Community and Staff Input

Thank you for sharing your perspective regarding the qualities, experiences, and skills that you would like to see in the district's next superintendent. The survey is being administered by the MASB Executive Search team on behalf of the district and takes about ten minutes to complete. Anonymous individual responses like yours will be combined with those from other stakeholders to provide important community input to the Board of Education as it seeks to identify the best candidate for the position. Responses that contain the names of individuals and/or foul language will be deleted. Consolidated results from all returned surveys will be reported publicly.

One important note: as you go through this survey, you will probably find that every trait and skill discussed is important to you at least to some extent. Your challenge is to help us prioritize between traits that are somewhat important for the next superintendent and those that are critically important—so try to use the full range of any scales we provide and reserve “top box” ratings for only the few items that in your mind rise above the rest.
To begin, we have just a few questions that will help us categorize your answers with other similar stakeholders in this process.

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* 1. If you are a resident, how long have you lived in the school district?

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* 2. How long have you worked for the school district?

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* 3. Which type(s) of stakeholder are you? Check ALL categories below that apply to you.

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* 4. In your view, what are the strengths of the district?  Type your answer in the box below.

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* 5. From your perspective, what challenges do you think the school district will face over the next five years or so that could impact educational programs for the students? Type your answer in the box below.

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* 6. What is the minimum level of education you want the Board to consider when evaluating candidates for the superintendent position? (Check ONE answer below.)

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* 7. Below is a list of positions that superintendent candidates may have held in the past. Which prior positions do you think would prove most valuable for the next superintendent? (You may check up to THREE positions below.)

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* 8. Listed below are specific areas of expertise that different superintendent candidates may possess. From your perspective, how much weight should the Board place on each area? Rate the importance of each area using the scale to the right.

  Critically Important Above Average Importance Of Average Importance Below Average Importance Relatively Unimportant
Public Relations
Budget development/management
Contract/labor negotiations
Contract administration
Facilities management
Curriculum development and evaluation
Human resource management

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* 9. Below are six different leadership style descriptions. Recognizing that a leader may employ all of these management styles in different situations and at different points in time, are there some that you think should be the dominant style for an effective superintendent? Read through the list and choose up to TWO management styles that you would like the next superintendent to employ most often .

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* 10. Listed below are specific experiences and skill areas that could be important when evaluating the superintendent candidates. From your perspective, how much weight should the Board place on each area? Rate the importance of each area using the scale to the right.

  Critically Important Above Average Importance Of Average Importance Below Average Importance Relatively Unimportant
Strong knowledge of curriculum research and deployment
Maintain visibility and accessibility to students
Successful experience working with diverse communities
Maintain visibility and accessibility to the broader school district community
Strong knowledge and experience with school financial matters
Experience with school bond/millage/sinking fund election and implementation efforts
Demonstrated ability to work with elected officials beyond the School Board
Demonstrated responsiveness to students with learning differences
Recognizes, values, and affirms staff members
Excellent speaking skills with large and small groups
Proven track record of active advocacy for public education
Demonstrates a keen ability to think outside the box and develop creative solutions to complicated problems
Already familiar with the district
Ability to develop and direct an effective management team
Proven track record of raising student achievement
Strong communication skills with School Board members
Maintain visibility and accessibility to parents
Adept at media and public relations
Exceptional written communication skills
Fosters professional development of staff
Exceedingly responsive (follows through and follows up)
Maintain visibility and accessibility to staff
Overarching love of kids

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* 11. Listed below are personal characteristics that different superintendent candidates could possess. From your perspective, how much weight should the Board place on each personality characteristic when assessing each candidate? Rate the importance of each using the scale to the right.

  Critically Important Above Average Importance Of Average Importance Below Average Importance Relatively Unimportant
Firm
Transparent
A strong communicator
A risk taker
Inclusive
Honest and ethical
Collaborative
Sensitive
Approachable
A strong listener
Flexible
Sense of humor
Thick-skinned
A problem solver
Self-reliant
Resourceful
Empathetic
Tenacious/doesn’t give up
Visionary
Goal-oriented
Personable
Assertive
Kind
Culturally competent

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* 12. In choosing the next superintendent, which path or strategy below do you think the Board of Education should take? (Choose ONE answer.)

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* 13. Tell us why you chose your answer above. If you think the district should stay the course, what aspects of the district give you that confidence in its leadership? If you think the course of the district should change, what changes would you want the new superintendent to make and why?

Those are all the questions we have for you. Thank you again for your willingness to provide input to this important process!

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