Menomonie Superintendent Hiring Process

Folks, This is an article from the Menomonie newspaper and offers a preview of what we can probably expect from the WASB assisted search for our new Superintendent. The final paragraph about the goals for the Interim Supt.'s year are amazingly similar to issues in the ECASD: Trust, citizen participation in the budgeting process, updating and improving district policies, and getting the sub-committees of the board to "operate in daylight."

Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. Maria

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2007
Superintendent hiring starts with focus group sessions
By LeAnn R. Ralph, Reporter

The process for selecting a new superintendent to serve the School
District of the Menomonie Area will begin with focus groups in
October.

Pam Rewey and Dennis Richards, consultants with the Wisconsin
Association of School Boards (WASB), addressed the Menomonie Board of
Education about the process Monday evening.

Rewey informed board members that she was planning to retire at the
end of September, but that Richards was taking her place. Richards,
the recently-retired superintendent of the Black River Falls school
district, said he was happy to be working with WASB.

"I am confident I can do a good job (for Menomonie). I know Western
Wisconsin, and I know the qualities that will be needed for a district
administrator," he said.

The first step in the process involves selecting the type of focus
groups that will be used and getting them set up. Richards said the
school board will need to decide on the number of groups and the
number of participants within each group.

Examples of focus groups include teachers, administrators, students,
food service workers and members of the community. Each group will
have approximately 12 people who will be asked nine questions, and
each session will last about an hour.

"We're looking for commonalities … it's very important to get input
from everyone," Rewey said.

Richards noted that he will be recording the responses from the groups
and looking for trends in the responses.

Public forum

School board president Chris Smith said he would like one of the focus
groups to be an open forum for the public.

Richards said he would leave one time slot for an open forum, during
which members of the community could comment as long as they kept
their comments within the boundaries of the nine questions that would
be asked of all groups.

Dick Best, board member, suggested that ideas for focus groups be
given to Smith and Jack Lewis, interim superintendent, so they could
put together a list.

The tentative application deadline for the district administrator
position will be the last week in December or the first week in
January.

Focus groups will be scheduled Oct. 9 and 10; more information will be
available later about the time and place for the public forum.

Goals for the interim

In addition to helping the Menomonie school district through the
hiring process for a new superintendent, Lewis said he had identified
several other goals he would like to accomplish during his time as
interim district administrator.

The second goal would be to resolve the financial issues for 2008-2009
and 2009-2010 so that the budget would have some direction already
established for the new superintendent.

If the district can move in the direction of solving its financial
problems, "the new person can jump on a moving train," Lewis said.

The community, school district staff and school board need to discuss
options on ways to deal with a $1.2 million deficit.

"You will be excising good flesh and not just fat reduction — and it
will be painful," he said.

Trust

Lewis also said that in the several weeks he has been working in the
school district, he has noticed a "trust issue."

"We need to deal with the trust issue so the wound can heal itself," he said.

Tammy Schneider, board member, noted that the school district is
lacking certain policies or has policies that need to be updated.

Lewis said in the time he has been in the district, he has looked
twice for policies to fit a particular situation, but could not find
anything that applied directly. For example, the school district needs
a policy on medically-fragile children.

"If policies are in place, they provide a good road map," Lewis said.

Committees

Board member Jay Fahl noted that the school board structure and
committee structure should be examined.

The school district has a total of 19 committees, Lewis said.

"I'm not used to seeing that many … the more committees there are, the
bigger the perception there is that the committees are working behind
closed doors," he said.

Lewis noted that his four goals for his tenure as interim
superintendent include: budget issues and forming a citizen's advisory
group for the budget as well as working on negotiations; trust issues;
examining the committee structure so the school board "will be
operating in the daylight;" and new, current and updated policies.