Ann Arbor school board seeking firm to help in superintendent search
The Ann Arbor school board will begin seeking proposals by the end of the week for a professional services firm to help find the district's next superintendent.
In a meeting Monday, the board approved a request for proposals outlining what it expects from a firm to assist in the search to replace Todd Roberts. The RFP, still pending legal counsel review, is scheduled to be released Friday.
School board President Deb Mexicotte said the board is looking for a firm that understands the high expectations of Ann Arbor residents for their school district. She said the RFP is a reflection of those demands.
Todd Roberts is leaving the district.
“This narrative isn’t just about cost, this is our story, this is what we expect them to bring to us,” she said. “We want to have someone we can work with and respect. We’re not some run-of-the-mill, stick someone up there and hope for the best district.”
Roberts announced his resignation as superintendent on Aug. 13 to move with his family to North Carolina, where he will become chancellor of the North Carolina School of Science and Math. He is planning to stay with the Ann Arbor district through the fall while a replacement is sought.
The RFP contains a rough timeline of milestones the board hopes to reach during the process. The board plans to interview firms in mid-September and select a firm at its meeting on Sept. 29. The RFP states an interim superintendent could be selected by late October and will take over in mid-November. A permanent selection is to be made in May 2011, and the new superintendent would take over on July 1, 2011 if all goes according to plan.
Board members said they haven't officially decided to hire an interim superintendent, but are leaning that way.
School board Treasurer Christine Stead was the main architect of the RFP and said the timeline should serve as the first litmus test for firms. However, the timeline is not concrete and can be adjusted based on the successful firm’s recommendations.
“We’re looking for assistance, and we’re looking for it in a particular way,” she said.
Mexicotte said the “ballpark” estimate on the final contract with a professional services firm could be $20,000 to $35,000, but the board will pay attention to the market for those services. When the district hired Roberts four years ago, it spent just under $14,000 on a professional services firm, she said.
Trustee Susan Baskett said the most important issue in hiring a firm will not be price, but is getting the right firm for the job.
“(The price of the contract) depends on the firm and depends on the contract,” she said. “But the price of not doing it right will be enormous.”
The RFP focuses on many of the district’s achievements during Roberts’ tenure, such as the collaborative effort by all facets of the district to improve. His name is used sparingly in the document.
Roberts was fairly quiet during the meeting, only suggesting minor changes in language or different ideas. He told the board to keep in mind any firm’s capability to perform a national search for the position.
A firm’s ability to pull together a diverse set of candidates will also be one of the things stressed by the board. Trustee Simone Lightfoot made a point to add several clauses into the RFP to make that expectation clear.
“I’m looking for the word ‘diverse’ to be throughout the document,” she said.
Dave Comsa, the assistant superintendent for human resources and legal services, will look over the final copy of the document in the coming days. A pre-bid meeting is expected to take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 3 for firms interested in bidding on the job to ask questions of Baskett, Mexicotte and board Secretary Glenn Nelson.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or 734-623-2537.
Comments
Elizabeth Nelson
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 4:57 p.m.
@Stephen % VISHa... watch a BOE few meetings on cable and you'll see that this was most likely a direct quote from Lightfoot. She is the 'watchdog' making sure that the district is chasing to employ every possible minority contractor for every job. Often, no minorities even bothered to submit bids on a job. Lightfoot: What did the District do wrong to make them not even apply for the job? Why isn't the district sending engraved invitations? It's comical. Fortunately, this only wastes a few minutes of the Board's time EVERY meeting...
DonBee
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 4:38 p.m.
@Julie Martin - The $20 to 30,000 is the down payment. Then there are background checks, rounds of interviews with flights and hotels, more background checks, flights for a second round of interviews, reduction in the list to a set of final candidates, visits by the school board to those districts with flights and hotels involved, then another round of interviews with flights not only for the candidates, but their significant other, then finalization of the final 2 and community interviews with the costs of meeting space, etc. Then we have flights into the area to house hunt, potentially paying off the mortgage for the winner in their current location or a "bonus" to help them find a house here. If they have students in college it may include a payment to cover the change in tuition when the family moves states, etc. In short an easy $250,000 or more. I did some looking at searches in other districts over the last 6 months. The public figures all top $250,000 for the search and some top out at close to $500,000. I doubt this one will be a lot cheaper. Consider the $20-30,000 the foot in the door for the cost of finding a new 3 to 5 year leader for AAPS. This is a significant portion of the savings from either the bus drivers or the custodians.
Klayton
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 3:55 p.m.
I think an internal candidate would be able to get things moving much quicker, as they do not need to learn the ropes of the district and meet all the players. In addition, isn't it the board members JOB to find a new superintendent and not outsource it? I'm sure there are plenty of free or low-cost places to post the job position. It seems wasteful and a bit lazy to outsource in this economy.
ViSHa
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 3:54 p.m.
@Stephen Landes, I completely agree with your post. Were Simone Lightfoot's statements concerning the word "diverse" paraphrased like Susan Baskett's?
Stephen Landes
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 3:35 p.m.
Some on the Board want the word "diverse" throughout the proposal. I would be looking for words like "outstanding", "accomplished", "strong academic background". And while we're at it I would prefer someone whose advanced degrees are in an academic area like mathematics, english, or history rather than in education. The first point is that I don't care what the person looks like or what their gender is as long as the person is excellent. The second point is that our students need someone they can look up to as an expression of the technically competent person they can become. In this case I don't think someone whose background is administration brings as of a vision to the job as someone who is well grounded in the subject matter they teach. When I worked in industry I thought we were better off when the CEO had an engineering or manufacturing background because they were closer to what we're actually selling to the customer. In my opinion finance and tax folks are necessary, but have too short a time horizon. I would apply the same logic in the case of the schools -- someone with the vision to provide what the customers (students, employers, and taxpayers) need now and should have in the future.
Julie Martin
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 3:18 p.m.
WOW - that is a HUGE chunk of (our tax) money! 20-35k REALLY? Wow. Can someone tell me if that is a realistic number, or is that out of line? I have no idea what these firms cost/charge for the service of screening resumes. Or maybe it's more than that? Quite curious, I am.
Geek Chick
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 3:12 p.m.
All the fancy superintendent search firms have gotten us is a very expensive revolving door. The constant turnover of superintendents hurts the budget and the kids. Why not do the superintendent search the old-fashioned way? Post the job and go through the applications. The school district has human resources staff, so use them. If they can hire teachers, coaches, principals, etc., they can handle a superintendent search. If the search is done in-house, we might be more likely to get an internal candidate who is committed to this area. No more strangers from afar who can't wait to bolt.
DagnyJ
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 2:33 p.m.
The North Carolina school is NOT a private school. It is a public school. http://www.ncssm.edu/
gibby76
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 2:24 p.m.
hm which title has a more glorified title SUPERintendent (k'pow! bashing! budaboomboom! -- ok i made up that last part) or Chancellor of the North Carolina School of Science and Math. -- can't think of any embellishments. So, he chose private over public education. A common situation in this country. As long as more teachers/administrators go for more money in private education, that will leave the rest of the students short who can't affort that. Hopefully, SOME will maintain the original mission of public education. I guess I can't complain about his decision, just wanted to comment on another one leaving :P take it as you will.
Kyle Feldscher
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 1:39 p.m.
KeepingItReal Just to clarify, the passage of the article that you mentioned was not a direct quote from Trustee Baskett but was paraphrased.
KeepingItReal
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 1:32 p.m.
Susan Baskett has a tendency to make elusive statements that doesn't mean anything when it comes to real board activity. According to the article, "Susan Baskett said the most important thing in hiring a firm is not price, but is getting the right firm for the job." What does this mean. What about getting the right superintendent? Trustee Baskett is one of the longer serving Trustees and she needs to show some leadership in the upcoming years on a number of issues. These elusive statements are not going to cut it when it comes to educating our kids or spending our money.
josber
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 9:46 a.m.
I believe that Todd Roberts is going to miss working at AAPS, and will fight boredom at his new employment. AAPS, where every decision, statement and outcome is open to many people"s outspoken opinion, in and out of the district.
Jill S
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 9:45 a.m.
I think the board need to strongly consider pursuing Scott Graden from Saline. From what I know he is committed to the area which is what we need if we want to have some stability beyond a few years. He is well respected in Saline, even while making some tough decisions. Both communities have "heavily involved" parents and special interest groups.
GriswoldKJ
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 9:21 a.m.
In addition to replacing the superintendent, the Board is responsible for the safety and education of our students. This back-to-school period is a very demanding time for staff -- and to some extent the Board in an oversight capacity. One example is the successful completion of the summer construction projects, one of which I addressed last night during public commentary at the BOE meeting. I urged the Board to revise the Thurston Driveway design, stating that I was not alone in my concern for this unsafe design. Scott Campbell, a King School parent and associate professor of urban planning at the UM, did an analysis of similar proposed driveway at King in 2008. The analysis is very critical of the same double-loop driveway design that is planned for Thurston School. He and a group of about 40 King parents were successful in preventing this unsafe driveway design from being constructed at King School. Professor Campbell's three most salient criticisms relating to student safety in the report are: -The major safety issue is car-kid interactions. However, the apparent primary theme of the proposed design is separating busses and cars. There is no fundamental, compelling reason why separating cars and busses should be a top priority, since it has not been identified as the main source of risk. - The proposed design is often used at busy airports: bus/shuttle traffic along the right curb closest to the terminal entrance, and car drop-off along a separate lane of traffic on the left (dropping off at the central median strip). What works for adult airline passengers may not work well for K-5 students. - Overall, the proposal unfortunately represents an older (and outdated) transportation engineering model of trying to solve problems by simply adding more capacity (pavement). It is a rather coarse, expensive, over-engineered solution. The design is in violation of state code, as well as school transportation safety guidelines, and I continue to advocate -- as I have since learning of the Thurston design in the spring of this year -- for a revised design that eliminates the need for school children to cross a lane of vehicular traffic.
Jay Allen
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 8:31 a.m.
My take on this is no one on the school board wants to be held accountable. It plays like this. -If the person hired fails at the job, then the brunt of the fault will be placed on the "firm" and the AA School Board will say: "We were not advised of _______." -If the person succeeds, then the school board will stand with their pom-pons waving touting their, uh, um, the firm's choice. As Herm Edwards has said on ESPN many times: "Be a man, put YOUR name on it". The school board is wasting tax payer dollars and is taking the easy way out.
josber
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 8:23 a.m.
They don't want internal candidates, there's a surprise... thus the need for a strong superintendent. It's a demanding job if a person is doing it right, so again, it's the board's responsibility to get good staff, and everyone will make promises when they interview, it's important to verify ability and past performance. Get on Ms. Mexicotte for looking down on other districts if you want, it's what the board delivers that matters to me.
DonBee
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 8:08 a.m.
Here is the first $20 to 50,000. Then will come the rest of the costs. When we are done it will be more than $250,000 spend and will the person be better than anyone working for the district now? Will they stay for the long haul? The board is going to waste money again. Those rare, hard to find, unrestricted funds as Mr. Norton likes to call them. Obviously they don't trust the internal staff and need to reach outside. The board failed to create a succession plan for their key employees.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 7:31 a.m.
@Mr "josber", I too am happy they are looking for "better than average Superintendent". My point in my "rant" is that doesn't make us unique. The implication that there is some large pool of "average" (run of the mill) districts who give little or no thought (stick someone up there and hope for the best) to their superintendent hirings is hard to believe. They may not always be successful but it doesn't mean they didn't try.
jcj
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 7:21 a.m.
This narrative isnt just about cost, Were not some run-of-the-mill, stick someone up there and hope for the best district. I grew up in this town but I agree with Craig completely. With foolish statements like that I guess maybe this school board DOES need help doing ITS job!
josber
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 6:54 a.m.
@ Mr. Lounsbury, While what Ms. Mexicotte said may not have been tactful, it's all right with me. I am happy they are looking for a better than average Superintendent. It's a big, messy district that has it's good points and more than it's fair share of difficult problems. 16,000 plus kids rely on the board and their decisions to receive a good education, so let them go look for a good replacement.
Craig Lounsbury
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 6:41 a.m.
"Were not some run-of-the-mill, stick someone up there and hope for the best district. Spoken like a true Ann Arborite.... pompous, elitist, egocentric. Just how big is that list of "run-of-the-mill, stick someone up there and hope for the best districts Ms. Mexicotte? Perhaps if you gave us a list of "run-of-the-mill, stick someone up there and hope for the best districts we could compare their results with ours. I would further suggest that some may say " stick someone up there and hope for the best is what we do with the School board.
mjwinkie
Mon, Aug 23, 2010 : 10:43 p.m.
Why don't they just put signs on the street corners like WISD is to fill the bus driving jobs?