Springfield School Board — April 20, 2026

5:11 Welcome everyone to the April 20th, 2026 Springfield Board of Education special meeting. It is 11:05. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Director Cole has been so gracious as to read our land acknowledgement. Hello, Ken, are you there? Yeah. Can you hear me? Great. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Yep.

5:56 We acknowledge that we are in the traditional homeland of the Kalapuya people, specifically the community that was known as Chifen, the area that we now call Springfield. Kalapuya people, who have lived in this region since time immemorial, were illegally dispossessed of their land and forcibly removed to what are now the Grand Ronde and Siletz reservations over several years, but most notably in treaties between 1851 and 1855. The Kalapuya are now members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and members of the Kalapuya still live, work, study, and thrive in this area and continue to make important contributions here in Springfield, across the land we now refer to as Oregon,

6:43 and around the globe. This information is shared out of a responsibility to prevent the erasure of Native culture, heritage, and people, to ensure quality contemporary education for future generations. Thank you. So we'll move right into the planning meeting for the interim search. We've selected Grundmeyer Leadership Services, and Dr. Hess, if you'd be so kind. Right. You just have to push the button. Push the button. Well, I want to thank you for this opportunity to work with the Springfield Public

7:28 Schools to- You could... There we go. It's fancy. To help you find your next interim superintendent and moving into next year. And I'd like to introduce, we have a couple of our team I think should be online. I think we have George Mendoza's online as well as is Trent Grundmeyer. So if we could start with Trent, just kind of intro... Trent's the founder and CEO of Grundmeyer, and they do searches throughout the country. And so this is our second one in Oregon. We're also facilitating the Vernonia search currently right now, so... Yeah. Rob, can you see and hear okay? Yeah.

8:13 Oh, perfect. Thank you for the introduction. I don't know if I get the award for the most national anthems with at board meetings, but I get a lot of them every year, so I always appreciate that. And I can't see you guys too close, but just wanted to pop on, be available for questions as you plan this important search, and say thank you for the opportunity and the trust you put in us. George and Rob and myself will work hard, and our team behind the scenes as well. We'll work hard to make sure things go well, and that we get the right one interim person to lead you forward. So I think you'll see tonight, I guess it's not night, this afternoon- Mm-hmm ... late morning here, that we have our ducks in a row. We're well prepared

8:58 to hit the ground running. Matter of fact, we have one candidate that has hit submit already, and we have, when I checked this morning, I believe we have two candidates in progress. And all of them have experience. So, once we got hired, we're moving and shaking, and we'll work hard to make sure things go well. I'm going to let Rob facilitate certainly, and he'll take great care of you. But if there's questions that arise or things that I think I need to weigh in on that benefits you, I'll certainly speak up today. But thanks again, and I look forward to the process. And if you could just go over your background, how many searches you've done, how many you do per year, and what your educational background is, real quick. I don't know if everyone was able

9:43 to review the proposals. I don't know if the whole board saw those or not, so... Well, I'll humbly do that here quick, and I'll just in about elevator speech, but I actually reside in Iowa, where we started 14 years ago. We now do searches for the state of Missouri through the Missouri School Board Association, principal searches in Texas, quite a few searches, principals and superintendents in Colorado, and then a team in the Northwest, Utah, Washington, Oregon, California. We do 80 to 85 searches a year, primarily superintendents, some principals. Matter of fact, more and more principals every year. And we have a team that the balance is we have a team that works behind the scenes, recruiting

10:29 and some of the basic stuff, background checks, social media checks, and then we always have people in the field like George and Rob that have the current and local networks. And I think together, I just tell you right up front, we don't know Springfield. As hard as we may try, we bring that objective lens to say, "This is how we can recruit," and we will be objective in knowing how to hire and structure each step of the process well. You folks are the ones that know your district community best. And as partners, we're going to make sure we get you the right interim and hopefully permanent superintendent down the road. So, like I said, we do 80, 85 a year. We treat small... Just a couple of things I'm really proud of. Our repeat customers. I have probably about 90%

11:14 of our work is somebody that hires us for a principal and then the superintendent, or superintendent and then seven years down the road, it's another superintendent. That makes me proud. We are one of the only search firms that does background checks on all of our finalists, not just the one who gets the job. But we believe in no surprises, and so you will get seven background checks and social media checks on your finalists, so there's no surprises. So I think you'll see our process is just very transparent. We respect and honor your district and your community, and we bring that expertise on recruiting and structuring the process that's legal, thorough, and is hopefully objective to get you the right person. So I'll stop there and again, just say thanks for the chance to

12:00 serve you. And I'd also like to introduce George Mendoza. He's one of the consultants as well that'll be helping with this search. He's online right now. He'd like to just introduce himself and his role on the team and a little bit of his background. Good morning everyone. My name is George Mendoza. Can you all hear me? Yep. Well, I'm in my 29th year as an educator. I've been a superintendent of La Grande School District for nine years. I've had a pretty great career, and I have, I'll just say, a lot of experience on the principal ownership side or the director of services type side for district office.

12:46 This will actually be my first time helping out with searches. I am advancing in my career, and I did feel like me learning how to do a variety of things such as superintendent searches, and a variety of other consultative things is something that's been on my radar. I'm very excited to help out. Whatever Rob or Trent ask me to do, I'm going to likely do. I think Trent, Rob indicated to me that he might have me help out with the Spanish-speaking population of Springfield, so I'm excited to do my best to support in that. Whatever you need from a superintendent perspective, a superintendent lens, I'll give that perspective

13:31 to you all when you need it if you ask for it. And I'm going to be a learner too, so I'm going to be learning and growing, but also supporting however people need. Thank you. All right, and then I'd like to introduce Aaron. Aaron is also helping on this search, and he is a seasoned veterans Oregon superintendent. When you say seasoned, Rob that's... But not tenderized. But hey, so very glad to be here. I've worked in multiple counties. I actually worked in Lane County at Oakridge. I worked in Douglas County. I now work in Clackamas County. I've been working in public education. Started coaching football in 1995 in Glide, Oregon. So I have a plethora of experiences, from classroom teaching to counseling to

14:19 administrative work, and I hope to bring what seasoned expertise I might have to the table here to help you folks find an interim in hopes that we can find the successful candidate that can lead you guys well into the future. And we do know that oftentimes these positions are a bit trying, right? The average of 2.97 years, I think, for a superintendent isn't stellar. And so my hope would be that we could have the most transparent process possible from both the board's perspective and any prospective candidates. So that way we can calibrate to what it is you need, to what it is a prospective superintendent believes to be true about public ed to give you the best fit possible, because I think that the kids in the state of

15:04 Oregon at large are deserving of the very least that. So that's why I'm here. Thank you. All right. And my name is Rob Hess, and I am, I think this is, I was doing the math the other day. This is like year 38 or 39 in education. So actually used to work here in Springfield. I worked here for four years back in the golden era, the Nancy golden era as student achievement leader and assistant superintendent before becoming a superintendent in Lebanon. And then I've worked in Eugene for seven years. I was there doing HR work along with the chief of staff and a lot of coaching and work in schools.

15:49 And then this last year, I've been a small district superintendent in Central Linn. And so I enjoy it. I enjoy helping and that's kind of my goal is to help and serve. And so I see this as a great opportunity. I started a consulting company in 2018 and have done a variety of strategic planning retreats, coaching, and then also some searches. So I've done a number of searches in Oregon, and I've also been a part of applying for jobs and having search firms work with me. So I've kind of known both sides of that dynamic. And one of the things that I learned is

16:35 that having a process that's really defined and clear and transparent and open helps get the highest quality candidate for districts. And so when I met Trent at a national event and started reviewing what they do and their system they use and thought, I don't need to reinvent the wheel. This system is already built. I'd rather join up with someone who's been doing these than kind of recreate another search firm. So that's how I've met Trent and GLS and I can say you're going to be pleased with how we're going to be able to help you meet your

17:20 needs. Now, a lot of the things that we prioritize is an open, transparent process and also that every board member will see every applicant that applies. So we guarantee that. And you'll get those links to the files every Monday, whoever's applied, and we'll keep the board informed of that. And because it's the board's decision on who gets this job, it is your most important decision. And what you'll find is you'll be spending a lot of time together working through this decision and having conversations and meeting. And it's also going to be an opportunity for you as a board to come together on a

18:07 project and to build relationship with each other. So it's going to be good in that way because there's a number of hours you're going to have to put in to do this well. SoSo, we're going to go through a set of slides here and we scheduled two hours. It doesn't have to take two hours if we get done. We have an objective, is to go over this, determine our key dates, determine what level of community involvement you're looking for, and who you want to be involved in terms of... There's different options we can do. We'll talk about that, and then we'll also hear from you on what you want to be the salary range for the position and any

18:52 key benefits you want to add beyond the typical full benefit package. So, all of those things help with recruitment, and as soon as we get that set up, we'll create the job post and have your HR department, Jody, set that up with COSA, and get that on the COSA website, and start collecting local and national people for this job. So, any questions? Rob, before we jump in- Yeah ... should we go around and introduce ourselves to you and the team, our team? That would be great thing, Jonathan, Board Chair, please. So we have four out of the five members who were able to attend, and we

19:37 have two online, and so maybe we could start with Amber and then go to Ken, and we'll go around and introduce the key people. Hi, I'm Amber Langworthy. I'm the vice-chair. Sorry I'm not there today. Yes, I was very excited to go through the slides, what you all have to offer, and I'm very appreciative of how detailed everything is. It feels supportive. Thank you. Ken? Yeah. Ken Cole. I've been on the board for almost three years. Before that, I'd been on the budget committee for 17 years and participated in the

20:23 Sites and Facilities Committee, Bond Oversight Committee. I have three kids that went through all their schooling here. Retired as a project manager engineer from the Department of Transportation here several years ago, and so just trying to make sure we can provide the best opportunity we can for the kids here in Springfield. Thank you, Ken. Nicole? I'm Nicole DeGraff. I've been on the board almost three years. I have two kids in the district, one's graduating and one's in middle school.

21:11 Thank you, Nicole. Before I get to myself, Marty. Oh, you don't have... Well, this is Marty, site leader. Well, she's the person that keeps us on track. So Marty helps us out. And Jody? I'm Jody O'Mara. I'm the acting superintendent. Been here two months. Knows about the workload, right? Yeah. All right. And I'm Jonathan Light. This is, I think, my 21st year on the board in two separate stints. I've also had a background as a business owner and as a teacher, and those kinds of things. So we're very excited as a board to work with Grunmeier. And first of all, am I saying that,

21:58 is it Grun? Yeah. Grun. Yeah. Okay. Just want to make sure. And we're looking forward to the possibilities that are out there in working with a firm with your level of expertise and experience. Thank you. Right. Okay, so Trent, feel free to jump in if there's anything that you feel like I'm not covering properly. I have my supervisor here. So if we could go to the slides. Can we get the slides on the screen? Yeah. All right. And okay, so this is the process that we're going to use, where right now we're starting, we're planning the search

22:44 and identifying the desired qualifications. Those qualifications can come from the conversation we have right now, and then also, as we put out the stakeholder survey, we're going to hear qualifications from the community on what they're looking for. So one of the things that we're going to do today is finalize the survey and then get that out, and that survey has a translate feature on it, so people can translate it for whatever language they need. And then I believe that there was a copy of that draft of the survey that went out in the packet.

23:29 Mm-hmm. Is that right? So that's one of the things that we're going to do today, is finalize the survey, and if there's anything in particular that you as a board think that we want to include as part of that advertisement or things that you want us to look for, this is a good time to mention what those things might be. So, and I'll take notes, and I know you probably have been thinking about this in terms of an interim superintendent, but a little conversation about what you might be looking for from the board's perspective would be great. Rob?

24:14 Yes. Can I weigh in on two things real quick? Yeah. And maybe this will give the board think time, and then they'll jump in here. On the survey, first of all, I want to give you a little peace of mind. The reason we start with the survey is because we tend to-Efficiently get to a lot more people than will come to a community forum or maybe speak up. You tend to get to the people that maybe have a bone to pick or who just have more time on their hands. But I'd also acknowledge that there's value to forums and things like that. So I don't want to speak for Rob and our team, but our thought is with the interim hire, especially it being April, we get the survey out as far and wide as possible to get as much diverse feedback as possible. Then I want to give you a little peace of mind that when we start to analyze the survey data, we're looking for themes.

25:00 We're not looking for somebody that's really outspoken about maybe a pet project or a pet peeve or something they're upset or really excited about. We're looking for what are those themes that are generated from multiple people, whether it's parents or staff, and we'll break it out different ways for you. And you will see that survey before we share it with the report, before we ever share it with any candidates. But we also believe that once we share that with the board and you weigh in and give us some direction, that that's another good document to share with our candidates as they progress, so they know what they're getting into and what some of the challenges and pros and where the district is at. So I just want to acknowledge the intent of the survey isn't to get everyone's

25:46 voice on the report. It's to look for themes, give the board that feedback, but also eventually share that with candidates as the process progresses. Now, if we're fortunate enough to come back next year and lead your long-term search, we would say maybe we don't want to do another survey because we've got one. But that's where we maybe come back and do some more focused groups with maybe your administrators and a community group and refine that survey down to what is different and what is maybe more desired for the permanent superintendent that hasn't been taken care of in the last year by the interim. Or we can put out another survey, we just don't want to put out too many surveys regarding the superintendent

26:31 search either. So just want to mention those things and then certainly let the board weigh in on what you're looking for and any changes to the survey. Thank you for mentioning that, Trent. I very much value the personal connection that you get through person-to-person forums and listening sessions. Because of that accelerated timeframe, though, it doesn't seem like we really have the time, given that we're two-thirds of the way through April. Yeah. Based on what we're looking at for the timeframe, our recommendation would be we get community involvement for this interim through the survey, through inviting people to be a part of the interview process- Mm-hmm ... through the finals day, and make that final day public.

27:20 And that way, anyone who wants to weigh in will have a chance. And then next year, when you go to get the permanent, you get the focus groups together, you contact the stakeholders, and you have all those meetings, and you gather that personal information. So that's what we would recommend based on your timeline and this being an interim. And on the survey itself, everybody will have that opportunity, correct? Yeah. Everyone will have the opportunity to give their feedback. And then on the finals day, when we invite the people back, we recommend a public finals. When we invite people back for the finals, anyone can come and listen to the people, and we'll have QR codes available so that people can fill those out. And so when the board's deliberating, you can look at all that feedback. Thank you. Any comments or questions from other board members at this

28:08 point? Okay. So we're really just looking if there's anything top of mind that as we go out and recruit. And we recruit both with the documents we've put together, and also, we talk to people we think might be good fits for this job and be up for it. So if there's anything in particular that you're looking for in that, I'd love to hear from the board on your thoughts, if there's anything that stands out. In the information we've received thus far? Yeah, the information you received and in just your thoughts of an interim, someone coming in as an interim, what are you looking for?

28:54 In my conversations with staff and community, just overall in education in general, I think people are wanting, again, you say it in your mock of- Okay ... the transformative leadership. Okay. I think there's a national trend actually in that direction, or from what I'm reading, given the current system that we've been into for quite a while and the results. So I think people are looking for something different, creative, innovative, whatever term you want to put on it. Jonathan, if I might ask, could you

29:39 just succinctly define transformative? I think it's very, very broad. It is. And I think if you look across the landscape of public education in the state of Oregon, people are in very different places. Some folks might look and go, "That's the transformation we're looking for." So if you had that, and you don't have to do it today, but give us some thought maybe, because I think that's a critical element. And where people get hung up is really going to be on definitions. Because we can say transformative, and I go home, and I go, "That's a great idea." And Nicole goes home and goes, "That's a great idea." And Marty and the folks, but we all have a different idea of what transformative looks like. So does that make sense what I'm saying? Yes. I don't think we're ready to get there yet, but looking at the

30:25 survey- Mm-hmm. Yeah ... I'd like language that maybe points more into that direction or into the inclusive aspect of what does that mean to a staff person, what does that mean to- Mm-hmm ... a community member, et cetera. Okay. Yes. Does that give a thought? Yeah, a thought. Not on transformative. I've been reading about enrollment issues and how the State of Oregon is looking at projections for the next, well, to 2030, of losing quite a few thousand students overall. And so I would think about stability and accountability, and to define those, I think just somebody who's a stabilizing factor for a district who's made cuts, who's

31:13 looking at making some more cuts, and has clear communication skills and expectations that are just broadly shared. Accountability, I mean by we have constraints from the state, so somebody that knows that well and can be innovative within those constraints and, I know that's a lot, but I'm just thinking of somebody who's stabilizing for our future. Yeah. I think, especially when you've been through change here in Springfield, so having a stabilizing force, especially in the interim person, would be a good

31:59 characteristic to look for. Okay. I agree with Nicole, but that's why I think we're particularly blessed to have three superintendents in this room- Yeah ... with George online, because you have probably a wealth of experience that, how do you merge those characteristics- Yeah ... of stability, and then building something that gets the results that- Mm ... staff and community and students all want. Well, we're looking forward to working with you. Yeah. Is there anyone online, any of the board members online would like to add anything? Amber, you want to go first, or you want me to? Go ahead and go first, Ken. Thank you.

32:46 So yeah, I think the stability is important. I think being open and making a real effort to engage community and the staff and to acknowledge the challenges we do have and present a path forward. How are we going to address those challenges? So I think about it as, what do they see as the challenges we have? How would they address those? And

33:32 how would their experience align with their ability to address those is kind of important, what I want to see from the candidates. All right. Thank you, Ken. Amber? Yeah. Leadership with humility. Sorry. Yeah, I agree with what everyone's saying. Someone that is able to reflect and to really... Sorry, I have medicine head. Someone that's able to reflect on what's going right and

34:18 where we are at, honestly. I think frequency of communication. Communication is a huge one. Transparency of that communication. Someone that has a track record of building trusting relationships. That's an important piece. And, yeah, with Nicole, we need to look at the graduation rates and enrollment rates. And what I do know and what we all, I believe, know what works is CTE

35:03 programs. Someone that sees CTE programs as a sense of our pride in our community, and they also encourage kids to stay in the program longer. They have higher rates of graduation. So someone that keeps that at the top of the priority as well, because that is what's keeping us competitive. And a collaborative leader as well, someone who's willing to listen to board members and to listen to the

35:50 community members and show actionable care. Yeah. Thank you, Amber. All right. Thank you. Rob, is it okay if I share? Absolutely. Just as I was listening in, I was thinking from a superintendent lens of what I hope this board would be looking for, and I think it's been said by several, but I wrote down somebody that is collaborative, authentic,

36:35 becomes pretty aware of staff needs and student needs, and can deliver improvement for them. Someone that is going to be transparentSomeone that is situationally aware of the state context as well as the regional context of Springfield. Somebody that will be able to have a deep understanding of Springfield needs, with a clear plan or somewhat of a clear plan of how to help. Somebody that is going to have an understanding fairly quickly of your financial and instructional systems, as well as your strategic plan so that they can navigate and support those.

37:20 Somebody that will also have some level of skill to navigate, basically, the environment that you're in and will give you some short-term to intermediate solutions. You might not get the long-term solutions, but short-term to intermediate-term solutions for a variety of things. They should be able to bring that. Thank you. Right. Excellent. Okay. So, this is good. This is helpful. So let's go on the slides here. Our next... See if I can advance over.

38:05 There we go. All right, so if you look at the handout you have there, you can see what we're doing today is one through five. We're just going to do one. We're just going over the process, and the second page of this document shows where we're at and who's doing what to get this job done. So promoting the stakeholder survey, we're going to get that finalized after our meeting today, and we'll send you the link, and that link should go to you, Marty, is that right? Okay. And Jody. Okay. So we'll get the- To the Brian Communications and all that too?

38:50 Oh, probably. Okay. So by the end of the day today, we'll get that survey link to Marty, Jody, and then you guys can- Okay ... put it to your team. Okay. So we're going to do that. And just a reminder on that, Rob. Yeah. That survey link is the same, folks. You saw it. So whether you see somebody at the grocery store or in school, send them to the link. They can use the QR code. The first question asks, what type of role are they responding for? And they can select more than one. So they might be a parent and a teacher. They can pick both, and we can filter both ways, but it's the same link. So QR code link. You use your media outlets, your district

39:36 outlets. The more feedback that we can get in the next two weeks or so, the better. But I just want to acknowledge it's the same link. Bob will break a lot of the data down separately. Does that come with, when you send the survey link, will it come with a blurb, a little statement for us to put out, or is that something we should create? We will take a shot at a nice little blurb with directions, especially on how to translate it to other languages. If there's anything that you think would be more clear that you want to add to it, since it's coming from the district, certainly feel free. But we'll try to make it easy on you. Say that again, Brian. Sorry, I'm looking at-

40:21 Yeah ... our communications director. Yeah. We'll put together a little narrative and then please, if you want to beef it up or tone it down, however you want to do it for the Springfield context would be great. Okay. For people taking the survey, there will be ways to access other than a QR code, correct? A link like maybe you sent to us. Yeah. I'm just thinking- Yeah ... not everybody might be comfortable with this. Right. Yeah. There'll be a link and then- Yeah. Okay ... also a QR code. Right. So however they want to do that.

41:06 So I assume you'd put that on your Parent Square push-out, all the different places. Questions? Okay. So we'll get that to you before the end of the day. Our goal would be to get that out by the communication center. Today or tomorrow. Tomorrow would be great. All right. Now, so there's that. Rob, how long do they want that survey open? Sorry. I believe that we're going to get to the dates later in the meeting, but- I thought it might have said May 1st. I think- But I'd be... But- Yeah ... open for discussion.

41:51 I think it should go longer than May 1st. Today's April 20th. Yeah. And I- So- Yeah. I believe we've got the... So we're going to finalize this today, but I believe that we're going to close the applications for the job on, was it May 10th, Trent? Is that- Yeah, we have May 10th down for that. Yeah. So I'd recommend that we close the survey the Friday before the 10th, because then we move into analyzing that data, and when we go to the screening meeting, we want to be able to have the stakeholder report for the screening team to look at. So if we could keep that survey open until May, that Friday, which would be the 8th.

42:38 So we- You guys set that date, correct? Yeah. You guys set that date, right? Set the date? I mean- Yeah ... like you'll close it. We'll close it. Yeah, we do all that.We'll close it. And that'll be in the narrative? Mm-hmm. So the two-day window is enough- Yeah ... between the close of the survey and then the close of the candidates? Yeah, Trent, we did that last time. You pulled that survey together over the weekend, right? All the stakeholder stuff. Yeah. Yes, we did. We can do it. Okay. Yep. So we'll have it for you on Monday. Okay. So we would recommend that, and I think that would be a good time frame. Okay, so the next thing we want to think about-

43:24 So, excuse me. So I'm not sure we can do this, but Amber had her hand up, and so I'm not sure you guys can monitor- Yeah, I can't really see the people, so just jump in. Right. Yes, please. Okay. And I read it was anonymous, is that correct? Yes. It is anonymous. It's an anonymous survey. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. The participants do check, whether they're a student, support staff, teacher, administrator, they check what their job is, but there's no identifiers, no names. Are you guys a Google school by chance? What was that? Is Springfield a Google school?

44:09 You guys use Google Drive, right? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so one caution I will tell you though, Amber, it is anonymous, and that is true. I have it checked, not collecting emails. But if people like your staff are logged into their G Suite or their email because you're a Google school, it will show that they're logged in with their email when they're taking the survey. It won't be an issue for parents, but anybody that's affiliated with your school, you may get some questions about, "Hey," and it's truly we're not collecting emails, but it will look like that because they're logged into their Gmail account. I've learned that the hard way, so anticipate that question perhaps from employees, just because you're a Google school.

44:55 So someone can log out of their Google if they've- Right ... felt that that was important. And- Or take it on their phone or something else. But I reassure you, it's completely anonymous. Yeah. I just know that in Google schools, it shows up like you're logged in and taking it under your account. So just wanted to mention that. And we'll just be getting the results from Google- Yeah. The Springfield- We won't be looking at that. Right. Yeah. Springfield won't- Right ... have a share on the data coming in, just the results, the report coming out. So I would recommend then that we make that really clear on the directions, so that people have full understanding of how they can take it, and if they

45:41 absolutely don't want to be any possibility of being identified, how they might then still participate. Do you mind if I ask Brian a question real quick? Have you run into any similar situations with staff, Brian, before, using Google accounts where they might feel that their email's being collected on the back end? I have not. Okay. Yeah, that was going to be my next question. You know the people and how they receive information better than we would. So- But do we have him... I feel there's some- No ... information that should be with him. Yeah, it's going to us, we synthesize it, and then we'll call it out. So I would trust the resident expert more than letting Aaron

46:26 or Rob or Trent design that language. Awesome. Thank you, sir. And just... I can't hear what Brian is saying. Um- Yeah. So let me repeat what Brian was saying. So you heard the question, and then Brian said that you guys haven't run into that situation before. However, he's certain that he can write this in a way that will let people know that their data's not being collected. Brian, you want to follow up on that? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was a pretty accurate take on what I had shared. As we walk through this, it's just making sure that people are clear with the language that we have inside of there when we're presenting this. So that's what I was getting at with the narrative in front of it, right?

47:11 We want to be concise with what we're sharing to encourage people to still take it, so not being too wordy because the more information we get up front, the less interested folks will be to take the survey. So there's a fine line that we need to walk through here, but without us being the ones who are actually collecting this data, that helps, because we're not the keepers of the data. Yeah. Awesome. And anybody could take it from their home email and still identify as staff, right? Yes. Correct. It's really, yeah, logging out of your- Sure ... Google account. Yeah. Awesome. Other questions for my friend while he came up here? He did the... He was more vigilant than we were. Keep them. Awesome. Okay, so, the next thing that we want to talk about is how we want

47:59 to involve people with the actual interview process in terms of, obviously this is the board's decision, and when it comes time to deliberate who you're going to hire, the only people be in the room is going to be the board. That's it. The consultants will be there just to support what you're doing. But it's a board-only decision. I think sometimes it's executive session material, so sometimes there's a Marty of some kind might be there to take notes, but that's what we recommend in terms of... So it's really clear that even if you're invited to be a part of listening to interviews and hearing

48:45 from candidates and giving your feedback, then we dismiss those folks so the board can decideSo that's how we'd recommend doing that, and just checking if that's what the board is interested in with this search. I'm seeing head nods, but I can't see online, so hopefully everyone's in agreement that that's our goal. So now- That works for me. Yeah. Okay. That works for me as well. Excellent. So one of the ways that we can get people involved is a couple of different ways, and Trent, I might have you weigh in if you're still on, about what, in terms of on the survey, we can ask a question, "Are you

49:31 interested in being a part of a screening team or interview team?" And that is one way you've used in the past, I've used in the past for people to indicate interest. There's also where you can invite key leaders of different associations, with the classified, certified, and have them put a rep or two into committees. That's another way that I've seen. And Trent, are there other ways that you've done before to get involvement at the different levels? Yeah, the other thing I would just have you think about is, A, this is an interim, so you're balancing the right feedback, but it's not always about more people, it's about the right feedback, number one. The only other thing I would throw out there is thinking about standing

50:18 committees or groups that meet. Like you might have a school improvement, or a PTO, or a booster club, or like Rob said, unions. When you have those established, you can sometimes ask them to pick a representative or two. And that, I don't want to say sets the board up for success, but then there's no perception of hand-picking people. And again, we can help generate that list, but we always ask your permission, because when it comes to parents and others, the minute we open the survey and say, "Let us know if you want to be considered," then we can generate that list for you. But there's a little bit of an assumption that, "Hey, they had my name, why didn't they pick me?" So pros and cons to

51:04 having that on the survey. And that's why we're just giving you different options to think about how you might pick your interview teams. How many people typically are on an interview team for a school district this size? Yeah, for a school district this size, the different places where people could get involved is when the board screens the applicants, that would be a smaller group. And the reason why is, if you've got five board members, you don't want 30 other people in that room, right? And it's hard to organize schedules and all that. So we're thinking of a group of no more than five to 10 for a

51:49 screening. On an interview committee, we can set it up on that final day where the candidate would come to interview with the board, and then they would go to a different room and have these other people involved. So you could have a larger space for something like that. So all in all, we could get up to 20 to 30 people involved in some form or fashion. And the other thing I would say... Sorry, I'm talking too much, but I'm just weighing in, trying to help you here. Our general philosophy is, because it's the board's privilege and responsibility to hire, you don't bring people to campus and ask for feedback unless you feel pretty good about who you're putting in front of others,

52:35 right? So that's where when Rob says, maybe on screening you might have a couple of directors or principals help you screen down, but you don't have a bunch of other people, because some of those people aren't going to be a good fit. But then once you know, hey, these are our top two or three candidates, now you want to invite more feedback to make that final decision. So I would keep the process pretty tight in screening, until you feel good about the people you're bringing to campus, and then ask for intentional feedback that formal interview day. Just a thought. Any lasting thoughts, Michael? So- One second.

53:20 I just want to- Sorry about that. Did you have a lasting thought on that? No. Okay. Ken, go ahead. Yeah. Just a thought of when we're bringing these, if we're going to have committees or that, are those going to need to be public sessions? Is there, in essence, an advisory committee to the board? So, I don't know. If we're having separate, do they have to be public session? The answer is usually yes. The only one that can be closed is the board meeting, technically by the candidate's request. Yep. So when they come to the final day,

54:06 those are open. People can listen. When the board is interviewed and deliberating, then that's executive. Okay. I just, specific to Oregon public meeting law, that we have to set up for these to be broadcast like this, and people can watch online and all of that that goes into... That's involved in facilitating these meetings. So will you suggest how we create the screening committee? Like, oh, you need a principal from elementary and secondary, and directors Yeah. Let me speak to that real quick. So for the screening committee, again, you have site councils. I've already heard the CTE is important, right? Attendance is important.

54:52 So if you have schools that have attendance committees, you might want to pull somebody from an attendance committee. If you have somebody that's heavily involved in Perkins, you might want to pull somebody from Perkins, right? And then each school has a site council, so if you want it to be grade level specific, you might have a rep from an elementary school or a site council person from a middle site council from high schools. And then you would compile those folks, bring those folks in. And then we've had some where it's Jenny shows up and she's mom and she has four kids, and we're like, "Okay, how'd you hear about it?" "I put it on the survey." "Awesome, Jenny. Thanks for being here." But then the amount of folks that you want to have, you want to have a balanced opportunity to hear about the candidates instead of having... You could set it up where one group can come, and

55:40 it's the group, they all drive Fords, and they show up and they're like, "We're all about the Fords." And you're going, "Well, we're pretty much a Chevy group in here, you see." And you don't want to be overwhelmed by necessarily the Ford group, right? So I drive a Chevy, so I'm just putting that out there like that. Well, I think what we'll do to figure out who will work with Jody- Mm-hmm ... and board chair to figure out who you want involved in that screening group. That'll be a smaller group, but that would be what I'd recommend. Is that typically with all the board members or just a couple board members for the screening? I would recommend that any board member that wants to screen is invited to the screening, because it's going to be- Like three part ... the board's decision as to who goes forward in the final. So

56:28 what we did in Vernonia that worked really well is we had, I think they had a large screening team. I think they had 15 people total, including the board that were there, and then we all screened, took us three hours. We got the feedback from all of the screening people that were there. They were dismissed, and then the board debated and picked who was going to come forward. When we screen, are we looking at names or is this like a blind thing? No, you're looking at a complete- In public. No, this is executive session because that's one of the things you can do executive session for in Oregon is to consider the hiring of your chief executive. So you'll have documents that Trent and his team will put together on every applicant.

57:15 You'll have access to the applications, the reference letters, all of those materials they've turned in, and then we'll also do a thing where we will put the... We'll go over this later in the meeting, but we'll put the candidates into tiers of this candidate, green, yellow, red in terms of, think this is a really strong, good fit, good match. Yellow, there's some missing things. Red might not be a fit. But you don't have to go with those recommendations, but you'll see those and why we may have put someone in a category. Yeah. So for the sake of complete transparency, you'll see everybody. And because you do, you might do a Google search on people before we get in the room, right? You might know something about a candidate already.

58:01 We get in the room, and you're saying to us, "Did you know X, Y, and Z?" Well, that's why you see every candidate. Yes. You see? And then after that review, then once you go to the last day, the finals, right? Just so you understand that everybody really can... You might not get everybody in your community to be able to ask a question, but everybody has the possibility to have a voice. Because when those candidates are moving around, that QR code, that's real-time. So they can go ahead and fill out whatever they think about these people in real time. I should have never worn a cream color coat to a board meeting. Got it. Right? And Trent and his team on the back end are synthesizing all that information, and we have it right now. So they may not be able to ask a question of the candidate, but as many people who

58:47 show up for that can still have a voice. And once those interviews are over, right, we don't tell people, "Hey, go home and write us a letter," and three days later. You will have that information real time. So by doing it this way, and Trent can speak over me if you'd like, we just feel like it is legitimately the most transparent process you have with the most eyes on candidates, right? The greatest opportunity to provide feedback. So that's how that will- And all that's to say you're making a decision. Mm-hmm. And every decision is a risk because you don't know the outcome, right? And what we're trying to do is bring you enough information and looks so that you're more likely to end up with a

59:34 decision you don't regret later. Yeah. So a quick question. I guess I'm not clear, the differentiation between what will happen in public and where in the process we go into executive session. Is it just for the semifinalist screening or- So- It almost sounded like that some of the advisory committees would be participating in executive session. No. You would be in executive session whenever you're talking about individual people that are applying for this job. That's executive session, and anyone that you invite in as a guest of the board to participate is under the strictest confidentiality. They're not to share who those people are, not to share anything that was discussed in executive session, et

1:00:19 cetera. So we'll go over all those rules with people. So that happens in executive session, and then the interviews on the final day when the board is deliberating on who they're going to pick, that's executive session. So those are the two things that are executive session. So the screening is a community or it's a broad group, right? The screening is a smaller group, and the screening is in executive session, the board with the people they've invited to help them look at applications.The initial screening of all the- Of all the applicants, yeah. That's it. Yeah. You'll see the applicants as they come in every week, just the board. But in that screening meeting, it'll be the board plus the people who invite,

1:01:06 smaller group, consultants will be there. And then the interview group is the broader group. The interview group is broader- And larger ... and larger, and public. And then, the interviews with the board, when it's just the board interviewing, that would be executive as well. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that schedule is, that would be the week of May 11th, after we close on that first screening? Yeah, we need to determine what days are going to work best for the board in that week. That'll be something we need to come up with today. And then the interviews are the finalist interviews for you to- Yeah, that would be the final day. Okay. Mm-hmm. Yep. Ken, did that answer your question? I guess I'm still not clear. Are we having

1:01:53 members of the public who would not normally be in executive session would be part of the executive session in screening candidates? Yes. So the order of operation would go, we collect all of this data, then we will close this out on May 10th. Survey will close on the 8th. We'll close the applications on May 10th. The week of the 11th, those selected from either site councils, CTE groups, our association- You'll work with Jonathan and Jody to come up with those people. And those folks will come together with all of us in a closed session to review the entirety of the candidates that

1:02:40 apply. Okay. Once they're done reviewing, giving their feedback, we will dismiss them. Then the board will just be in executive session, meeting without them to deliberate on all of the feedback that that review committee just provided. The board at that time, let's say we have 20 candidates, will narrow that down to six, seven, eight, four, however you see fit, for some semifinalist interviews. And then from that semifinalist piece, we will bring finalists back for some open sessions in front of the community where we'll bring the QR codes. They'll answer questions. You'll do community days or community nights. Once we've culled all that information, you'll go back into exec session

1:03:28 if the board wants to have final interviews with those candidates. Okay. So I guess it's still, I guess, a process question that I think there are rules, there's policies and rules around the board and staff, what can be disclosed, but so what would govern the public participating in the closed session and then being obligated to not disclose what happens in those sessions? It's simply a matter of us making sure they understand all the rules of confidentiality, right? Okay. And they could walk away and go, "Hey, here's the 20 folks." We collect all that information. It's kind of like going to,

1:04:14 I guess, a comedy show these days. They ask you to put your cell phones away so you don't take pictures and do all the other things. Okay. When it comes to the actual final six, seven that you want to take, or the semifinalists, they don't know who those folks are, right? So they don't walk away really knowing who those folks are. You guys make those decisions. Yeah. Okay. And the semifinal round is also done in executive session. It's important for when people apply for these jobs, that their names are kept confidential until the finals, so... Yeah, I understand that. I just don't know if we have some members of the community that aren't part of the board, or parents or whatever that are participating,

1:05:00 and if afterwards they go and they talk to somebody else about it. Well, bottom line, you would not want to invite anyone into the closed session that you can't trust to keep things confidential. Okay. And I don't want to speak out of turn here, but I'm going to say this, take it for what it's worth. Number one, I don't want to minimize this role at all because I know how important it is. But this is an interim superintendent as well. So I think the other thing, and maybe this speaks to your point a little bit, Ken, at that screening, you're getting feedback. The philosophy is getting some outside feedback so we're running as transparent a process as we can. But because it's an interim and if there's any question, you might think

1:05:45 about keeping that to less people. Keeping that to maybe some directors or even principals. Maybe more district people than parents or outside people, Ken, to your point. Again, because the transparency and because of this is an interim hire. And/or not even inviting people in at that one and putting your eggs in the transparency basket only when you've narrowed it down to those finalists that you feel really good about, and then asking people to weigh in more. I think because it's an interim, I think we can still balance transparency as long as we're inviting people in.

1:06:30 But I think the board should really consider being an interim on this, keeping it tighter until you've identified those finalists. Just a thought. That makes sense to me. Team, real quick. I need to go, but I was going to just share, as you think about it, from a board member perspective, I was just thinking, at least for me as a superintendentIt'd be good for the board to make sure that there's staff voice somehow, whether that's, again, in the surveys. But if they're part of the interview process where they're giving you feedback from a staff voice, that's important. I'd say you need student and family voice. So somehow making sure

1:07:17 you have students and families' perspective, whether the surveys or a little bit into any interview processes, student and family voice. And I wrote down leadership and governance type voice, so whether it's administrators or district level, cabinet positions, but there probably should be some feedback that you hear from them somehow. And then community partnership. So as long as you're looking for those things, I think you'll probably make a really good decision, and we'll support you. I'm thankful for all of you. I'm going to go. Thanks. Thanks, George. So I want to make sure that we pick days that every board member can attend.

1:08:03 So with that in mind, Rob- Yeah ... full disclosure, my daughter's getting married the week of the 11th. Okay. Congratulations. And we'll be in California. Okay. So these are all the things that- Leaving act- What's that? We're going to be pretty remote. It's Mendocino County in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Congratulations. Well, it should be fun. But yeah, I'll be gone from Tuesday through Tuesday. Okay. So you're telling us we have Monday available. Monday's a board meeting. Is it? You have a regular board meeting Monday night? Yeah.

1:08:48 Hey, Trent. Yep? Are you able to... I know when people apply, sometimes there's a last-minute little group that applies. If we hustle, could we get the screening thing ready by Monday, May 11th in the evening? We can have our stuff ready. My only pause there is that, with those late applicants, we usually want at least three references. I couldn't look you in the eyes and tell you that we'd have three references that quickly when you're waiting on those people. We'll

1:09:33 do everything in our power. If the board says that's the date we're meeting, we will. But again, you're sometimes held hostage to when people will get back to you to get good references. Another idea I would throw out there, just to respect Jonathan and the wedding, would be getting his feedback, and I know it'd be hard for him to be gone, we also don't know what's on the board agenda that night. But if we got his feedback about what candidates he preferred based on what he knew, and Brent brought all that information to the rest of the board, I think we could still get his voice, give us a little more time, and then have a meeting with the rest of the board to decide. Because again, you're not deciding finalists, you're deciding semifinalists

1:10:19 at that stage. But even looking at the schedule, we've got the finalist interviews the week of the May 25th, which I believe is actually Memorial Day too. But I don't see June. Can we offset a week? Yeah, we can push that to- We can do that too. Yep. That would give everybody more time. I don't want people to feel rushed on this. Yeah. At the same time, I don't think my daughter would want a change of wedding date. No. Goodness, no. That'd be great. Okay. It'd be on that call that you'd call her. I know this, Robbie. So if we want to reverse engineer this from that first week in June, are we suggesting then that we want everything else to slide that way as

1:11:04 well? So do we want the survey to close a week later? Do we want the application period? Well, and even the applicant closure could happen midweek, for example, and give your team more opportunity not to have to do it in two days and on a weekend kind of a thing. So we could add time to the application period, allow more time in that ensuing week and a half or week, and then sort of carry on the schedule as it's stated here, but offset a week. Trent? And the time we need the most, honestly, guys, is the time between selecting your finalists and the actual formal interviews because you're getting background checks done, social media checks done, trying to figure out what

1:11:52 salary and benefits a candidate may need to make sure they're worth bringing in. You're getting all that stuff ready. So honestly, I would recommend leaving the survey and the application deadline and just giving ourself a little more time in between screening and formal interviews there, especially with Memorial Day weekend in there as well. So if we were to look at the week of May 18th to do screening, what day would work for that? Yeah, and we'll be getting back on the 19th. Well, let me... Okay. Yeah, I'd be available the 20th.

1:12:40 So Jonathan, if you couldn't hear that, he said he'd be available the 20th, and Memorial Day is on the 25th. I don't know if anybody in the room has some hard plans, but the 22nd might be off limits, too. That's the Friday before. So we'll- People also have a possible budget committee meeting too. Well, you have the 21st Should we do Wednesday the 20th then? I'll be here. That works for me. Right. Ken? Amber? Yeah, that works for me. Okay. We'll- For me. I don't know if you can see Jonathan's face, but he said kind of like exhaustedly, "I'll be here." He knows that he's coming right off that. I'll be in good shape. Yeah. We appreciate that, Jon. All right, so Wednesday the 20th is going to be for

1:13:25 screening. And then for the interviews for semifinals, those are Zoom, and because they're Zoom, people don't have to plan for travel and that sort of thing. So that is Memorial Day weekend, so we should probably stay off anything over that weekend. So if we look at that following week, the week of May 25th, you'll need to block out about... If we have a semifinal group, probably won't have a semifinal group more than eight. These are 25-minute interviews. Probably going to be about a four to six-hour experience.

1:14:14 I need to move back a little bit for clarification. Yeah. So the candidate review is still going to be the week of May 11th? We're going to change that. That's- It's going to say- Candidate review is going to be week of May 18th? May 18th. Which is the 20th. Right. And then semifinalists will be that four-day week. Yeah. Actually the candidate review, that's when we're going to review the candidates and choose who goes to semis. We just decided that's May 20th. Okay. Yep. Yeah. We screen to invite to the semis. Yes. Yeah. When's the candidate review? 20th. Okay. That's when you're back. It's the same meeting. Thank you. Yep. You bet. Just wanted to make sure. The 20th. And then-

1:14:59 I'll put that in my phone ... and then the next maybe best available date, we should look at the 27th, but Nicole was saying you have some budget committee meetings, because that's just... Oh, my apologies. Okay. Yeah. The 27th would be the following Wednesday, and then Marty could build a little bit of consistency. The 27th would work for me. Budget pity. Okay. So the 27th will be our semifinal interview. The semifinal interview is held in executive session. It's held with the people from the pool that you're the most interested in. Another round of interviews. And then from that group, you'll decide who comes to finals.

1:15:44 What time of day do you usually do that? Because it's longer, we'd probably start during the day sometime. Okay. The grant giving tour is that day, just for everybody to be aware. What is that, Nicole? Because some board members want to- I think we're, at this point, time of day maybe to be determined to make sure Bob is included in the conversation. I don't know what his schedule is. Okay. So we'll have people look at the... Yeah. It could go faster, but that's where I think... We did one this last Saturday. We started at 9:00, got done at 3:00, so it did take six hours. Can I ask a question about the candidate reviews?

1:16:29 Yeah. This is when you get all the applications in, and then half a dozen are put forward to the semifinalist. Is that correct? Yes. So it seems like, in my experience, when we've done this before, we've made them blind applications, meaning we redacted the names. No, you're going to want to see- See the names and- Yeah. Okay. Because we do reference checks, we do- Okay ... internet checks. Okay. All of that. A little more complete. Yep. That's why it's in the executive session. Yeah, and what you will get on that day is you'll get our synopsis of each candidate. Mm-hmm. Then at the bottom, yep, you get the green, the yellow, the red, and then at the bottom of each candidate, if there's anything that we've

1:17:16 already flagged after that cursory look, you'll see that. Right. So that's why you would want the names, so we can do the most complete, transparent process for you. Is that flagged good or bad, or just bad? Well, if there's any- There's positives and negatives on that. Yep. Okay. Yeah, that's what- If there's any references or like this person's a champion, you'll see that. Yeah. And then if somebody says, "I worked with them, they were a nice human. However," you know what I mean you're like eek, we might see that as well. They drive a Ford. They drive a Ford. Sure. Jonathan, for the record, Jonathan said that. Yes. No. Okay. So we'll shoot for the screening on the 27th.

1:18:01 We'll look at that, and then the most important day is the day when they're going to come visit the community. So we want to make sure that this doesn't interfere with graduation, end of year stuff, all the things that go on at the end of a school year. So not knowing what those might be in Springfield, we'll look into Marty and Jodi to help us- Yeah, probably ... pick a day that would- Graduation ... be less hectic. Yeah. Is there- But they're typically on the weekends, right?

1:18:48 Yeah. The 5th is a big day, and that's- That's, that's- What's your last day of school here? Probably 12th. 11th? Yeah. 12thCan we check and see if there's an available date in that first week of June? A good day to look at is June 10th, because school's not out yet, so people will still be around. Looks like it's after your graduations, and it's two weeks from the semifinals, which is plenty of time,

1:19:33 if someone's traveling, to make arrangements. Yeah. One of the things is you don't want to stretch this too far. You want families to really see that you did this at a time when they're still here, still connected to community, right? Yeah. Definitely. So I think that's an important piece. I see the last day of school for June 11th, at least for elementary. June 10th looks good to me. Okay. So we're going to- So Nicole will need to get back. Bob, obviously. How about Ken and Amber? That works for me. Okay, so we got three of five. Okay. We can circle back quickly. Circle. And Nicole, you said the 10th may or may not work for you? 10th of... Is it-

1:20:18 June? Okay. Okay. 10th of June. 10th of June, yes. Is that just that day, Nicole, or is that you have maybe a conflict on that week? Yeah. Okay. Yes and yes. Okay. All right. All of the above. Yeah. Okay. So we'll- So maybe we should look at an alternate day? Okay. Yeah. And you'd be able to do that? Okay. All right, so that's good. All right. What does that day look like? For the families or community. Yeah, that day looks like, depending on how many people get invited, but- Long day ... essentially what you want to do is you want to have some sort of tour where

1:21:03 the person is kind of seeing the district. You also want to have your final interview with the board, and then you're going to want to have these interviews with community, the people that you've selected to be part of an interview group to interview and give feedback. So, the candidate would be going through multiple interviews, and then there's usually some sort of community forum where they're presenting who they are as a leader. The people can listen, interact with them informally. And this is candidate singular? These are- Or candidates... Well, the number of the people that get invited to the finals. Okay. So it could be two, could be three. Vernonia's going to have four.

1:21:48 Okay. It just depends on, through the process- Okay ... what the board decides. Sure. And this is called finalist interviews, or they're doing the tour and the board- Yeah. They're doing everything on that- Sounds like a really crazy day. Yeah. I mean, is there any way to do it the week before? I have kids. I know Amber has kids. The teacher, it's nuts at school- Yeah ... the second to the last day of school. And there's all these- Yeah ... field trips and field days, and parents are volunteering, and staff is... Yeah. We can- I think the week before, though, is when we start- We just- ... running into graduation ... we just don't want to land on a graduation day. Well, I mean, they're not every day. We need to- Yeah. How's the 12th? Right. Do you guys feel like... 12th is Friday. 12th we're all hungover from

1:22:34 lack of sleep. On the 3rd? Yeah. Okay. On all of them too? So A3, Gateways. Whatever's on all the graduations on June 3rd are in the evening she said. Okay. Now the other thing to look at is, because this is an interim, maybe we don't do as many activities, right? Because this is an interim. That's the other way to look at it. That's one way. Yep. But interim with a possible pass-through- Okay ... would be, I think when I've talked to people, that's- Mm-hmm ... what they would love to have. Doesn't always work. Yep. So I think we just want to keep that in mind that the interim is not necessarily temporary.

1:23:19 Right. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. So we want community feedback. So yeah, we should do it before school gets out, and maybe, yeah, if the 10th is a bad day. I think the 10th is farther. It's not on the end of last days of school or kind of like kids are getting out early and all that stuff would be harder I think. So I wouldn't do it any later than the 10th, but if the 4th or the 5th could work, that could also be a day to look at. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's why staying off that week is- And you're welcome to attend those. Yeah. Thank you. What's...

1:24:06 Yep? Is that better? We can't hear what's being said. The eighth and the ninth, Amber, sorry about that. We're trying to- Deliberating on what the final day should look like. There was some concern about the 10th, as a lot of things going on, and then we know that graduations start at 1:00 on Friday the 5th, and they don't start until the evening on the 3rd, I think 6:00. They all start at 6:00 on the 3rd. So trying to capture what we were talking about, so if I miss it, please speak over me. So now we're looking at maybe early on the week of the 8th. So the 8th or 9th.

1:24:52 Yeah, that would work for me. The only trouble with the 8th is making sure technology is available, that our T guy's here. Well, and we have a board meeting scheduled for that. You also have a board meeting. Okay. So- Tuesday the 9th. Or Thursday the 11th, or for me, Thursday the 4th, if there's no graduations on that day Graduation Is there graduation on Thursday? So Amber, we're still discussing different days. Yeah, I understand. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We have graduation dates starting Wednesday, 6:00 PM, and lasting from Wednesday to Saturday. Is that right?

1:25:37 I don't know if we have any... The question is- Maybe not. No Saturday, but we've got Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Hmm. We do on June 4th. Okay. So the 9th? So I heard Amber ask a question about a Saturday. Is Saturday the 6th now? New Saturday. No, no, no. I'm happy with the 9th. No. Okay. I was inquiring if graduations were occurring on Saturday the 6th. As I just now found out, that is not the case. 8th, we have a board meeting, so I hear the 9th, and that works for me. Yeah, 9th is good. And never has there been more of a decorative emotion coming from a board secretary than when Marty was like, "Absolutely no Saturdays." You might've missed it, but I got the point. So...

1:26:22 I wouldn't mind joking. I feel that too. The 9th will be a day I will- Yeah, no ... do it. The 9th, that'll be a birthday I never forget, so let's do the 9th. We went on a school day so that the candidates can see. Yeah. The 9th works better for me. All right, so we're going to do the 9th. Sold. All right. But we still have Bob to check. We need- Yes ... to check in with Bob. Mm-hmm. And I'll- You'll be- I'll talk to him, yeah ... you'll take the lead on that? Yeah. Nicole, I know that week was kind of an up in the air, but 9 is better than 10 for you? Okay. All right, so we're coming down to near the end of what we need to decide today, because we have the announcement figured out, we've got the stakeholder survey dialed in, we have a game plan for the days coming up, the interview teams, et cetera.

1:27:09 So, the last piece that we need to decide is the comparable salary, just what we want to post a job at. Now , you have the comparable salary of districts that are like Springfield, so this is kind of... And we have a recommended range there, and if you're good with that recommended range, we could publicize at that level. If board members have other thoughts on that, now's the time. So I guess, I had emailed to Rob, but to me, several of these districts being in the Portland area, the cost of living up there is

1:27:56 going to be much higher, I would think, than- Ken, excuse me. Ken? Yeah. You're breaking up significantly. I don't know if it's on our end or your end. Okay. How about now? Can you hear me? Pretty good now. Okay. We're good. So, several of the comparable districts are in the Portland area, where I believe the cost of living, cost of housing, is going to be substantially higher, or significantly higher, than Springfield. So I guess I'm concerned about that we're setting a salary based on... It would be artificially high compared to what it should be. And also, I don't know if we could look at the cost of living in the various jurisdictions, and likewise, what is the

1:28:44 teacher salaries in those jurisdictions? Because I think there should be some weighting given to... I don't think we want to have a salary that we're trying to compete with Lake Oswego. When I've been in this position in the past, the one thing that we got sort of in trouble with is that our superintendent's salary was well below the median range for our population. And, we want to be competitive. At the same time, I think you maybe start at that low range, and then commensurate on experience and

1:29:29 other factors. Because if they're coming maybe from a small district, they might be significantly lower. Mm-hmm. So $200,000 would be great. Mm-hmm. However, we don't want to start too low because then our thought was that you attract fewer candidates. Yeah. Can I just- Yeah, absolutely ... go outside to the public real quick? One question for Betsy, you're the recruitment, right? This is what you do here. How do you find that recruiting teachers to what your salary is may be against the metro is... Do you have challenges doing that? Do you not have challenges doing that? You don't have challenges. What do you see, just being the resident expert, being the biggest barrier? If you want to step to this mic.

1:30:14 Yeah, sorry, Betsy, don't mean to put you on the spot, but I think you might be able to add some- Going to? Yeah. I think you might be... Well, yeah, because we have- Sorry to put you on the spot, but I'm going to put you on the spot. What do you see as being maybe the biggest impediment to a salary range when it comes to a superintendent, in this area, or do you not? I don't, and I don't have experience in hiring a superintendent. You don't. Okay. But with the teacher salary, the teacher comps, I know that was a question Ken had, you feel that you have a favorable salary table that has no problem recruiting folks? Yes, I do feel so. Okay. Yeah. Can you guys hear? Ken, can you hear Betsy? Yes. Okay, Amber? Okay, good. And I think that's important, because if that's part of the calculus, right, knowing what your experience is, bringing people in, can be very helpful. So if then there's not a discrepancy in

1:31:02 bringing people in against the metro, then what are the other desired qualifications? Mm-hmm. Right? Right. It's Springfield itself. It's the community selling itself. It's the district selling itself. It's the staff, it's the parents, and it's the students. So I think that's something that we could then take into that calculus. And if that range is high, because Lake Oswego's a very different ball gamethan Springfield is. Right? And if you're not having trouble recruiting teachers or other staff against your current range, then maybe that is something that we take into strong consideration. Yeah, and I think what you can tell by this comparable average- Thank you ... is it takes this range. It has an average of the range, which

1:31:49 is 255, and it has a recommended range of 220 to 260. So it kind of fits in there in terms of this is an interim, it's not the permanent. Again, so whatever you do, you're going to be doing it again a year from now. That's right. So, I think it's really just for this initial, being able to attract people to apply for this job, and it's not going to be an easy job. It's going to be a challenging job. You've got a superintendent, rebuilding, budget issues, no assistant superintendent. This person's going to

1:32:35 earn every dollar that you give them, whatever you pick. So how many of the districts, the comparables, do they have assistant superintendents? Looking at that list, I would say all of them. That was the question. How many of those comparable districts have superintendents? What would you say, Aaron? Maybe not McMinnville. Ken, I don't want you to quote me, and we will dial this in for you. We can do the research, but offhand, I know that with the exception of McMinnville, I can say with a good degree of certainty that the rest of

1:33:20 those have assistant superintendents and/or because of budgets, have had to make some serious decisions about those positions most recently. Right. Yeah. I think we've seen that locally too, some other changes also, and I don't think Springfield's going to be unique in the budget challenges we have. I'm not sure we're particularly... I mean, and I don't know that for a fact, but as I've heard, some other districts have gone through some challenging transitions as well. So, it doesn't seem like this is atypical. And I do think at some point, it's really a matter of what's the value that you want to put on

1:34:07 it. The toughest thing, some of the dialogue that you'll hear around the State is you'll see salaries that are... You go, "That's really out of whack." And then people want to do a, "Well, what's that per pupil?" It's really hard in public ed- Yeah ... to do, right? To do oranges and oranges. And so it's really a matter of, for better or worse, what number's it going to attract the most willing, competent, transparent, accountable, stabilizing force to Springfield. And that's why it's recommended. And we can go back and if you get better comparison, we can do that.

1:34:54 It would set us back a little bit on trying to get- No, we've got to decide today ... the job posted. I can run it real quick on my phone. One thing you could do though, folks, is based on those averages, and Ken, with your point with standard of living, you could broaden the range a little bit too and go 200 to, say, 250. Just make it a little wider. The point is that you don't want to spend money you don't need to and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. But the second point is, like Robin and Aaron have said, is we're trying to attract the best pool possible, and so what's the happy medium to that? And if you need to expand that range a little bit to give you autonomy

1:35:40 once you get to know candidates, I think that's reasonable as well. Ultimately, it's at the discretion of the board. Mm-hmm. And that's your recommendation below, recommended 220 to 260K. Is that correct? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. So yeah, I think it's important if board members have a preference of where to go, this would probably be the time. Yeah. This is what we're going to publish on the- Yeah ... on the job application. So remind me again. You don't publish this as a range? You publish an actual- No, we would actually publish a range. Yeah. So people that apply know that they're not going to come in asking for 300 because that was out of the range.

1:36:29 But yes. Yeah. Just if I may. Bob Root is available on June 9th, so we can draft that if they like to. Hey, good job, Marty. Bob is available June 9th. You know, I'll just weigh in. I think 210 to 250- Okay ... would be something I'm comfortable with. All right. Consensus. We'll do it. Amber? Ken? Ken, we might have muted. I'm good with that. Yes.

1:37:15 I'm okay with that. Okay. All right. Nicole? You okay with that? Yeah. So as far as benefits review, I think, basically-These details come out through the negotiations process. Okay. We don't need to go into... We're going to advertise this full benefits package, and a lot of these details get worked through later. In terms of we know this is a one-year contract, and usually we would have whatever, when it comes time to sign a contract, legal review, all that kind of stuff would be-

1:38:01 Yeah ... part of the deal. So the job posting, and I don't know if Brian is still here or not, but he is. So what we'd like to do is to, now we have the information we need, all the dates have been determined, salary and benefits, so we'll put this together and... Trent, are you still on? Yes. Yeah. Trent, this is going to be a Google Doc, right? The job posting? Yeah. Or is that- No, it's in... We build it in Canva, but we can make them collaborators or send it back. Okay. So, Brian's coming up here just to... Because we want Springfield to

1:38:48 put their panache on this before it goes out. Yeah, I'm not sure what the design team design standards you're working with, but we have brand guidelines that we work inside of, and I would prefer if you give us the information and then we can just make the materials. That way it is 100% inside of our brand guidelines, because we know our brand guidelines best. Okay. Do you hear that, Trent? 100% fine with that. Okay. We just don't want to shed any work to you. But we build in Canva normally, so I can either send this to you as a PDF or download it, or I can make you a collaborator in Canva, and you tell us when you're done, and we'll take it from there. Up to you. Yeah, we're typically working inside of Adobe, so if you give us the information

1:39:33 and the materials, we can build that all. So you'll build that out, send us a PDF when you're done with it? Mm-hmm. How's that sound, Trent? Okay. Sounds beautiful. Okay. All right. Thank you. So we'll do that. We'll get that finalized today, get it to you today. Yeah, and then that'll be good. Yeah, then we'll use that PDF and push it out to all the places. The stakeholder survey, we've talked about this, and so we're going to get this rolling also today. Any questions on that, Trent? Nope, I made the updates already. Okay.

1:40:20 The board will get the weekly information of the candidates that apply. And it's confidential. And not to forward it, share it, just review it. And then I'll do check-ins with you, Jonathan, every week on how things are going. This is the tier that when that screening team meets on June 20th, we'll have the candidates in- May 20th. May 20th. Sorry. On May 20th, we'll have the candidates set up in these tiers, and basically that'll be a meeting that we'd want to do in person, but

1:41:06 if someone needs a Zoom option, it can be provided, so... I do have a quick question- Yeah ... about the survey. So you get us the survey, and we put it out. The clarification on community, staff- Yeah ... students, I'm just looking for clarification. It's one link that goes- Right ... to everyone. To every... Okay. And you put it on your website. Okay. You put it in ParentSquare, and when they take it, the first question will say, "Who do you represent?" And then they click. Okay. So we're putting it out. Just- Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, and then there's instructions on it about language translation too, so people can get it translated as well. So the board sees everyone, and then this is the qualifications report that

1:41:53 you'll also get on May 20th. And we talked about the screening interviews. We've scheduled those for May 27th. And then we've talked about how to incorporate others, and we'll work out these details further as we go along. But be thinking about people that you'd like to include, either in screening or in interviews on that final day, or in the semifinal interview. Those are the three different places that people can participate. Okay? I want to make sure that our associations,

1:42:38 three of them, are all equally included. Yes. And I feel that my own feeling is going through their leadership. Not that you can't express an interest if you're not a leader, but giving them that control. Yeah, that's important. And so just let us know through Marty, I guess, who those people are, and we'll keep them informed once you know. Rob? Yep. Can I just mention the slide you're on quick, and then I've got to roll off for a 2:45 meeting? Okay. Rob, this was perfect timing, because you probably would ask me to present this slide anyway. But, on your finalists, I kind of alluded to this. We run seven background checks before they come in.

1:43:26 So we're not wasting time or have any surprises. You can see them on the screenAnd you will see those background checks. They also include social media, civil rights, national criminal registry, all of those things. That does not rid the district to follow your policies and state requirements on new employees. You'll still have to run it on the one candidate you hire. But this is our attempt, and I reassure you, we have not had surprises. If anything, it's a social media thing or something we will bring to your attention. But these are the things we will do on your finalists before they come in and interview. Can I ask what a social media background check is? I have an idea, but...

1:44:12 Yeah. Great question, Amber. We use a company called Ferretly. I think it's the best in the business. So it's a third-party company. We basically use their resume information to go back seven years on any public domains, and then it's flagged by any keywords like political talk, violent talk, swear words, all these keywords it could flag. Anything that gets flagged, though, it basically takes a screenshot, and then you would see why it was flagged. It's highlighted in red. So I'll give you a funny example. When I was testing this, I did it on myself, and it came back flagged with a violent image, and I thought, "Oh my gosh.

1:44:59 What?" I try to be pretty vanilla. I bought my son a BB gun in seventh grade, which was five years ago, and it flagged it as a violent image because he was holding a BB gun in my public Facebook. No big deal, but at least the board, there would be no surprise. We've had some other come back, a retweet on something political. Okay? We're not going to tell you it's good or bad. We're going to tell you, "We don't want you surprised by this because it's out on a public domain." Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for explaining that. Yeah. I think you'll appreciate the reports, yeah. So then the board will see that, so then the board can decide if that's a red flag- Yeah. There'll be multiple...

1:45:46 Again, we're trying to provide all the information we can. Mm-hmm. And so it's all part of the decision. And we can dream up the perfect candidate, but the perfect candidate is not going to apply for this job because there are no perfect candidates. So you're going to have to pick from the people that apply, and we'll do our best to make sure that you know as much about them as that's out there. All right. I got to roll off, guys. But thank you. Productive meeting, and we'll work hard to make sure things go well. Thanks, Trent. Thank you. Thank you, Trent. Have a great day. Okay. So we also do something called a pre-negotiations, little handout. And each finalist does

1:46:33 this so that we can see going in how much they're going to be asking for and that sort of thing, so it makes the negotiation... We find that this makes the negotiations go smoother. And so next steps, we're here. We're going to finalize the survey today. We're going to get that out. We're going to get the information to Brian and his team on the flyer. And we're going to be recruiting. And basically we've got our dates picked, so that was what we wanted to achieve today. Will you guys do a follow-up email on what the dates are that we've set? Yeah. We'll send

1:47:20 all that to you as a follow-up and talk about next steps. Yeah, Marty will get a copy of those. Marty will get a copy. And just make a lot of rooms. I typically send the board an email update every week. "Here's the latest things," just so that you've got something every week coming in. I try to get that out on Monday. Okay. Monday morning. All righty. So there we go. Anything from the folks online? Are we going to review the survey questions? Yeah. We can look at those now. Yeah, if you'd like to. You guys have that link, right? Were you sent the link? Yeah. Okay.

1:48:07 Do you need to see it again? Oh, okay. Yeah. So the survey has the updated dates in it right now, and the first question is, "Identify the group that best fits your affiliation with the district." So that pretty much covers. Yeah. "What are the district's current strengths, points of pride? And what are the district's opportunities for improvement?" We like having the open-ended in there because that's how the board's going to learn what's going on out there, and those are not required. Someone doesn't have to put anything in there, so if they don't want to write anything down, they don't have to. They can just check boxes. The next question is-

1:48:52 These two questions, just, Rob- Yeah ... when I look at a survey, I try to look at it from the perspective of someone just in the community who maybe not involved in the schools, maybe has kids in the school, et cetera. So, what are the district's current strengths or points of pride? It's a little of what I call edu-speak. Mm-hmm. Why not just what are the positives you see going on in the district? And the other thing is what do you see as concerns or challenges facing the district? So just in my mind, maybe a little bit more direct and give... I know in all of these, there's that other category, but Yeah. So I can- It just seems overall, sometimes they're a little bit vague,

1:49:40 not necessarily measurable, nor do they have to be. Okay. But if we're looking for that exemplary leader, I want something that... And I think, again, in my conversations around the district, is something that would resonate with families and staff, the more active language. Okay. So I've changed that to, what are the positive things going on in the district? And then the next one, the edit was, what are the district's current challenges, Jonathan? Yeah. What are the issues or challenges- Okay ... that they see facing the district? Keeping the opportunity, though, makes it active because people can give their ideas. Okay. So

1:50:25 I like that part of the question. Which part was that? The part with, what are the opportunities? The areas for improvement. Okay. Rob, do you want to add a... I could add a question. What are the challenges? And if you refresh your screen, then as Rob makes changes, that'll- Okay ... that'll pop up. I will say, I do like points of pride. When I read that, that's when CTE popped up for me. Points of pride popped up in my head. And I did actually like that.

1:51:12 All right. So I'll combo that. I'll do both. Sounds great. And I'll try to combo the other one too here, issues. And maybe some of these things we'll find under the other section, but partners with staff and community to address issues, willing to be creative and innovative. Again, looking to give people in the community opportunity to weigh in on something other than other, if that makes sense. Is there a word count on other?

1:51:57 There's no word count on these. So on the please check the five most important professional skills and qualifications you hope to have in a new superintendent, do these cover the things that we talked about earlier in our conversation today? Is there anything we need to add to this list? Looks pretty inclusive. Did you want to explicitly call out the word unlike stability or stabilizing, Nicole? Was that a no? No, I took that from reading these questions.

1:52:42 Okay. No. Good. Yeah, I guess I think there's plenty there and enough to cover most of what people would view as important, and you got the others. So I think that pretty well covers it.

1:53:30 And one of the things that we'll be able to provide when the stakeholder report gets published, we also send that to the candidates so they know, "Here's the job I'm applying for, and this is what they're looking for, and this is the things that are important to them." So that's important. Well, and that's partly the reason that I wanted more active language- Yeah ... is because, like you say, it's to also inform the candidate. Yeah. So if they're this kind of a leader, maybe it won't appeal to them, but then there's a certain advantage of that, or if they're this. Right. So just want to make sure the survey reflects the type of candidate or candidates ideally that we would like to see.

1:54:17 Sure. And this will go out when, Rob? This will go out- I mean, I know it's working with Diane ... tomorrow. Tomorrow? Yeah. It's possible, but- Yeah ... I want to be conscious of the fact that I don't know that they were expecting to get it. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. We'll get it- Definitely tomorrow. We'll get it to your team today, and then- Can we make it front and center on our website? Yeah. Yep. And then on the weekly reports to the board, I'll tell you how many people have filled it out, so you'll get a running total. That'll be great. Yeah. Is that okay with all board members? That's okay with me. Okay. So we'll see that on Mondays. Yep.

1:55:03 Okay. Yep. All right. Are we good? We've covered everything we need to cover. Does anyone online have any questions? I don't. Is Amber still with us? Yeah. It seems like we've covered everything. Okay, great. Thank you. You guys are very thorough. Awesome. We try to be. Got five minutes to spare. Yes. And you can send me a reminder too,

1:55:49 please. All right. What about frequency of communication? I think that's a professional skill. That could just be under other for when people are wanting... So that could be added to the survey is what you're requesting, Amber? Yeah, that's what I'm suggesting. I would look for someone that has a frequency of communication. Amber, do you want that to be a specific call-out or one of the five most important professional skills? Yeah. Okay. I was looking at the five most important professional skills.

1:56:37 Frequency of... You guys help me on that, but frequency of communication and... Oh, goodness, words are escaping me. Starts with a T. Transparency? Thank you. If I could, real quick, Amber, here were some things that you thought. You wanted somebody that led with humility- Yes ... that was going to be a reflection of where you folks were, reflect on their own practice as well, then frequency of communication and trusting relationships. How did I do? Right. Okay. So, transparency is

1:57:25 on the- Personal traits. Yeah. So- We do have transparency there. Okay, great. Yeah. So we'll look at those four pieces, Amber, against what we have here now, and Rob can make some boxes for people to choose or select that as one of their five or three most important. Thank you. You bet. Okay. All right. With that- All right ... Jeff, did we have anybody else online other than board members and... Okay. Well, thanks to everybody for being here and watching and being here in person. Thanks again to the GLS crew. It's impressive the first go.

1:58:13 So, looking forward to the process. Yeah. You bet. Any other comments or questions from board members? Okay. Hearing none, I'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting. What's that? Oh, Amber, did- No, it's fine. We can adjourn the meeting. Okay. Thanks. So I will go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 12:59. All right. Awesome.