 3.1 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[511] 4. OLD BUSINESS

[511] 4.1 Superintendent Search Process

[5608] 6. ADJOURNMENT

[5608] 6.2 Adjournment

[99999] 5. CLOSED SESSION (Closed Session)

[99999] 5.1 Public Comment on Closed Session Items (Closed Session)

[99999] 5.2 Recess to Closed Session (Closed Session)

[99999] 5.3 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT/EMPLOYMENT (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1) Title: Superintendent (Closed Session)

[99999] 6.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting (Not Found)

1. CALL TO ORDER

Meeting Practices and Information

Type Procedural IN-PERSON MEETING INFORMATION:

NUSD has opened its boardroom for in-person meetings and will follow the State's and Alameda County's safety guidelines for public gatherings. Please refrain from attending in-person meetings if you have any of the following symptoms: Loss of taste/smell Difficulty breathing Vomiting Diarrhea Fever Cough Headache Sore Throat Runny Nose For additional COVID-19 information please go to https://www.newarkunified.org/covid-19 or https://www.acoe.org/guidance

OBSERVE THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING:

Members of the public may observe the meeting via the NUSD YouTube Channel, live transmission on Comcast Channel 26, or in-person at the NUSD Boardroom. Spanish translation will be available via Zoom.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items with a live audio-only comment via Zoom with advance notice requested by email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org, a written comment by submitting a speaking card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org, or with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker-card with the Executive Assistant.

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural

PURPOSE:

The Governance Team will recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call

Type Procedural TRUSTEES:

President Nancy Thomas Vice President/Clerk Aiden Hill Member Phuong Nguyen Member Katherine Jones Member Vacant

STUDENT BOARD MEMBER:

Diego Torres

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Approval of the Agenda

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting. Action

PURPOSE:

Members of the Governance Team may request that the agenda be amended or approved as presented.

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Aiden Hill.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Aiden Hill, Diego Torres, Katherine Jones, Nancy Thomas

3. OPEN SESSION

Public Comment on Agenda Items

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board. If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item, please fill out a virtual speaker card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org.

4. OLD BUSINESS

Superintendent Search Process

Type Discussion PURPOSE:

Meet with Leadership Associates search firm advisors to discuss the following:

1. Overview of search process
2. Board/search firm protocols during the search
3. Timeline for the search
4. Community and staff input sessions and online survey
5. Board input regarding desired qualities and characteristics of new superintendent

BACKGROUND:

On February 16, 2023 the Board reviewed proposals from three firms to assist in the selection of a Superintendent and selected Leadership Associates. The Board approved the contract with Leadership Associates on March 2, 2023.

File Attachments Newark - Board Initial Meeting Discussion Outline.pdf (119 KB) Newark - Proposed Timeline 02-27-23.pdf (228 KB) Input Sessions, Examples of Groups to Invite (plp).pdf (120 KB) Newark - Online Survey .pdf (119 KB)

5. CLOSED SESSION

Public Comment on Closed Session Items

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board. If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item, please fill out a virtual speaker card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org.

Recess to Closed Session

Type

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT/EMPLOYMENT (Gov. Code, � 54957, subd. (b) (1) Title: Superintendent

Type Discussion

This is a discussion item only, and there will be no report of closed session actions.

6. ADJOURNMENT

PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education extends the meeting to ____ P.M. Action

PURPOSE:

This is a placeholder, only to be used if the Board adds a motion and action to extend the meeting.

Adjournment

Type Action, Procedural

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education adjourns this meeting. Action PURPOSE:

No items will be considered after 10:00 p.m. unless it is determined by a majority of the Board to extend to a specific time.

This action will conclude the meeting.

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education adjourns this meeting.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Katherine Jones.

Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Aiden Hill, Katherine Jones, Nancy Thomas Not Present at Vote: Diego Torres

No minutes available.