Thread by @asanderford

Here today at the #Omaha meeting of the @NDE_News board picking a new state commissioner of education. Will try to tweet a bit.

Patti Gubbels, board chair: Thanks board, staff and McPherson and Jacobsen, former LPS Superintendent Steve Joel's consulting group. Brought to us outstanding candidates. Led us through those opportunities. (These are paraphrases unless direct quoted.)

Gubbels: Thanks to stakeholders who gave input through the online portal. And ed partners who participated on interview panel.

Gubbels: I sent an email to board members this morning to provide some prep as well as some structure to our ensuing discussion about our commissioner finalists. This morning, I took strips of paper, put the names of the finalists in a cup and pulled a name out. That's the order… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Gubbels: First one discussed is Melissa Poloncic, superintendent of the Douglas County West Community Schools. She praised her thoughts on state assessment and her willingness to improve it.

Lisa Fricke: Excited to see we had three outstanding candidates. Thoughtful as a decision maker. Has experience in central, western and eastern Neb. She's a mission-driven leader. Strong in continuous improvement. Parents rated the engagement she encouraged and mentored at 97%.

Fricke: She builds positive relationships of trust with integrity.

Sherri Jones: Common sense. I appreciate that she said we need to focus on the work rather than the setting. Her Gallup strengths are well-suited for a commissioner position. She has a metro-rural understanding. Organized. She brought herself to the interview.

Jones: Melissa has legislative relationships.

Patsy Koch Johns: She told a story that she had established a relationship with Sens. Walz and Linehan. We need more of that going on in 2023. She was authentic and passionate. She's still a teacher at heart. I couldn't help but think I would have loved to have her as a teacher.

Koch Johns: So refreshing to hear her say, 'Can I start now?' Able to express her ideas succinctly and can express them clearly. Respected by her constituents.

Deb Neary: We had great choices. And I did try to listen to the external stakeholders. We all received lots of input even before yesterday. The stakeholders yesterday from staff and invited guests from across the state and I want to mention what they said:

Neary: She has a reputation for being very deliberate, very inclusive, wide-ranging background, working with ESUs, and early childhood and special ed.

Next up is discussion on Summer Stephens, superintendent for the Churchill County School District in Fallon, Nevada

Fricke: She has experience building student academic achievement and well-being. She is passionate about learning and uses data to make decisions.

Jacquelyn Morrison: She made it about the kids and the classroom. When we did the exercise, she talked about clear expectations. We can believe we're getting instruction, but if that's not outlined, we don't know the expectations. We could use some expertise on this board.

Morrison: We have to reimagine school and learning for the future. My kids started in a Montessori school. It made me think about how to reimagine what learning looks like. Getting out of our structure. That showed real vision, and she's a visionary.

Morrison: One of the things she said was where there's room for improvement, we can't improve if the target keeps changing.

Morrison: One thing that stood out to me was NDE should be the pinnacle of someone's career. This is a privilege to be able serve all of the students in Nebraska. When I think of what I want in a commissioner, it's someone who would lead the department with that level of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Neary: She talked about competency-based learning. Really focused on personalized, individual learning and each student. Communication is key in an org like NDE. It's not just info going out but building relationships and building trust. I really appreciated that she understood… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Koch Johns: I agree that she is an outstanding candidate. She talked like a Nebraskan. And I appreciated that. My heart was always in a little tiny town called Greeley, Nebraska. She was talking about that and I thought, 'You really fit in with the entire state.'

Koch Johns: I was really grateful for her to point out something that she thought we could improve. She said we didn't have our north star yet. Are we thinking of exactly what we want before we start a process. I appreciated that vision. She was def a visionary.

Koch Johns: She kept repeating, "I'm bold." I think right now we could use some bold in Nebraska.

Gubbels: The one word that stayed with me on her was boldness. She will do what is right for students and what is right for schools.

Jones: I liked that she could name impactful educators by name. Legislative process experience. Currently serving on a board of education. Her swine experience.

Next up is discussion about Brian Maher, executive director of the South Dakota Board of Regents

Jones: Nebraska ties. Legislative experience. Administrative experience.

Koch Johns: I really appreciated the candidates that brought a written document so we could go over it again. He was the first person to do that. He was prepared and polished.

Koch Johns: And you could see that he was very, very experienced with a wide scope of different leadership skills. Very careful and very calm. That's a quality I sometimes lack. That's something in Nebraska we need right now. We need people who speak with calmness.

Koch Johns: Started with listening and some kind of response that was carefully thought out. He mentioned teacher diversity. That's something we need in Nebraska. What's most important for us right now is he has credibility in the state.

Koch Johns: I think we could see some hope in that happening again. He's a networker. He said we have to take care of ourselves before we can take care of business. He led the NSAA for a while and I worked in activities. I knew him from there.

Neary: With Maher, he mentioned that he didn't want to just interview each of us. He wanted each of us to give him a list of five people in our district it's important for him to meet with and listen to. Really good idea to be inclusive that way.

Neary: He is working at the level of leadership that we need to hire. I think he has strong experience supporting thousands of stakeholders across the entire state. There was something about his demeanor and style that would help NDE build confidence.

Morrison: He had a quote teaching is planning, engagement and feedback. I go back to when I meet with teachers. I don't know that we are seeking that feedback enough and are getting that enough. I think that's important.

Morrison: Communication, we have to have effective communication, and part of effective communication is listening. I think we're at a place in our state where we really need to engage in that feedback and understanding.

Morrison: He said there's the resume and things not on the resume, honesty, integrity and work ethic. Discernment is another asset.

Morrison: He talked about the fact his father emptied the trash cans at a school. He said you have to have people who know they aren't too big for their britches. I think someone who comes from humble beginnings will never forget where he came from.

Morrison: This is the biggest one for me. He said we asked about are there initiatives or innovations in education that you see? Are we making it too complex. Do we need to get it back to simplicity and what we do well.

Morrison: When I knocked on doors, people said can we just get back to the basics. I think he's someone who would do that.

Fricke: I was impressed with his demeanor in speaking with us. He was genuine and infused it with humor. He had me engaged from the beginning. He helped shape the Buffett Early Education Institute at UNL. When someone is honest enough to tell you about his failures, that matters.

Fricke: I think how you respond to failure is a valuable asset. His various experiences from Kearney to Johnson-Brock, he's been throughout the state. He was an adjunct prof at Concordia and he specialized in assessment, budgeting and school law.

Fricke: One of his whys is to provide opportunities to help teachers do what they do best, teach. Need to break down barriers to let teachers teach. Need to help students think, develop, achieve and become their best self.

Koch Johns: He said in his moments with us, we have to tell our story. I used that all through my teaching career. He said we are here for all schools, all students.

Gubbels: The things that stood out to me, in addition to what you've said, he indicated that our work is our work, working with him. He clearly shows that he respects the board. An example of that was Deb's comment that we know constituents in our area.

Gubbels: Those were really important in addition to the wealth and depth of his experiences.

Morrison moves to offer the ed commissioner position to Maher, seconded by Koch Johns.

Elizabeth Tegtmeier: This morning I've been sitting and listening and taking some notes. Selecting a commissioner is the ultimate job for us as board members, and I think we all feel it today. Last night I went to bed and I had no clear direction.

Tegtmeier: Woke up at 230a, decided I knew what direction I wanted to take. I hope you will humor me from my notes. All along we have been told to trust the process. I have done just that. I have worked with my fellow board members on personal and prof qualities we were seeking.

Tegtmeier: I trusted Patti when we said we wouldn't add a fourth candidate back in. All along we were told trust the process. Yesterday when I asked why all board members didn't receive the questions ahead of time, I was told, "We didn't want the questions getting out."

Tegtmeier: As one of eight board members, I couldn't be trusted with the process. We were handed a packet of questions. I find it interesting that this candidate is a long-time colleague of one of our consultants. Both affiliated with a company where Steve Joel is an adviser.

Tegtmeier: We didn't have any questions addressing our board priorities. We were told to trust the process but we were not trusted with the question. I didn't want an outside influence in our process. I was disappointed we let a consultant have this much influence.

Tegtmeier: We were told yesterday we needed to debrief with Steve Joel. I was worried our process would be compromised. My concern about protecting the integrity of the process was not heard. Many Nebraskans have contacted me and advocated for one candidate or another.

Tegtmeier: Today I have to go with my gut. "The integrity of the process has been compromised." I need to be able to walk back into my district of 44 counties and be able to justify our process. My constituents want open, transparent processes.

Tegtmeier: We need to hit pause on this process and shore up the integrity

Fricke: You asked why certain things weren't added to the questions. We were the ones who submitted the questions. If there were concerns, we had that opportunity. I turned in three or four questions.

Fricke: I did think of priority things I wanted to hear from each of our outstanding candidates. We had time to submit questions to our president.

Morrison: I don't want to go into all of those topics. When we looked at the list of candidates, we had an option to send 3-6. We decided on 4 rather than 5. If there was a fifth candidate that should've been sent, we would've sent that.

Morrison: If I had been asked, I would've said I didn't think they should've been sent originally, I didn't think they should've been sent after the one.

Tegtmeier: I was using that example to say that I was trusting the process.

Neary: One of the things I appreciate about you (Tegtmeier) is you listen and change your mind about things. I'm only saying these things because I want you to feel good about the process.

Neary: The people we worked with in the search firm, I hold those people in high regard. I felt very good about the integrity level about the process. People were given an opportunity to put questions in the mix. There was an obvious email campaign for one candidate.

Neary: I thought it was the right thing to do to not show us the questions until right before. I trust that Maher did not see the questions in advance. I think it just shows the quality of how well-prepared he was. That's just my personal feeling.

Neary: I really feel strongly that there was high integrity in this whole process.

Koch Johns: I appreciate your courage in what you're doing. I do know Steve Joel for over 20 years. You can't have been a superintendent in this state without knowing other superintendents.

Koch Johns: I trust completely his integrity. If you watched him during the process, you know he has integrity. Maher is a super-intelligent man, and he's seasoned. I think I could probably guess most of the questions as they were presented.

Koch Johns: I've dealt with him for many years, and I want to say I've seen no sign he hasn't had integrity.

Morrison: In that committee, I asked questions. I asked if we could change this and do that. I think I said yesterday that there were questions I did not like. I wanted them changed. But this was a question somebody wanted an answer to. I left me out and cared about this board.

Morrison: If there was a process to make this more transparent. I guess I'm taking this personally. To question the process questions me. And I know I worked to make the process transparent. There aren't a lot of people who want these jobs. The pool is going to be small.

Morrison: "If you look at what's going on in education, this is a hard job." I was also told because certain candidates in our pool had put their name in, other people made the decision to pull their names. That impacted the applicants that we go.

Morrison: I don't believe there was a problem with the process. I don't believe that this process was stacked.

Morrison: I think you see that the packet answered the question. I think we sometimes got the answer he wanted to give, regardless of the question.

Fricke: One of your concerns is actually a strength to me. I think because of his immense experience, not only in small and large places in Nebraska, but his leadership roles in two states and his ties to Nebraska and his expertise, he was able to address things that he knows… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Koch Johns: I had the same concern you did. But I looked at his headers. They were different. They were topics anybody in education would want to have answered. I don't see anything there that's suspicious about those questions.

Koch Johns: All through the process, Jacquelyn questioned everything that was at the least bit not acceptable, even down to words. This process, there was nothing that lacked integrity in the process at all.

Kirk Penner: I just want to back Elizabeth 100%. We got the questions yesterday morning. We were told a month ago to write a couple questions. But to not be able to ask the questions we have.

Penner: No. 1 issue in this state right now is teacher shortage and we weren't able to ask. I had to get approval from Steve Joel to approve the questions I wanted to ask. My problem was the interview process.

Penner: If we can't ask the questions my constituents want to know, then we miss the mark. To have to send and get approved questions is bizarre.

Fricke: We submitted the questions, and I was surprised that none of us included that question. We had 1 hour and 45 minutes and we had 19 questions.

Fricke: To add on to those questions, that meant we might not have been able to get to all of those questions, so we needed to follow what was there. We wanted every candidate to get to the 19th question in an hour and 45 when they'd be talking about their own experiences.

Morrison: I have had the pleasure to have worked for the government. We have to operate within the confines of fairness to candidates. We do it so all the candidates get asked the same questions. There are also legalities in what we can and cannot ask. We had to vet them.

Morrison: The other thing is fairness to other board members. If we had allowed people on the day of the interview to add other questions. If you had two, and I had two, how is Patti going to decide who gets to ask. There's a fairness to all that needs addressing.

Morrison: You can't usurp a process because you didn't like how things turned out. It doesn't mean that it wasn't fair. It may not have worked out in your favor that day. "The process worked."

Gubbels: If there is any additional discussion, I would ask that it stay with the motion.

Neary: One of the things that was important to me was how our stakeholder groups felt. I asked for a list of all the people in the stakeholder list who were interviewing the candidates. I wanted to know what they thought so I could reach out to people.

Neary: I was able to get their feedback. I felt very confident that the stakeholder groups involved, that their voices got heard. They're advocating for this person.

The board is about to vote on offering Brian Maher, executive director of the South Dakota Board of Regents, the job. Jones: no. Koch Johns: yes. Fricke: yes. Penner: no. Neary: yes. Tegtmeier: no. Morrison: yes. Gubbels: yes. Maher will be offered the job on a 5-3 vote.

The Ed Board is now going into exec session to discuss contract terms and other negotiations with Maher as the next state ed commissioner.

@threadreaderapp Please unroll.

@threadreaderapp OK. The board has approved letting its board president offer Maher the job. We are done for the day. Story to come on @NE_Examiner. Thanks for following along. (And apologies to anyone who had notifications set.)