The Crookston Public School Board met on Monday afternoon for a Special Meeting to discuss the progress of the search for its next superintendent.
The meeting began with the board reviewing the stakeholder input information from the survey they had sent to the public earlier in the month. Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn reported they had 255 responses, mostly from Staff Members and parents. One question they asked was what top leadership skills the stakeholders believed the superintendent should have. 83.9% of respondents chose “Acts with Honesty and Integrity,” with 65.5% looking for accountability/respectability. When asked for the best personal traits, 74.5% believed Honesty/Trustworthy was the most important, with Visible/Accessible within the school and community by 59.6%. With what growth areas people believed was best for the superintendent to address in the next 3-5 years, the most chosen choice was skills in managing/ensuring financial stability with declining enrollment, with the next being to find ways to grow/stabilize student enrollment. Other highly picked options were to make Crookston School a desirable destination for students to attend and to improve the focus on academic achievement and the ability to secure qualified teachers and support staff to serve the educational needs of children in the district. Interim Superintendent Kuehn reported that the responses were in line with what the school board was looking for in the next superintendent. “A lot of things that came from the stakeholder input reaffirmed what the board is looking for in the next superintendent, as well as what the challenges the Superintendent will face,” Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn explained. “I think the board already understands that, but I think it reaffirmed it with the answers they got from the survey.”
The board then began reviewing the search timeline and process for the superintendent. Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) Lee Warne reported that the deadline date for applicants to send in applications would be Monday, February 6. After the deadline, the MSBA would send applications, reference letters, and other information of all of the applications to the board for them to review while they meet with the candidates and their reference list. On February 15, the MSBA would send a list of the candidates they believed best fit the profile of the position to the board to choose who they would interview. The board will then look at MSBA’s recommendations and decide on which candidates to invite to be interviewed. Warne then went over some protected categories of questions they should not ask certain candidates, such as how long they would be in the job if they had special conditions like pregnancy, arrest history, or military service.
The board then began reviewing and discussing the protocol and process for the superintendent position interviews. Warne first went into the equal-opportunity employment protocol. He explained that there were some qualifications and potentially the names of the applicants that they could not share with the public. The only way they could share that information was if they were selected to be finalists for a job vacancy, but the others who did not make it would never have their information released. When they would discuss the candidates, they would have to use secret phrases to describe them (Candidate A, B, etc.). They would also have to be vague about their previous experiences to prevent any information from coming out. The board will then work with the MSBA to privately contact any candidates they wished for interviews. The MSBA would also help the school in accommodating any candidates that come from great distances when they come for the interview. The next protocol they discussed was the Open Meeting Law which stated that all meetings had to be open to the public. While they could meet for closed meetings for certain subjects, they were not allowed to have any private meetings. He also went into common interview questions, saying that while they were learning about the candidates in interviews, the same was with the candidate to them and recommended that they put their best foot forward for the interviews and potentially give them a tour of the schools in the second round.
The board then began developing the first round of interview questions. Lee Warne gave some suggestions/example questions for the board to use in their interview process, such as;
- What made them want to apply for the Superintendent position?
- How were they would go about maintaining a strong leadership team?
- How they will work to improve educational experiences for students who have been historically underserved and underrepresented?
- What was their experiences with school financials, and what was the most unpopular decisions they’ve made that was unpopular with the school and community?
- What motivated them to motivate those in the school district who resisted change while also building trust within the school and community?
- How would they approach circular reviews and potential changes resulting in improved test scores?
“I think they’re looking to see if the candidates have knowledge and experience in areas of curriculum/instruction, financial accountability, people skills, communication skills. These are skills and traits in the next superintendent that the questions will hopefully pull that information from the candidates when they answer,” Dave Kuehn explained. “A lot of the questions ask what that leader brings to the school district in that communication, personal skills, financial abilities, what their knowledge and experience is in working with diverse populations, referendums, and a lot of different areas that superintendents are charged to lead and direct.”
The board then began developing the schedule of the interviews. They would begin the first round of interviews on Tuesday, February 21, and Thursday, February 23, at 3:00 p.m., with each candidate getting one hour each with a fifteen-minute break between each interview and a half-hour recess after three candidates. At the completion of the February 23 interviews, the board would then deliberate on which candidates would move to the second round with their top three choices.
The board then began discussing the procedures of the interviews. Warne suggested that the board have someone keep track of the time of the interview to help them move forward with any long answers. Another suggestion was to use the same questions for every candidate to ensure it is fair to all candidates. The board made a motion to solidify the questions they would ask at a special meeting on Wednesday, February 15.
The board finished the meeting by discussing and scheduling the steps necessary for the rest of the hiring process. Warne reported that the second round was scheduled for February 25, beginning at 9:55 a.m., for the three candidates the board would choose to go forward with.
The Crookston Public School Board will next meet on Monday, February 27.
