School Committee: May 2, 2024

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

4:02 so we’re just waiting to turn the sound on okay perfect we have sound and we’re good to go so I’m going to call us to order at 50:09 um just for the overview of process and organization we be using the

4:50 same format as yesterday evening um seeing questions did you guys all find I gave everybody a sheet at their um she there and um just to let every everybody know for anybody listening whether live or later on YouTube um we are asking the public for feedback we find your we think your feedback is very important if you go to Marblehead heads schools.org there’s a little red button that says interm superintendent search if you click on that you’ll see a response form and there you can just do the drop down menu choose the candidate you’re giving a response to and go through and submit those to us we will all have a chance to review those prior

5:35 to deliberating on um how we will be moving forward so again we we encourage everybody to um respond for each interview so um I will ask if there’s any questions from the committee before we bring the candidate in okay so Julie you grabing him thank so much very help very very yes Julia

6:04 um so just as a reminder our first person we’re interviewing is Dr John Roo he said because I was

8:08 we’re everybody introduce themselves as we go through um and start with our questions so thank you so much for

8:17 coming it’s we’re we’re live and the cords going 35 different ways so if we all stand up we tend to unplug ourselves okay um so I’d like to welcome you this evening um just let you know that with the number of questions we have I would gauge about five minutes per question for your answers and then at the end uh will there will be a time period for you to ask us any questions you may have um as each member of the committee asks their questions they’ll give you an introduction um a little bit about their background we also have one member who is zooming in from China currently so um that’s Al Williams and you will see him bright and early at 5:00 a.m. I ask what time it was there in China right now um so we’re start off

9:02 with Jen shackner hi welcome uh John is it Robo Rob I say Robo Rob my kid say Robo so okay just want to make sure I get that correct I have a kind of a name that gets pronounced occasionally so um anyway welcome I’m Jen chaer I Vice chair Marblehead school committee um I born and raised in Marblehead attended Marblehead Public Schools um I moved back here when my children were our children were School aged both my children went to The Marblehead Head schools children went to The Marblehead schools um I served on The Marblehead Head school um I served on The Marblehead school committee from 2016 to 2020 and then um was elected last June so I’m in the first year of a for year term so thank you thank you for making the trip

9:46 up that’s a nice way of putting it um so I’m starting off with um kind of a general question um why give if you could give us a little bit of your background just sort of summar your background and why you’re interested in becoming the intern superintendent in Marblehead Hood sure uh So currently I’m uh Marblehead sure uh So currently I’m uh superintendent in swansee Mass I’ve been a superintendent there for eight years prior to that I did three years as the assistant superintendent and actually two of those three years I was both special director and the assistant superintendent I do not recommend um I lost two years of my life that um and then you know I had been special director um assistant special director before been swans for 18 years prior to that I um I taught a couple day day school programs for special ed I taught residential

10:33 program I led the school at St Vincent which is a residential program River and swans we had about 160 some residential student site saw ucation campuses and prior to that I an operator successful restaurant that years I kind of came back into education p a long time

11:16 um so so I’m coming up I my fifth fiveyear contract sub to threee contract um and in June and I made decision to kind of my my life situation is a little bit different than it was I had five children one of my daughters was had an MA down so I really could do a lot of looking for other things so I was kind saying where I was I wasn’t a lot flexibility she unfortunately since P um and you know it’s given us a little bit different life and flexibility for myself so started kind of exploring seeing what’s out there um I have a lot left to give I have a lot more before I have to retire I can retire I want to retire um and I thought at this point um

12:02 kind of Tak see out there seeing where I can my skills to a very successful District leader and opportunity came up and I know very well respected

12:33 oh thank thank you um Brian y my name is Brian OT I started teaching in a Vocational Technical High School as a special education teacher and then I went to uh Central Mass and started there as a middle school teacher and a separate classroom substantially separate classroom then moved down to the cape came an administrator down there and then they led me up here to Marblehead I was the uh vice principal at Village school and then ended up as a principal at GL School

13:09 so my question to you is you have a successful candidate will have many new administrators an assistant superintendent of student services assist superintendent of finance and operations and two brand new Elementary principles how would you begin the process of rebuilding your organization how will you gather and determine your most critical needs how will you turn those critical needs actions using your admin te so that’s a great question I think um you know I I like a challenge and obiously that would be a challenge I think having you know being a brand new superintendent new administrative team um I think it’s I actually I actually see that as kind of a plus because we’re all kind together um how we do that is I generally I meet

13:55 with mymin Team regularly I do sum treat kind um Set Go and set the table for school year year superhe that that ret all should sure that you’re all heading to know one another what our vision admin team that’s in the of committee the vision of the school in general and then work on those you know overarching shared goals make sure that we addressing the needs of the district and I think having new administrators um it gives an opportunity for those new administrators ESP as the principl kind of in and see what’s worked in their schools and then

14:43 kind of um work towards the areas of some devel need happen um develop teams use the use the teams that in the schools um teachers to kind of guide some of some the proces think it’s helpful I think um you know a lot of times when this turnover that magnitude in the district administrators coming in you know people going be looking to me to lead that team really well ver leading team I do a lot of ctive leadership um I tend to lead from the middle versus the top down approach and I think getting the input and feedback and ongoing dialogue with folks is really important to me and it’s important for the decision sorry no there’s some feedback somewhere okay

15:29 no that’s fine I just I want to not no okay no you’re perfect you’re perfect I think you have big speakers behind you uh so anyway so you know collaborative leadership is that’s how I lead and I think having those uh newer administrators kind of coming in and kind of all learn at the same time where the strengths and the areas of growth are um is is actually a good thing um I don’t see that as I mean it’s an impediment sure don’t maybe not look towards a lot of historical information however

16:29 imis I’m sorry about your thank you beautiful uh so knowing that marble Public Schools uses the mtss methodology what steps would you put into place to ensure that students at all levels of learning whether it’s IEP 504 uh gen Ed or our Advanced Learners are getting what they need to be successful um yeah sure so I mean you have multi um services in place to make sure that everyone’s getting they need um that different levels different students having V special education background differentiating instructions always been important think making sure that we have those interventions in place soon as they’re at they maybe need some further

17:18 interventions five or four um if that’s combinations that they need special education so making sure that the teachers understand you know what what the k interventions are when they’re put in place um how they’re put in place and resources are needed to have each each tier solidly in place for each student uh I think professional development is is key to to making sure that that occurs appropriately the resources they have in the classrooms making sure that they they have what they need to be able to you know not just say to your interv but actually do the intervention to different things I think mayure Staffing to be able to attend to those individual needs is also um you know I would know more when

18:04 I’m in the schools I’m a superintendent that I’ll say this first and foremost look sit in the office behind desk all day I’m not your guy the guy that’s in the school all the time um and so I would look to see what those interventions are in real life in real time um and work towards making sure that things are in place where they need to be and the teams that are you know doing in schools um I think you know they you surely CIT interventions obviously helps make sure students are successful and that we differentiating instruction to meet individ need students um I’m sure you know look at small instru Cooper learning groups um those all things that need to be in place not just at the elementary level

18:51 but High School level learning groups are great students learn and be able to provide some support from at the high school level I know a lot

19:07 ofs which is important but supports sure and um just as a quick follow specifically for the advanced Learners do you have any experience with that so I think um you know for the advanced Learners obviously you need to make sure you’re challenging them making sure that you um again you still have the resources and the the interventions in place just kind on on the other end of the respect so to speak in terms of making sure that you know not just saying oh we’re learning this why don’t you like reach much CH why don’t you take this harder test or more answer more questions that’s not not addressing Advanced lers you really want to figure out way s and challenge them and make sure that they’re being challenged the way that’s going to continue to move them forward and so they’re not getting

19:55 then you know have shoes and things like that that we see things that may a little more advanced in here so again it all goes back to differentiated learning if you have teachers in the classroom that understand how to set up groups set learning groups so that um you know those C reg put in place it will benefit you may have a higher higher learner up a lower learner so share things students that’s the one way to do

20:28 it I love that thank you um and then I will be asking the next question online hi welcome um so I’m not originally from Mass but have been living in mass now for 15 years uh about two years in Marblehead um I’ve only been on the committee since February so still learning a ton uh two fully grown children one who still resides in Marblehead I have two granddaughters uh and I have a little bit of teaching experience but most of my my experience has been in in the it uh realm and I’ve just recently retired so my question is what role does technology play in your vision for the future of

21:15 education so that’s a broad question but I’ll answer it um this way one um I think you shy away from technology um we’re never going to be a little Advanced and I know there’s a lot of either parents or more veteran teachers or administrators that aren’t as well versed some technologies that they should be sometimes they get a little shy about utilizing technology F and our home and how they uze technology to help the students um but what I’ll say is that even my age I learn I learned things new from the students and from the teachers and I think um you know artificial intelligence I think is something that we need to look at look at closely um in regard to you know not just the technology and the pieces of Technology we use but how do we use AR

22:00 intelligence in a way that benefits human learning I think people hear Ai and think oh my gosh just figur out how to cheat on tests and write like hope part from themselves and uh it could really be a powerful learning tool what I’ve seen happen um frequently is uh you know teachers using technology you know you know interactive you know TV screens in classroom Google Classroom um all sorts of technology in learning environment and then use um AI as as a teaching tool and show students how you can use it to benefit them and I’ll give you an example so you might have a teacher who says let’s write a you know three paragraph you know essay about a certain topic let’s write that

22:46 paragraph you know research the information Etc then let’s have ai you know Google CH and um do the same thing and then see how they compare show the kids the students how to fact check and go back and forth and navigate and understand that just um doing something like chat G getting something for spit out isn’t always accurate one two it’s a learning tool that teachers can um have in the classroom um that’s just one example but you know there’s many many more in the technology kind of um sometimes gets come so fast and furious to try to keep up is difficult I you know I can use an example in terms of when iPads

23:32 first came out you know everyone had to have an iPad SE special realm was you know the best tool ever it’s still a great tool but as soon as everyone gets an iPad or get on the iPads and start moving forward then Chromebooks come out Chromebooks are now you know use that for mcap use that for you know standardized assessments use that for um you know I ready assessments things like that and now so now kind of is it make the iPad integrated or not and so I think having a technology planed so you know get away from how to use the technology but a technology plan for district is also really important to make sure that we’re looking at what’s best for us to have in the schools for Te the teachers to have teach the students um in how up toate can it be

24:19 without being so put something in place so when I said it was negative question I buch other things the main things come to mind thank thank you so I’m Sarah Fox I’m currently the chair of the school committee I have six children five which are in the school system right now and then I have a little guy at home with me um and my question would be is what would you do to prepare prior to a start as an interim superintendent in Marblehead um and then what would your plan be and your goals for that you’d hope to accomplish in your first five days here my first five days yeah what would be your first target areas so I was I was

25:05 just going to say I developed a 30 60 90day plan first couple days um so uh you know F first first order of business would be to the you know folks in general to Beed you know Mee the parents coming say here from superintendent here’s who I am this what I do ask me whatever questions SAR the same thing with um with the admin team first foremost um and when the teachers are

25:44 session um the like to do meeting members kind individually if I can just to kind get a better sense of what folks are looking for and where you’re know passion Ling where your thoughts are in terms of what needs to be you know addressed um you know short so so I think that’s the first five days just kind of get get my bearings off you know folks uh you know five days is a long time so you know get as much of that stuff as possible but I think Plan F I would do a 30day plan

26:24 I treat within that first 30 days and get to know that ad team um the committee that look that look like kind some of the first things at a time

26:52 frame I always like as well there so I can get a feel for um you know maybe some of the needs of the building the build envelope to make I try toti if you walk by something three or four times but you said I said oh look at that that need repl over there that repl those are things I always run into my head so I definitely get into the schools to do that and just the grounds and Stu just to see especially

27:26 not first few get to um and then I think also you know meeting with the parents I said already meet there and then what theud really like to

27:48 engage think relationship it’s also kind of seeing what’s really happening like to be visible to you know people to see them there them

28:09 I issue remember you get from a parent have a conversation that look like how navigate that first point contact thingsa

28:32 um so now maybe we’re gonna get a little bit more detailed I wonder if you can share with us the budget your budget process in your school district um at as superintendent when did the process start and how did you get to aove the budget sure um so so in the T in that’s that’s a holistic group of folks like we generally build it from Finance dir super myself S three main people from the special special what programs we start that budget actually September or October just start um looking at you know if we have contracts in place already you know know

29:19 the perc should be so that kind of piece out say okay here’s where we are the salaries um what do we need in terms of capital expenditures so I I develop a fiveyear capital Improvement plan so kind of look at immediate needs um the general maintenance immediate needs you know one to two years and three to five years so we kind of have an idea back how we can so to do the budget you know I do that again stakeholders generally what we do is um you know we see what the contract contractors um obligations are budg from there do first dra that sub bug sub uh around that sub committee um look

30:06 look everything see where are see some

30:15 things and school committee public hearing budget and public hearing on it um that’s the first part of

30:35 um so s to most towns um I drive that’s how I driv the budget I know school department has a lot moreit the budget which is fine fible anything that works that’s fine um I think the big piece for me is kind of my history is um similar to working with the administrative team I same the union so union leaders I need them um monly or every six weeks to find going on that’s really help we get to so I can

31:16 understand you know some resources or Staffing or anything have that back my mind process kind have on sh so when we get to the budget we start getting to where we are percentages share that you say here’s where we are here’s be to be able pass um but I say this year have

31:53 pass last 51% push through um that’s took a little bit more but from from the 43 43 3.8 and prior to that i% years up to those S years um the time in

32:23 it’s so we we do a lot the little we have level schools all are St soures everything do done well with the money we have but trying incrementally to build budg

32:43 so really so really developd basic we have to add staff always try to that to nutrition rather just always adding staff um you know so TOP Step te retiring rehire that get some the first second step you push in there do that a couple times and

33:16 that how many students do you have in the district we 22 100 your your 26 million yes yeah it’s um it’s a town that um yeah I don’t any dispar but the doesn’t like to spend money on things and so when I go it’s it’s like I have actually my great they want they want to kind of high and I said well can’t go to town and just you know Hammer BG money a

33:54 lot demographic change I I think it’ll get better so the the 3% last year’s 4.8 this year’s I’m sorry this year’s expected 4.8 last year’s 5.1 that was no override that was just no override no override no I haven’t done any layoffs in 20 over 20 years um any sta that’s that’s all L service so we were just for point of reference um our our um we originally started with the director from the town that was going to give us 1.3 and we’ve clawed our way back to um

34:39 so yeah so yeah it’s I don’t know Mar to know what players are who the players are there but you know realistically like a 1.2 is run school system I mean

35:01 yeah yeah I I like you know your num yeah well you know I think it’s important you and I I don’t know all the numbers I I look at the numbers that um I thought were important at this point and I think you know when you look at it in terms of I’m one that will always fight for the children we’re in the business of children we’re not in the business of so like making everybody happy you need to make sure the children take care and you know sometimes I have to make decisions are not popular and I’m fine with that no problem with making decision standing by the decision defending the decision and you know if it’s the wrong decision I take accountability for that of course correctly move forward um I’ve been really fortunate and I think it’s

35:46 because my relationship developed that that going relationship the union that admin team the teachers um that when things get a little buy they they know that I have support they feel comfortable so when all the other to are on me right scores of teach scores of s s more

36:22 more yes your answer thr the Segway into my question we have not had a significant increase in our school budgets accept a salary increased more than a decade our operational budget has been flat all this time we were able unable to succeed in our last two override attempts if you got in here and you saw the budget and you decided you needed to have an override what would be your steps to make your override successful I can tell you I hav had to do that yet so it’ be new territory for very up front about that however I think some of the things I just talked about get actually very Point conversation select

37:10 board um Council about the needs resources that needed I think having open for for parents to come in voice not that I love as a superintend to be put in front of an Angry Crowd but it’s again but I think having a conversation about why we need to have place you know when you’re you’re looking at marble head and your scores where they are and where you sit in rankings is impressive and it’s impressive to me that been able to maintain that given some of the challenges happen I understand in terms of we just talk about to get percent things um that that to me shows that you

37:55 have staff no do that care about kids and probably really working harder um to make sure being successful and you know again I don’t want to talk about TR because I don’t know all is announced yet but I think when you look at um you know if town if Town folks are against the increase or the politicians against increase um it can’t just be because it only idea we need to show them why we need to show them that it’s not just money it’s it’s resources our kids

38:34 are um I think it’s important that because I think Talent don’t support the increases to the budget so Talent say oh the teachers get paid so much they have the summer off you know all that that dialogue that I don’t think it’s helpful because the reality is yes that may be true that they get Summers off but you know try of 26 kids all day long

39:03 I’m an educator so I understand this so how we how we help understand I think that’s part of it it’s not an over thing switch by a um so override I mean obviously I learned I make sure legal council is all on board making sure we have all the right language in board um go and have conversations up front with folks have open with community members Community stakeholders um really expl why we need to do that hopefully enough support that when it gets the vote I’m sure it’s been attempted before like you said but you know you can’t you can’t live on

39:52 that’s else um I forgot to tell you about my illustrious background last time sorry so this is my second year um in a three-year term uh and I grew up here to school here moved away to a bunch of different places came back to raise my son he is in fourth grade here at our fantastic Village School um so my next question is in in your previous role or one of your previous roles what would you describe as one of your biggest failures and how would you take steps or what steps would you take to ensure or have you taken already perhaps to ensure that you didn’t repeat that in the

40:34 future that’s a that’s a fun question um so I think you know and it’s it’s a hard way to this is a hard question to answer because I think I’ve been lucky enough to have good folks around me so my fa my failures in terms of my big failures that haven’t been um giant so I think I think the one thing I would talk about is this it’s it’s a end a success but I’ll tell you a failure prob before we turn into success so in the same age with you know um diversity Equity incl inclusion belonging um several years ago uh you know was kind of probably just ahead of the way able to push from Desy and everybody else um to get a lot of equity pieces in place we started we

41:21 started developing Equity teams in in schools we knew there was making sure that that curriculum um for um for biases looking at the policiy for biases Etc so we developed myself and super equ teams teachers in each the school I have six six schools and them in um teachers were more than willing to to come together and do that um we got together we had conversations all G start meeting start bringing things back book clubs and PD that they wanted to do all the above everything was going really well we thought um kind of reflecting upon how things were going I

42:07 realized the mistake I made this is where the failure piece comes in is um I assumed incorrectly um that our all of our administrators for where they needed to be in in that conversation we kind of started the train rolling the administrators me thinking the ministrators were the same of the Mind same mindset I was in so what happened we rolled it all out everything started going started to find out that Equity teams weren’t being supported by some of the principles why it turns out that we need I stop the whole thing rewound get the admin team back together did a whole lot of PV and a whole lot of discussions having really hard difficult discussions about in biases and got really uncomfortable and we we work

42:53 through some things so I did a massive reset with admin team f the back over rolled it back out and it’s going swimming I it’s not never never idea we all have to check our sures all the time um but it’s way better now the equity teams are feeling more supported by their principles um but it would really took it was a big like step on the break real hard to to stop that train because the equity teams was so passionate moving forward and doing a lot of great work but the administrative team just wasn’t there I had to say wow I missed that one miss that one so I think that’s that’s a failure in my mind um that’s but turn it

43:40 around yeah well I think so Equity stuff is equity

43:54 inclusion um we’re going to go to Al hi so this this is not a broad question as my first one was uh if you can Envision a school bus for me please yes can you tell me how many basketballs you could fit inside the school bus on the seats or or everywhere um with seats and fully loaded with seats fully loaded fully loaded with basketballs all right so are I don’t know the answer to that question about measur but probably seing ceiling the floor and all the seats

44:42 yes okay I just uh you just give me a little how you processed it a little bit how how you came up with the answer please how did I come up with the answer um I try to look at how many seats are on the bus um and then get three basketballs to a seat um and then more each

45:01 SE SE hallway [Music]

45:29 it’s more just to see about you know how you work through something that’s kind of abstract or whatever um I do enjoy that question question never and that’s part of the intent right trying trying to ask something you may have not heard before actually appreciate it because it’s kind of you know youly on your feet if I was you know I was getting money for the answer then I probably

46:03 um so how do you prioritize tasks and decisions when un foresee circumstances occur I mean we all know that in the superintendency you start off your day I’m sure with a plan and things go sideway sometimes quick um so I’ll start by saying I mentioned earlier I was in the restaurant business so I’ve always worked in the in the past Pace um high pressure high stress job we

46:29 to get us perspective on how busy the restaurant was and then when they went special director assistant director things like that um you know every day is s superintendent um how do I prioritize um you know this is how I do it I make I make myself a list little check boxes at the end of every day and I say okay and I ask for us the ones I’m going to attempt to get to the next day and then at the end of that next day when I realize I get to those I put them on top list again um I look at things that are you know obviously safety first if it’s safety issue with a kid or bus or school things

47:14 disciplinary concerns teach things so it depends on the day how how I how I prioritize what I can tell you is that I think given my background in um in both the restaurant business and specialized world pretend having five six kids so yeah but having five kids you know you have to be able to jugle things all the time and I think I’m a person who doesn’t get rattle um I don’t frazzle I don’t you know go into crisis mod I

47:48 don’t things um I’ll give you for instance we had St School Day storm were in to school trees went down um buses were blocked from get from school to know my parents the internet went down had to read out the kids school and you know we I jumped in DPW on the phon tree out of the way principal to go to the other school they s me phone calls we buses kids into the new school all staff up there theys from one school into the cafeteria you know and work through that whole issue in a matter of half hour we had all kids um in their regular home in the school the other kids in the cafeteria open up the street and the bus is back

48:34 and the bus has G back to school then you know an hour and that was a lot of moving moving a lot of little body to build on that can you tell me in that situation um what was your chain of communication you know whether it’s to please to DPW who did you call and reach out to and when so um as soon as the principal let me know um the Tre out school and stff starting to get kind of backed up um I spoke to him a penil school to thep

49:25 there right there right away routing on you drop off p drop offs school um so the only the only glitch there was um because of Internet the phone system we have hairy because they connected which is best idea some that cell phones there basically that and then at the end of the situation like that um at the end of a day or something would you debrief your school committee or at your next school committee meeting would you yeah so I’m sorry the next forget the school commit no the school commit was is the very after I knew that the DPW know this is situation um they they

50:19 know and then the principal did back the parents saying back the reg school and back to typical that was all in an hour it was it was Mega chaos um initially the parents are like what are we doing what’s happening you know but it was chaos but it organized in minutes was was actually a great way to practice some of the draws practice like different than shoot but

50:55 yeah fromo yeah fromo another police know lot same for you things where

51:12 well do do you have local press that you need I mean would that do you hear from them or do you have to do a press release or is that not so much the case so um we used to um us a local paper that took care of our town another town but really only take care town now like our school communities anymore um but the town does use John G Foil for so for things like that I didn’t use it that at that point wasn’t theight but I would I need to um local paper we still have have potentially you know I have to gauge expectations Committee in town I’m

51:59 I’m not so I think you know sometimes um I always a on side of let’s not cause Panic we don’t need to cause Panic so I try to have a conversation with people need to have conversation about with and then you know deal this W but use piece you know social media can kind go so it’s always that balance like when you put things out and what you sayate in every single situation I don’t to that my hum do you have any questions for us um you answer some I was wondering about the um

52:49 positions okay so we’re in a really good spot okay and um I’m really proud of the work um we have done with our committee um Julia fera who you see sitting right here she’s been completely invaluable the last few weeks she’s been running a lot of our search committees so in the last week we have voted um to confirm an assistant superintendent of student services Lisa marieo um will be joining us from Newberry for um so we’re really excited about that last night um we voted to enter into contract negotiations with my piering at our pil um for our assistant superintendent of

53:35 finance and operations um we had a finalist today um do a site visit with the Glover school as a principal um I hav gotten the full deef from that but I I think from what I’m hearing it went really really positive um feedback from all all sides um and next week we will start our interviews for the a village school principal which is our 4 through six um elementary school so we have rebuilt great we’re interviewing for this role well that’s that’s excellent when I was looking at I said oh this this be interesting if I get the job it’s going be a lot of hiring but I wasn’t sure where you know onard that

54:20 oress oress job that’s that much better but and I will say um we were really grateful to see the caliber of everybody that’s been coming in um for these interviews it seems so far the people that we’ve on board and are in the process of doing that with it feels very much so like a team in sync right if you will that our an entire admin team really it’s going to be a group group of folks that you know because it all it matters you know personality is how you work together so I’m really really

54:52 excited everyone else is July one start or is it July one start yep y there’s a little bit of transition pieces a lot of times those Central admin pieces you know we’ll do a couple days to to catch up so um so that was one of my questions the other question was um in terms of the collective bargaining um uh you know know I saw that everything kind of do this year but I don’t know did those so we’re in the process we’re actively doing it um Jen the vice chair and myself sit on that um Collective argument team we had another meeting last night our third or fourth with the union or um we’re meeting again next week with them we have a couple more another meeting a few weeks after that um so we’re working through we did five different units um we’re working

55:39 through the process of meeting with the mea with their MTA rep and just going through that process yeah and you know I talk a little bit about um for for me going through the col Maring process I had a lot of experience that said I have

56:10 Cycles on office never really had ISS we always kind of G through last year the first the N came table for the teachers they never had before I think a lot of districts are yeah I think I think our in that in that particular exra you know info but usually I get I get

56:41 mys so I will say as far as our staff goes we have we are very very fortunate um we have really

56:51 committed the par the mom of six and me is making sure no one’s walking home practice right now I apologize that phone overs in case there’s emergency yes that’s rain I apologize no I didn’t see that’s why I

57:10 look I do um so so we’re really fortunate that we have um really dedicated seasoned group of Staff it’s it’s very it’s a sense of community I know that might sound a little too much of a cheer leader anybody that would was met me would say I’m not cheer leader but um I a lot of our staff lives here in town they’re deeply committed to Marblehead our community our schools so um I I will say that there’s been good relationships and hope that that’s that’s good that’s good to know but yeah I just that doesn’t scare me if it’s not not I have

57:54 experience yeah no we’re we’re marching through the process that’s aome and

58:05 then um the tell means set of Monday Monday and Tuesday hopefully that’s

58:19 ITX and like a hotel Airbnb tax um yeah hopefully oh I had I’m sorry oh we’ve got um we’ve got 15 more minutes so oh cool um the the Meco how many Meco I was trying to look to see how many Meco so I’m gonna as I’m answering you I’m gonna be looking to cheat with Julia over here with 38 39 students right now that’s good yeah I thought I thought 3 but then I like so the way the program works I believe um I don’t know if you’re currently or if you working metco communities is um there’s an amount that you’re slated to be able to um have up to and so that’s one number on the the

59:05 we or on the data that you’re looking for but currently we have 39 students and then there’s like a set set per people a per yeah yeah it’s a grand a yeah I’m not a yeah I think it’s really yeah we were one of the original Medco um communities I think the 50th anniversary was 2019 so yeah we’ve been the beginning and we’re one of the furthest out Geographic which is which is really amazing because you know the communities around Boston the newbook lines you know they have part also participated robustly with Meo but um it’s a far less of a um burden you know Li for the

59:50 students I we have the little ones coming into elementary school and they’re on the bus at you know 5:00 a.m. 5:30 or six whatever um we’re along Paul traffic pretty well spread out through the grade level um each School asks for a number of kids okay yeah I more at the middle and high school than at the lower grades well it used to be three schools fed into one upper Village yeah which is why they had more in vill that’s high school and then the village is is how long 46 always been that way the history of the facilities of marble heads write a book on it um but

1:00:37 it was um we started a master plan of our facilities in 1999 we opened our and we started at the high school mov down so we opened our new high school this building in 200 2000 I think and then uh moved down and opened our last Elementary School in 2021 um and during that process as we were moving kids around we make a lot of changes but we originally had a middle school which was 5 to eight which is where the Village School is located right now when we opened high school and then our now Middle School which is seven and eight we moved four through six and we made village four through six and moved our seventh and eighth graders to our Middle School which was our old high school so it’s not I mean this fourth and six my understanding is I think one of two districts in the state the other one being in the western part

1:01:24 of the state the Springfield area it was intriguing me because you don’t you see like a lot four to five 6 well it’s facility driven um you know primarily but we we’ve we’ve been able to make it work um you know for sure you said you said um do all the building building yeah well so this is our oldest building now interesting but you know I also have the same eye you have so you know I look around stuff but um the main thing is the room believe it or not needs to be replaced that makes sense you so I I also

1:02:03 hold so hold so actually I secured land with the Old Town Administrator to BU a new school in swans so it’s first school since I new

1:02:33 visibility going stage for the school that’s exciting so we do have we did secure a dedion override from the town last year so the bo will be replaced in 25 at this point starting the OBM process now generally speaking with I think sry you can jump in we we participated with msba in our building projects we tend not to qualify for many of the repair projects um whether it’s a ro or whatever so we’re we didn’t qualify in the room here um what’s really interesting is they won’t even let you apply through the process unless you’re over 30 years on a roof um the type of roof that was designed on this building has a it’s been documented a lifespan of 20 to 25 years at Max even though we’re right in there that window and we’ve made appeals it’s hard and

1:03:20 fast for msba it’s 30 years don’t apply so we didn’t qualify for that here we did do um the new Brown School our latest Elementary School that opened um in 2021 as Jance said through the msba uh program I actually served on that building committee that was um many year um and we’re still you know and as you know there’s there’s always facilties things that that pop up that was a brand new building and I think the was leaked in that day one as you know I mean even with the new buildings like even the our other Elementary School we not on to elementary schools opened in 20 14 I think whatever um had to replace the heating system already like there’s been you know so and that you talked

1:04:06 about it um can really be a bunch of Buster too 100 years old

1:04:20 system there how do you fund that you just we got um we funded that through grant funding and then initial end

1:05:01 but you didn’t have to get Town funding you wer doing de

1:05:12 exclusion any other I want make sure we um no I don’t think I have any other questions um I think um you know I just uh again share you know as far as being a leader I’m some collaborative leader I think I really good at um making sure that I’m reflective listening I transparent communication visible um you know find schools most of the time I think try to be involved in that way is really helpful umam umam really experience

1:06:07 that can I ask you just to grow on one piece I think it was a question that of Jens that you answered um or maybe I’m not sure whose question we answering um you talked about you know with your open door policy and always you know wanting to make sure you’re addressing people’s concerns and questions give the reference of you know school committee member gets a call from a parent or you know a teacher or whatever and you know you’re going to invite them to come in and talk to them to them was that the teacher or the parent or the school committee member who would whoever needs to be so so what I find a lot of times is um you know especially the newer School Comm member not wor situation get so a

1:06:58 lot okay told you about a teacher in the build like person ask is just say okay I’ll let you know let superintendent know I usually say is what did the teacher say what did the principal say do that resolve the conversation that’s kind trajectory I’m really big on making sure that people follow the process because what I find is that when they jump over all the process and come land right at my bill my building in my office I’m fine I’ll have a conversation but the conversation will generally be okay let’s let’s back layers of onion where did the issue start how was it addressed if it wasn’t addressed properly at that level why not let’s figure out how to fix that and if it was and then it wasn’t address level not um I think a lot of times

1:07:43 especially if you know you know member and that’s knows you and oh I’m M seat me they got to superintendent and they got to resolve it that’s sometimes that’s that’s a tricky place to be so when I say them I think it’s you know you and I have a conversation say hey phone call I’m not sure what’s going on find out what’s happen for me so I can respond appropiately respond what are saying we have meeting meeting it’s when that doesn’t

1:08:26 out um can I give you a so my first year superintendent actually within the first couple weeks being superintendent gentleman across the street from my office whose new wife had had a child who she wasn’t very happy with special education situation after child um she blamed on me he got angry with me not knowing the situation and he kind of a wealthy buiness town he decided he put up giant billboard signs about me on his front line literally from here to the back Library my office three giant sing superintendent of the day and they would put like so initially thought this is kind of cool super put on superintend day they start seeing the

1:09:13 words so I asked him over like what is the issue have conversation have conversation no school committee I’m you know I’ll she all said let’s have a conversation so he finally came in sat down W came in sat down within about three minutes we rectifi the whole situation went that said not Pap the school committee they took the science down he said I should have come in here eight weeks ago have a conversation Miss so those are the kind of things like that’s an extreme example but

1:09:51 with yeah so it’s you know again it’s it’s shocking all kind of thing but you I didn’t get and my wife was fre you may have given some of our neighbors some ideas yeah

1:10:04 thanks I wish more people would come in and have those conversations though I think that’s yeah it’s important I don’t try away from those kind of conversations so that are different say time you know it’s not always the fun four o’ in the afternoon Friday conversation but this has to happen that sometimes the gratification needs to be delayed over there don’t have the time like that you still I answer my emails 247 basically for responding to people at 3 in the

1:10:40 morning have to resp I have too get so you know that’s that’s kind of who I

1:10:49 am thank you so much I am so appreciative that you took the the drive up here and we had the opportunity to meet with you um just tell you a little bit about our process we had two candidates yesterday or yesterday evening we have one more tonight there was a fifth candidate we are looking to interview there is a scheduling of Kur buffle and we’re uh we’ll be trying to see if if we can put that in the next couple days or not um I will be reaching out tomorrow or Monday with some information about next steps at the end of tonight we’re not going to deliberate on candidates we’re going to talk about what our process is going to be after we talked everybody tonight so I’ll give you a call um tomorrow or um Monday at

1:11:34 the Late by by Monday at the latest um to let you know kind of what the next step in the process looks like right that’s great appr thank you so much affirmative whoever you want to whatever the process is thank you soce and I’m gonna have um Jen walk you outs

1:12:04 care and I’m just to give us um thank you so much thank you I’m just gonna give us about a five minute recess so I will be back in five minutes calling us into recess at

1:24:11 all right so we’re back in we’re I’m going to call us back into session at 628 um and we’re joined by Fus King who is our next candidate um as the members go through they’ll do the what we’ve done before and introduce themselves we’ll start off with Jen chaer welcome it is Dr Kate right nope okay um I am Jen shaffner I am Vice chair Marblehead school committee um just a little background I grew up in Marblehead attended Marblehead Public Schools um I have um two gr children who are grown and blown um who also um attended Marblehead Public Schools I served on the school committee from 2016 to 2020 um and then came back last last June was elected so I’m in the first year of my of a three-year ter

1:24:56 um and I’m serving as Vice chair um so I’m jumping into yeah so the first question we going to start out sort of broadly and then maybe go later on get a little more specific so my question is if you could just give us a sort of a brief background of of you yourself your career um and tell us why you’re interested in becoming the interim superintendent Mar great thank thank you for the introduction so uh that been The Marblehead Head twice three times now um you Marblehead twice three times now um you know uh I was raised in Texas actually so came to New England 20 2001 so 20 some years ago now I guess 23 um you know with my very young family at the time I also have two children that are supposed toly off the payroll um and

1:25:43 uh you know I started my career in education in Texas uh as a middle school teacher many years ago um when we began a family my wife is also a teacher she’s a teacher today actually as well uh when we began a family just it wasn’t working ter financially um and so I actually moved into sort of the high-tech arena for a number of years and ultimately was able to come up to New England um while I was working Lo of Technologies um back in 2001 was a lot of travel we had two little kids and so was either the ultimate made move or get new job so we moved up here and you know with No Regrets We are a very um sort of academically focused family we sort of went through the list of districts at the time um looking at the

1:26:29 highest performing districts and sort of getting the one that we could afford um we landed in gron uh we were determined to raise our family in one school district and my children go through successful doing that I’m very happy and um so during that time uh I you know my wife and I both returned to education started in L when I moved that year um I don’t remember the anymore so uh 13 15 years in L um began as a teacher um science again my background is stem I went to college for Life Sciences biology chemistry start worked on a masters began a doctorate anybody outside a doctorate doesn’t know to do teach um I did a lot

1:27:16 of student you assistant teaching in in uh in graduate school B univ city of Maryland and so um we we entered back into education and ended in ended up in l and um really had a great time so um I ended up as a principal in low uh middle school and um a really challenging school um we were a districtwide school one of the only districtwide schools in the in town a lot of challenges we had probably 63 countries of birth amongst our students um so you sort of get to take on every challenge you can imagine whether it’s curricular whether it’s equity it doesn’t matter what it is culture building is a little bit of everything so I spent a number of years in low as a

1:28:02 principal I ended my career in low as uh I I wasn’t always happy with what was going on in the alternative schools and very sadly superint on the alternative school said no to fix it so U I went to the alternative school and and we worked in the alternative school it really about eff helping students succeed we were successful moving all those students back into their home schools and they actually End closing school once we children back which was really great um that point my children were out of out of the house um and it was time for me to get to do something sort of that I want to do sort of that piece where you you get that job and you stay there but it wasn’t necessarily what you’re looking for so some point in life you get like make your decisions and so I knew that I wanted to move into honestly

1:28:47 a superintendent role at some point but I knew that my resum was not ready and sort of that point in time where you have to make a decision about what you’re going to do are you going to see good at academic grou am I going to pursue doctor and and those types of things or am I sort of expanding my experiences I chose the latter point right it was very um intentional um and that I did have two kids in college and probably didn’t have time to a third um and uh I took a position in winchington as the principal of murlock high school great opportunity it was the year Co broke out um so we went to uh and I say we um all these things are family choices for me my wife and I are do this together quite frankly and um so I spent

1:29:33 a year there as a principle we uh did some really great work uh is a lot of teams in richon um Rich was an underperforming district for 15 to 20 years as he been in that district for 15 to 20 years all three schools um very proudly I guess I would say we did a lot a lot of alignment work in my first year there and we raised the percentile ranking 15 points in one year

1:30:01 took umit next year um we just started a moment program with a partnership through wer state which was fantastic um a really great program still in operation um and I ended up volunteering through Co to be sort of vol told we need a CO really small District there’s not a lot of players and so we kind of have to ship in so in that time I took over as the co Le there a lot of problems from facility perspective just with the HBC hbac like folks do we weren’t able to reopen that first fall all those things so I took all those things on um it’s some we also been a finance manager um so uh somebody had to do it so I took some classes I did the thing got finance manager sort of um certification licens I think the end of

1:30:48 the 20 school year was my first time to close out budget and then we didn’t have a budget so I think the next the years I was the finance manager and the superintend as well so when you see that on my resume it’s CL were in conjunction so while I was serving as the superintendent um I was also serving as the finance manager for about two those years weren’t able to secure so um ultimately you know I think in the the era we’re in um I we had a very stable school committee had been in place for a really long time uh we work very very closely together I firmly believe that we have to be a team we have to have one another’s backs um it’s it’s really a shared governance I believe among superintending from the

1:31:36 school committee um and honestly there was turnover amongst the school committee that had been staed we had created this Vision we created this work together and have a really great plan on early literacy dual enrollment those types of things um through retirements and some moves and those types of things the school can be really turned over overnight um not a lot philosophically s some of the things that we were doing and me to say maybe we should have a conversation about this that’s fine I don’t think we should have S really great Community for that we’re not alive and we came mutually beneficial sort of agreement to sort of go own ways I landed in the beer very fortunate for that that’s where I am today as a school principal which is really honestly a gift in thinking about back into Super

1:32:22 actually view what it’s like to be a princip building pre and post it is a different world um and so why am I here is a great question um I did a lot of homework on on anything I apply for I Hest have two things I’m working on right now St one of them had another interview tonight and I don’t like to apply for a job that I don’t feel like I’m a kid so I kind of have a process when I apply for a physici and that is first to do my homework saw this was posted they are typically i s of went through and what’s going on there there be prank there’s some challenges um I love a challenge um and I thought that the challenges actually fit my background and um so I kept working I have some friends that have associations

1:33:08 and whatnot found out that there’s a really great solid core that’s here to build from and um the next step for me is to visit the community so I’ve spent a couple of days in the community um visiting all your schools my wife gets a little worried that maybe the police might show up it look a little suery um but honestly the energy in the community is fantastic right I was here on the weekend I went visited every single school and every single school had life the community had life um the energy is fantastic kids were everywhere this right Historic downtown just kids walking around amazing we stop the Starbucks there just kids in there hanging out and studying and very respectful and you know we came did all the schools and um just the energy was really NE I

1:33:55 think um and uh you know we left like I said it’s a conversation with my wife and we left sort of is this something that we want to do we want to sort of participate inunity part of this so I had one last step I like to show up events so yesterday there was a thecross out outside um so I you know it’s a short drive it’s 10 miles 30 minutes um and so um you know I drove up the coast it’s a beautiful drive and you know what I really loved was um it felt like the values of this community the values that I have in the game it felt like a lot my kids are going out of the house but it was like walk stepping back time the little guys were out there yesterday in between periods the the youth the cross played kudos to the white team last second go TI up um at the end but you

1:34:40 know you had the scen che

1:34:50 inter Chas but I called my wife on the way home and I said this yeah I you know there was still potential that I didn’t want to parti because I wasn’t finished with my home and um last second um but you know at the end of the day um it’s just a great feel and I feel like that in terms of the challenges you’re facing and what I hope to brated for you are a match and so I’m here tonight to see if we’re fit for one another it’s really important it’s not just about me being fit for you but it’s being fit for me first so very seriously I’m really really happy to be there thank you sorry thank you app um next Bri um Brian Oda I’m a first year school committee person I started teaching at um a a

1:35:36 technical Vocational High School back when it was called boys trade and girls trade that’s how was probably saying that now on you anyway and then after that I moved into a middle school in um central Massachusetts as a special ed altimate resour Source room teacher so I had all the kids nobody else wanted were my program I actually had a good time working that program they really great after that I went down to the cape as an administrator I worked in a elementary school then I moved up to the middle school three weeks before school started the superintendent switched to all the principles of the district and the secretaries talk about a fun atere to walk into three weeks before school

1:36:22 started anyway and then I was enticed to come up here where I work as an assistant principal at the Village school and then became the principal at the Glover school and when I left Village uh Glover I then retired and ran for school committee in congratulations thanks yeah I kind of

1:36:41 wonder if you are a successful candidate you’ll have many new administrators as a new assistant superintendent of student services an assistant superintendent of finance and operations and you’ll have two brand new Elementary principles how will you begin the process of rebuilding your organization how will you gather and determine your most critical needs and how will you turn those critical needs into actions using rabit that’s a great question um I have to say that one of the things I enjoy the most is is really building a highly functional highly productive team when I started this work as a principal and I didn’t know that you get that first job and you’re ready to go and let’s just do this and you follow think by accident what I found I was

1:37:30 very teams and um you know I think that especially with you have some new folks you have some existing folks and sort of bring them together you know there’s a lot of work in there I think that the the fundamental component of that is is building that trust as early as you can um in order to move things forward you don’t if you don’t have that trust you’ll never get anywhere so I say a lot that relationships arey the directly work that we do but that’s really built on trust so so I sort of have had to really reflect on I have I was very fortunate to have an amazing team in my my RO I didn’t realize how forunate I knew how fortunate I was and sort of that still sits on my pedestal and say like how do I get back and I’ve asked quite really like how did we get there how I I know there

1:38:16 was trust but sort of like what’s the mechanism a lot of folks that would talk about the end result we have space where safe all these things that doesn’t how you get there and so I’ve stumbled on a few things which is you have to give trust before even get trust so right out of the gate for me is sort of attempting to identify strengths and weaknesses of everyone and you really want to capitalize on folks strengths sometimes they don’t know they their strengths and put them in Su in positions to succeed make sure that they understand it’s okay that mistakes will be made you’re going to be there for them um if they’re putting forth that effort but put your trust in them right away you trust so you show them that you trust them by giving them an opportunity and put them in positions to be

1:39:02 successful play to their strengths helping build their area um I think the other component around that in terms of building teams and it’s along the same lines the way I think to build trust is to be vulnerable yourself I have plenty of problems um you know we’re all fall right I mean we’re we all have our foibles we all make mistakes and I think that to show your team your own vulnerabilities at appropriate time is a very powerful piece that I felt on by accident you know always way apologizing to my social workers saying I’m so sorry I should have done X Y andz to do that she was amazed and she turned me and said I’ve never had him minist only own song should I mean know so I think you

1:39:49 have to build that trust before anyone ever going to trust you so a lot of my work is in that trust component early on and it’s you know I think once you can get there it’s it’s not just with that team but it then extends to the community it extends here extends everywhere the real work is about building that trust from the outset and you know once you can kind of create that space and you have a team that you come to the table and we all understand that we’re in this for the same reason it’s for POS about outcomes for kids and we all come to the table give perspective whatever that is it’s all fair you put it on the table I don’t want people just to be able to have a voice I want them to be able to speak their mind and know that there’s not going to be a vation to that I don’t agree like that’s why we’re there we

1:40:35 have to put those things we don’t agree about on the table so that we can be so that’s my process and building the team so that we can now enter a room and have a space where everyone feels safe they can come and and bent they can come do whatever it is behind Clos but in that team it’s sacred and there’s a lot of teams it’s that leadership team that you have to bu because we have to be front facing and roll in that same direction be on the same page have the same build have the same Mission a lot of work another example that I found is a retreat in in this very similar situation I had a situation in where I had some existence staff they had new principles and so what we decided to do is do a quotequote retreat let’s go off site some we away from school just kind of went through a process let’s talk about our strength our weaknesses and

1:41:21 there was an opportunity there where nobody wanted to talk about their weaknesses right do so um I just started like I’ll tell you what I’m not that like let’s put it on the table I need your help with these things and sort of open so that’s sort of the type of process what you can expect you know from a person I hope that answers your question um Alice oh yes Alice oh no yeah so Alice Taylor uh this is my second year of a two-year term I grew up here went through the schools here and um move back to raise my son who’s in fourth grade so my question is knowing that Marblehead participates in in mtss how or what specific steps would

1:42:06 you take to ensure that all students so whether IEP 504 gened Advanced learning were getting what they needed to be to be successful having exemplary

1:42:20 education make sure that every student receives the absolute best education possible ever that that’s ACC that everybody gets the best education possible um I believe in the power of Education I believe in education for the same um you know I think you’d have to start with mtss it’s really let’s get back to the basics step one are are we aligned is there alignment you know and I’ve seen your SEC plan I don’t know where you are in all the stages but the very beginning step for ntss we can’t say what we dos we don’t know where we are today so we have to find out where we are today and evaluate what the programs what are the programs that we have and are we getting the expected outcomes that we brought these programs into so as an example you know we often bring a program in this is great we want

1:43:06 this and and then we sort of keep moving along we forgotten why we brought it in the first place you have to so focused and never take your so let’s evaluate the programs that we have are they effective are they getting the results that we first place are we align step one is always align I perspective of it’s not we complicate ucation law there’s an intended curricul it’s the standards right there’s the curc and there’s the learn Cur we get the out and there’s only two places that can mess up right between those two steps so we have to figure out who not line which spot are we at are we teaching what we’re supposed to teach and if we are why you know we’re not align still like why AR so we have to sort of um I mean I think mtss is the core of

1:43:52 the work it’s not just about academics it’s also about that social emotional piece making sure every student gets what they need are we working in a manner where every student is working in own are we holding the care just far enough out or is it too far or it too close they’re having you know what I mean are they are they not being challenge are they being challenge capil so we have to have I think systems in place and I don’t I don’t know your systems but I think the first step is to evaluate the systems I’m sure you’re delivering the outcomes that you expected or do we remember what the outcome what were we expect so I think that’s always a starting point um at which point we have a place to begin to build uh you know the ntss system so that every student gets that so is it early literacy or the great B

1:44:38 program if not you know why not if we do are we still not serving certain students what populations are we not serving what’s the intervention that we need to put in place you know do we have a system that says that all students need to be on grade by grade grade three if not and they’re not what are we doing that intervention but I think there’s a misnomer about ntss right it’s not just about the kids who aren perform it’s also the kids who are perform about so I don’t like to put them separate I like to keep them saying it’s about addressing every student and and picking up what we have so I know that’s not exact correct answer but I think we have to figure out where we are first before we can kind of design what that looks like and I I’d like to we can’t forget about our teachers you know and that ntss to a degree right there’s a whole professional development aspect but I

1:45:23 mentioned social emotional and I think one of the thes coming out of is making sure that teachers have in place what they need so that they can form the top of their ability so that we can sort of implement that TSS system whatever it is De thank you you’re welcome and we’re gonna go virtual to China

1:45:44 without yeah sorry sorry I can’t be there in person um so I’m Al Williams I’m originally from New York but I’ve been in Massachusetts now for about 15 years years um I’ve only been a Marblehead about two years and I’ve been on the school committee since February so still still new and still learning a ton uh recently retired most of most of that career was in it Information Technology uh but I do have some limited experience or small a few years of teaching in the Philadelphia school public system math and computer science and more lately teaching in the higher education sector so to my question what role does technology play in your vision for the future of

1:46:33 Education it’s like a trick question isn’t it um you think so many school districts work so hard you see so much in the news about almost trying to take technology students in a lot of way what I mean is FS right we have yet to sort of embrace technology at school in way and the way that students learn I feel like sometimes we’re stuck in the way that we learn way we went through schools and that’s not what our students experience today I mean I have a 27 year old and a 24 year old and their life is so different from you know we think about well technology might me we need to send some email back and forth our kids don’t do that right email is a d it’s going away um you know kids say we talked to someone they did not talk they texted or theyed whatever app it is I

1:47:18 don’t even know but we need to figure out a way to embrace that but the flip side of that is it’s a tool it’s not an end right it’s a means to and sometimes we get caught up in technology is like this P it’s not it’s a tool for engagement and so I think that when we think about technology how do we use that to engage our students but at the same time help them understand how to use said Technologies in a meaningful productive way that’s going to be impactful for them post graduation or post whatever they do going forward forward um great it came out I was you know sort of as a superintendent working with the

1:48:03 principles and it was just I don’t know just to be hon it’s fear what are we going to do every kid’s going to start turning papers you know AI generat well how do we take advantage of that like how do we teach them to use that productive way as opposed to so you know the first step that every teacher we we can’t let’s keep it out of the schools turn off their phones you know we do all those things and and I don’t think we have a great answer but I think we need to sit down and have conversations about how to embrace the technology that our kids utilized we’re way behind the curve and how do we capitalize it in our school so our kids can be more productive but also be productive parts of their society productive parts of their jobs whatever it is my son is 27 his life is so different from mine at 27 he had these

1:48:49 conversations about you know whether or not he should have to go into work can’t have conversations right but he he has a really good job he works in Boston um but he goes in twice a week and so we have we engage in these conversations about why shouldn’t have to go and I’m like twice week I should have to go in once a week you know no you should be going every day he’s like yeah let me tell you what wife was like to so when he outlines like oh you got some really great points there nobody’s in the office every like the vs even sit down at a beaule there’s no desks there’s no offices I’m so working alone right so here we are you’re in China right like how do we engage this I mean I get a little PTSD over Zoom this one cl right but like this is the real world now this

1:49:34 is what college is like kids are taking college classes through zoom while they’re sitting in Fr so how do we prepare kids for all this technology in a meaningful way because I’m not certain we always are we’re preparing in the way that we’re used to but it’s time to change I’m not saying it’s wrong and I don’t I don’t think I have a great answer but I think we have to engage and use these tools in a productive way as opposed to saying we way I hope thank you um so I’m Sarah Fox I’m currently the chair of the school committee I’m finishing up my f fifth year in the committee and I am a mom of six um five of them are currently in the Marblehead head of them are currently in the Marblehead public schools and I have a little guy still at home with me if you wandered

1:50:20 around the town twice already you probably flipped over wton so far you’ll know when you see them they all look the same so um what would you do to prepare yourself for the role of interm superintendent in Marblehead um and what would you plan for your first five days I would plan I would hope it would be open to my presence in the district prior to whatever July 1 um I had vacation days I had things I have an understanding to from who goes onight um is very supportive um Dr Kell and um so I think first steps would be making an attempt in some way to have a meaningful like not to show up and like hey whatever but like get to know what’s going on in the district so you know I would want to know I mean my

1:51:06 first question is always about what are the what’s working what’s not right so great let’s not work on things that we don’t have to work on but let’s make sure at the same time what the challenges and let’s challenges um for me personally um you know in my first five days like I would just want to take home the budget um being a former Finance person or sort of always in a finance person I I need to know the budget inside now because that’s your first step failure right is not understanding your where all those things are um Second Step you know in terms of those five days is engaging stakeholders I think you have to get out the community you have to start working St a little tough in July but which you know I’m sure there’s ways to sort of do that and then I think it is day we we need to get that leadership team

1:51:51 together whoever whatever that looks like I’m sure can’t to get started um but I think those would be my first steps but I would look to sort of start um within my days um you know somewhat to sort of start getting a feel for the district I would like to talk to the outgoing superintendent about what initiatives are on doing things I think that’s really important transition leadership to make

1:52:34 we’re g to Circle back to Jen great um so I’m not sure well you were superintendent went it in for a couple of years so you went through a budget process yeah went went through um I I created the budget um uh stream C okay and actually you were in both roles so my question is can you share what your budget process is in your school district probably winon versus R here when you served as superintendent and when did the process start and how did you get to a town approv budget yeah um the budget process for me was really interesting because um I really started from scratch I didn’t have something to work so it was really built from the

1:53:20 bottom up if you will and so um the first time was an accident meing somebody just the budget needs to get done oh it was late right but I think orig you know typically we would like to start November December starting meet with stakeholders sitting with groups what are the needs those types of things to try to you know the leadership team let’s get down to the principles principal should be talking to their their teachers you know what are your wish lists what are our priorities it is so critical for the budget to always be aligned with your strategic plan and I see that as a fault in so many places we have the budget over here in a silo we have change plan over here and then somebody says what how are we what about this other thing that we’re working on and nobody sort of put the two together so they really have to be so um but I start early um and involve

1:54:06 every stakeholder that’s possible depending what’s going on in that budget season what we be tending to um in terms of how that’s presented that’s a really interesting question um and I think kind of back to some of that you know early on work is to dig into that budget and find out where everything lies so as an example where are grants at Grand are the grants closed that are they open we still have a year left on one how much money left those types of things it’s amazing how money pops up um if you know we’re not tending to it and again we lose focus focus is just so important you can never take your um I’m a very relaxed leader but people find me to be

1:54:52 hyper focused on whatever sort of that Vision strategic plans are we get into meetings like somebody brings back to your question which is somebody comes and we we chase money we tend to chase money in schools hey I just sell this great Grant to do XY and Z so many times we follow that money and then we follow that initiative then we’re beholding to do those things and before you know you look back and say we’ve just gotten so far away from our actual you know strategic initiative so staying focused and actually asking question do we need this money if we take this money is it going to Le down the right path is it align what we’re doing now so so forth it’s okay to say we don’t chase that money so on so any um so in terms of putting that we get a budget together there’s a lot of back and forth there’s a lot of work with the school committee I like to work with

1:55:38 fincom as well I like to everybody in the loop along the way so that there are no surprises I like to meet with uh fincom up front I’ve of I’ve always met with the chair and the assistant shair ahead of time so they can ask them the questions maybe Identify some holes so we can build in because they come with a very BL than what we do and what you do um I believe you present the budget it needs to be 100% transparent the way we earn trust with our community is tell them where the money is what we’re doing with it in right like if we want their TR saying that you’re looking at overr and all typ things that work starts three years ago earn that trust so that they understand why we’re spending the money and how and what they should expect

1:56:26 so when I present you know as an example we sometimes might not like want to say that we have X amount of dollars in on the revolving account for SCH Choice it can be a lot of money people hear that that’s a lot of money and say well they don’t need money because they’ve got what take $500,000 Choice funds that they’re sitting on you have to be transparent why you’re seeing what you’re doing that what’s the initiative behind that what about the athletic Devol what out there show it to people here’s what it’s for here’s what we’re spending it on here’s the 5year plan as to how we remove it this isn’t this year plan this is the next three four five years plan the vision for so I really believe in transparency that pull back pull back the grapes a little bit and show

1:57:13 everybody what where the money is why we’re spending it the way we’re spending what is circuit breaker you and I talk about these things conversationally K doesn’t understand what necessary or how we’re all to spend don’t understand what circuit breaker is and how you’re supposed to spend how you car over so when you make those presentations I believe you need use that as an opportunity to educate your community um so that they can support you and what you want to do for their do that help thank you right uh we have not had a significant increase in our school budgets except the salary increases in more than a decade we have been unable to succeed in our last two override attempts can you define the steps you would take if you decide you need to

1:57:59 have an override into your Administration we’ll just start um yeah I I think I I covered some of that I think my my previous question so um I have a two experiences with overrides but not a direct I wasn’t responsible for Comm but I picked up the rains and wied in in a community that had attempted an override a number of years prior and it was still a cloud over the district relative to it didn’t go through and the district you know wants money so what we found again like so going to really budget is you know we could probably do a better job of tighten up in where we have Mon and and how we spend you again the soci C break there’s a lot of places um and and sort

1:58:47 of point after can circuit break the money examining our special education so um but I believe that again that that work needs to start really early on because we have to earn the Public’s trust right it’s their money it’s it’s their tax dollars my other experien is is a more personal perspective my own town uh just went from overriding BR this year I don’t know million which is a big chunk it’s going to raise our taxes by 25% years and I clearly support schools this is what I do it’s what I love but I couldn’t support the override because I I couldn’t figure out the story you know I didn’t trust to be honest and I hate to say that about my community and

1:59:32 my superintendent but I couldn’t figure it out so I think you have to go back in time right because the first thing that well I thought a number of years ago you cut X number of positions and you said you cut those positions that this is how you were going to do it so let’s just use as an example maybe Outsource

1:59:50 um blue right you did that three years ago said this is going to be a life saving and then but how did that translate somebody say we hired seven teachers at right so I think again you have to tell people the story because otherwise they’re going to tell the story for you and it might not be the right story so you have to be so transparent I think when we come into this there’s three things there it’s going to be trust it’s going to be transparency it’s going to be communication so we need to get out in front of the community tell them how we’re spending their mon tell them how we’ve spend in the past what did expect to see who we have to earn their trust it’s a full-time job and so if we can earn their trust over x amount of time and show them that we are getting the results that we said we can here’s how

2:00:37 we’re spending that money and I would like to believe it some point we bring that for again if you burn their trust as a community and they’re going to be more willing they know how the money being spent and they understand you can’t just spend the circuit breaker on anything it’s dedicated to certain items they don’t know that so there’s an education process in you have Forum invite people those of things I think it’s probably a multi-year process to get to I would just like to make let you know that our last assistant superintendent Finance spent three years getting our books in order so you you can look at that budget now and figure out where every penny is spent so the prep work that you’re talking about has already been started and I and I can’t help myself

2:01:22 but I stand back I can’t help spreadsheet and numbers and and sort of TR to put the puzzle together and how it all fits it’s fantastic um but being able to convey it is more important one thing to understand it the second thing to con so you have to have communication what you convey you have to be conversent in it not flippant and sort of like well we just spend on why so have be very convers understanding you have to know it inside and out we all do because we’re all

2:01:59 than um so in your previous role what would you or one of your previous roles what would you consider one of your biggest failures and how did you learn from that and what steps did you take you have you taken already to not repeat that or would you take here at I’m the guy never feel successful so that’s a really question um you know this work is is never right the thing about education is you get to the end it’s like well I’m not done we could have done better we keep going so I find myself OB but to your point is um I’m just going to use this and I I probably shouldn’t but I will um communication is hard communication is

2:02:46 really and so I have this habit of especially as a superintendent and coming up you know I as a as a principle at multiple levels and I really didn’t like it when I didn’t sort of people jumped along right and so I and I would never do if somebody comes to me before they come to whoever is appropriate the chain command keep I will always push that back and what I did was it was a mistake and it and it came back at is I would just forward those emails to the appropriate person could you please reach out to Miss Smith you please reach out to Mr J and so I thought I was doing a great job right and and I would sort of follow

2:03:31 through with whomever I sent that to whether it’s the special ad director whether it’s the principal it didn’t matter to me whomever it disappeared right it’s kind of how I ran when I was in business it’s kind of how things went go go talk to this person but I wasn’t communicating with the person huge ER right huge error and so I’ve learned from that say and that burned me came to school me I’m just going to be honest people I was like no I I took care of your problem I helped you you didn’t respond this the special ed um yeah but I expected to hear you never were right I’ll say I’m bothered by it but I learn from and so communication is a really interesting thing but so I’ve learned

2:04:17 respond I’m going to refer you to so and so she’s on top what whatever happens to be appropriate um that was communication can be a huge failure and it really bothers me to this day um because I take a lot of pride in communicating people like this song um and I wasn’t doing that right I wasn’t even capitalizing on my own strengths and so um you know I had to learn change the way I especially that I car

2:04:46 the go back to teacher I’m G to ask the followup um just for a kind of clarification so um as you know relationships are really important in a small town relationships can you know become a Force um so we all have them especially when many of us have lived here for many years so if you have a school Committee Member come to you and say you know uh staff member or parent whichever it’s really material has come to me I’ve known them for years and they had this question you know I’m could give me the answer to it when need talk about chain of command in different pieces will walk me through your your reply it how work who’s coming to me direct like a school Committee Member

2:05:33 calls you and says you know so and so came to me they have this question and walk me through um a parent had an issue with a principal at you know the wherever wherever sure so that’s a great question because it happens all the time um I mean it’s your goal you’re in the community people know you vot right it’s yeah wi was a small town that’s that was um and so I probably won’t answer you when you know I need to do my homework I need to go talk to person X I need to you know I want I want to investigate this person also talked to the principal was the problem with the teacher whatever but you know I I take a lot of pride in not being

2:06:20 reactive um I like to say that I’m responsive um which means I’m going to take my time sometimes I understand in a situation like that we need to get back to that parent but I think in an effort to do that properly I’m going to go back and I’m not gonna have somebody do I’m probably gonna sit just have a good conversation it’s going to be on their cve not mine I think that a lot of the things we do send messages um you sit at the desk you sit at the table you have a meeting in your office you have a meeting at your classroom what do we do with it so all of those things send signals that we need to be aware of so I’m probably just going to go with during the walkr I spend time in the building best place to be um that’s where the life is so you know I probably swing through it’s about a teacher hey can you tell me about what’s going on you Johnny or whatever that might be just off the cup and like have a conversation

2:07:05 maybe the principal know about this you know whatever that might be so I’m gonna do my due diligence there and find out sort of it’s you know what happened there’s two sides to every story the truth is in there somewhere and so I’m going to give you our side from an honest perspective and I and I hope that from that trust piece I can kind of bring that back around to the team building trust that was established that I’m going to get an honest answer and they’re going to trust to give me even if it was a bad answer I’m going to you know I’m going to Shield it because leadership is about giving credit when it’s due and shielding them when they’re Shug right so I take that very seriously and so I need them to be honest with might I might have missed I didn’t call it’s say great than tell you know Miss Fox that we’re do that

2:07:53 probably so that’s how in nextar that’s thank you you’re

2:08:01 welcome um we’re going to go back to Al oh yeah so this might bring back some experience in your high your Hightech experience because it’s a high-tech type question so please visualize for me a school bus okay how many basketballs could you fit in that school bus is it a big school bus is a little school bus is it a what is it it’s the standard the standard School Bus not the you know the regular standard size School Bus yeah a lot of B I’m sorry a lot [Music] yeah is this an estimation uh you know is this an estimation standard in the grade whatever um I don’t a thousand okay how did you come up with a

2:08:49 thousand right just try to try to very quickly think about the number of seats the height from the seat to the ceiling so on so forth the size of the basketball standard basketball so I don’t quick all right thank you it’s 500 just so you know there was too much of my brain that needed to know that that’s your civil civil engineer coming out right Alison nerd I get it I do have to say I know this is off off a little bit but when he Al his first question about technology and you said that’s pretty broad I thought you just

2:09:32 wait so um how do you prioritize tasks and make decisions when an unforeseen circumstance occurs yeah I think you know it shifts a little bit at the superintendent level versus the building leader level right the building leader spends all day reporing it’s a little bate the quar job is every second of the day is is what do I have running and rior to address the most need but I think fundamentally you know I come into my day I start my day every day and said what are the tasks at hand what going on the typical sort of priation process if you will thinking about what do we need to get to today where am I process so but I will say that the one thing that Trump’s all is say hands down everything stops um I will also say I

2:10:18 have a problem saying no to my former administrative assistant in the meeting you know te meeting and yeah you can come do this she’s like I will be the because he will say yes to everyone he’s door will always be open never get until um but so I try to Prior my day Comm start my day um what do we have going on as I said safety trumps off parents Trump kids Trum um I will stop what I do for any kid you know and kids reach out to superintendant all the time if they’re not they should be um because we should be there talking um and um and teachers right I mean the people what drive this so I stop anything whatever my part that I will stop I will make

2:11:04 time in real time I don’t give lip service I will I will do this out I will close the laptop you have my this is Meaningful it’s important you took the time to see me I will the time to see um so that throws me back um but it’s you know you never know what’s coming at you either right so it’s usually at the super level come school it’s going to be a safety piece it’s going to be a child going out maybe possibly um you know for some sort of mental health emergency and so we have to stop sure the processes follow but the safety piece I unfortunately had talking weate I I probably had building principal super fiveish um weapon PES in my

2:11:51 building um every um and we make sure everybody sayfe

2:12:00 that to in communication it’s so tricky these days because every has the community before you have got back so right so that communication at our core what we is keep our children safe these are sanctuaries I believe our school sanctuaries

2:12:22 for I jugle my priorities safety Trump um and behind that parents

2:12:33 teachers um to to tease that out a little bit um one of the situ you said fiveish um can you walk us through we don’t necessarily need to know the very very specifics of what the situation uh was if there’s privacy issues but um a situation while you were superintendent and what did you do when did you do it who’ you do it

2:12:55 yeah I mean I think it’s a great question the problem with these scenarios is everyone is different it sounds like they’re all the same but they’re just not every situation is different where did we find it how long ago was it we know who has backpack somebody saw didn’t know backpack was I I’ve run into everyone through social Med there’s so many scenarios but step number one is secure you got to lock down right you have to locate a child all these things have to happen simultaneously so that team becomes like what’s your role in that safety so we need to get the s i we have SRO s the SRO is the first phone call get on site as a

2:13:42 superint um and let’s make sure the situation is under control assign people roles assign people duties somebody’s goinging the communication make sure the communication covers these tasks we probably should have a little tempate up front so that that can go out um get back your children are say whatever is appropriate um some point we inform you um as quickly as possible um so that because you’re going to be getting phone calls we have a secretary most likely in a building that’s getting phone call so what’s the message to anybody who’s coming in um we probably don’t overshare um if it’s I don’t even say like if it’s an active shooter situation we actually share very little and again we need we have to communicate that the P later because we don’t want to give somebody

2:14:28 more information they should have um so my first call is an and getting on site and making sure that we have control of situation so fromal approach if you will have their own structures and once the police get involved we sort of turn that over a police perspective um you know just depending on how that how that works um if we believe it’s a student schol we medely finding locating that student securing that student searching the student all those types of things um but I think the followup is just as important which is how are we communicating to our people it’s one thing to communicate to the this community which has to be somewhat on Bo but what are we doing with our kids and what are we doing with our teachers so

2:15:15 my experiences are we get to the end of the day take a breath anybody who wants to show up to the library to wherever you let’s getbody together let’s tell let’s be as honest as we can as transparent as we can with our fa here’s what we do here’s how we think here’s why so on and so let them ask some questions let them do what they need to do we need to do the same thing with our kids our kids get really scared right whether that’s little guys whether that’s high school so I’ll give you a more specific example um scenario we have came social media um somebody picture I’m showing up today

2:16:02 actually to amazing um in that particular situation it was before I got that before school so we were able to actually get the SRO on board get to the school set something up if you will from the that there military we set up a situation where um we knew who the student what everybody knew who the student was we had a number of people in place we had an SRO at the door we had um an adjustment counselor inside the door so we had we had a plan in that particular instance to school to identify him away and isolate a Mee so that no one was actually right the problem was gets out with kids of course kids have social media we have the student isolated and

2:16:50 so on before you know it it’s wildfire and it’s 10 minutes right um you don’t have time to take a breath to get that communication so you’re always but it’s important to get that communication say here is what we did we intered him we secured him we searched his we

2:17:12 did I hope that answers your question did you did um in that specific with the student did you reach out and you brief your school committee afterwards let them know it had happened previously in the day are are they aware when it’s unfolding what I would what I my practice is and I know every District’s a little different right so I’ve been in a number of districts and there’s a great benefit to that because you see things that you like the way that they’re done and things that maybe you would improve on to get all these perspectives I’m a big believer and bringing in a lot of perspectives so you can form your own um my standard practice and I do this as a principal or as a superintendent I I’ll send an email that you know please read something to that

2:17:58 effect to give you um as much information writing that I’m comfortable with please call for right I would send that typically to the chair um and let the chair disate to the school Comm numbers um so that would just be afterward it depend I mean it could be I mean in the momentum like that particular piece again people have roles right like you got to have roles up front like what you doing this event who’s the communicator Who does these things so once the police get on scene actually it’s a great relief because they kind of Take Charge at which point then you can step back in my opinion is the way to do it let them do what they do right at which point we can take a step back and take a broader View and start and do those Communications I can reach out to school Community I can

2:18:44 reach out to community whoever that is let’s craft that together I’ve work with the police department it’s I want them to sign off are you up the langu about how before we send this out I te so

2:19:03 we um do you have any questions for us and if so what are they um you know um i’ want to hear what you find are the challenges what what are the things that the incoming superintendent are the challenges that are doable these are School Comm where do need to it it’s shared right they bring this together so where are we working what are the hurdles so I’m gonna let everybody answer because I think we all might have a little bit different of an answer I’ll start with okay well we’re going how much time do we have no so um you know a couple things we obviously we’ve come out we’ve had made a change of leadership um in the last year we have an interim superintendent um came in and stepped in and doing a

2:19:50 great job and is U moving on June 30th so you know we have some um work to do I think with um and this is not in order of priority um but with the community with um I think our partners on the town side government with um our our school Community parents staff students you know all of our stakeholders to just you know you you know introduce the new leadership and sort of calm the waters if you will and and begin to build that trust come back which I think we have done um but you know we still have some work to do we have a lot of work to do on um on our budget I’m I’m proud of the work that we did this year we’ve got a we have town meeting Monday night but we came with fincom we have a approved

2:20:36 budget agreed upon budget between fincom and school Comm and will present that Monday Monday or Tuesday Monday um on the floor town meeting you know hopefully for um for approval um but we do have a lot of work to do in Revenue sourcing and whether that ends up being an override um you know together with the town um in the coming year for next for next fiscal year um that needs to be explored and we will need to do that with our leader our superintendent um and so I think for me those are probably two two biggest things there’s another think laundry list of things but I think those are two important ones for me I think um we have an incredible amount of dedicated professional teachers and they’ve been know carrying

2:21:23 the load since I’ve been here the fact that we can’t get enough money to pay them an equitable fee compared to surrounding towns around us it’s morally um breaks down the morale and the teachers I think if we don’t see a shift in the money somewhere we’re going to start losing those key people that keep our scores High because they spend all their time making sure the students are getting what they need if we don’t get enough funding to start satisfying that they’re paying equable amount of money compared to the other we’re GNA stop losing and that’s my biggest fear the opposite of the districts around oh yeah teach I know teachers will let there and got $2,000 more to start somewhere else right next

2:22:10 door we didn’t get a single dollar no well we didn’t get this year we got zero we $0 what’s the

2:22:22 $30 it it’s not it’s not what I think for me I Echo what Jen said around the budget um we have made incredible strides in the last two years on our budget on providing an extraordinarily detailed line item budget that our fincom laws as you know the the Pinnacle of what um other departments here in town should do so I think it’s a fantastic starting point and I think it would be wonderful to just have a new set of eyes on that and a new understanding um of what we are doing where why and how even incorporating some some zerob based budgeting uh whenever possible I understand that takes time and effort um and that means starting earlier you know

2:23:09 in the year you can’t wait till January um but I I so that would be my one thing I think my second thing is similar to Brian but a little bit different I think we we absolutely have the most amazing Educators here at all levels we have an amazing um staff and we have some really fantastic people that have already agreed to come on board that we so excited about and I would just really look for somebody to bring them together as a team um I think some of of the changes you know that have happened certainly it does affect teachers and we want we we can say all we want that we we appreciate them um if we don’t have the money it’s important that we lead from the top uh that they know that they are appreciated and valued that does

2:23:55 that does get you a little bit there when you do that it does in my corporate job anyways as well um and so that’s really what I would be looking for that real partnership with them um you mentioned you know a lot about having a safe space and not being retaliatory or any anything like that I think that is super Critical with our team and I really would would look for you to really Foster that type of culture

2:24:26 yeah I wouldn’t call it a challenge uh can you hear me okay yeah uh Cal to I probably categorize it more as a a priority but it’s it’s building that high functioning team that you talked about at the beginning of this interview um you know there’s a lot of new personnel and um you know again it’s just building the trust that you talked about that’s so important around and and the proper relationships uh and then I think more from a school committee perspective it’s it’s a similar kind of thing right uh building that trust and and proper communication and and helping us understand where we’re managing appropriately maybe helping us understand where we’re maybe not doing that as you talked about roles it’s important that there’s a

2:25:12 superintendent role there’s a school committee role and we have to ensure that we understand that we trust each other and we’re helping each other as needed and not being involved where it doesn’t make sense uh so I think that’s a little bit more of a challenge going

2:25:30 forward and mine would be more uh you know a priority um versus possibly a challenge um it’s going to sound like a meching but I’m I’m looking for to see someone come in and establish relationships based in trust and be able to to identify when I hear the right idea without meaning to have um because I think that that can be a challenge and I think if you can do those two things everything else falls into place people feel valued they feel um if you’re if you’re in a relationship whether it’s with an employer or whoever who you feel valued and you feel you can

2:26:17 trust there’s it’s really Limitless and then when all the adults in our organization succeed our kids succeed more so for me it would be

2:26:31 prioritizing we got time that’s great uh I’ll ask a follow qued question how do you see my skills and background

2:26:43 with I always well we’re gonna start with you yeah uh yeah uh um I think there’s a good fit is my initial impression um I think as you know it’s an interview process though this is It’s relative to others and we haven’t been through all the the candidates yet uh but um you know I guess that’s that’s enough to be said for now but you know I think uh from what I’ve heard it sounds like there’s a good match uh you have good experience and um we’ll go from

2:27:27 there um I think one of the things that um is you know in your CV but you you sused out tonight um is the different rules that you that you’ve played right so you’ve been in an alternative school as a leader you’ve been in uh a little more of an urban school as a leader you have served as um obviously as a superintendent which is for me very important that someone has actually served as a superintend without a doubt um but also um I thought interesting that you also were the um finance and operations professional at the same time because you those are two very big hats to be wearing at the same time and to have you know perhaps you’re not an expert but you’ve certainly been in those shoes for it sounds like a couple of rounds um a couple of years and that

2:28:15 is um that’s important um you know without without a doubt um to understand that because that I think the message is come that that’s a very very important part of our um process and very important to our community is the transparency which you use that word quite a bit um around our our

2:28:36 finances I think that your interview is going to present us with a good challenge when we start evaluating all the other candidates that we’ve interviewed I think you’re a strong candidate and again we have to compare it to the others before we make a decision but I definitely think you’ve got you’ve given us a lot of to think about um I really liked what you said about telling the story uh when you’re if you’re going for an override I like how you spoke about it from your your work experience uh but also just as a parent Community resident and how you perhaps didn’t understand some things and I think that that connection is really important because I think that is definitely something that will need to be considered here very very early on um should should

2:29:22 it be uncovered that we want to go for for an override obviously we haven’t done it in decades here um I also you know I really like what you said about safety first children first you know Educators first I I just I think that those are such important things and of course like I mentioned before um which is one of my priorities is you know creating that safe space um and that culture of that that lacks any sort of retaliation or any concern on that way so that people can come to you and you can actually really understand what is going on that’s really the only way you know for you to then decide what changes need to be made so I think that that experience and that and that process that you mentioned would be great um so I wasn’t prepared for a performance review

2:30:09 review review do as a mom of six I’m always happy to give feedback um so what I will say is you know like all like the candidates we had the opportunity to look at you know you everything we’ve seen in your resume everything we’ve seen in the interview um you know it’s impressive you’re an impressive candidate um you I think that goes almost without saying but here we are um what one piece of this that will be important to me is reading we’re doing community feedback um there’s a QR code there’s a a drop down um our we have a very active commit community and it’s very important for them to feel heard so

2:30:54 um I think that that will definitely weigh in for me to hear what people have to say um that being said I I don’t I haven’t seen anything concerning yet um I I feel like this has been a good conversation but I’m really looking forward to hearing the feedback um from community members I’m hoping that when we go to dig into that data that we’re getting it from students like you said I liked how you say student feedback is important and kids can ask for meetings um you know I know I know that’s we’re in the business of kids um so I hope we get student feedback I hope we get um teacher feedback parent feedback just general Community member so then we’ll we’ll be looking into that well if any lacrosse parents are

2:31:39 out there watching probably get you were at the I just I would be remiss if I didn’t mention I I always talk about this inie I just wanted to follow up on something you just said which speaking about it’s so important to remember what myv to say like you’re talking to a parent remember to walking situ you’re talking write down like always be grounded in that treat respect because we just can’t get any you know we treat them with that at all times and you know I have a wife that keep me grounded at home um I’m the administrator in the family and

2:32:25 my not just Educators but special Educators and Thanksgiving like really

2:32:32 trou I think they’re talking about me um you know really helps to stay grounded I think my experience coming back in this year has been honestly it’s a gift and that especially when you’re bring that I didn’t know what it was like to being buing and it just changed the disregulation and sort of mental health and the kids advocating for themselves and speaking up for themselves has changed the way to be and I didn’t have appreciation until this year like I should have I thought I did I really thought and but I did and um it’s given me a great appreciation that I think for me hopefully will change way I’m able to leave um because we have to be in touch

2:33:19 with what’s going on building the central office like we slowly pull away from what that reality used to be we kindon ourselves in that little area we think everybody’s

2:33:40 see I just I want to say thank you um I really appreciate the honor of being intervie here tonight I truly do this is a really high performing district and um really reflects my values I recognize that superintendents really serve the pleasure of the people sitting at that table and you have to respect that um but you know I I’ve mentioned this multiple times that it’s it’s really about sort of shared governance but it’s also about distributive leadership in the other direction and being partners and really it’s co-leading I mean sure you have a superintendent but the superintendent a team right how do you work with a team how do you treat that

2:34:25 team are they are they co-leaders with you or you need them so that everybody’s will to everybody that’s the type of vulture that I would like to create here for you if give them the opportunity um I would love the opportunity to earn your trust I talked a lot about last night like to do I would love the opportunity to do that I this is position um I didn’t show up here tonight to just be in in room I would be in in room but I would tell you that I’m here because I like what’s going on so I want to thank you again feel free if there’s any followup things I would love to [Music] hear and just to give you an idea of next steps um I will be in touch

2:35:12 tomorrow or Monday just to tell you what um we will not be deliberating on a decision tonight we’ll be deliberating deliberating on what we want our next step to be um whether it will be another round of interviews Ty so you will not be making a decision on a superintendent tonight but I will be in touch to before

2:35:37 Monday thank you and I’m gonna have um umul you can walk yet because we have yeah I know we have we have something else on the agenda we didn’t realize thank you thank thank you you

2:35:59 up catella I’m so sorry no worries that’s okay no worries um so no so I messed up we talked a little bit more than a week ago and at the last meeting we decided we were gonna do interviews tonight and I messed up I forgot to reach out and tell you but I’m so happy you’re here so um it’s that time of year where cat’s about to graduate and she um has chosen students to fill her shoes and she was bringing Ella here tonight to introduce to us so I still want to I want to make sure you take the time to do that um so welcome and Leah you gonna get a picture of hi guys I’m with the Marblehead cat I’m with the Marblehead current and so just throw that in there thank

2:36:45 you all right so the high school has been busy preparing for in tests beginning next Monday the students have been reviewing for classes including everything from European history to computer science the library will be closed during the school day from May 6 to the 17th the production of the musical comedy the prom was a hit this past weekend spanning four shows from Friday to Sunday the mat mat and evening forces showcase The Talented students in the cast and crew I had the opportunity to play in the pit Orchestra with students and professionals and I must say it was an incredible and entertaining experience the performing arts department has a few concerts coming up showing off students during aaoa and the instrumental and Choir concerts my friend Ella has the

2:37:30 lucky opportunity to perform in every single concert back to back which will play take place after the AP exams on May 4th at the high school Fieldhouse the Marblehead head task force against the Marblehead task force against discrimination will hold the aapi Heritage Month celebration student Representatives have worked hard to organize performances and fr trucks for this event the Marblehead head spring art this event the Marblehead spring art show will be held on May 14th at abot Hall from 4 to 7:30 p.m. art pieces will be highlighted from artists in grades 8 through 12 the annual cultural Fest Festival is happening on May 24th at the high school from 4: to 7:30 p.m. there will be music food and performances to celebrate the interactions between cultures from around the world the junior class has concluded prom sales

2:38:16 and table assignments their prom will be held at danversport on May 10th the senior class is currently selling prom tickets and organizing tables until next week the senior prom will happen at the House of Blues in Boston on May 29th which is two days before graduation the annual Carnival has arrived and is up and running starting tonight until Sunday it is a fun and nostalgic experience for groups of all ages and the proceeds go towards the rising senior class the spring season has been underway for a few weeks now and the teams are starting to get familiar with the swing of things last week the girls across team dedicated a g game to move for Heather in hopes of raising funds for the Dana Fara Cancer Institute and the Jimmy fund track has been up and down the state for invitationals most recently the annual state relay both of

2:39:01 the teams finished in the top five and athletes persevered although they got home at

2:39:10 Mid thank you so ell you um I know you’re Ben but do you what’s your last name Bena um I’m a junior here at the high school I’m involved in a lot of things the high school of the varsity sing Team I’m the captain of that I’m also in band and the aella group luminescence and I also sing with the choir sometimes although I’m not technically in choir um and I’m a part of a bunch of different clubes film club inter I like to be involved oh and I oh I also do theater I’m in drama club I did I just did the um I wasn’t in the musical because of sailing but I fixed the play which which went to the Massachusetts educ theat Guild festival and it was called it’s about Pirates and nothing else um it was

2:39:58 student written and mostly student run so welcome welcome you thank you for taking this on we appreciate it and we don’t normally make you sit over there normally the whole shebang we’re not giving up Kate our cat’s name plate just yet but um you’ll yeah and I will I will be in touch I’m so so sorry that I was disorganized tonight really happy to have you on boor and welcome you um and Cat you work with her to tell her how you come up with all the verbage that you come up with and do do Dr Carlson part of that or do you chat with her ahead of time or not um not usually I just pass it to okay but she’s aware of what you’re talking no she said your

2:40:43 report because we never really know how you come up with your reports do you just come up with them do you have yeah I referenced a couple different sources I referenced emails heavily and then the morning announcements are sometimes differ um and then I’ll look back yson shared you know his notes as well in

2:41:03 I wonderful well I I love having you guys be part of this and thank you very thank you so much excited thank Youk congratulations will you continue after May 31st in in wanted to stay in June and didn’t want to us like he he came to our June meetings but I just didn’t know if we can talk off yeah that’ll work for

2:41:32 me um I apologize for that no that’s great um so that actually gives us a little bit of brief room on to talk about next steps um so I’d like to hear people’s thoughts um on next steps as we know we’ve we’ve met with four people there was a fifth person we had originally wanted to interview they were unable to meet or um to meet the these put forward um what was interesting is they did not say but I could they didn’t offer us another date in place of that which you know is interesting um so I do we want to hold off talk to someone else we’ve met with these four we’ve heard from a couple that they are interviewing other places so that is a concern for me

2:42:18 to be perfectly honest um I would prefer to yeah I think we’ve got four C I mean great candidates yeah four very different people tell you the truth you would okay um and Al yeah I so so yeah I I’m okay either way I guess I’m just kind of very confused around not being able to schedule an interview is there is it worth just is there any open communication going on like they’re going to get back to us or first the first round because we did choose to go with a consultant um the consultant had reached out and asked him um Everybody he had the two nights of dates and

2:43:03 offered them um I didn’t get a lot of feedback of why the dates didn’t work um if he was traveling if he was out of town if it was prescheduled I I to be perfectly honest not a lot was put forth to me but there wasn’t additional times off not on our part because I wanted to to on their part um not that was related to me but I don’t know that it’s fair you know I want to confirm that with Glen and asking did he say there’s AES available um so we do we are posted for right now for next Wednesday night um that may switch to Thursday some people I’m getting different feedback and if there is a third night if it will be Wednesday or Thursday it seems like the

2:43:49 town yes so some element town government are saying Thursday yet when we look in the schedule that they booked the spaces for they didn’t book it for Thursday they booked it for Wednesday so I don’t know what it is um so that will be a factor we can’t hold a meeting you know Monday or Tuesday you think because the town meeting when are you and you’re traveling back Tuesday right H uh yeah but I’m not back until late Wednesday I’m trying to move that up but I’m having a hard time doing that I’m trying to get back earlier but um I wouldn’t be back until late Wednesday right now okay and we can we can work on scheduling because we we can we potentially switch that to th our meeting till Thursday anyway I guess

2:44:38 okay to decide is do we want to hit pause on where we are with these four and hold off to see um the next candidate or do we want to move past that and and decide what next steps are with the school well I think if the person doesn’t isn’t responsive to having an interview set up then you go with the four that’s my cut and I want to be clear they didn’t say they they did not withdraw from marel the response I got was those didn’t work well we don’t have enough information here why yeah but if that person clearly is interested then they’ll make time if not we go with the four yeah I don’t think we should risk losing any one of these candidates since

2:45:24 a few of them did mention um they were actively interviewing elsewhere process very do you concur yeah I’m I’m fine with that okay um Jen well I do think our I just I guess Mike you may be the one asking the next question would be so let’s just assume for a moment that we’re going with the four candidates if we can turns out that we can schedule if that becomes an option we can decide that but let’s just say we’re going with these four candidates you know what what is the will of the committee in terms of next steps do we want to narrow it down to less you know less and more do we want to have um site visits or have them come to Marblehead dur you know do a site visit what would what would be you

2:46:10 know we’re we’re a little bit off you know kind of out of the normal process here so I think we’re having to De with creative yeah I think I think my biggest concern on that is we have so much already tomorrow I mean next week it’s going to be my preference would be to bring to back and just you know have another round uh with us but I’m just concerned given town meeting next week finding the time um so well I want to hear a little bit more from everybody else Brian do you are you thinking you want site visits do you want another round of interviews and then where would you land well I think when we come down to

2:46:55 the final two we should actually do site visits and heavy reference checks we want to make sure that we do our diligence to have the best candidate come inter okay um and Al what would you like to see as our very next step would you like to do another level of interviews or or go right to site visits with before we limit or you know limit down and then go to site visits and then possibly limit down from there again and then go to more

2:47:29 en so can you I’m sorry can you explain to me what what encompasses a site visit I mean I’m exactly I’m not exactly sure what that means um it is different for different positions um when it’s a full threeyear pull pulling them in they typically would design a day that showcases their strengths and part of the process is you can tell them certain elements you want to see but for me at least part of that process is seeing what they think is what they want to showcase um and seeing the day they develop because that shows you a little bit about where their priorities are at in the role they’re in um because this

2:48:15 is an interm role we wouldn’t be there for an entire day I would think um when J and I went and did a site visit with Dr mcginness um we were there for about couple hours a couple hours she had identified key members of her Administration she wanted us to meet with and she she had set it up that they came to us at her office and had um talks anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes um so so there’s different ways to go about it um I think Al just you know from my previous experience the permanent superintendent search is a very different model it’s a far more robust multiple layer levels of of um visits

2:49:02 and and interviews generally speaking I’m going to say that the one public interview I think is should be sufficient for a public interview I don’t see a need to bring back to a public interview we we did that um and normally that my experience has been one both with um um public interviews with both interim and permanent um in the case of the interim superintendent I’ve participated in interim search where we had public interviews and we had a committee then that made a recommendation of one candidate the school committee hired that candidate um I don’t think that’s the ca obviously that’s not the case this year so it’s sort of like we you know like I said earlier we we can be creative on what we what we

2:49:48 think we want um but we need to be um obviously the parameters of open so I want to make

2:49:57 sure everybody on the committee feels that they have had their questions and concerns addressed so I just want to make sure whatever the next steps are that all committee members feel they have the information to to make the decision um because quite frankly our students and our teachers can’t afford for us to to have them miss them um so that that’s really

2:50:28 where so do we do we think then that we need a little bit of like not maybe a full day but some kind of structured maybe just few hours site visit or are we just going to do this with interviews I guess I’m not comfortable in in making a decision right with just one set of interviews that we’ve gone through right and and I don’t think that’s what’re implying but I guess I’m just trying to figure out what you know um you know do do we all agree that maybe some kind of several hour thing site visit would be appropriate before our final decision I think what I’m hearing is that next because I I want to remind us we are getting those feedback forms and really got the community input in their chance to to give us that so I want to make sure we give them time for

2:51:15 that what’s the deadline um we did not post a deadline I think that um by Monday is sufficient and then I can just work with um Stephen to get those in a format that I can disperse to the committee and you’ll so you have some time to digest those and um on Wednesday it will be whether it’s Wednesday or Thursday it will be a very short meeting um to just talk about who we want to do those psych visits with um are we limit are we naring that down to one two or three we’ll see what the will of the committee is at that point may be very aligned we may some people want to do that tonight um well how I don’t know how I do that without the community

2:52:01 feedback I really want to make sure that we’re giving the opportunity for that um and and then we would um then take those people toite problem is you know could lose a candidate because we’re not going to get concerned we’re not going to be able to liberate I mean just we’re throwing up is the reality of how we chose to do this this year yeah um is we wouldn’t be able to deliberate I don’t think until next Thursday so we have a meeting a full school committee meeting on the 16th so if next Wednesday we deliberate on who we want to do the site site visit for and we ask that they be available to do those site visits um the following week then

2:52:48 week then week then that’s two weeks we’re wait yeah in two weeks they could I know there’s nothing we can do about it I I don’t know that next week um we’re not going to get

2:53:05 Ty they’ll know that they’re a finalist the next round um no we’re going to deliberate next weekend who we want to do the P visit switch Yeah so they’ll know that they have made it through that next round um and then we can delibery on the 16th where we are we don’t know Wednesday night last time we didn’t do site visits for both of the final CES we only did site visit on one candidate one candidate I would suggest we use that process again well then well then we’re deciding why don’t we say we’re getting ahead of ourselves right because we don’t have the feedback yet we may get feedback from the community just you know who knows very

2:53:51 strong one or very negative whatever we need to take that into account we may we don’t know what we’re going to decide next week if we meet Wednesday to delate we may decide on one city pending a pending a you know a site visit or pending um a visit here that’s the other option like because for instance for you know Mr K I’m not sure a site visit to the um but he’s not sitting superintendent rol is different perhaps than you know say I’m looking at how his

2:54:22 how does St trct what things like that depends on who’s going to yeah um so we’ll we’ll I’m hoping we’ll get down to two next Wednesday or possibly one right yeah um and then we’ll take it from there I will explain to candidates where we are when I call them tomorrow and if someone says to me your timeline looks like it’s two three weeks out I will that is I can share information with the committee I can’t deliberate I will let you guys know that and we’ll deliberate that piece now so if we do hear back from someone that that’s too long will that change the process this is our chance to deliver it yes yeah okay and then what would that

2:55:07 secondary because we need to know what the trigger point is so that we’re not deliberating when I make that call well the candidate that said they have they have an offending or they’re in the final rounds of negotiations no one has an offer pending they’re interviewing they’re interviewing so this not a like we don’t know until you talk to the candidates if they’re got somebody on the line that’s willing to offer them if that’s the case then we have to shift our sites if we want that person yeah but how do we do that I don’t think we can do anything until we hear we meet before town meeting I will also say I am posted we are posted for 6:45 before town meeting on Monday and Tuesday we

2:55:54 could if we if it’s not a long deliberation if we all have looked at the responses on Monday night we could say this is our name we can if we can get through it in 10 minutes folks we could do

2:56:11 it yeah no we would physically be because I can’t change the posting location we physically would be in the pack having this conversation 10 minutes before we call to order it’s not ideal but Community you know but it’s you know reality as long as we’re physically in the Performing but in terms of people being able to delate no we could do that though we could yeah the conference room in Matt’s office we have to be in the we could go behind the curtain on Zoom if we had to go to the back of the room oh I get it I could allow we could find a way for people to see us I just can’t change that we’re physic in the pine yeah actually that’s a good option people need to be efficient and and it

2:56:56 really would need to be this is the name on bringing forward we don’t we have a ton of time my I I if it wasn’t for the fact that I really really truly believe I want to make sure we get that Community feedback I would be prepared to to talk about who I want for um but it’s important to hear that feedback yeah um and did it okay um so we right now are posted for this for Wednesday evening if all people I call and talk to are are happy with us doing or have no concerns about waiting till Wednesday I think that’s the ideal situation um for the community

2:57:41 and that’s what we will go with if we are potentially going to lose one or more candidates then we’re at least posted on Monday and I will find a way to make sure the community can also see what’s going on um so I guess and because on Monday L will still be in China so that will just be a 6:45 a um but no Al if third if we were able to do this at around you know 7:30 or 800m on Thursday because we don’t have we wind up not having town meeting are you back on Thursday I am back on Thursday what are we doing Wednesday we are doing Wednesday but if there isn’t a third night of town meeting because he’s going

2:58:27 to be in thereor you’re not yeah Wednesday Wednesday your Wednesday night yeah I’ll be on an airplane unfortunately so there’s there’s no way I could even dial into that which is fine but if that’s the way again I I want to make sure that you know there’s some there’s some sense of urgency right so I trust if as long as there’s there’s enough of a quarum and I’m not there I trust will you I’ll Trust what the what the committee decides let me talk if it’s if this is telling us if this is submitting who you want let me ask I think you would be able to email me who you want because I wouldn’t be deliberating back to you and I could announce it and read it during the meeting I think just r that by I’m gonna not do it

2:59:15 but yeah we’re posted at 8m the only uh again I I’d like to see the committee input too before as part of my decision-making process so let me talk to candidates tomorrow yeah um and then because this is scheduling we’re allowed to schedule yeah I want to make sure that we’re being very careful with staying within all of our rules yeah maybe no issue at all in ter possible if it’s no issue at all then this is just scheduling and we will make the schedule work um so I will make phone calls um tomorrow I’ll get to it early I promise and um what was that now for Monday for Monday night if you do decide to do something is that something I can dial into or because we have a there’s a state Rule

3:00:01 and all this stuff so you can even if we are not we can gave you a dial in number even if we can’t get the zoom up and running we can make sure that you’re available for that back pH okay so I’m gonna make all schuling wise um um somehow so then that being said let’s say we are end we’re meeting um next whatever night thir th Wednesday or Thursday um we would be looking to do site visits probably the week of the 13th um yes now the one and we have a regular scheduled meeting on the 16th which there good yes yes um

3:00:50 we would so we’re ear marking like two days I’m not I’m not ready I will get that schedule to you because I I have a couple things on the appointment so but we don’t know who’s doing the site visit we all we all um I got talk to oh actually probably can committees do site visits there’s certain allowances for site visits yeah no um I have to figure out how to write it there’s a specific way but there’s allowances for site visits because we’re not deliberating on the site they’re presenting to us so we’re allowed to go to a presentation essentially we cannot have our deliberation there um

3:01:38 but is able whatever members want to okay so we’ll we’ll work through this um I will make the phone calls tomorrow and um we’ll take it from there okay all right um thank you all and um I will be in touch Al will I will I have you here just really quick um is email phone or text the most efficient way to communicate with you on this tomorrow 12 hours uh right now uh email would be be the best way okay perfect thank you so much everybody and if you could just and and I’m sorry sorry just the.edu email please yes yeah so I’ve been I’ve been trying to for from one to another so okay thank you