Board of Education Update – August 9, 2018 Special Meeting

At the special meeting of August 9, 2018, the Board of Education issued a narrative statement about the state of the school district in its search for a new superintendent. The document is a statement for potential candidates, and gives an overview of Denver Public Schools (DPS), including progress made by the district since the inception of the Denver Plan in 2005-06. The report also outlines opportunities and challenges that must be addressed by the district, superintendent and board in order to achieve the vision and goals as outlined in The Denver Plan 2020

After interviewing, ranking and vetting several search firms, the board has selected a third-party firm to help facilitate the human resources function of the search for the next superintendent of DPS. Board members recently established a three month time period for the search process. HYA (Hazard, Young, Attea Associates) has strong connections with The School Superintendents Association (AASA), the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), and the Association for Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS).

In seeking a diverse pool of candidates, from life-long educators to non-traditional candidates with strong leadership and administrative experience, board members will develop the candidate competencies and characteristics. The board will also lead outreach, publicity and recruitment focus areas. HYA will receive and screen applications, develop protocols, lead due diligence and background checks and facilitate board deliberation and determination of semifinalists. Through this effort, the board will maintain its neutrality for the benefit of the candidates and the community.

Board members also reiterated their commitment to robust community engagement in the superintendent search process. Board Member Jennifer Bacon led the board’s efforts to plan the community engagement with representatives from the district’s offices of Public Affairs and Family and Community Engagement (FACE).

“We know the community is anxious to know meeting dates, and we are working to get those on the calendar,” Bacon said. “But we also want to ensure that before we get to the tactical details, we have really defined what we mean when we say community engagement.”

Desired engagement outcomes are outlined in three phases of engagement:

• Phase 1, now through mid-September, will focus on what the community would like to see in the new superintendent, and will inform the questions for and screening of the applicants.
• Phase 2, in mid-September through October, will help determine semi/finalist(s) and inform the creation of interview materials and rubrics
• Phase 3, from the mid-October selection of finalist(s) through November will focus on introducing the new candidate and transitioning them into the role.

The detailed community engagement presentation can be found here. All information regarding the search is publicly available at supersearch.dpsk12.org. Comments or questions regarding the search can be emailed to supersearch@dpsk12.org.