By Nicholas von Wettberg
Advisors from the executive search firm Leadership Associates will attend Thursday’s Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) Board of Education special meeting.
The lone item on the agenda for the meeting, which is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and will be open to the public, is the search process for a new district Superintendent.
During a special meeting earlier this month, the School Board agreed to a contract for the consultant services of the Southern California-based firm.
In attendance that evening were two company partners, Dr. Peggy Lynch and Jim Brown, who were interviewed by the Board before being approved for the deal.
As it turned out, Leadership Associates had been the only search firm to submit a Request For Proposal (RFP) that met the eleven requirements for the minimum criteria, in accordance to evaluation guidelines.
Among the RFP requirements were a summary of strategies to identify and engage the community, with the process/approach proposed including strategies unique to Davis; ensuring the required confidentiality throughout the process; and a summary of similar services provided to other districts comparable to DJUSD including search costs.
Five of the six proposals mailed in were filled out and returned to the search firm ad-hoc committee, consisting of Board President Madhavi Sunder, Trustee Alan Fernandes and Associate Superintendent Bruce Colby.
A point of emphasis for Thursday’s discussion will be the exchange of ideas between the Board and representatives from Leadership Associates about the type of leader the district is searching for to fill the Superintendent position.
According to a brief overview provided by Brown, at the meeting on March 8, once a profile is built, and there is some assurance of the quality of candidate applying for the job, then will come the task of finding the best way to select the finalists, which starts with the firm recommending a list of candidates for Board consideration.
Brown said the final step in the process would be following up on their decision, and making sure they had made the right choice.
Also scheduled for the discussion are a review of the process and the finalization of a timeline. The Board anticipates the search process to end by June, and the position to be permanently filled no later than July 1.
Former DJUSD staff member Kevin French will assume the duties as interim Superintendent at the end of the week.
