Diane Blevins Posted May 29, 2012 Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Proceedings of the Board of Trustees District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana May10, 2012 CALL TO ORDER The Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana, and High School District, Yellowstone County, Montana, was duly held at The Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, May 10, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. Members present included Trustees Kathy Aragon, Greta Besch Moen, Pam Ellis, Lindy Graves, Travis Kemp, Teresa Stroebe, Allen Halter, Connie Wardell, Travis Smith, District Clerk Leo Hudetz, and Human Resources Director Jeanna Lervick. Registered guests included Mary Westwood, Bruce Swanson, and Chris Goodridge. COMMUNICATION FROM THE PUBLIC The Board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of listening to members of the public in its meetings. The Board also recognizes the statutory and constitutional right of the public to participate in governmental operations. The Board encourages members of the public to participate in and express opinions about issues important to the District. This part of the Board’s meeting is dedicated to public comment on any public matter that is not on the agenda of this meeting and is within the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees. Members of the public may also address particular items on this agenda either now or at the time the Board considers the particular item. Bruce Swanson asked the candidate to address strands and spiral logical structure for math programs during his interview. INTERVIEW OF DR. JOSEPH FARNSWORTH FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS The following are the list of questions asked of the candidate by Human Resources Director Jeana Lervick, and his responses: Tell us about your background and why you want to be the Billings Public Schools Superintendent. Dr. Farnsworth stated he grew up in Arizona as well as military bases around the world. He began his teaching career in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a family man with five children and feels Billings is a good community to raise his children. His family loves the outdoors and he believes Billings has good schools. In Billings, the ACT & SAT test scores are above the national level. He sees a huge potential for Billings and wants it to be the best district in the state, not just the largest district. He felt Billings has the big city benefit with a small town feeling. Share specific ways you effectively communicate with the board; other administrators; teaching staff; classified staff; community; students. Please give us a recent example where you used humor in a professional interaction. Dr. Farnsworth reported he enjoyed his time with the council members at Senior High earlier in the day and reaching out to every building principal and director to find out what is good about the district, what the future is, and their vision. He has a collaborative approach and has co-chaired the teacher evaluation system that is tied to student achievement, as mandated by Arizona state law. When the economy went south, Arizona was hit hard as there is no sales tax revenue. He would receive updates weekly on legislative issues as to how they would affect schools and email the information to the staff and governing board. How would you accomplish creating an open/comprehensive communications process? As the superintendent in the Pima school district, he visited with other superintendents in order to learn how to move forward. He developed a vision committee from a diverse group of individuals in the community, which met for seven months. The committee developed twelve belief statements or guiding principles for the strategic plan. The principles keep the leadership team on track and continue with what the committee wants. How would you go about gaining a better understanding of this school district and its finances and the community’s priorities and goals for education? One of his first priorities is to go on a listening tour in the district and communicate and to schedule forums to get to know people. If 80% of the population no longer has children in the schools, the district has to engage them in the school district in order to communicate with the entire community. He would also sit down with the business office and have an audit of the finances. There is 85% of the budget tied up with salaries and he would need to determine how the other 15% is being spent for resources. Can you give us an example of what “compass” you use in your personal and professional life? What guides you as a leader? There is nothing greater for a teacher to see the light bulb go off in the eyes of students when they grasp what is being taught. The number one focus is students and decisions must be made for the benefit of those students. Describe the process you would use to establish a vision for the school district. What strategies would you implement to create an atmosphere of stability and continuity, while, at the same time, initiating change for improved student achievement? The process would be similar to the process used in the vision committee. In working with the governing board, he would ask what is good in Billings and what needs should be stressed to the community. Dr. Farnsworth reported it would be his desire to brainstorm, and as a board, prioritize as to what to do at this level with the district. The district cannot have ten superintendents and the board needs to develop guidelines and expectations to determine the roles of the board and superintendent in order to make progress. How do you create high expectations for students and staff and create a method of holding all accountable to these standards? There is a misconception that people are the greatest asset but it must be determined if we have the right people to be the greatest asset. Does this district have the right people to hold students accountable? It is a matter of leadership and expectations which need to be outlined up front. The schools in Pima excelled by holding people accountable and there must be support and interventions for staff. Give some examples of your leadership in curriculum, best instructional practices, assessment, and staff development, which have led to improved student achievement. Dr. Farnsworth stated he based the staff development on Dr. Robert Marzano’s research. Students are let out early in Pima, one day a week, and teachers work on staff development and learn effective practices which have improved student achievement. He partnered with the #1 school district in Arizona to improve student achievement. Weekly formative assessments were conducted to determine if students were understanding the lessons. Frequent assessments are needed in order for the teachers to make decisions. Please share with us experiences you have had related to facility improvement or remodeling and/or new facility construction that you have overseen in districts you have served. What were critical considerations associated with either of the above? Immediately after Dr. Farnsworth took over as superintendent in Pima, a bond was used to build six additional classrooms. He worked with architectural firm, attorney, and documented weekly construction. The project came in under the bid by $80,000 which was used in other areas. It is a matter of setting parameters for the money available. As you have approached facility issues, how have instructional priorities of students been factored into the decision-making. Please provide an example. The high school in Pima was 65-years old when he became the superintendent and the building renewal state funds ended when the economy went should. He used a lot of the district’s own staff during the summer to remodel and technology teachers were hired to save money. Pima recently passed a technology levy in Queen County and he has discussed the needs of the students with the teachers. Talk about your past experience in facilities improvement and development. How have student needs been incorporated into those experiences? With the $80,000 level over from the bond project, the old HVAC unites were replaced which gave the district an energy savings for efficiency alone. He has also applied for grants for water heaters in order to save the utility costs for his district. What approach do you use to ensure that all internal and external communities keep their focus on what is best for students? The two key points that are critical are to have the guiding principles, approved by the board, which are printed on posters and hung in every classroom so everyone knew what the values were. Also needed is a united front in the decisions made and he needs to be visible in the community. How do you work with staff to make sure that the decisions that are med in the educational setting are made based on student’s needs and not the adults in the setting? Dr. Farnsworth stated he needs to be the voice of all students as they are the top priority. How do you believe raising student achievement is best accomplished? How do you determine specifically what needs to occur for student achievement to be a major priority? Dr. Farnsworth reported it would need to be determined if the district is recruiting highly effective people and is it retaining them for consistency. It must be known all through the year how the students are doing. He must also determine if the teachers are delivering and being held accountable. There is a gap in sub-groups in the data for this district on the school profile. Principals must be instructional leaders. He would work with the building principal to determine achievement and interventions. He must also determine what is in place and what supports could be supplied to aid in achievement. Describe your overall leadership style and address how you build and maintain trust and the concept of “team” within the various constituent groups with which you interact. Dr. Farnsworth stated he prefers a teamwork approach and to work openly and as transparent as possible. He invites opinions that might be different than his with a culture of trust. People need to be respected and validated with trust. He has been able to create that culture of trust in every district that he has worked. What method do you use to determine what the greatest needs of students are in the schools you serve? It is a balancing act and there are forces at work in the education field, such as implementing common core standards. He felt it must be determined what the community wants and what the needs want in terms of education. We must build a common core with staff and the public. Not everyone will be happy but as long as the process is there for everyone to participate, that is the most important factor. Based on your research and observations, what excites you about becoming our next superintendent? Despite all of the changes, there is a strong foundation in place with administrators, teachers, students and the community. He wanted to have this district be the best in the state. What suggestions would you have that might help us reach a higher level of effectiveness? Dr. Farnsworth stated there needs to be cohesiveness among the board members for the benefit of this district which he learned from the students and staff earlier today. The board needs to learn how to work together in order to accomplish that. What personal strengths can you bring to our schools and community to help us improve? He is a team builder and a consensus builder. He is also honest, transparent and communicates well with people. His #1 priority is to go out into the community to be visible and listen to the community. What do you see as our biggest challenge going forward? Dr. Farnsworth felt the largest challenges were oversized classrooms, facilities, common core standards, the perception by the community of the governing board, and finite funds. He would want to determine if there are other revenues that the district can tap into and are there other options that are sustainable. Priorities are very important and need to be developed with the possibility of tradeoffs. What qualities and skills will you bring to this position? What areas do you feel are your strongest, and what areas do you need to improve? He felt his strongest assets are that he is a good communicator, good listener, treats people with respect, honest, and transparent when working with people. He is also flexible and a people person. Other people do not always feel his passion which sometimes gets in the way. What have you done in previous positions and what will you do as our superintendent to ensure that you receive diverse perspectives on issues facing the district? Three people made the decision to have a step less schedule in Queen County, board approval was given, and he went out to all schools to discuss it with staff and receive input. People needed to know that someone would stand up for them and fix any problem that arose. He continued to receive feedback and spent time at each site to discuss any problems. How would you go about gaining an understanding of this school district and the community’s priorities and goals for education? He would go out on a listening tour, speak to principals for feedback, and also received feedback from unions and the public. He would like to involve the high school students also to receive their feedback. He would also like to hold forums in the community in order to let people express themselves, good or bad. That information would be given to the board to make it part of the process. He wants to learn the Montana way, its customs, culture and traditions. He did not want to come in and make changes but learn what is currently in place and analyze what is working and what needs to be done. What is your leadership style? Give us a primary example which illustrates your leadership style in action. He would have team administrative meetings to discuss what is happening in legislation, how to address mandates, address emergencies, and determine how we are improving ourselves. Also to be determined is what professional development that could be fostered to support the district. He wanted to focus on professions and how to challenge the status quo. He prefers to be collaborative and be flexible and wanted a good dialogue before uniting in a decision. He worked with the county superintendent to improve professional goal and met with districts within the area to see what instruction looks like in their classrooms. He also formed an administrator consortium which met once a month and networked to determine what is best for students. Discuss the latest trends in curriculum and instruction initiatives that you believe would be important within our district. He uses Robert Marzano’s nine books in his district and has also address Madeline Hunter’s books. He believes in giving teachers the necessary tools. What process do you utilize to determine the effectiveness of a district’s curriculum? Actually, the effectiveness of any program that is being used by a district. Dr. Farnsworth believes programs will fail 100% if the right people are not in place to implement a program. It must be determined if administration is supporting its people and if the people are being given the correct tools. There is no silver bullet program that says students will be guaranteed success and the necessary data must be available to determine what is effective and if it is benefiting students. Do you have any questions for us? What are you looking for in your next superintendent? Trustee Halter wanted honesty with the board, community and staff. He also wanted the same vision for all levels. Trustee Moen stated integrity, good communicator, fiscally responsible, curriculum background, and data driven decision making. Trustee Wardell wanted honestly, the ability to build a team in collaboration and boardsmanship, helping the board to develop its skills, and the willingness to involve the community in the decision making. Trustee Aragon stated data based decision making, collaborative asset in the district, city entities and the community. Trustee Stroebe wanted the new superintendent to take our history, piece together what has been working, and what can work better. Trustee Graves wanted someone who was outgoing and gets out into the schools, works with the legislators, city and county governments in order to get ahead and good timelines. Dr. Farnsworth asked, as the district moves forward, perception becomes reality. What is your vision to work with the superintendent for a new vision? Trustee Stroebe would want the perception that great things are happening, funding will be available, and students are doing well. Trustee Graves wanted to let the public know what is good in the district and also find a conduit to get that out to the public. Dr. Farnsworth stated he did not find many positive articles on the positive things happening in Billings and he would make it one of his goals to get those good things out. Trustee Aragon made the following motion with a second by Trustee Graves: Motion to adjourn. Those voting in favor were Kathy Aragon, Greta Besch Moen, Lindy Graves, Travis Kemp, Travis Smith, Pam Ellis, Allan Halter, Teresa Stroebe, and Connie Wardell. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Teresa Stroebe, Chair Diane Blevins, Recorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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