Diane Blevins Posted May 30, 2012 Report Share Posted May 30, 2012 Proceedings of the Board of Trustees District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana May 11, 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 11, 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 Jeana Lervick. Registered guests included Mary Westwood, 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 curriculum during his interview. INTERVIEW OF TERRY BOUCK FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS The following are the list of questions asked of the candidate by Technology Director Karen Palmer, and his responses: 1) Tell us about your background and why you want to be the Billings Public Schools Superintendent. Mr. Bouck reported he is married to a teacher, has five children and four grandchildren. He has 30+ years in education as a principal, assistant superintendent and a superintendent for the past six years. His experience in the Tacoma district and elsewhere has given him experience in student achievement. He felt that the Billings Public Schools is a very good district with wonderful people. The community is very welcoming and he was impressed with the opportunities and challenges. 2) 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. Mr. Bouck stated he is available 24/7 and disseminates a weekly newsletter, emails updates, takes and makes phone calls as needed, encourages board members to schedule meetings with him. If there is a new board member sworn in, he takes them out to the schools and brings in the district’s lawyer to inform them of school law. He holds superintendent forums in the community four times a year at the middle schools. A newsletter is sent out to all parents. Mr. Bouck felt it was important to have humor as levity as staff has tough jobs. 3) How would you accomplish creating an open/comprehensive communications process? Mr. Bouck stated he would start the same way as in the Peninsula school district by an assessment. They give recommendations for improvement in his second year which allowed the passage of two levies. Transparent is also important. Communication can solve almost any problem. 4) 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? He would meet with the financial department and review how the district spends. We need to have timely and accurate information to the pending problems. He would go through the budget with the financial personnel. Mr. Bouck stated he would also use the Audit Committee to review the budget as well as going out into the community with forums with city leaders and staff. 5) Can you give us an example of what “compass” you use in your personal and professional life? What guides you as a leader? He would provide the best education for each child and whatever we do, planning or budgets, we need to be directed to that goal. Mr. Bouck stated he would sacrifice personally as he requested a 5% salary cut in his present district for the past three years. That move helped negotiate with unions with pay cuts which were accomplished in two months. He would lead by example and cited his tutoring of an elementary student for the past few years on every Friday. His focus is on students and he needs to show that focus on everything that he does. 6) 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? My vision has to do with academic achievement. He has a district-wide school improvement process which includes collaboration to work on the plan. All of that time is directed toward student achievement which was approved by the union. Teams from each building meet six times during the year from the professional and learning community. Data was collected among the schools. The plan needs to drive instruction, drive our assessment by data, and if something is not impacting student achievement, something different must be done. 7) How do you create high expectations for students and staff and create a method of holding all accountable to these standards? We all have to believe that we create high expectations for every student. It starts with going to each building to talk to teachers and principals. We do not accept failure. The board sets the tone as well as me and the teachers. The accountability piece is related to the assessment of students and student progress. 8) Give some examples of your leadership in curriculum, best instructional practices, assessment, and staff development, which have led to improved student achievement. During his first meeting in his district, parents told him they did not like the math curriculum at the high school. He conducted strategic planning which told him that the math curriculum needed to be reviewed. He met with the curriculum assistant superintendent and told that person a pilot should be done that would have to align with the new state statutes. It was a year-long program. When adopting the program, consensus was reached and a traditional program was adopted that went very well. He met with the collaboration teams each week and assisted them as we were satisfied with 63% passing the state tests. The students who were in a large class were reduced. Schools went up to 80% in test scores in one year. 9) 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? It is critical to involve the stakeholders and Mr. Bouck stated he has extensive experience with that. When he was in Africa, he helped build staff flats and twelve classrooms. It was a struggle with timelines but he learned to follow timelines and keep on task. He also served as a planning principal in Washington and worked on the remodel of a school. He was able to be a part of the educational piece and dealt with the historical aspect in the building. He also worked on the building of a new middle school and renovated another middle school. Mr. Bouck stated he also worked for one and one-half years on developing a strategic facility plan that looked at state requirements, educational needs, custodial and professional environments. 10) As you have approached facility issues, how have instructional priorities of students been factored into the decision-making. Please provide an example. He visited the schools on a regular basis and met with staff, parents and teachers to review needs and give recommendations. One of the advantages of having a thirty-year plan, when dollars become tight, education versus safety must be addressed. 11) Talk about your past experience in facilities improvement and development. How have student needs been incorporated into those experiences? Our immediate impact after the facilities plan was to change the installation of smart boards throughout the schools and made sure all schools were wireless. We have a plan to run a levy in 2013 which takes 50% plus one vote to pass. The thirty-year plan is broken into six-year increments. 12) What approach do you use to ensure that all internal and external communities keep their focus on what is best for students? Mr. Bouck stated he prides himself on being out in the community one-third of the time, one-third in the classrooms, and one-third in his office. The chamber and rotary club always supports the levies as he communicates with them. He makes himself available to listen to concerns and gains input. Whenever cuts need to be made, he goes out to the community and staff and outlines the possibilities and receives suggestions. Reaching out to the community builds trust and confidence in the school system. 13) 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? Our school improvement plans are based on student needs only and student achievement and is developed around the students’ academic needs. He also meets with the building principals three times a year to discuss school improvement plans and data for individual students. Everything we do needs to go to the classroom. He cut eight positions in the central office as he did not want to touch the classrooms. Mr. Bouck stated he is not afraid to make the tough decisions. 14) 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? It has to be a district goal which this district has. Staff has to care about students and have positive relationships with those students and parents. We also need to have curriculum that is aligned to state statues. Assessments and learning targets that let the students know what the target is are very important. There needs to be student engagement around the objective. There needs to be formative assessments to determine how those students will do and to provide interventions when needed. We cannot have curriculum that does not benefit students and data must prove it. We need to have professional development that impacts student achievement. 15) 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. Mr. Bouck stated he is a people person and the way he interacts with staff leads them to know that he is a trusting person. He believes himself to be a team builder and in order to have followed you; they have to trust what they see. His ethics, integrity, when he goes out to the buildings, and goes into classrooms, teachers know that he respects what they do and he is there to help them and their principals. He stated he is all about communication, transparency and creating the best circumstances for each child. 16) What method do you use to determine what the greatest needs of students are in the schools you serve? Data must be analyzed from all levels for the individual schools. I talk to the principals and ask them about their school improvement plans. If you want to improve match scores, I want to know the target and where the students are. Formative assessments are needed. You must look at individual students to see what is needed, offer after school tutoring and we must reach out to the parents. Teachers must also be asked what they need to take them to the next level. 17) Based on your research and observations, what excites you about becoming our next superintendent? In visiting the schools in this district, he discovered wonderful staff. The principal’s hearts and passions are in the right place. Mr. Bouck stated he loves challenges and one of his strengths is building transparency, and to communicate needs to the public when support is needed. He stated he has been successful in passing levies and bonds by being honest about what needs to be improved. He is excited to help develop a thirty-year plan to provide for a quality education and safety. · What suggestions would you have that might help us reach a higher level of effectiveness? Communication, transparency, and building trust. Mr. Bouck stated he would want to come to Billings and talk to the board and the public to build on what exists. He is learning better ways of working together and it would take a lot of work. · What personal strengths can you bring to our schools and community to help us improve? Mr. Bouck stated he has a good communication with the community and loves to go out to form partnerships. He reported he visited with the YMCA director in Billings and discussed programs that could partner with the district. 18) What do you see as our biggest challenge going forward? The obvious one which all districts are seeing is money. All things can be solved through communication. He has worked very closely with legislators in Washington and he would continue to be proactive. How does the district building that culture of partnership with the community. He suggested having festivals of achievement to show the community what is taking place. 19) 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? Mr. Bouck reported his strength is community connection and connecting with staff is strong as they know his vision which is educating students and doing the best the district can. He is very good with money and has weekly meetings with the financial department. He had to cut $15,000,000 out of an $85,000,000 budget and test scores went up. Mr. Bouck felt his weakness is that he has a hard time saying ‘no’ when being requested to attend functions. His wife wants to get out in the community with him. 20) 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? He has to be accessible to all groups and open in order to reach out to all groups whether it is a group that is discontent. He must listen and understand that most people have best intentions. Being out in the buildings is very important to him. 21) How would you go about gaining an understanding of this school district and the community’s priorities and goals for education? The first thing he would do was to visit the school district before his contract in Washington expires. He volunteered to come over, reach out and listen to learn and understand the culture and how things operate. During the summer, he would spend a lot of time in the community to build reputations. He would value each person’s perspective. 22) What is your leadership style? Give us a primary example which illustrates your leadership style in action. Mr. Bouck stated he is supportive, authentic, and straight forward when it comes to expectations, willingness to support high expectations for students and staff. He is a doer and does not settle on the status quo. 23) Discuss the latest trends in curriculum and instruction initiatives that you believe would be important within our district. The district must be ready to transition to common core standards by 2015 and curriculum must be aligned to the students and assessment. We must figure out what new curriculum materials need to be purchased. On-going professional development is important and we must be effective. The district will need to have it embedded in each school which means a person is needed to train staff. The community would have to be educated and evaluation tools in place. 24) 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. From his experience, an instructional leading team, which he participates in, does the early groundwork on a curriculum. It needs to be determined if the curriculum aligns with common core standards, does it have an assessment piece, and does it have a technology piece. Implementation is done with professional development. 25) Do you have any questions for us? Does the board have a specific focus for the new superintendent? Trustee Ellis stated facilities are a big issue. We have not been effective in communicating with the community. Trustee Wardell felt building coalitions and being visible in the community is needed. Developing boardsmanship is also needed. Do you see the need for strategic planning? There was consensus from the board. Mr. Bouck felt the first part is the communication part as it takes everyone to get what is best for students. What is your greatest sense of pride in the Billings Public Schools? Trustee Aragon stated good teachers, good administration and her children have had a good experience. Trustee Moen agreed but only one-third of the students take the SAT tests but the district has a unique situation in the Career Center. Trustee Smith stated he attended the Career Center and learned the skills for his current position. Mr. Bouck reported Washington state paid for the PSAT tests and schools have improved as well as the number of students taking it has increased. Trustee Graves felt one of the things is to look at all students who are going to go to college and he felt more classes be implemented at the Career Center to lower the dropout rate. Trustee Stroebe believed they need to focus on students who do not have as much success. Mr. Bouck stated schools need to be for all students. People want to be listened to and you cannot always deliver on what people want. What is the final process and timeline for naming your next superintendent? The meeting is scheduled for May 17th. Trustee Moen made the following motion with a second by Trustee Aragon: Motion to adjourn. Those voting in favor were Kathy Aragon, Greta Besch Moen, Pam Ellis, Lindy Graves, Travis Smith, Travis Kemp, Allen Halter, Teresa Stroebe, and Connie Wardell. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Teresa Stroebe, Chair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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