Quick Recap:
- The School Committee met in a workshop prior to their regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb 8, 2022 to discuss the basics around finding a replacement for Superintendent Sara Ahern who is leaving at the end of the school year
- Tracy Novick, Field Director for the district from the MASC provided her insights on the process and options and answered questions along the way
- Short story - the School Committee if they think they have an internal candidate, they can schedule for a regular meeting, a discussion item laying out that such a discussion, and decision may be reached. If the internal candidate is willing, they can proceed to negotiations and settle. If the candidate is not desiring the role, the Committee can then move to a search.
- The search can be done internally with a consultant or search firm. Either way approx. 3 months is usually needed to do it properly. Cost for a search consultant or firm can start at about $10.5K and go up from their depending upon the menu of options chosen
- Stay tuned to this, the Committee needs to move quickly as the district is required to have a certified/qualified superintendent to operate. If the process is not completed in time, an interim superintendent would be needed to cover until a search is completed
Recording should be available within a couple of days
The Twitter thread can be mostly found in one PDF (a couple of tweets missed the doc, but can be found with the hash tag #schcomss0208)
Agenda doc (no remote participation)
- Live reporting underway for the School Committee superintendent search meeting tonight #schcomss0208 Tracy Novick here (yay!) to lead the overview representing MASC on this key topic
- If you are transparent, say what you want and then do it, that works; problems arise when you don't follow through #schcomss0208 the public needs to follow along without getting surprised
- Districts having a bench is a good thing, about 1/3 of hires are from within, rather than going for a search. #schcomss0208 public process of hiring, posted agenda, quorum of committee, them up to the committee to do so;
- If you are transparent, say what you want and then do it, that works; problems arise when you don't follow through #schcomss0208 the public needs to follow along without getting surprised
- Underway about 15 which may not be all of them; #schcomss0208 no dwindling of applications for open positions, some in central admin didn't jump last year, some are this year. Position here wouldn't see the competition other open spots have, geographic/size district etc.
- There are ways to expedite a search (i.e. have some one do the prescreen and provide final candidates) MASC does that, but not why they are here tonight. #schcomss0208 a search firm will staff the detail work, confirming requirements, profile, application process, etc.
- Search firm can be a firm fee or a menu of items, can range from $10,500 and up... #schcomss0208 brought timeline could be 3 months for a regular search process. If search is not done in time, then an interim is required as one is needed
- Community needs to be part of the search process or at least be comfortable with the candidate selected #schcomss0208 waivers tend to come up from a retiree returning
- Even if an internal candidate is available, then it can be a consideration to be part of the search process to ensure getting "the" best candidate. #schcomss0208
- Q on other community examples? would need to check with her colleagues, she is unfortunately blanking at the moment. #schcomss0208 if there is a strong internal candidate, it will be "known" and some applicants will know also and not apply
- Consultant would provide the sorted listing of candidates to the subcommittee in executive session for review and discussion to select the 'semifinalists'; when the search comm comes to finalists then it becomes a public process #schcomss0208
- Search committee can conduct the discussion/whittling in a posted executive session meeting. #schcomss0208
- Meeting about to adjourn
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| Recap: School Committee hears options for finding their next superintendent |
