Hopkins School Board - Superintendent Search Deliberations April 13th, 2026

All right. Thank you again. So, we talked about doing the same thing with your deliberations that if two or three interviews go up, they're going to stay up through the 20th, which is round two, as will these deliberations stay up until the 20th. Any questions on that?

Okay, great. So, for that reason, we ask you to focus on the positives of the candidates, the strengths that they brought to this process. The interview is a 1-hour snapshot of their candidacy. You, of course, as the board have seen a lot more material than that, and what we would recommend you do, thank you very much, is start with the first interview this morning and ask each board member to share just one or two strengths per board member of that candidate. Then we'll move on to the next candidate and so on and so forth. I will take notes because I will contact. It can be sort of an informal consensus beginning to grow.

Eventually, you could also do what you did last week during the selection meeting, which is make a motion to bring one person back and see how the vote goes, and then another motion to bring another, or if it's clear who the top two or three might be, someone could make a motion to bring those three people back or those two people back, and you can do it in one slate. Does that make sense?

Okay. Once you have passed that motion, there's more work to be done in anticipation of next Monday's round two interviews, which we will get to then. The schedule finalizing that and then the interview questions. And we'll do the questions similarly to how you did the questions for round one. I've got a bunch that I'm suggesting, and you'll go through and individually choose the ones you like, and then we'll have a conversation very cryptically around the number of the question, trying not to say too much in an open meeting for those who might be watching this and have an advantage, but if you have another suggestion on a round two question, you can email it to me and I'll forward it to the whole board to consider as well.

So, I'm now going to hand out these EMD forms. I want to point out, too, that this is not a ranking of candidates. Ranking of candidates, you know, first, second, third, fourth, that's public data. This is just an indication of how you as board members felt about the quality of their answers. That's all it is. It's just a general overview. It's not going to dictate who you bring back on March 20th on April 20th, excuse me, but it does give you an indication of how your fellow board colleagues felt about the quality of the answers given to them. Okay? So, give me just a minute. Are these public? Uh generally not, but they're subject to a data request, yes. Okay. But, the ranking of candidates is public if we get that. But, I would prefer you not rank folks first, second, or third. But, this is not ranked. This is just the order they went. This is just Yeah, it's just in order they went. How many E's and M's each got. Thank you. Thank you. You get a lot of people cut some days like this.

So, as mentioned, I just want to give you a high-level overview of this. When you look at the exceeds, meets, disappoints scores, a couple of things that generally boards will look for is how many E's or exceeds did the candidates receive. The more exceeds expectations indicate they answered those questions very well. So, you as a collective felt good about that. And conversely, if there are more D's or disappoints, then that indicates and share with you. We don't always have to share it unless there's a very tight discussion between a few candidates. Otherwise, I don't think it's necessary to share that one, but this is definitely one tool in your toolbox. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to Chair Andresen.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it, and I want to thank my board colleagues for having a really great day and interview process. I I thought it went really well and appreciated Actually, I really appreciated the section where they asked questions of us, and I got to hear things from all of you. That was really a nice part of this process. So, I will ask that we briefly discuss the strengths of each candidate. So, if we want to just go around the the table, and we can start with um sharing the strengths of Michael Thomas, who was our first candidate that interviewed. And just one or two strengths per board member. Do you want to start?

Sure. Clerk W.G. >> Yes. Yes. So, for uh uh our first candidate, Michael Thomas, the things that I would most highlight about this candidate is that uh he was articulate and able to bring to bear his experience and how it has shown up in outcomes and has a profound capacity to um for structural leadership and insights. And then On to me. Um thanks, Chair Andresen. I'll share two things um that I was impressed by. Number one, I just got the sense he really really understands the financial situation of public schools in Minnesota. He had stats from AS MSD, and I think in his role as a currently sitting superintendent, he he he's lived it. Um the the second thing I would say that I really liked was something he said. Was He talked about the importance of process in saying we might not always agree with the decision, but we want that process to be something that can be agreed upon. Something that stood out to me was that he was really able to kind of hold the both and relate the joy and the struggle that is public education, and he's brought tons of relevant and specific stories about both the wins and the struggles he has had to face in his personal career and that the organizations he's led has been through. Um but, he also to me showed a real kind of humility and a willingness to grow and learn and just openly um talked about how this is a position that he has wanted for years and that he was in the running 9 years ago and has his commitment to wanting to work here has never wavered, and that he's grown since that time in this, this, and this ways, and I thought that that was particularly remarkable. Thank you. I would agree with my my board colleagues, and just to um to add on to that, I felt like his um because of the depth and breadth of his experience, he brought a comprehensive um way of answering the questions that felt really um just felt really good. I also liked that he called out in several of his examples um special education and um which you all know is near and dear to my heart. And then um just felt that his length of service in this role um really helped him give a a comprehensive of how he would behave in the next as our next superintendent. I would say I agree with Director Thompson on the financial piece. I felt very confident in his ability to articulate different tax implications just beyond like public schools. He talked about the implications of it being like to homeowners and just to different um different sections of how that just impacts us in just the overall his federal his federal advocacy role as well. Um And I also really loved the fact that beyond his role, he talks about challenging himself to grow every day. I think that's really important for a leader that sometimes you may not sometimes you make different decisions based on new information, and I see that that is something that he may be inclined to do based on his principle his self-awareness principle of challenging self to grow every day. And I also love the fact that he um he mentioned not logical coaching, but to um but to also like be a to coach up to the people that he serves or that he that works under him and making sure that he's leading with humanity in mind as well as structure. So, those were some of the key things that I received um from his interview today. Yeah, I I was struck by how he talks about equity. I think he said something along the lines of that it's the high tide for all and that really resonated with me and he talked a lot about, you know, how do we make the investments in certain things that get the best return and I think that's what scares resources the correct way to think about it. And then finally I was very struck and impressed by how much research he did on the district. I mean, you know, he's we're we're somewhat close in geography but that he was able to you know, speak to a lot of the same problems we have and I think was was really good and that he voluntarily watched board reports I think says a lot about his character and how much work he's willing to do. I agree with all everything that's been said. So I think for me he understands that trust is a very dynamic multi-faceted thing to build and that it takes it takes exceptional work in all of those categories to build trust that it's not just going to be one like well I'm the competent one so you should trust me or I'm reliable so you should trust me that he understands how dynamic trust is. And then I also really liked the way he talked about equity. I loved the phrase he used where he talked about each not all. And I think that that aligns with sort of my my idea of of equity as well and I think he spoke to really how he lives that value and like how that outcome has shown up or how how that value has shown up in outcomes really demonstrated outcomes. Thank you. Clerk Thompson if you want to start with the next candidate uh George Nolan. I guess I'm the clerk again. Oh I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Congrats. It's going to be forever. Sorry. I give up. Um the two things that well two of the things that I noted that I I liked about Nolan um that he is results-oriented and he's he's focused on results. Um the another thing that that I'll mention that I was impressed by was um his his demonstrated ability to coach people. Um I I would had written something down you know, that he mentioned 11 assistant principals who've worked under him have have moved up and so I thought that was really impressive. Um Dr. George Nolan showed several creative approaches and kind of really highlighted innovative and kind of growing mindset that is really important in Hopkins both in his current role and in this role that he interviewed for. So I liked that and and showed um examples from both his past and then more recently from his active role within our community already. And then he also was candid about some growth moments and even brought a little humor and acknowledged the you know, the slight awkwardness of being here in front of people that he knows and the like the selling oneself nature of an interview and so that little bit of real talk helps right that is to me an element of approachability and building trust. Um thank you. One of the the big strengths that I felt came through with Dr. Nolan was um his uh demonstrated commitment to equity and the um gains in which um implementing those um those equity programs um resulted in um increase in growth in student experience and outcomes. Uh the the second one was that um he really talked about things specifically and could point to numbers and um also I noted to what uh Director Thompson did the the the growing and the specific specificity of how many people um he's he's watched and mentored and move move forward in their careers. Um I I really appreciated that demonstrating specific um things and also the ability to share those to answer our questions. It was I didn't feel like it was just a vague response. Um so I appreciated that. What I appreciated about Dr. Nolan was first his rolling up the sleeves and responding approach was very um it was a highlight for me um especially in respect to Gator Academy that had been established in response to you know, the late starts that was a bigger issue in our school district in transportation and also the um you know, the the IB school becoming that the first um the only one one of the ones in America and then also the mental health clinic um establishing one of the first ones in the state in a high school. That was really impressive especially with like the stake and um that would be so cool to see established at every school and then the um the parent council. I think that's very important to establish as well because it does meet um some of our broader district family engagement goals that we um talk about and so I love the consistency in bringing that forward. And also I will agree with um my colleagues about the the coaching up in having folks that served under you now in leadership positions that speaks a lot to one's mentorship impact and effectiveness. Yeah what one item I really liked with Dr. Nolan was his communication uh plan or you know, what what intentions are to really start it about a year in advance um especially for the bigger things. I thought that answer was great and uh his discussion about building trust um by building feedback loops and I think um that's a really good concept and you know, when you think about a feedback loop, it's not just well I'm going to get the information and then put it over here on the shelf that it's really feedback loops indicate to me that it's conversational and ongoing and constant not just when necessary and so I thought that was an impressive answer. For Dr. Nolan I want to affirm how evident it was that he's passionate about his work and about this district and that came through very clearly. A second thing I really appreciated was the ways in which um as an educational leader he seems very aware of how um students and families don't exist within just the walls of the school but they're they're holistic people and like if you don't have a haircut or you can't get food or these sorts of things impact your ability to be successful as a learner and so he described different interventions based in that deep understanding and I just want to deeply affirm that he is a leader who understands that and then seeks to have ways to impact that so students more students can succeed. Thank you. And Treasurer Heartland if you would like to start with our third candidate Andy Beaton. Certainly. First and foremost when talking about finances I believe he was the only candidate who spoke about the financial equation not just as making cuts, but also driving revenue. And as framed that as this kind of necessary piece in balancing our budgets, and I really appreciate that that that is absolutely obviously a place another way that we can positively impact the financial status of a district. And so, I appreciate that very much. It is also evident when you hear him speak that he is another leader that has served in in so many places and in so many roles that you really get the sense that nothing would be surprising to him. And so, though obviously he would be new to Hopkins, that there would be nothing essentially that could be surprising to him at this point. And seems like a leader who is ready for this next step. Thank you. I was struck by not just the length of time he he has been doing this work, but the various roles that he has taken on in different spaces. I think that shows not just a deep commitment to education at all levels, but a a knowledge of how a decision in one place can impact people who may not have been able to have any influence on that decision. So, that it is important to me. I also felt like he um mentioned at one point um the student voice, which I feel is an important part of of how we do things in Hopkins. I will say that I really appreciated um Andrew's candor and the way that he described his working style of which was a balance which struck a balance to me of being very firm with expectations, but also having um a firm expectation of humility. So, I think that he will bring the type of leadership that we need to ensure that outcomes are being delivered in our individual schools. And that was something that stuck out to me was his his balance of that. And then I was this again the I know that he brought up the situation with the child pornography and the steps I'm sorry um the steps that he took to address that situation in his school district was very diligent. And the fact that it was the the process, the protocols, and the outcomes with that was something especially because it was AI. And that's something that's super big right now in our entire world is AI digital creation. The the follow-up to that and the continued follow-up to that spoke volumes to me. So, Uh yeah, I was especially struck by his discussion over um the 504 plans. And to me it really spoke to him as a leader that will kind of like dig a little bit deeper, right? So, you know, initially they'd be like, well, yeah, we need to you know, do something about that, right? And so, you know, then then we're off to the races, but he sat down into really think about, well, what what is actually happening and how can we you know, is there anything we can do to proactively or preventatively you know, improve outcomes? And so, he's able to kind of find a good solution and a very I think innovative solution that you know, things like that bubble up. And he has somebody else said a very broad experience including being a teacher and sped para. So, I think he's a leader that knows what's possible and what's what what being on the front lines feels like and and I think from the way he talked really translate that into system improvements as well. So, I was very impressed with that. One thing that I was really struck by in his responses is how data driven his answers were. Every single answer he gave he talked about why changes were made or what the approach was and how it was supported by the data. And so, even as um Director Zhao mentioned in his equity answer about 504 plans, he talked about how the data that was showing disparities classroom to classroom, how the data was showing an increase in 504 plans. And using the data as a diagnostic tool and then you know, digging deep, really going deeper to to determine what the best solution is for the diagnosed problem. And he spoke the same way about data with respect to academic outcomes. He talked about having teachers check their students' understanding every single day and how important it is to get data. He said, we have our teachers getting data every single day. And that's not numerical data or test data, that's just informal communication with students, getting data, and using that to improve processes. And I liked that he um was system oriented in that in that respect that the data comes in, we utilize it, and then that makes our output stronger. So, for our third candidate Andrew Beaton, I think for me one of the things that most clearly stood out was that he is decidedly a strong administrator. Not only with the 32 years of experience, but in the examples and some of the things many of you have named already, how that showed up. So, a couple moments where I particularly experienced that was he's speaking about a situation in which he went in and and said, what is what would it look like for us to flip the narrative? And I I think for leaders to be able to be creative, and you can get well, I can get anyway log jammed in a particular perspective and I'm trying to approach it from this lens and suddenly if you shift, it can open up whole new worlds of possibilities. And so, I I appreciated that particularly in conjunction with what he named as as a school district, what does it mean to do medicine work instead of doing an doing an autopsy? So, like, oh, too bad, everything failed. What if instead we back that up and keep working? And I think our district is in alignment with that kind of body of work that we want to do in supporting our students. And so, for me there's a lot of this both and for him as a leader that I it seemed to me was a really deep resonance for our community of rigor plus humanity. So, expectations of success plus humanity. And and then how he grounded it all too in the sense of, yeah, the data matters in helping us to understand how are we accomplishing the hopes and dreams? Like, what do you hope for your student? What do you hope for this district? And so, that kind of way of making those connections. And just the last thing I'll say is I was a leader in the Edina community outside of the schools when he had been a leader at the high school there. And and just seeing the values that he brought and how he led that work is deeply resonant from my perspective with the values of Hopkins. And so, I appreciate that, too. I think just two things I would add and agree with a lot of what has been said here is I wrote down ability to connect with the community. As he talked about starting that new elementary league with both athletics and some fine art stuff and you know, understanding his district and and the diversity that's there. And you know, there's two hockey rinks that maybe aren't being used. So, what's you know, understanding, connecting that, making goals, forming a committee. I was impressed by that. And then just to add a bit what Vice Chair Ropke had talked about his communication style. I was impressed by the example where something he communicated didn't come across as intended. And you know, he understood, oh, I was being too prescriptive there. That wasn't exactly what I intended. So, just two things I would add as well. Thank you. Vice Chair Ropke, would you like to start with your two things that you appreciated about our fourth candidate Michael Lehan? Yes. Well, one of course a former student is applying to be the next superintendent in a district speaks volumes about our district. So, that was very impressive to me and I love the personal connection to the district just beyond him being a student was was key for me. I love that. But I also loved the fact that he talked about like the balance of empowering others to lead and taking a look at back of who would you rehire. Just doing that type of strategic analyst of like your current staff and just understanding their strengths and their skill sets to me was very strong on his end. So, I like that he mentioned that. Um and then he also talked about in his strategic directions of like getting stakeholder feedback. He mentioned about the each student each family approach. Um which goes into some of the equity goals that he also talked about. Um and fully understanding context of um of situations. And then I like that he was deep diving into the data about um about some of the curriculum that he's currently doing at his school. Um And also being a caretaker of the human spirit was a different uh it hit a bit different because I think that our spirits are often neglected in our work um and we're just looked at like we're just looked at for our work and not who we are as a person. So, being a caretaker of the spirit was good to me. Yeah. Uh I think uh one of the things uh I think maybe uniquely uh about this candidate is um his background uh as an administrator of private school um or a a boarding school. I I don't I don't know if it's private or public, but um where he talked about, you know, enrollment being, you know, very reliant on it and that's like a central metric that he monitors. Um you know, not that necessarily it's the same exact situation, but, you know, as um as I think everybody knows now on the board, you know, ADM at average daily membership is a big part of our growth or our stability as a district financially. And um you know, I think a little bit of um I don't know. I hesitated to say free market you kind of marketing there, but maybe some sort of like focus on that. Uh you know, what would it look like if our enrollment actually was positive and we had more resources to to allocate. Um it'd be a different world, I think, in a good way for the district. And so, um I thought that was unique unique in the field of candidates that we had as a as a focus or a talking about that a lot. One of my favorite things um about this candidate was how he talked about how every family needs to see yourself and see themselves in the mission. Right? And so, to me that speaks volumes about buy-in and understanding um that in order to accomplish a mission and goal you want buy-in and you need to bring everyone along with that. Um well, I will echo um strongly the deep affirmation of him being a Hopkins alumni. And just what a gift it was to be able to hear from one of our graduates who's leading and has an interest in also coming back to lead here. And so, that clear um values alignment this like they're in his blood um who we are as Hopkins and just really appreciated him naming that. And the energy and enthusiasm um was inspiring um to hear him even begin there. And I I felt even more proud to be a part of the district. Second thing I just really appreciated that he brought um and many of you've commented on this, but he started by naming the concept of Ubuntu and how the idea that I am because we are and the sense of as you think about communication and buy-in and all the other things that he talked about strategically or the way he's approached his work it's all grounded in that space. I am because we. There's the I and the we and they are fundamentally always together and you heard that in in all of his answers as he talked about how he did consensus building, how people need to see themselves in the mission, to be seen and heard uh and how that matters. And he was able to share a little bit about that and so, I appreciated him naming that. And that's it. One thing I wrote down that I was struck by was humble. And I I don't know if the the word is humbleness or humility, but um you know, what I was struck by was I mean, here's a very accomplished guy and what one thing he talked about was you know, not what to build through my lens through their lens. Um and then led to a very successful welcome week that was rolled out district-wide. So, I was very impressed by that. I thought that this candidate came across as humble, certainly, and very approachable. And I liked that his personal and professional life seemed full of kind of bravery, risk-taking, that he has experienced a lot in life and now, not that I can say definitely more or less than any other candidate, but brought that to the table more than any other candidate. Um and has made the choice when he potentially did not have to given that given his background to come back to education purposefully and tied that really specifically to the impact on his life that Hopkins educators had. And that really resonated with me. And then the other piece that I will take with me from um his words is what several of us have mentioned, but that seeing yourself in a mission and kind of building that or looking at that any organization's mission as co-created and the necessity of having stakeholder voice in that. Thank you. Um I was also struck by by that uh way of of being in shared space with others. Um a very inviting presence. Um and allowing you to show up as you are, I think uh speaks volumes to his leadership style. The the thing that I was really struck by was this concept of perception data um that he brought up, which I think is distinct and is something that is so critical when we are when someone is leading a system that is large and has a lot of different people in it. It's one thing to look at numbers, it's another thing to really take seriously how people are perceiving an organization and and he called that out as his driving um mechanism when making change and I I thought that was really this is a sign of someone who could um get to consensus. I also deeply appreciated that in the equity conversation he named um uh LGBTQIA um students and centering their voice. Um I heard him say, and I think this is is something that uh Director Thompson also said, that when he was uh working with that uh group of um students, he decentered his voice and centered theirs in all the the decisions and that to me, too, is also the sign of a really effective leader. Um also deeply impressed that he uh presented a really creative way of getting to the I think perennial issue of um disparities in AP enrollments by coming at it from the lens of where do we want um our our students to end up? And I'm going to go to uh Becky. Is it Bordier? Bordier. Bordier. Yeah. Uh I thought that uh or uniquely among her answers with the candidate pool uh was I heard her talk about love and joy and I thought that that was um I guess unique for today and I thought it was very interesting in that, you know, on the board and maybe as a superintendent, you know, you do a lot of things that are not that. And so, I'm I'm I'm really glad that she named that as things that she uh you know, looks for or um you know, she she has so so many number of words to tell her about herself and that she used those two. Um I think that was a very interesting and I thought it was a really good thing. And then later on um she talked about some of the issues where she had with communication and she talked about flexibility and uh being able to pivot and uh pretty quickly to be like, okay, well, that didn't quite work. Um let's think of something a little innovative, a little bit different and and flex to something that that does work or is what I was intending. And um I thought that that was a really great answer uh from that perspective as well. I think this candidate, one of their greatest strengths um is clear that they are excellent at building relationships and perhaps even maintaining those relationships. She talked about how trust is difficult to build and it is fragile. She said it's just as easy to break as it is to earn. And so it it takes care and reliability, sincerity, and knowledge, and showing up. And I really liked her phrasing of that. I also noted that she highlighted that people come to her and they seem to trust her, which to me reflects a leadership style that has a two-way street of communication and that's open and transparent. And that was with respect to the communication about working having some teachers work remotely and some reacted negatively to that and she wrote I missed that part. Like she owned it, I missed that. And the fact that those teachers felt safe. For our final candidate, I think the the top thing that I walked away from that interview was reflecting upon what a thoughtful, insightful, and engaged leader she is. Some examples of how I heard that show up. I really appreciated in the second question when she was talking about the six middle schools and increasing outcomes. Not only did she delineate, hey, here's the process that went about consensus building and really doing engagement and developing the plan, but then at the end she also said, we ended up recommending some changes that we didn't anticipate. And to me that is a home run and the data was showing us outcomes weren't where it needed to be and it was personal for the staff. And so that holding of space of yes, this might might be true and that we need to hold these intention and be choose what I think delicate and thoughtful. Delicate was the word. So I appreciated that and then the final piece with that is speaking about metro surge and the impact on her current district and the families and students and staff there in. She talked about developing their kind of processes and protocols by going to those who were most like on the front lines of relationship with the students. So going to the educators and the teachers in the classroom saying, what are you hearing and seeing from your students? And so not only that, but then she talked about what are the missing narratives when you think about equity and seeking those out and trying to build our programming in a way that and this came up all the time, is student centered, student centered, student centered, student centered. And then just the last thing I'll name is it's important I think to remember that our superintendents are humans and she ended by reminding us that she is also a human and has a family whom she loves and values and I appreciated her acknowledging and naming that and getting that before us as a candidate. I I think the the thing that I would say kind of build on one thing clerk WG just mentioned and and that was I was struck and impressed by when several times she mentioned the why. And and do the people in the community understand and and are behind the why and so much of that comes through good communication and that you know, when the community does understand that that helps in this you know, relationship building and and trust. What really struck me about this candidate was that she more than any other candidate here showed us her leadership style in this interview. So when she talked about equity, she said that's not just a stand-alone initiative, that is a lens. Now what does a lens mean? It means that we approach our decisions with this kind of framework and every decision that we make will use yourself. She picked her example and she gave it to us that answered the question and she left time to ask us questions. And then what did that result in? That resulted in her having a couple of minutes to reflect that and to thank us and that felt so intentional and and like I said, unlike or you know, in comparison with the other districts got a snapshot of what it would be like to be in conversation and in relationship with her as a leader. Thank you. I agree with that as well and I also agree with I think I heard it in every response. I started circling it because I was so impressed. Every response student centered, student centered. Center what kids need, student centered. It came up in every response and that deeply impressed me and so best for students I have here. Yeah, so that was the the top thing for me and also to I'll reiterate what treasure yeah, very short and left space for her to get to know us, which I think is an important part of this process. I would say that I agree with all of my colleagues around the student centered approach and all of her answers stuck out to me the most and I really loved the fact that she had focused on she mentioned that she have worked and presented to like school boards and so she is familiar with how how to interact with us and that was one of the things that stuck out to me as well because sometimes folks, you know, they they work they they know the school board, but some folks rarely work with them and so I really liked her her answer there. And then also I really loved the fact too like treasure heartland said that people feel comfortable with coming to her if there is a school culture issue or they need like to provide her with some feedback or communication. That speaks to a welcoming person and that speaks to a welcoming spirit. I think a lot of folks feel sometimes that they may receive retaliation or they may receive you know, some form of pushback of coming to speak up, but the way that she gave off is that all of hard conversations are okay with me and she's not afraid to have them in a very diplomatic way where folks are feeling like I can come to you regardless of my perspective on a said issue. And I also loved the fact that she did say equity is not a stand-alone initiative, it is a lens and so bringing that perspective as well especially as we talk about operation metro surge that just happened and the process and protocols that that she did to you know, support the students who were experiencing and the community members who were experiencing the the impact of that. And then I do like the questions that she asked at the end as well about you know, like what are you looking for in a superintendent? I loved how I was like, you know, relationship building and you know, just wanting to make sure that she felt comfortable stepping into her role without addressing conflict first and she was like I love that, but we're going to address the conflict too, right? Like so that was something that also was like, okay, like she gets it and so those are some things that stuck out to me most about her. Thank you everyone that can the feedback that we did through MSBA. Do you want to share what that is and then we can speak more? What would be the appropriate process? You could do whatever you would like relative to the EMD form. I do want to thank the whole board for how clearly you listened to every single answer these candidates gave you. You were very thoughtful, you were very plugged in and I know it's a lot of work. By the time the fifth interview was over, you you should be tired. That's why you took such great notes. So thank you for that. You you clearly paid attention and got to know these candidates as best you possibly could. As far as the form, I don't think you need to get into the specifics of it because it is only one indicator. There are candidates that have more ease, which again is one of the the leading indicators for interest in hearing from them again, but it's not the only one. What I like to do now is typically just say, is there anyone who's comfortable sharing who you might like to bring back for a second round? Who would you like to see again next Monday? You do not have to say my first choice, my second choice, my third choice. I'd rather that we just hear in general. Are there two or three people that you'd like to hear from and does the board sort of build consensus organically from those sorts of statements. If we get stuck, we clearly could go to another tool, which is the leadership profile and there is I think sometimes this can feel like an overwhelming part of the process, but just to remind my board colleagues that when we have this great tool that kind of shows where there might be some consensus around candidates. And also to remember that we're just inviting back people that we want to hear more from. We're not making that final decision yet. So, I know it does feel heavy regardless, but just a reminder that this is a decision of wanting to to hear more. Anyone want to go first with sharing who they'd like to hear from?

Sure. Yes. Treasure Heartland. I am interested in bringing back three candidates to hear more from. And I appreciate your reminder to us and the community that this is to continue a conversation. Um I in no particular order, I am interested in talking further with Becky Brodeur, um Andrew Beaton, and Dr. Michael Thomas. Thank you.

Second. Oh, we're motioning. >> No, I'm not I'm just saying so I totally agree. Okay. Sorry. That was a wasn't a motion. It's like I'm not putting Look at how well you trained us. You guys I'm like it's that's okay if was that a motion? Chair Endresen. Yes. Um I move that we bring back um Becky Brodeur, Andrew Beaton, and Dr. Michael Thomas for additional conversation. And is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Chair Endresen. Yes. Um I'm interested in this motion and it feels like it's kind of reflective based on some other EMSD results that we're seeing. Thank you. Um I am just curious what our schedule looks like for tours and second rounds. I think we had talked about planning for two, not three. Or did we plan for three? >> three. Okay, we did plan for three. >> case you only brought back two, that's easier than starting with two and adding a third. But the staff's done a wonderful job of arranging tours from I believe it's 9:00 a.m. till about 2:00 or 2:30 with the first interview starting at 4:35. Okay. So they have three currently planned, but it doesn't require three. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Um any further discussion? I know we'll Chair Endresen. Yes. And I will say this I want to just reaffirm gratitude to all five candidates for the time that they took in in meeting with us today. Thank you for that. I will also say the same. This is a very hard decision. Um especially being the first time superintendent search. Um I will echo Director Thompson's um uh comments that uh I think we have a very useful tool in front of us. Um and just so um our community understands throughout the day as we've been um conducting these interviews, we have been very intentional about completing um these rubrics that were given to us. We could um in each section question before us in a grid and that kind of um data I think is really helpful in making a decision like this. So I just want to to put that out there and to let our community know and also the candidates know that that's how this process worked on our end. Um And I would also like to say that um I I would like to hear more um from other people, but uh knowing that we do need to narrow it down to three and that that kind of correlates with the data that we got back, I am feeling really comfortable with this decision. So with Oh, go ahead. Chair Endresen, just one A, thank you for I said one thing and A. Um A, thank you for naming that and reminding us and our community of the evaluative rubric that we utilized. Um and then B is just to thank again MSBA for in part for your all's work in taking what we heard from the community engagement survey and all the feedback and then giving such clear descriptors around what does an answer that exceeds expectations as it relates to our own stated and professed values of what we're looking for in a leader and what we heard from the community in the survey and all the things. That was such a helpful touchstone to me at every point along um I kept checking that to make sure and questioning myself. Um so it was so helpful and just to say that I think it gave us a continuity of reflection as we're evaluating each answer and each candidate. So thank you for that. I just need to thank Amy Jordan for putting that rubric together. Amy is our associate director of leadership development and executive search and that rubric it takes a long time to develop that and she wrestled with this one because you had some really intriguing questions. So just uh letting you know credit goes to Amy Jordan for the rubric. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank her for us. Um so all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and we have our three candidates to invite back for further discussion. Thank you all so much. This process um feels really good that we have come to this place and there feels to be um a broad sense of consensus. So thank you all for that. And now we get to move on to reviewing our round two interview questions and um the schedule. And just for clar- clarity's sake, um we are okay with the candidates knowing these questions a week in advance, correct? So this still a this discussion can be public. That's up to the board. This discussion is going to be public, but that doesn't mean that the candidates will know what the questions are. Okay. We can do the same thing you did for round one, which is each of you individually pick some questions and I'll I'll walk you through that in a moment. And then we can come back and talk how many like the question two, question three, question four. Um I am proposing a presentation potentially as part of round two if you'd like them to present something. That we can talk very freely about because that will be something I'll let them know of immediately so they have a week to prepare that if you choose to.

Have them do a presentation. Generally speaking, most boards keep the rest of the round two questions under wraps until the second round. If you choose, though, you could make all of them public to all of the three finalists. That will be your call. Or some of them and not others. It's really your choice. I'll do whatever the board directs in that regard.

So, I'm going to pass around a proposed schedule and proposed questions. We're going to do the schedule first because it's easier. Thank you. One of each and pass it around. Thank you. Yep.

And, and just so the board is aware, I will be contacting all five of them by phone as soon as our meeting wraps up and letting them know and also thanking those that are not being invited back for round two, letting them know how much you appreciate their participation in the process. And the comments again that you made relative to their candidacies, I will be sure to pass those along. Um, so thank you again for keeping it positive. And Barb, just a quick question for as far as the rubric, are you sharing the rubric data with them as well?

Usually, I do not. >> Data. I'm sorry. The um Before my usually do not. Okay. If, again, it were a ranking, you were first, you were second, you were third, that's public data. But you didn't rank your candidates. You have a top three. So it's just a a group versus a one, two, three, four, five. That's round one doesn't invite such specificity in responses as round two does, and you still heard that. So I think that indicates the quality of the candidates that you visited with today.

So, an hour and 15 minutes with a 15-minute break in between, the longer break then would be at 10 minutes to 9:00. And if you have all of your input of EMD as quickly as you did at this time, we would begin our deliberations probably at 9:15 on Monday. And that would include a review of the strengths of all three of the three finalists. Uh, it would include a report from the reference checkers. Are there any suggested changes to this um schedule for round two?

The tours again would begin at 9:00. They've set up three tours. I, they're still finalizing it. They have uh participants they're identifying. There's a very simple survey those tour participants will fill out about up to three strengths and up to three areas of growth that they notice from those folks that are on the tours. That's the information that you'll be gathering from the cross-section of folks involved in those tours. I'll provide that to you during that break. So, you'll have 20 to 30 minutes to review the content of that feedback from those folks between 9 and 2. Uh, we're giving them until 4:00 to put all of their thoughts in and then at 4:00 my team's going to collate that into some reports for you to look at probably at 8:50. I don't want to give you that information before your deliberations or excuse me, before your interviews because we just, we don't want to bias you based upon what happened on the tours. But, you'll have that feedback as an additional data point as you begin your deliberations. Okay, so we're good? Wonderful.

Um, notice at the bottom it does say that the recording of all three finalists' interviews will be posted for viewing through April 27th. We're going to leave them up for 1 week and then two of them will come down. If you find a superintendent that night, I think your um stakeholders want to see all three that you considered. The one, however, that you may land on that night, if you do find someone, that will stay up indefinitely. So, people can get to know that person as they um become your new superintendent. That will stay up indefinitely. Okay. Great. Easy to do the schedule. Thank you very much.

So, could I ask just a one quick question, Barb? Um, because I know for all of us here at the board table, the the community input uh feedback mechanism is is really important to us. So, um I just want to make sure that the that the people that we are intentionally inviting to be on these tours, they kind of represent a cross-section of those um groups of people that we in particular wanted to hear from. Correct? Yes. >> Yes. Okay, just wanted to >> comes down to an individual but it still comes down to >> I wanted to reiterate that >> Yes. We've intentionally selected the people that are part of the tours that are going to be providing that feedback that we're getting at the break. Correct. Yes. Great. Thank you.

Um, which is a great reminder, Chair Andresen. Thank you. Uh, between now and Monday the 20th, I would encourage you to reread that report in its entirety with these three people in mind because now that you've met them, it's better than just the application materials that you reviewed first, right? So, now that you've met them, reread that report, hear what your staff, stakeholders, family, community members, students said in terms of these three leaders. You also do still have access to Revella, so feel free to go back in to review letters of reference, to read their um answers to the interview or the questions you asked in your application, go in and reread their cover letter, look at their resume. Now that it's three instead of 20, you can take a much deeper dive into their information and context of what you were looking for. So, I'd encourage you to do both of those things.

All right, so the interview questions for round two are based upon a couple of things. Uh, one, the leadership profile, of course, and this time we included more questions that we think weave into the results of the stakeholder uh input report. You do not have to use any of these if you don't want to. They are just ones that we crafted based upon what we knew of the district. Also, since you've seen people and you know who the three are, maybe there's something you want to ask about now that you've met all three of those folks. Those questions we could certainly talk about them. If you want to write uh create from scratch, you could email them to me. I do have one proposed question in email that I'm going to send to the whole board for you to look at and that we'll also consider.

But, for the opening question, for example, I'm only going to talk about this one out loud. You could ask them to present a 15-minute presentation on something. Most boards do, but not all boards do. It is simply an opportunity for you to see how they present information. They would prepare um a presentation whether it's in Google Slides, Canva, PowerPoint. It could be on anything that you would like. And this is something that we can talk about here because again, they're going to find out tonight if there's a topic. Uh, presentation plan or excuse me, a transition plan is a very common one. Um, we've had districts do uh your top three priorities for our district when you begin as our new superintendent. We've had some address specific achievement gaps and have someone speak to that. Um, it's entirely up to you. The one caveat to keep in mind with the presentation is you don't want to give um a huge advantage to someone who might be more familiar with your district than others. Now, all three of those folks are Minnesota candidates. So, in that case, I I I'm comfortable with maybe you ask a question about, you know, the legislature here in Minnesota or the READ Act or a presentation on finance or something. But, because you don't have any out-of-state candidates in your final round, um I think there's more of a level playing field. Their familiarity with the district will be similar um at this point. So, please think about that if you would like that and what it might be on and we can speak to that.

And then the next two questions in the opening one option, don't have to think about that. Then the rest, if you want to pick one or two or three out of miscellaneous, you could. The rest of these categories, there are about seven questions on average, four to seven in each area. For starters, why don't you each pick two in each category? Just to try to winnow it down. Two in each category and then we'll talk how many voted for which question, can we combine questions, do you want to advocate for one question or another? So, I'm just going to give you about 5 or 10 minutes at least to go through and do this on your own. I will collect these back from you again, however. So, make all the notes you want on them and then I'll collect them when we're all done. So, are there any questions about how to proceed with the initial run-through of the questions?

Are we picking Oh. Um I was just wondering about the opening question. Should we vote yay or nay on a presentation and or give maybe two if we say yes, like two examples of what we might want to see the presentation on? Great. Great idea. Um and then also wondering, I think you mentioned that there is an additional question. Are you going to email that to us now or >> Okay. I will do that and that would fall into the third category. So, page two. There's a question coming your way that fits into page two. Okay? So, I'll send that to you and we'll call that the email question. Okay. We won't number it, okay? Great. Thank you. >> Great. Go ahead. I think so. >> Do you want You can keep them. Oh. Until I say who likes question two, three, four, etc. >> What email questions, what category would those go in? The first one would go in second page. And I put it I think the second one would probably go um it could be under miscellaneous. Or it could go under the academics. We'll just talk about that that first question on email and the second question on email, regardless of which category it's in, we'll just see if you want to add it. Okay. I'll give everybody another few minutes, but if you are definitely ready, let me know so I'm not waiting too long. Okay, I just see a few people that are definitely ready. Question. I have time to pee. Should I go fast? Yes. Okay. Is everybody done? They went to the bathroom. >> Okay. But they're back from the break, that's great. Then we'll get ready to start. Can I run then? Yeah. Okay, cuz I don't want to wet my Don't be mad. All right, now I'm going to eat a piece of chocolate. Was everyone using the bathroom on Now I'm eating chocolate. Oh, chocolate. >> Is your headache Is your headache better? Um It's better than it was. Let's wrap it up so you go to bed. Yeah. So do you just sleep then when you have it? Or like try to? I don't have time to sleep this week, but yeah. You don't have time to sleep this week? What a After Thursday. What a what a good mom answer. Want to start at this? Okay. >> Great. I have to make one note. One more thing I want to do. Okay. So just uh first of all, how many of you are interested in a presentation being a part of round two? I'm sorry, I missed that. Looks like a majority would like a presentation as part of round two. Okay. So we will have that. Um How many were interested in question four? Or a version of that? None? How about question five? One? And then in the next category, question six. One, two, three, four. Seven? One, two, three. Eight. No one. Nine? No one. 10? One? 11? One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Okay. Next page. 12. One, two. Two on 12. 13. One, two. 14. One, two. Three. 15. One, two, three. 16. One, two. 17. None. Uh what about the question in email that was first? It's a lengthier one. Anyone like the question there? One. Okay. All right, next category, 18 to 24. How many of the two that you could choose chose 18 to be one of those? One? 19? One, two, three, four. 20? One? 21? Two? Three? One, two, three. Wait, wait. Oh. Question 21. Wait, what? 21. Okay, if you like 21, raise your hand. Okay. You're here. Three. Got it. That's what I thought. Okay, 21. All right, let's go to uh question 22. None? 23? Two? And 24? I'll say Did you like 23? 23, yep. 23, okay. I'll add you to that. So three people on 23. How about 24? None. All right, the next two questions, uh 25. Well, here you couldn't pick two. You had to pick one. How's that? Okay, so 25. One, two, three, four. 26. One, two. Three, four. What if you had to pick just one? Cuz I end up with eight people on that one. Wait, for >> had to pick just one >> 25 or 26? This category only had two questions. My apologies. So if you had to pick one between 25 or 26, I'll give you 10 seconds to think about it. 25 or 26? Sorry, that's a very short category. Okay, so we'll go back. How many would prefer 25 of those two? One, two, three, four. And 26? One, two, three. Okay. Next page. 27 through 30. Uh you'd like to 27? Raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five. Okay. 28? One, two. 29? One, two, three, four, five. And 30? Okay. Did you read the second question in the email? Cuz I think it could go in this category. Okay, so how many of you were interested in the second question that was in the email? One, two. Email. Okay. Did I ask how many people were interested in 30? Yes. And how many said that? Zero. Zero, that's why I didn't mark it down. Okay, thank you. Next category, 31 to 36. The next page, there's one at the top of next. Uh question 31. One? 32? Okay, wait a minute here. So question 31. Two people. Got it. Okay. Question 32. Two? 33? Three? 34? One? 35? Two? And next page, 36. One, two, three. I love how decisively you all are raising your hands. I know. >> I can't tell you how many times people go and I I miss it. So this is very very demonstrative. Thank you. >> I want to take one away from 33 and add it to 36, please. Add it to 36 and remove it from 33. Okay? What? Great. Uh next category, 37 to 41. 37? One, two. 38? One, two. 39? One, two, three. 40? One, two, three, four, five. 41? None. Uh none. And then question 42? 43 and 42 both get asked generally, but is 40 Some people don't ask 42, they just ask 43. So how many would like to include 42 in this list? One, two, three, four. And then would you welcome question 43? Yep. Okay. Seven. 43. Yeah, okay. So you can choose how many questions you want to ask in round two. Keep in mind you have now seen all three of these finalists and how much they could cover in one hour. And how they managed their time. So in an hour and 15, if it sounds like the first 15 minutes will be a presentation, that leaves you with another hour. So you could maybe do another 12 questions in an hour. These go deeper though, so you might want to do fewer. Mike, okay? We'll circle back to question three because I do want to talk about what you'd like to see in the presentation. It looks like in the next category, uh the majority of the board was interested in questions six and 11. So I'm just going to put a tentative circle around six and 11. You had four people on each of those. Six and 11. Ooh, this next category, there was no clear um majority. You had three people liked 14, three people liked 15. Is there anyone who'd like to advocate or suggest we combine questions or make suggestions? Yes. Uh Barbara, I am wondering about making a suggestion for uh just couple uh linguistic tweaks. Okay. Could I suggest Can I name that? I think if it's just a word or two, you certainly could without giving away the whole question. So Um I'm a third line where it same says regardless of Which which 14 >> Sorry, number 14. Number 14. Oh. Third line. Just past the midpoint where it currently reads regardless of Uh I'd like to suggest language that says that honors and celebrates diverse. Well, and then So that's the first edit I'd recommend something that's more along that kind of language as opposed to regardless of. Something that's more positive. Um And then just looking um to add country of origin and then um gender identity and sexuality. And this is all for 14. >> It's all for 14. Okay. So just to uplift it as a as opposed to regardless of it's actually celebration or that honors and celebrates and then to ensure that we're adding kind of the okay rich diversity. I think it it could just be replaced with including. Mhm. Including in lieu of the word regardless of? Regardless of, yeah. Including? Yep. Or that honors and celebrates diverse so that was I I'd like I think I would like to leave that language just cuz um I think that's that's a different perspective than you know regardless of or it's more it's an uplift. Keep what language? The honors and celebrates. Okay. So we would replace we'd remove the comma regardless of and replace it with that honors and celebrates diverse. And I think those would then be perhaps plural. >> to switch. Yeah. Would they be plural? Mhm. Is everyone okay with that change first to just make it a affirming versus a scarcity mindset? Okay? Okay. So then what about there were three other suggested additions to that language? They are supportive of including gender identity in there. Great and sexuality. All right, wonderful. We are adding 1 2 3 4 more things keeping them and making them all plural so it sounds better. Okay, great. Thank you very much for that tweak to the language. So considering that 14 sounds like a question that the board would support asking. Sure. Okay. Does anyone want to advocate for any other ones on that list? There's a lot in that question. I think it's a great one, but if you want to advocate for any of the other ones on here you may. Okay, so for now 14. Um the next page it looks like 19 had support followed closely by 21 and 23. Is there anyone if those are the three to choose from 19 21 and 23? They're very close, but 19 did have four people. Does that is that broad enough for you or do you want to drill down deeper into more specific things? Maybe offered by 21 or 23. I like the broadness of it. I kind of like not to give people the answers to questions that I'm asking, so I kind of assess what they include in their response and I think this one does that really well. >> If we go with 19 is the board good with that? Okay. Uh looks like question 25 did have a majority. Chair Andreason? Yes. Because there's only the two in um this this category that number 25 and number 26 I'm wondering if there's a way or if anyone has an idea about how to I mean they're so similar, but to modify them to become one question. Because I think we were split Were we split on those? Was it It's 4 to 3. 4 to 3. Yes. Director Hyman or Chair Andreason? Yes. Um Director Hyman, we could in number 25 we could be specific about stakeholders. Um and include right some of the like the roles designated in in 26 here and that's the reason the like that broader emphasis on stakeholders is the reason why I liked 25 over 26. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. Chair Andreason. Uh I'm wondering and I don't know exactly so I actually have a question for you of what was the part from 26 which um I will ask that first. What's the part from 26 that you were particularly is there an element of it that you'd like to see reflected cuz I have an assumption, but I want to check it. Um I'd like to hear more about um their perspective on uh the role of school board versus superintendent in the strategic plan and then I want to know specifically about their experiences in creating evaluating and implementing strategic plans. Which question is this one? 26 and the reason the reason I say that is because I think it's a broader question than question 25. 25 I'm it talks about Vision 2031 which is our district's guiding document and is our current strategic plan and I'm less interested in hearing about how we continue on with Vision 2031 than what their experience has been and what they will bring tangibly to the table to improve upon and build upon our current strategic plan. Does that make sense? >> make a suggestion? So perhaps we could add a second sentence into to 25 that says based on your own past experience please share how So it indicate you want to draw upon their past experience. We could also add the role of those two groups above as well. That's a big question again. You're going to get to a lot, but we could add based on your own past experience which is asking them and inviting them to share what they've done and then apply it to this and then add the differentiator about the board and the superintendent along the way. Yeah, so what if it said something like based on your prior experience please share how you would continue to develop and operationalize Hopkins strategic plan including how you would engage stakeholders and measure its progress over time. Remove the first sentence entirely? Or not? I I want that in there. And also we're really reading the question totally out loud. Just Oh. Yeah. Which I actually I'll mention this question to all three so that someone who's watching or watches this doesn't have a distinct advantage. I'll make sure that all three do know we're asking this. Great. Okay? Because otherwise only one or two people might know. Um Yeah, I mean I think that the majority of the board voted for question 25, so I think adding to it is fine. Um I think striking it would be not would not be adhering to what the majority of the board wanted. Um so I'd be fine with based on your experience please share how you would continue. Um and then I think that the rest of 26 is incorporated in that second sentence because it is about you know operationalizing um engaging measuring which is the same as like creating evaluating implementing. You might want to we might want to get to um including in there I think the one thing that isn't is the creation. So we might want to figure out a way to infuse that into the second sentence. Chair Andreason. Yes. Uh I think maybe one other suggestion that would be um could we put something like um to like update or something like that and maybe that's what it's implied with develop, but if if 2031 is still you know if we want to make tweaks to it right more strategic tweaks cuz it it's more up maybe Director Hyman you can just chime in, but seems like it's more like operationalizing and like making sure that the current path is set and we're following it. It is is it more that like hey is it still meeting our needs as a district kind of thing? And so would would we say you know please share how you would continue to evaluate change if necessary and operationalize the plan. Would that kind of fit? I would be on board with um evaluate. I mean I think that speaks to it. Yeah, would that is that a compromise? >> Develop, comma, evaluate, comma, and operationalize. Yes. Is everyone okay with that? Develop evaluate >> May we use the add the word implement? Implement? I think operationalize is just another word for implement and I think it's stronger. Okay. I would agree. Okay. Are we okay? Did did you land anywhere on adding the word school board members and superintendent into that? The roles. I don't have it in there yet, but Are we okay not having it? Okay. So, I'll make those changes. Adding the word evaluate and based on your prior experience, please share. Yes. Okay. So, that's 25. >> say we hope they mention that in their answer. So, 27 and 29 both had five votes. Question? Uh well, I thought 27 might be good for the presentation um since the presentation question was a little wasn't filled in yet. I thought this would be a really good candidate for that. You know, they could do something visually with graphs, with numbers. I think it's rich for something in a presentation. I kind of wanted that to be a finance question. Okay. Do you feel that question 27 and 29 are different enough to ask them both? Yes. Yes, they are different. Yes, Chair Endriesen. I have some There's I concern's far too strong a word, but we're going to say a student entering kindergarten next fall will graduate in 2044, right? Like we agreed on question 11 and I'm trying not to read any more. Sorry. Um is that does that have a lot of overlap? With Where did you Which Which question number is that? I'm sorry. 11. Oh, going back to 11. So, question number 11 you feel has overlap with which one? 29. It's maybe >> I'm sorry, 11 is similar to Hm. 29 possibly. I 20? I'm sorry. >> No, we're talking about 29 right now. 29. Okay, I couldn't hear that. Okay. And I'm asking, you know, given that we may want to ask one less and we don't have to decide that this second. It just was a thought that I had cuz I do actually like that question. Um if we want to pair it down and only ask 10 or 11 questions in the hour that potentially. Think this one is better. >> pretty diligent. Like remind me where we're at with Well, if I add 27 and 29 and and we'll go back and now we'll talk about the presentation. If I add that, um I will say the next section 36 was the winner for that section. So, if we do include 36 36 36 for that next section. And 40 in the next section. And then 42 and 43. So, I'm just going to count what I've got right now. See where we're at. Um question three six 11 14 with some edits 19 25 with some edits if we had 27 29 36 40 42 and 43. You are at 12. And that included the first 15 minutes. So, you're at 11 for the last hour. With those that I read and maybe we pull one or two of those based on what you choose for your presentation. Okay, so you'd be at 11 with the ones I just read. Not counting question three, which is the presentation. Okay? So, just for a minute let's talk about that presentation cuz that might affect which questions you ask. Um I've heard some suggestions of uh achievement gap. I've heard finance. Um other thoughts on what you'd like them to share with you in those first 15 minutes? Um do we want to talk about reducing like choosing between 27 and 29? Were those even numbers? Yes, I believe so. Five people liked 27. Five people liked 29. I would say my one reservation, even though I circled it, um with 27 is um that it's very specific about being comparable and perhaps someone at this table won't have that experience. Um and then I feel like it wouldn't be a very illustrative answer. Um so, that's why I would lean more toward 29 because I think that gives us probably the gives candidates an opportunity to give a more robust answer. Um and I do like the suggestion that perhaps we could get to 27 through question a carefully crafted presentation question. Thank you for raising that point because you are correct. It would might give an advantage to someone who has served in that capacity. So, if you on the second line, we could eliminate all of the words in the second line up until and if so, please. We will keep and if so, please. But we could remove those words because I think that's a very valid point. Thank you. My To be clear, my um my suggestion was to not ask that question. Instead ask 29 and then incorporate the content of 27 um in the presentation directive. Chair Endriesen? Yes. One reason I like that idea and and so, it's kind of a brainchild of both you and Director Zhao is it it since we're telling them the topic ahead of time, that they would have time to pull that information cuz if they're just sitting there in 15 minutes, that might be too tough to do it. So, I I I like that suggestion a lot. I second that. Using 27 for the presentation? >> Yeah. Well, uh carefully worded. Yeah, I don't think exclusively 27. If we're if we're hung up on comparable to our gaps, maybe something more like materially improving something, right? Cuz I Yeah, I mean >> have to be exactly the same, right? >> I do have an idea for how we can incorporate that into the presentation question when we get to it. Does anyone have anything else you'd like to suggest for a presentation or should we focus in on this idea for a presentation? I do. Um Chair Endriesen, I uh what's named here in terms of It's going to just say what's named here. Sure. As an option that uh is listed under number three on that second line starting with proposed. That's something I would be really curious to know is you know, I I would love to hear a presentation about that. What would be a proposed as it's worded there? Number three. Number three. There was a suggestion that some boards will ask that specifically. Can I say that out loud or should I You can't because the presentation they're going to ask them themselves. So, all right. So, as it's named here as an idea around inviting them to share their proposed transition plan. That is something that I would be really curious about. I want to I I would like to hear how they plan to kind of proverbially hit the ground running and what they see as important uh in their work right out of the gate. I'm I'm wondering um could we decide on 27 and 29 and then move to presentation discussion? Would that be okay? Or have we decided and I missed it? Chair Endriesen, I I think So, at the moment we're sitting at 11 questions not including the presentation, right, Barb? So, that's 11 questions in an hour. And today we got through 12 in an hour. Right. So, at at the moment I'm most interested in keeping 27 and 29 both there. Oh, okay. Um my only hesitation with that is I think the expectation is that we would have deeper dive answers and therefore they would take more time. But if we're limiting the time they have for each question, we might not get what we're looking for in an hour. Chair Endriesen, can I ask a question? So, how I guess I how long are we putting a limit on how long their presentation can be? So, 15 15 minutes. Okay. Um and then can they answer all of the questions in the presentation style or do we want them just to answer some of the other ones verbally? The presentation would be one area and they would only address that area. The rest of these would be questions that they would receive when they come to the interview. They'd see them about 20 minutes before their interview. Okay. So, there'd be no questions per se during the presentation. We just we asked them to send them to me the day before so I'd have to have them by Sunday. And then I send them to your very competent tech staff that uploads them and they're ready on the computer to go and they just spend the first 15 minutes on that topic, whatever topic you choose, and then we'll want launch into the rest of the questions of which now there's 11. For if you go an hour and 15 minutes, you could go an hour and a half. Um it makes it a much later night to add 45 minutes to this with three people, but you certainly could go an hour and a half and have 11 or 12 questions in an hour and 15 minutes plus the 15-minute presentation. It's all your call. Did I answer that question, Vice Chair Hoover? Okay. >> Yep. Kind of like longer. You like longer? It's a big decision. So longer presentation, shorter questions, is that what you're saying? I mean not in the interview. Longer question time. Well, that's in direct opposition to everything I've heard this whole year. We don't want longer board meetings. Yeah, I mean I'm not opposed to that. I am worried about fatigue having gone through this process. It is really exhausting. Um so the longer we spend in the interview process, I feel like the more tired we will be when we get to the deliberative stage which maybe it won't take a long time, maybe it won't be a tough decision, but I think we should plan on it being. Um and that's my only hesitation. I actually am you know, I feel like we have three great great candidates. Let's give them all the time they need and we need to evaluate them. I am just a little concerned that if we add 45 minutes known time that we will be more fatigued when it comes to that deliberative time. I did the math and if you go an hour and a half interview with 15-minute breaks, I think you would begin your deliberations at 10:00. Either 10:00 or 10:15 begin your deliberations and you're starting at 4:30. So changing to my understanding, weren't we doing deliber- deliberations at the board meeting? Yes. Okay. So are we is this what we're talking about the board meeting like time of deliberation? >> special meeting. The special meeting. We're going to do the interviews followed up immediately by deliberation and if we're adding 15 minutes to each interview slot, that means we will start our deliberations at 10:00 p.m. It's my best time. It doesn't sound like it's practice to deliberate after. But you know, I I I interview a lot of not a lot, but in every interview in the private sector I mean we we have interviews and we do never decide same day ever. It's a lot. I I think it's the opposite in board superintendents. Is it is it a requirement to It's not a requirement. No. My but I would I would not advocate for that because I think that creates um undue opportunities for undue influence on the board um on our selection process which is in violation of open meeting law. So we would basically have to be sequestered like a jury in order to assure our public that we are not violating open meeting law. We have had boards at 2:00 in the morning call a recess and come back the next day. And they just go home and go to bed and don't talk to each other and come back the next day. It's not you're not completing the meeting, but you're you're just recessing until the next day. If you're making a decision at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and you are so exhausted you're not thinking straight, that's not great. So ideally you could um wrap up on the same night. Best practice is to do it that same day because of what Chair Andresen mentioned. Sometimes two special interest groups will lobby you very heavily if they know that you're not deciding until the next day. The next day you will be potentially inundated by people trying to tell you what you should do versus doing it during the meeting where no one's really had an opportunity to do that. I feel like they're already doing that so I I don't understand why it's like a magical thing like oh, we talked to them and now it's super special, right? I don't know. I I I'm just throwing that out there because like you know, if I'm hiring a person in my team and they're like well, you you you interviewed everybody on the same day and you must decide. It's just like it's not really how it works. For private. I don't know. If you're interested in coming back Tuesday and deliberating that day, you could schedule it versus just agree to recess until it. You could plan for it. This needs to be a board decision with the majority of you wanting to do it that way. And just FYI, we already have a regularly scheduled board meeting on the 21st. >> Yes, we'd be starting this at 9:00 p.m. So I mean slightly earlier. Um So we are mildly off top right like we were trying to decide between these two questions and we were talking about topics for presentation and now we're talking about the the interviews and now we're talking about the when we deliberate um and so I guess I don't particularly care which of those topics that we stick to first, but we've wandered quite a bit. And so I don't really know which decision we're talking about right now. Topic of the presentation. Thank you. Let's decide the topic of the presentation and go from there. Chair Andresen. Yes. I am also interested in what Clerk Wigg said and there's the potential that right, we're already going to tell the candidates about one question. We could tell them about a second question and we could tell them about this gap question because we would like them to actually bring us a little bit of data. So we could tell them two questions on the presentation topic and the others are you know, in the same process that we did before and then therefore the presentation could be this transition plan. And that tells us quite a bit about you know, values and many of the things that we care about. Chair Andresen. >> Thank you. Yes. Um I do like the transition plan idea. Another presentation idea um you had mentioned like top three priorities is a common um presentation question. Thinking specifically I'd like them to demonstrate that they've done some research and evaluation specific to the district. So perhaps crafting a question for presentation that um asks them you know, based upon the community feedback survey and the data you know, before you, right? The data you know about the school district, what would be your top three priorities? To see if they can tie that to the data that's been collected specific to this process. Great. So is that uh That was a suggestion. For For the presentation. >> Instead of the transition plan. >> Yeah, okay. Wasn't sure cuz you said you liked it and and then I was like oh well. Um thank you. Any other suggestions for topics? I would just like to say I one of the topics I wanted them to talk about is finance. Um I think there were so many excellent questions under the finance section. I was as I was reading them, I'm like I'm just going to have that be our topic. Um because it is in particular Minnesota is so complicated and having someone who has a deep understanding of that and how it impacts classrooms is so important in this role. Um so that was my thought and I thought it would be great to include um given that scenario and what you know how would you address gaps? Um but I also like your suggestion that that could be a known coming into it. Would you like them to give you a tutorial in 15 minutes on Minnesota's educational finance laws? >> Yes, please. You'd learn a lot pretty quickly. Yeah, you would. >> 15 minutes if they could do it. I think probably Treasurer Heartland and I are the only geeky ones that would really like that. Any other thoughts, suggestions? We have transition plan top three priorities and then finance with addressing gaps. So for those three choices, you get to pick one. Transition plan, top three or um finance question. Okay, so we have transition plan is one, top three priorities for the district. Two. And then finance with gaps is three. >> Finance to address gaps. Okay. So, you get to pick one. How many would like to see a transition plan? If you have those three choices. Can I suggest a fourth option? No. Sure. But it's it's a I'm trying to I'm trying to hold it so it's to say like you know something around the we would like to have a presentation from you as you know as you would be onboarding two important topics that are that are facing >> Top three you'd like to which and so that combines those two and frankly I'd be interested to hear what they based on research they've done what are they seeing as as the top three versus prescribing. I'll strike myself. Yeah. Chair Andreason. Yes. I think it would be great too to hear them explain why those are their priorities. Um like where what data that that's coming from or what it why it's important to them. Um As part of number two. Yeah. Okay. Like how do you pick? Right? There's so much to do. So, we still have the discrete one, two, and three options before us. Great. I'm ready. Option one is the transition plan with the modified language such as as you transition into this role what would be your top three priorities and why? Did I get that right or not? No, that's not I didn't get that right. This normally doesn't take this long. I'm not sure why. I don't know why we're Ignore everything I said. I mean don't just like let's strike that from the it's just the transition plan period. >> Transition plan, top three, and something with finance and gaps. Is that right? Yep. You get one vote. How many would like the transition plan? One. How many would like the top three priorities? One, two, three. And how many would like the third option? One, two, three. Okay. So, we have a 3-3-1. Who was the one? The three Do you want One is gone. >> Tip the scale toward one or the other? Transition plan or Not finance. I did not get the impression that any of our three leaders really like lack that knowledge. Obviously, it's like a crucially important piece, but I would be interested in just like one step broader. Instead of saying talk about this priority. So, are you okay with transition plan? Well, priorities. Priorities. The top three priorities. >> plan. She's moving. Yeah, she was transition plan. Um moving. So, top three priorities >> Got it. and why? Finance may very well be in there for a candidate, but I second that. Okay. So, what would be your top three priorities for our district and why? Do you want me to say as you transition into this role or just not as our new superintendent what would be your top three priorities? As you transition into this role. How will you determine what the Yeah. Whatever. We'll figure something out and they will be rock stars at this I know. Okay, they'll be happy with So, it is the top three priorities question and I will let them know to have that to me by Sunday evening. Okay, so then we have these are the 11 questions remaining and tell me if you think are any are too similar. Six, 11, 14, 19, 25, 27, 29, 36, 40, 42, and 43. That's 11. Someone had suggested question 11 was perhaps similar to 27 and 29 or could be woven into that to get you down to two 10 questions. I think it's fine if we if we're at 11 questions, that's fine. I don't think we really need to discuss that, but I do have unless someone wants to continue on that bend. I actually do have something else I'd like the board to consider. On 27 I'm also thinking of eliminating the first 10 words or so and starting with and if so and then to the earlier suggestion we certainly could make question 27 make them aware of it in advance. Yeah. Is that >> that. Yeah, I would just Yeah, I would just say just get rid of the With them. The first two-thirds of line two. Well, if we're giving it to them in advance may I read it out loud because they'll know what it is. Are you okay with that? I think the piece that I struggled with is comparable to Hopkins current gaps. So, Right. Correct. >> Putting that somewhere else I think would be good. I think we do want them to talk about what they would do in Hopkins, but I think that's at the end. So, if it said >> Say in your past experience have you closed achievement gaps across and I'm assuming you're going to give it to them in advance. Um across grade levels. And if so >> And yes. If so, yep. Yes. And if so, please explain those strategies how you would potentially implement those strategies here at Hopkins. Yeah. Great. >> Yes. So, we're moving the first two-thirds of that second line and this will be a question in advance. I also heard in advance question 25. Since we talked about that one pretty publicly. Yeah. Okay. And the presentation would be in advance also. Okay. So, they'll get three questions in advance and they will prepare a 15-minute presentation for you and have those other two questions because there is a some research and some thought that's going to need to go behind that. Okay. Anyone Anyone concerned with those questions? They're good questions and we're sticking with an hour and 15 minutes or do you want to go an hour and a half for each of these folks? Um Chair Andreason. Yes. I don't know if we need

To do some additional time, but under management and oversight under that section. Maybe I shouldn't have even said that. I apologize. Tired brain here.

Question number 39. I still like quite a bit better than 40. I would look for them to potentially address that question inside of 39. And this is like the superintendent's core job is to understand this complexity while not necessarily being that role everywhere. And that this is like the I'm hung up on this because this is like the question that I see as the search for a superintendent. Like, how will our, how will a leader across such a complex body as a district? How can they possibly envelop that all and how will they empower? Right? And at a minimum, if we're going with 40, would love to include like any broader element of that. I feel like we talked a little bit today about accountability and talked a little bit about like leadership examples. And um, and so I'm just having a really hard time letting 39 go. Can I buy how many votes for 39? Three. And how many for 40? Four. >> Five. Oh. We also if you look at >> I'm I'm feeling compelled by that argument. I was a 40. Well, you're going You could change.

So, um, question 40, you could remove the first two categories on the second line and have it focus specifically on the folks in question 39. Because question 40 is intended to be pretty broad depending upon the experience that these folks have. Perhaps with these three people, you could eliminate. There's different levels of responsibility here. Perhaps you focus this question on that upper tier of levels. Do you want me to try to do that and just weave that in there so it's a little less broad and it's specific potentially to the cabinet, for example. Would that help address your interest? Thank you for naming that because I think maybe that's why I went with 40. Um, because this 39 is specific to just a portion. I could replace all three of the categories in 40 with the word cabinet member. Does that help? I Yeah, I but I see the ways in which um the superintendent goes far beyond that in management and Chair Andreason. Yeah. I think the the management piece is um critical that's missing um from 40. I don't know if that's what Treasurer Heartland is kind of getting at the meat of managing and cross collaborating uh across such a wide range of departments. I mean Um, if if that man Is it the managing piece? Yeah, and I personally see like this Um, okay, in 40, in the second line, right? They they describe a couple types of roles like I mean eventually a superintendent might be involved in evaluating that third role listed in number 40, but that really isn't their role and there is even like kind of a negative tone almost to >> with that. 40 that I I don't really want them to answer in that light necessarily. Like if they do, fine, but 39 is what I see as the superintendent's job.

Chair Andreason. Um, I I would echo the being compelled by argument. So the thing that was attractive to me, I'm I'm one of the five of the number of 40 and I would switch mine to 39. Um, it I would like to suggest one word be added then. Um, in the last clock like the last sentence where uh add the word accountability at the very Mhm. end and that for me gets at the thing that I think was why I selected 40 cuz there was a sense of that accountability piece that just felt like it was a little bit missing um from 39 for me. So I would I would vote for 39 if we could add a word that allows for accountability. Could we do at the So 39 has 1 2 3 4 5 lines. So if line five, the last one started with accountability, {comma} or accountability and then the rest of line five. Okay. I I do want to just quickly state though that I think we are limiting the scope of what um a superintendent does and it is not just 39. Um, the um, the superintendent is responsible for the hiring, management, retention of all our staff across the district. In particular, our our building leaders. So I I don't want us to lose sight of what the role of the superintendent is. Um, I I don't I personally don't think my experience has not been that um the superintendent is only involved with their cabinet. Correct. So that's my my concern with stepping away from that. If there's interest in asking both 39 and 40, I would just suggest maybe one of the other ones you've selected is removed. Or we could try to combine the two. This is your search. You you figure out what questions you need to ask knowing who you're going to interview.

Chair Andreason. Yes. I um have to echo Treasure Heartland. I feel that 40 for I had circled to be transparent both unity. I'm hearkening back to a lot of stuff that we've heard from community in the past 3 years. And I feel like 40 gets to that. So the public input on the specialized skills, the top six leads with honesty in an ethical manner with the school board, staff, students, parents, and community. Number two, experience in school finance including resource allocation and fiscal oversight. Three, develops and directs an effective leadership team. Four, possesses a strong academic background with experience in curriculum. Five, experience in developing and/or implementing a strategic plan. And six, demonstrates clear, confident, and adaptable communication skills. Okay. Well then you've got me back at 39. Chair Andreason, I'll I'd also switch my vote to 39.

All right. So if you had to choose between 39 and 40, instead of having five choices, you have two. Think through 39 or 40. You get to pick one. Ready? How many would prefer 39? 2 3 4 5. Okay. And 40? 2. All right. So we are we are now not going to ask 40. We will ask 39. Does anyone feel strongly about building in the word accountability into question 39? I would like it. Sure. How many would like to build that word in there? That's a majority. Okay, I will include that word someplace potentially at the beginning of the fifth line.

All right. So are we still staying then with those 11 questions at an hour and 15 minutes per? So it's 11 questions and a 15-minute presentation and two of the 11 they will have in advance. >> Yes. Okay. Just have to check 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. Uh, if you could please pass those in one direction or the other, I will collect those back from you. So now my next question is easy, yes or no. With these 12 questions including that presentation, do you want Amy to All right. The last couple of things I have are uh the tours. I want to read to you an excerpt from an email your communications department has sent to me about uh the feedback on the tour. We do have that form on um strengths and opportunities for growth. And so let me open this. Here we go. And open. She just wants to make sure based upon the comments you had earlier around who um you had mentioned Chair Andreason participants in the tour Mhm. representative of groups across the districts. We want to make sure uh that we're hitting the mark when your staff is getting this. I have to enter my code. And I would like to meet with the two folks doing reference checks once you adjourn the meeting. Okay, here I have a code. >> Um, do we need to vote on the questions before? Okay. You do not, but thank you for asking that. All right. Google code is this and I'm in. It's thinking. Okay, so this is the letter I believe that would be used to invite um Dear Hopkins leaders, uh the three finalists are visiting the district as part of their time here. They'll spend time in each uh in one of our schools to meet with students and staff and get a feel for what makes Hopkins such a special place to learn and work. It's an important opportunity to make the most of their time. We've asked been asked to coordinate visits at three sites based on proximity and scheduling efficiency. The selected schools So it's okay if I share that with you. Yes. Okay. Based on that um proximity and scheduling efficiency, the selected schools are Eisenhower Elementary, North Middle School, and Hopkins High School. Your role. Um Please plan to serve as host for the candidate visiting your building. As part of the visit, we ask that you invite two students to participate in the tour and lunch and identify up to six staff members including a mix of licensed and non-licensed staff to engage with the candidate. How does that sound? So you have two students and up to six staff who represent licensed and non-licensed staff. And then at the administrative level in the building, there would be a representative as well, correct? >> The principal giving the tour, I believe. Correct? >> Okay. Great. Yes. Yes. Okay, thanks. Does that sound all right to the board? Yes. Mhm. Okay, I want to thank Toya and her communications team for putting This is a longer letter than that, but I didn't want to read the entire thing. So thank you very much for doing that, communications team. That is the plan for the tours. And then the only other thing I would have for you is a conversation with the two reference checks individuals when you're done. Otherwise, I will have a press release to your communications team with headshots and bios um within the next hour that they will be able to share with all of the media outlets and your internal and external stakeholders about the three finalists. I will then call all five of these individuals when I'm heading home here tonight and congratulations again. You had a unanimous vote on your finalists, which is always very exciting. It's going to be a great week. You will probably be lobbied more heavily this week than you were last week though. I just want to prepare you for that. Thank people for their input because it's real now. You are down to one of potentially these three people. And the anxiety Uh the candidates are at Eisenhower. Are they going to have an opportunity to interact with cabinet at all? Cabinet members will be on the tours with them and then they will also be stopping in the business office and ECS. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thanks. Mhm.

Okay, with that I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and this meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 5:53 p.m. Thank you so much everyone. >> Thanks everyone. Thank you Barbara. Especially to you at the back of the room for hanging in with us all day long.