[Applause] [Music] good afternoon and welcome to the April 2nd 2024 special meeting of the Board of Education First I will call on my fellow board members to introduce themselves to establish that we have a quum Mr s hello everybody Sammy S student member of the board happy to be here today sheer Evans District Four Brenda wolf District Five good afternoon Julie Yang District three and we have some colleagues on Zoom good afternoon gra rera oven district one good afternoon everyone Lyn Harris I
you she her pronouns I'm an atlarge member of the board okay uh we have called this special meeting to consider Contracting with Greenwood Asher and Associates an executive Search firm as we announced last month we have launched a nationwide search for our next superintendent we have begun Gathering Community input to inform the development of a leadership profile for our recruiters to use as they help us identify our next superintendent the board is hosting three Community meetings this week to
night tomorrow night and Thursday night to gather input we have a website where community members can take a survey giving their perspective on what our school district needs in a leader at this time we are committed as a board to finding the right leader for our schools while we know that Maryland law requires a superintendent or interm superintendent to be appointed by July 1st we will search until we are satisfied that we have identified the person able to provide the leadership vision and ex
perience needed to meet the needs of our community The Firm we have identified Greenwood Asher and Associates is an executive Search firm with a national reputation and an impressive track record we have chosen a firm whose scope extends Beyond K12 space because we believe that they will bring both a more expansive pull of candidates and a fresh perspective with that can I get a motion to approve the Green Sheet um Excuse Me Miss sylvestri before we do that could we call down Miss Macintosh Davi
d I just would like for the audience to be able to for the um viewers at home and just for transparency talk a little bit about the procurement process so people can have a better understanding of how we went about selecting happy to do so and then after we do the motion and the second we'll also have discussion for all board members to ask ask their questions or make any points that they would like to make at this time sure hi good afternoon yourself again Angela McIntosh Davis director of proc
urement and um so I want to um just explain um the process that we went through this time um I think uh relative to the last time um we did a uh RFP process uh previously this time we decided um or it it appeared that we had a better option um to piggyback or Bridge we use both of those terms in the procurement World um a contract that has been competed um by another government or public entity um we had several viable options um to select from uh we received um information from those um candida
tes so to speak uh or firms that we could select from and what we look for is again that it has been competed publicly and that the scope of services um aligns with the scope of work that you're looking for for your executive Search as well um and so we were able to identify um firms in order to do that and then we still went through a process of requesting a proposal from them those were reviewed and then it was narrowed down down to um a couple of firms to interview and ask questions of to mak
e your decision thank you um can I get a motion for the purposes of discussion a motion in a second to move the Green Sheet move approval second okay and now we can open it up to any questions or discussion items that you may have okay ask my colleagues to turn their lights on if there there's anything to say if not we'll take a vote Mr Rea Avan do you have any questions or discussion items no questions thank you okay so just to recap um the board received um several options in terms of bridging
contracts with uh government entities that have already gone through the full procurement process uh for these firms um and then we uh the board took some time to review their proposals uh we interviewed them um and we made the selection of our firm that we are approving today that is correct okay I know we've received some emails uh from the community if anyone you know has any questions from there that we can help address um any Community concern concerns in terms of our process I think now i
s the time I don't think we have any questions I I think though that we do want our community to know that we're committed to a transparent process this time around which is why we're sharing out here in public today how we came about choosing the firm that is being recommended for um selection and I also think that people don't always understand what piggyback and bridging means even though you said it technically um it it it is a way to lessen the time but go through a a legitimate process tha
t you would otherwise have gone through if it had not already been done by a government agency so if you could just just a little bit more on that I think it might be helpful um sure um one of the other factors we have to look at is that the the contract that was competed is still active so while there's um there could be multiple options um firms who have done searches who have had recent contracts the contract needed to be um current and active which this one is um which also allows for and we
in instead of using piggybacking all the time we use Bridge because it's like that bridge to um getting uh you know done what needs to be done instead of taking the 30 days for your own RFP to be out for solicitation um responses and you know going through that process so it does um allow for an expeditious um um method of getting what's what needs to be done and a little bit of a faster manner thank you I just wanted people to understand that this is a real process thank you Mr s yeah um you k
now I just want to reiterate what Miss wolf was saying you know we are seriously committed to transparency and I think in the you know light of of doing things kind of a new way a more transparent way um you know one you know quick thing is this is a search firm we've never used before which I think you know demonstrates and highlights our interest in really ensuring we're taking a new approach this year than we have at least in in in recent you know history so I think that um that's that's anot
her step that I think reiterates our our commitment to transparency and kind of ensuring the community that we're doing new processes um so that they can have you know more faith and trust in us I just have one more yes M um and and you could fill in the dates but also the public should know that we have three public meeting dates that are coming up this week I'm going to leave it to our president to tell you the dates the time and where cuz I might get it wrong yes tonight we will be at senica
Valley at 6:00 p.m. uh tomorrow we'll be at Richard Montgomery same time and on Thursday we will be at Wheaten High School um and again the purposes of these meetings is to get input from the community in terms of what you're looking in terms of a leader for our school system what we're helping to build a leadership profile which will be then handed over to our search firm as they start to look for candidates Nationwide hey this is what the community this is what the m mcps board of education sa
id they're looking for in a leader and so we want to hear from um our our parents our our staff from all over the county um in terms of what they need in the leader at this time so very important um that we have good representation um and uh if you miss tonight you have two more opportunities and there will be a virtual Forum um in the near future um again for the sake of trans Arcy I I wanted to ask a few more questions um the the bridge contracts that we considered um there were four if I'm re
membering correctly is that correct there was originally five that had an option of yes okay yes um and again we interviewed them uh we were very impressed with Greenwood Asher and Associates I know personally I thought that they are able to devote a lot of time and energy into this search they were willing to bring on additional staff uh to help um and um yeah really really sold me in particular in terms of their ability to deliver a quality product at the end and have good communication betwee
n the board um and their team I can add with regard to the contract we're bridging um we're bridging Montgomery College um so that's a local um institution that Greenwood Asher has you know completed a search for so and I believe the state of Maryland is one of theirs as well but that's that was helpful I think in having that information by Greenwood Asher thank you I was just going to add thank you I was just going to add that I I was impressed with their expansive Network and that it wasn't ju
st um solely 2 K through 12 and I think that what we do know is that there's just a finite number of um individuals out there able to lead school system but with their expansive Network that we felt like they had a broader reach to be able to bring back someone um that could be unique in being able to help run our school system here in mcgomery County Public Schools so just looking very forward to working with them and um engaging with the community and also I think there's still time for the co
mmunity to fill out the survey around what characteristics and attributes that people would like to see in the future superintendent in the event that they are not able to come out to the community engagement meeting so just excited to get started it this is really important work of the board right hiring a superintendent and really um glad that we have the organization The Firm to work with that we chose Jade yeah and then you know just you know kind of outlining that whole process you know if
any students are watching or anyone's interested we're also having a student form April 10th um that's going to be co-hosted by my smob advisory Council uh so you know we're really looking to get all bases covered so we will have significant student input on top of you know all the community forms in general centered around students as well who we know are the customers of our school system so just rering to the community we really are you know getting bases covered ensuring that you know as man
y stakeholders you know we're trying to get all but as many uh we can get as possible are being included in this so there is a student Forum on top of all the community Forums on top of the virtual Forum that will be occurring on April 10th as well so I just wanted to highlight that uh before I forget it just for the record thank you okay um and oh miss Mrs Harris yeah thank you and I did want to partly Echo what Mrs Evans said about uh the sort of uh interestingly Fresh Approach Greenwood Asher
indicated they would use for our search um having interviewed um several search firms at this point and in the past several years um I did appreciate um many of the other search firms seem to sort of the same playbook for for one of a better term and green word ashers had a um a very different very uh unique way of looking at um the the the diverse candidate pool that we are interested in seeing and how they would access them and also um encourage them to see mcps as a system that they would wa
nt to work in and at the same time they were also very I also appreciated their cander because we realize that we are in you know a situation that's not fully ideal we know that there are many many school systems in the country who are similarly searching for superintendents right now there's a lot of competition out there and they were very very um open about the that reality and but not at all dissuaded uh from their interest in working with us uh to do this work so I think it will be a good e
xperience for all of us um could you expand a little on the terms of the contract what are we asking them to do just for our public to understand so they are to meet with the board I know individually um develop that profile utilize the survey results uh information from these public forums but they are being directed by the board as to what you know they are are looking for they will conduct a nationwide search they will present to you viable candidates for your review and accept or denial of u
m it's really up to the board as well to direct them and and everything that they need to do but the the search in that of itself is exactly that it's a nationwide search and they will uh get their information as developed by the those surveys and and forums and then we interview all the vi candidates then we make our decision and one great thing about greenw Asher is they're with us until we find our ideal candidate absolutely so that um um we are confident that we can find one in this go aroun
d but if not they are with us until we do that is true that's correct okay uh Mr V oven I don't see you uh if you have any questions or comments now is the time thank you so much no I just EO what some of my colleagues have said and um I'm looking forward to the vote okay so we have a motion and a second on the floor if there's no further discussion all in favor raise your hands and that's unanimous with those present thank you that concludes our our session for today [Music]
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