Public to help with schools chief search

Three community input sessions to discuss qualities and qualifications that staff, administrators and the public wish the new superintendent to possess are scheduled for Thursday, January 4, at 9 a.m., 3:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. Each meeting will be one hour in length and will be held at the school district's administration building located at 525 E. Cascade Ave.

Betsy Miller-Jones, Leadership Services Associate Director for the Oregon School Board Association, the consultant who the Sisters School District's Board of Directors has hired to assist in the search for the new superintendent, will act as facilitator at all three meeting.

All district residents and school district staff and administrators are encouraged to attend and participate in one of the meetings.

Miller-Jones told The Nugget that the meetings are "basically facilitated discussions." Participants will be asked three broad questions.

The first question Miller-Jones will ask is: "What sort of qualities and qualifications do you want the next superintendent of Sisters to have? Describe the individual; tell me what the ideal person would look like."

Miller-Jones said that her second question has some overlap with the first. She asks: "Are there particular experiences that you feel this person should have - what kind of track record should they have?" Miller-Jones is looking for input on the type of background the person should have.

Next Miller-Jones asks: "Tell me about what you would like Sisters School District to look like in five years that's different from what you have now, because the person you are hiring will need to get you there."

Miller-Jones said, "That's helpful to me both in talking to candidates, as well as putting together what it is we are looking for in a person."

Time permitting, Miller-Jones asks: "What do you think the biggest challenge or challenges the incoming person is going to face coming into Sisters?"

When the input groups report out, Miller-Jones takes notes on a flip chart and asks each group to report the one or two things the group considers to be most important without repeating anything that has already been said. Finally, she said, "I ask the whole group for voice votes on feedback of what's most important, so we get some weighting done."

One or two school board members will likely attend each session, primarily listening.

"The information that comes from this, I am going to put together and report in a summary form to the board, and it would also be good if they have heard the information first hand," Miller-Jones said.

Miller-Jones explained that the district is required by law to have these community input session in order to conduct candidate interviews in closed executive sessions. When hiring its chief executive officer, its superintendent, the law requires the school board "…to have adopted hiring standards, criteria and policy directives in meetings open to the public in which the public has had the opportunity to comment on the standards, criteria and policy directives," she said.

Miller-Jones said that because the board has already adopted hiring policies, they have already covered the policies directive part of the law. "We're covering the standards and criteria by holding these special group sessions with the public," she added.

Anyone wishing to attend one of the community input sessions is encouraged to contact Mary Clark at the district office by email at: [email protected]; or at 549-8521, x4011. Calling in advance will help the district plan for the number of people attending each session.