Comments on: On the agenda: superintendent search firm

By: The supe search: How closed should the door be? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy covers what’s going on in the Oakland schools

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:25:17 +0000

[...] from other education reporters that Ray and Associates (the Iowa search firm hired to help OUSD find a permanent leader) requires most school districts [...]

By: And the supe search is … on? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy covers what’s going on in the Oakland schools

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:31:08 +0000

[...] we do know is that Ray and Associates is on the job. I also hear that some old names are cropping up — or at least, that [...]

By: Richard Day

Richard Day — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:29:24 +0000

For more on Kentucky’s ugly experience with Ray & Associates, See: Kentucky School News and Commentary.

http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/2007/11/kbe-refuses-payment-to-ray-and.html

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:07:17 +0000

Why anyone would want to take on such a role is beyond me. Helping children is great, but the politics are CRAZY — and that’s just the stuff I read here. State trustee, board flexing its new muscle and a community that is NEVER satisfied. No money, less coming next year and a state ready to hand out IOUs.

My guess, any good candidate will be scrutinizing Oakland more than the reverse.

Open or not, Oakland needs a “special” person to take on this task.

By: former hills parent

former hills parent — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:43:09 +0000

Mike:

If, however, you did open the position in Alameda, you would have heard from parents such as myself about my negative experiences with Kirten Vital’s office…from a parent’s perspective.

By: Mike McMahon

Mike McMahon — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:56:44 +0000

As a school board member who just hired a new Superintendent, (Kirsten Vital from Oakland) I would offer the following for consideration:

If the Oakland School Board agrees to an open selection process whereby candidates names will be made available for the public I can guarantee you will be reducing the pool of applicants for the Oakland Superintendent position. The likely best and brightest candidates for the Superintendent position are doing a good to great job within their current school district. By opening themselves to scrunity by applying for a new job at Oakland they will upset the working dynamic at their current school district. A lot of candidates will not take that risk since they have no guarantee of getting the Oakland job.

In my opinion this is the one area where the public needs to completely trust their Board of Education. One of the main job of a Board of Education is to hire and evaluate a Superintedent. Let them do it in a way that ensures the best applicant pool with a interview and selection process that is free of interest group pressure. If the next Oakland Superintendent is hired via an open selection process, Oakland risks hiring the “safe” candidate and it will be hard to hold the school board accountable for selection.

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:41:12 +0000

Mike:

Thanks for sharing this link. What an eye-opener. This is even more reason to make sure that the school board is held accountable to an open selection procedure.

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:36:35 +0000

Thanks Katie:

I have heard of several of these. I wonder why they selected Ray and Associates. Do you know if they interviewed any of them?

By: Mike McMahon

Mike McMahon — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:34:51 +0000

Good luck on access to names of candidates. Here is something on the search of LAUSD in 2006.

The challenge for a schoool board is attract enough qualified candidates to select from without compromising the current Superintendent employment status. As a result, the search and selction process can be as secretive as selecting a Pope. In August, 2006, the Los Angeles Times commented on the search process underway to replace outgoing Superintendent Ray Romer.

http://www.mikemcmahon.info/supesearch.htm#e

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:22:03 +0000

Yep, here’s the complete list of search firms that were considered, as posted on the agenda:

California School Boards Association – Executive Search Services – West
Sacramento, CA
Cascade Consulting Group – Bellevue, Washington
Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, Ltd – Glenview, IL
Leadership Associates – Mission Viejo, CA
Proact Search – Milwaukee, WI
Ray and Associates, Inc. – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
RBL Enterprises LTD – Oakland, CA
08-3150 – Interim Superintendent of Schools Analysis of RFPs for
Superintendent Search
California School Boards Association – Executive Search Services – West
Sacramento, CA