F okay with [Music] whatever [Music] [Music] funny same family same [Laughter] upbring I never knew awesome and then we added that levels of chees to yeah oh I'm sorry good full of criticism full of criticism yeah we look a whole bunch of them this weekend um to make sure they good to go and like that but you know it's [Music] nerve spech [Music] everybody she's like you're going old school bringing it back in I am we're going old school I feel Tommy it's not com even have a nice [Music] summer you're playing with lives so you got to get [Music] [Music] it's nice to hear like students have my grade up [Music] makes me happy thank you for thank [Music] you some [Music] [Music] [Music] because [Music] [Music] [Music] and this is to advise the general public that in compliance with the open public meeting act the haror Board of Education cause to be posted at the office of the Board of Education look 307 C Pont Road Little Lake haror New Jersey in back on November 22nd 2023 to the Asbury Park Press at l City Press to the office of the municipal clerk of little L Harbor a meeting notice setting forth the time date and location of this meeting can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God indivisible with liy And Justice [Music] For Love Dr SN here M Berber here Mr filella here M Martin here Mr Barry here m al lesnau here m sem thank you can I recommend a motion to approve the agenda can I have a motion motion I have a second second are there any questions can I say all in favor I I any objections exensions okay see motion carries moving on to the board work session uh we have strategic education Advantage LLC here to post uh the discussion regarding our new superintendent search so I'm going to turn over to you thank you thank you so much welcome everybody good evening and thank you for your time tonight like to thank the L board of education for your support your openness and willingness to engage the entire community in the search process uh my partner Frank Mor and I Mike C who've been in the search business for over 10 years uh we do searches in New York state and New Jersey uh we spent the entire day here today talking with the stakeholders designated by the school district tonight we have our open meeting for we also like to remind everyone that there is a survey on the website survey asking for your [Music] into [Music] okay thank you so on the website we have a survey and we we do this because the process that we utilize in cic Advantage is to develop a profile of the candidate for superintendent we customized the search so it's very individualized it's not that we just put out advertisement and uh and look for candidates will actively recruit to the profile that is being developed so your input into this is very vital the way we get input is we ask three basic questions what is the strengths of the district the second what are the challenges that the district faces and the third being what are the characteristics you'd like to see in the next superintendent right let me just give a very quick overview of the process I hope everyone can hear me uh as Mike mentioned there's a there's a survey in place now we remind everyone that um because uh you attend a meeting like this or you one of the stakeholders meeting that does not include you from taking survey so we urge everyone to do just that as the surveys is is occurring simultaneously two other things occur and that if we have the stakeholder meeting which we are completing up today with this uh evening meeting and then we'll be interviewing each of the board members individually and again everyone has always ask the same three questions what do you see as the strengths of the district what do you see as the areas in need of improvement and the third one is what the characteristics you like to see in the new and then taking one bigger step forward uh when we get all that data together the quantitative data from the survey and the qualitative uh data from the stakeholder meetings we'll put together a d of the profile of the candidate what we think the candidate uh should look like and of course that subject for review and editing by the board ucation and that winds up on the District website we'll also uh assist the board in terms of crafting and AD cost effective ad that will go out and will help us of course to U secure candidates all right as candidates look at that ad they'll notice that there's a hyper link that brings in from the ad directly to the website so that they can see profile so for each and every candidate there'll never be a guess it's like what what is we really looking for it will be very very clear to everyone exactly okay with that we're going to start out with the first question what is it about the little EG Barber School District the strengths what's brought you to live here work here raise your children here so anyone like to begin Frank and I are going to be taking notes you need to come to the podium and speak microphone if you have a loud enough voice stand up from your seat and let us know you prefer start out what's the strength of the school district once that first person starts all this world what brought you here why are you happy to be here uh what whats District children and students here than well what brought me here were my parents 1967 and I started uh when it was just a course over at 539 before the additions uh and I went to sixth grade moving down from North Jersey and it was completely different now I know this is uh like you probably look me see that was probably 20 years ago uh maybe 50 but whatever uh it's still Compared to North Jersey we still have I think a pretty tight-knit Community it's a small community and where a lot of people know each other and it was such a change for me uh going to school in the north Jersey where they had three elementary schools with I don't know how many you know k26 uh I was I was just lost I came down here there was only one sixth grade teacher and Mr DS and I completely changed from uh getting uh feel bra and uh to getting A's and B's uh with the times it was ones and twos uh and I think that I would like to see that type of and I and I think we have the staff here already that can do that that can still work oneon-one with the children and uh and and continue that that closeness uh uh I I don't want kids to get lost in the shuffle so that's just what I like about the district thank you very much test good okay I'm Abby Martin um I'm a parent of three in the district and so what brought me here so I grew up here um born and raised went through uh both schools I left here in store i' never come back um but I'm here I met my husband he's invested here in his job so my three kids have gone through the district and I think the strengths of the district are the teaching staff um I have not had one issue with any teacher in this District ever and I have a third and fifth grader and now a seventh grader and this staff the teachers here in this District they're just amazing they're an amazing group of individuals um the current Administration is amazing we support their teachers I just think that's a huge strength here and I think because we're small um it's a small community the teachers are able to you know give the time to each student and really focus on on their class the class sizes hopefully can remain small and stay small so I think that's our biggest strength here in the thank you all the friends I community um this community has u a reputation for rallying together when there are um challenges that face uh any family member or Community member staff member everyone rallies around each other and really um looks out for one another and it doesn't matter what the issue is um everyone rallies around each other thank you thank you we heard that a lot today well the day as can move on to what are the challenges or uh what are the weaknesses of the dis what are the challenges what are the issues that the next Super she evil things we can go back to strength if You' like as well we'll move what are the challenges challenges can be operational it can be Financial it can be instructional can be facilities wise well I'll see I don't to get the microphone talk pretty loud anyway I'm Pat Chambers um I think the strengths that everybody contributed the last question probably can lead into maybe some of the challenges that I think this district is going to face in the future a lot of the strengths that we heard were small town feel individuality rallying together I think as we see this District grow which it has even in the Last 5 Years and certainly since Mr Barry has been 196 two s um I think that's going to be a challenge for this District to continue to try and meet those strengths and I hope that the new superintendent will continue to work towards those strengths given the fact that we are going to continue to grow as we also continue to grow we're going to see overcrowded this we have two buildings and a preschool program building as well um there's probably going to come a time where we might have to look towards expansion whether that be additions whether that be a new facility um because we have more and more people moving down here from the other parts of the state and also from out State um so I see more movement occurring especially since I started working here in 1979 over at the Regional High School we have grown tremendously um I also think another challenge is going to be um communication as we grow and keeping that communication open I think it's the strength that we have I think it has continued to improve um I think the current board has made it a priority to make sure that things are commun at and communicated well to the community I think as we continue to grow I think that's going to be another challenge that that communication and those lines remain open um I think of anything else certainly thank you very I'm Christoph lello I'm a school board member but I'm also going to speak as a parent uh the orig I was just sworn in a year ago not even a year and the reason I ran was for special education and my son my son Matteo has Down syndrome and uh when we first moved to The District in 2020 we saw some challenges so I decided to get involved and now I would say that one of our strengths is uh the direction in which our special education program is heading however some of the challenges which are outside really our control at this moment um we get specific is the amount of par professional subst that we have and also substitute teachers uh we have a great staff like everybody said but sometimes you know someone gets sick life happens and we need someone to step up for a day or a week or a month to fill in and I know this is a struggle with all districts but specifically in hours uh just last week one of my son's par professionals was taken to go to another classroom uh there was great communication by the staff but it just was a reality that there was not enough uh qualified parap professionals to step in when that substitute was needed so just looking at the staffing issues and making sure that we have qualified people and enough qualified people to fill in if needed but overall uh I think the district is heading in the right direction and I hope that the next superintendent keeps that momentum going on top of all the strengths that we have one other strength I wanted to mention regarding Community uh a lot of our students are student athletes and they're involved outside of the school you know I'm I'm a coach I coach soccer basketball flag football and I love seeing the kids on the fields on the soccer fields basketball courts football fields and then the next day see them coming to school so that's the kind of feel we have here we have kids that are student athletes and I hope that's recognized as well in our next superintendent thank you thank you Chris would it be fair to add to the par professional and substitute teaching shortage we also heard in other groups uh a lot about shortage of custodians and uhy is that fair to thank you other challenges [Music] feel free to go back to either one strengths and weaknesses but we'll move into what characteristics would like to see the next and again I'll add that that can be either personal characteristics or [Music] do want to say Hospitality extraordinary apprciate welc whenever we do a Kor District obviously all the kids we always start with kids start with the kids and um high school kids in seven and they have some Keen insights which are not reallyis but they often talk about someone who is approaching one who is fun but those are two very good qualities for the eyes of kids and they usually translate into some of the same qualities that so feel free to think way outside the box what would you like this person to be like personally and profession well I go again uh just I know don't mean to F Buster but just so that full disclosure people know where I stand as a board member um what I would like to see in a new superintendent some of the things whole list of things but the biggest things are that they can take the uh contract from their vest pocket and put it in their back pocket because their leadership skills are such a way that uh they don't have to you have to you have to have a contract and there are times when you have to go to it and I understand that teaching for 37 years I understand that but like I've always said it takes uh any to make somebody follow a contract but it takes great leadership to make people work above it I believe that we have staff here that really would like to work above a contract uh you know by the love for the children and all that stuff so that's the kind of person that I'm looking for uh and then uh that's not necessarily easy to find I realize that because uh it that takes a special person I'm looking for somebody that's that's what makes championship teams you know people don't look at what is the state average we got to get there they're looking at no no no I want to leave the state you know and getting those coaches they're few and far between I understand that but that's what I'm looking for some characteristics so I would also say someone that values and I guess in some ways does not forget where they come from and realize the value of the custodians of the parent Professionals of the the School nurses of the substitutes of the teachers of the uh administrative staff um the business offices all of those and without all of those components the district wouldn't run and that you have to have good working relationships with everyone in order for that all to take place and that sometimes someone might know a little bit more about than you on a specific topic because that's their area of expertise I have to say say when you go to the website there is the form that put up I think I'm assuming by your company that to answer questions on I don't know if you have it there on your computer but it might be a good idea possibly maybe to put it up on your screen so the people here in the audience can see it and get a for some of the questions that are being asked I did take it I thought every one of those aspects on there were extremely important for the characteristics of the superintendent up the top of my head I don't remember all the exact on that you had on there but um this is a district That's Unique in very very many ways that I think you've heard already and I think this person is going to have to see that um I also think it's going to have to be somebody that is very familiar with a small town atmosphere um Mr R talked about humility um if you look around the room you have characteristics and the in the pillars here I think each one of those pillars is probably most important to the superintendent as well okay um it's a difficult process um the board's got their work cut out for it I think one of the things i' like to hear as a community member right now is where this board is in the process what are you looking at as far as time frame in this process where do we go from here I know you're in your Gathering stage asking the stakeholders what they would like but I think as one of the stakeholders I'd like to hear where you are in the process and where do we go from here and what are the goal what is the end time here are we looking to fill this position by July 1st or are we looking to fill it after this year what is the board's goal here um that was why I came to um like I said I filled out the form online I thought it was very well done but all of those characteristics I think sure I I'll address it's really good question and everyone should know so we're Gathering the final data in a few weeks we'll be meeting with the board getting the profile approved and from that profile will advertised be about 3 to four weeks of receiving resumes as well as Frank N recruiting candidates towards the profile every applicant typically we get 40 to 5050 applications per search right I will interv all 40 and then uh 4 weeks from there U fragai will be presenting a slate of candidates to the board event the board will get every application that we receive we'll get it ahead of time and then we will Cate all of the data all the applicat and put them in three pools one of which were these candidates meets or exceeds the criter in the profile the second will be uh these are people that do not me all of them but they have these experiences and foro worth looking at and the third file will be they're not qualified to the position based on the criteria and there the board will choose a minimum of six ideally 8 to 10 and as many as 12 people interview they'll the inter four weeks from that date because all candidates they have the franked on screen uh they'll be giv the dates to hold in anticipation of the interview the board will interview two rounds from there the first to second they'll go from 10 to 5 and then from 5 we'll get it down after two rounds of interviews to the finalist the search is a confidential process because any candidate that has his or her name out there that's in a position that becomes very vulnerable and we'll lose really good candidates if we didn't have a confidential process confidentiality comes off when they're down to the final two candidates and from the board will then decide what other process will be done whether it be SED as it Etc that would be determined uh at the uh candidate selection for interview so that'll be the process with the end goal in mind ideally to have new superintendent sh in place byly did I I get let me also speak to the survey generally speaking the surveys very dist none of them are well we say I think are afraid to get any question they might and whether they choose from some samples or they choose their own many people have to opinion my my goodness these are such important qualities I'm sure everyone will select these as being most important because you think most important very important not all important we have never seen that happenes um you generally wind up out of that 14 you generally wind up with about 6 to8 in which the majority of people Breen as even mostly and that's a very interesting thing the other uh uh discussion around when does the person start that depends a lot upon who that person is if that person is a standing superintendent their separation cause relative to the district could be a 60-day notice up to 150 notice and that 150 day notice is becoming more and more popular the time so you you disc count off in terms of when the process is over at 150 days we might be talking about a July I think most of us would appreciate hope it could be less than one but mathematically speaking it could that's kind of the best overall what I said to to um some of the groups this morning is that a k to6 search is a little different than K to search that indic 12 search you generally have more sitting superintendent the nature of compensation in the C6 versus is different enough that you usually get far fewer sitting superintendents I ask where you advertise that we'll recommend uh about six sites including Ed we Ed we has kind ofered uh the New York Times his fees are extraordinary five figures in astronomical so we'll give a long pick list and generally speaking of sites but generally speaking week is always and the newey superintend and then so in terms of what is it going to cost that's a fair question um in the neighborhood of pleasure in a neighborhood of about $2500 should cover every um there are districts that insist on a newspaper we don't encourage that recomend Buffet District on that $2500 another we're doing at the moment we're finishing a oler County New York search Bo is interviewing the first round candidates now and the majority of the group of 11 that they selected were people being recruited into the search now spending a day here looking at survey results get a better understanding we need an individual who's going to be committed to the LA world that specifically wants a small community that has a background in elementary education that has expertise and in in a working knowledge of marginalized populations such as children with extraordinary abilities and so that helps us get people in mind because being old high school principle myself I learned why kids don't get involved in school because they never been asked my whole career i' never have one child and I asked them to get V to say no same thing with a superintendent sech when we find people we think we're a good fit we call them up and we talk to them and say to him or her have you thought about a see the little egg bomber adver you looked at the profile we think you're a good fit at times that is how we get the best family by customizing there's a lot of really really good things going on a lot of caring people then it's a closeit community may think what of these two guys from up now ironically my mom and dad had a house on Radio Road in Mystic Island Frank where where's here's summer yeah we have a A Summer Place in B wck 15 so while I agreed with my contemporary from 1967 it's not the same Mystic Island or my parents the growth here is astronomical but it made my heart feel warm as I drove my see that's still here that's people left in America that's an anomally I'd want to come here just for that Al doesn't open maybe not once you saw their prices but have we gone to McDonald's that's no bargain either so you were talking about how this place isn't the same as a was uh one of the characteristics I think that we need and I saw it firsthand I used to work for the mayor of Al Landing City about 10 years ago and he would always say that I'm making decisions that are going to affect us 10 20 30 years from now and so these students as they grow up here and do great things in the world the decisions that are made by the next superintendent are going to affect them for the next 10 20 30 years and hopefully they'll want to come back and live here and make this community great so whoever the next uh person is they should be a strategic thinker both in education and in the world of what's going to be needed uh as these kids go on the pine lands and in college or the trades we need to start preparing them now uh and getting you know the test scores the reading scores all that stuff up to where it needs to be so that they're prepared for the future and the next superintendent should be thinking about those challenges and be able to see around the corner of what's next and what we can do now to start preparing for the future and you had hit on it uh in your talk just a minute ago that they need to be committed to this community um I know there's sometimes superintendent take a job as a stepping stone to something bigger or better uh but this is where we live and this is where our kids go to school and we want somebody who's a th% not 100% 1,000% committed to this community um you know and maybe you can ask if the drive is too far then maybe they reconsider I know there's been instances in other districts where someone's there for a year and then goes gets a job closer to home and then you know the search starts all over again again and I know you guys do have a guarantee that if it doesn't work out that you'll keep working until you find someone else but we don't want to go through all that we want the right person on the right time that wants to be here for the Long Haul uh and is a strategic thinker that can incorporate all these great goals up here all these pillars so thank you thank you I would add that uh as candidates are being interviewed they're they're a good fit for them to pick up perhaps no give up a position and so it it really is a two-way streak um when I was first hired the superintendent the board president after a very short time said we're going to make it very hard for you to leave and they did and it wasn't all compensation it was compensation but it wasn't conversation it was challenging work that the board and I had really tight align with and I want to add one thing to was remiss and not mention no one in this roomis nobody should settle you shouldn't settle for anything but the children I'm not saying that fliply lightly is the American dream that our kids do better than us and so we need to get the right person before we wait until we do take a page out of Jim Collins's book get the right people on the bus sitting in the right seats and until you have the right person don't fill the seat and that'll be our recommendation to you and again we respect the Board of Education we appre appreciate your volunteerism all of you that give up your time in service of our kids we truly appreciate it and we know it's an enormous responsibility and we're happy to work with you guide you consult with you as you as would make the choice because you live here and you represent the community and we know you do the right thing based on the importance all the characteristics so just a pigb back on what everybody else has said I think of course somebody manting experience speaks for a lot somebody with experience and somebody who has for all people students staff board members parents somebody with Integrity honest please i' like to see someone who have through a lot of we've been someone who can build trust with parents through transparency start talking about polies what us know when something changes someone can up and progress that I think made in special special and you got we're using pars we're losing professionals that I wonderful because culture and very a lot from the top down and things go wrong be transparent on what you're changing to make it go right also i' like our teach are [Music] our teachers are are boots on the ground if they're telling you something's not working they got to listen and support them and I would also like to see someone who can work with the things that we've already had we've already bought new curriculum we've already bought everything else every time there's a new changes get a new system do this differently work with what we've got and make improvements slowly but who the paren I don't know how many parents know that and I haven't even heard about the survey so [Music] we [Music] yeah it was good Common Sense stuff I just ask you though what would have made it uh easier for you or more to see the the survey what what would it what would have been that um I typically get my stuff through Facebook Facebook it's always on my okay um you know or emails I didn't get the email last emails but I also tell you with two kids with special EG I get about 400 emails day um so I don't pay attention but you can also put it through the dojo have the teachers push it out there's different I mean you're not going to K everybody because everybody secret we you everybody has different technology that they use every day my my teachers are constant con constant communication with me so Dojo is a real easy way to hit us up one of the major inance that I did see is getting everybody on dojo streamlined a lot of it because I was carrying four and five apps at one point well I appreciate that CU my technology still is a hammer soate I'm going to say for I talked to other parents where it's keeper is the best way to go about it for me it's not paper gets lost in the thank so it should have gone out via black text message you should have received along with an email I did not get any text Mage you get the normal text messages all the time see me after after a while and then we'll figure out what's wrong okay sure I'll be happy to do that no problem thank you I will can I just say something really quick that right now um somebody did ask for the survey again so I'm actually reposting it right now okay thanks [Music] Terry and that's the thing that I will say as a board member and I think I said it to our staff as well we don't know that there's a problem unless someone tells us there's a problem so we can't address something unless we know that it's an issue and so we've done everything to be transparent that's why I I asked for the signs on the schools to say the meeting was tonight just different ways to try to get it out there so that everyone is aware I definitely got the meeting for tonight in multiple way that was great so it should have been a link with that I believe was in there I will say that the report cards going home in paper awesome right yeah what I've so [Music] thought can I ask far the interview process uh will the board be soliciting um any of the stakeholders to maybe meet with their top three candidates um to get um to ask some specific questions that obviously would affect those stakeholders in that not only teachers but administrators parents support staff um even taxpayers that are not working in the school system children maybe grandchild but um will there be will that be part the we haven't decided for a week the board hasn't decided that yet that we going talk about day we uh have the candidates and we Shar the slate and the resumes with that's that's when they'll have more inut to know what the next steps and again not to be repetitive of myself but that's where they'll decide whether do site [Music] is any other general questions tell TR I'm teach we're doing approprate [Laughter] we you're not putting on a dog and pony show like [Music] Daniel patient [Music] and what we do we know that this istic decision the community confident we going will be able to get great quanties into fre Community we don't say it lightly this a very caring Clos Community like every Community has its challenges I like what people are saying you don't want someone that's just going to be in the hearing now we want a future thinking resent leader that will be here for today and look towards building it tomorrow pretty good stuff no it's not good great Stu priv we're not going to let you down you know where we're at you'll track us down when you say North Jersey you're talking like north of lacy [Music] Bridge individual comments who to hear Frank and I but uh we thank you all for your participation please everyone of you go home to friends neighbors family take the survey online I know that the board technology will be pushing it out and and that's what we need to do you don't feel things are right email the board call the board your interim superintendent will be very responsive for this Blood people care a Care Community thank you and again around for a couple minutes if you have thank you very much I just want to say maybe we can also have some computers the next few days are parent teach conference is correct so maybe we can have some availability for surveys as parents come in and teachers can address it because I think that it's a big to a lot of people too justed on website pop up on the website so it is reposted and I think I shall resend it out for parents didn't get I want I want make that the corre okay so all right moving on to public comment the floor is now open to members of the public Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on Ed educational issues board requests that each statement made by participant is limited to 3 minutes is CED to policy number 0167 would anyone like to speak here like to thank the board for having this meeting the committee I think and and actually the board of the whole thank you thank you to the group for you to come down and present for us um I would like to also say to the board that continue your practice of inclusivity by live streaming this meeting and all your meetings because there's many people that could be Mak it tonight that I'm sure watching now are going to watch in the future so it just proves to me that you're continuing to want the public support by having a live stream and I would really commend you for doing that um I feel feel important so thank you thank you for your service again thank you to the group that came down to present tonight and hopefully we'll be getting more information you're welcome why wouldn't we live I don't know thank you moving on to board for would anyone else like to speak before I close that um I would just I I appreciate the live streaming also just as a parent because I know um Chris involved with sports all us involved with sports a lot of times you're watching or listening as you're on the way to something and it just makes it more convenient then be involved and be in the know to know what's happening um but um and I with that yes I do hope to get more parent involvement I would have loved to seeing this room filled with parents um so that might be a challenge of the new superintendent to find ways to get participation in things that aren't the school play or I'm sure the uh holiday choir band is going to be packed in here um so those are the types of things all these are not aren't always as much fun I I kind of think they're fun but um that's it and then I just wanted to say that our next scheduled board meeting is for 12 the 12th executive is at 6 p.m. 6 p.m. and public session begins at 6:30 s s 7M okay so I hope to see you there again if you have any questions G then U please feel free to come then can I have a motion to motion I have a second all in favor I any OBS objection okay this meeting ised thank you everyone for coming