BOE hires firm to identify candidates for the superintendent job that works on higher education leadership appointments

[Anonymous]

Here is the story on the search firm hired by the BOE to identify superintendent candidates. The contract was expedited and utilizes a contract vehicle already active with the county: https://moco360.media/2024/04/02/school-board-hires-florida-firm-for-national-superintendent-search/

Greenwood Asher & Associates appears to work in higher education exclusively. No school district hirings are featured on its website.
Among the firm's featured appointments is Montgomery College's hiring of Michelle Campbell in 2023 as the new senior VP for advancement and community engagement. https://greenwoodsearch.com/featured-appointments/

Here is more on Campbell: https://www.montgomerycollege.edu/news/press-releases/2023-5-31-montgomery-college-welcomes-new-senior-vice-president-for-advancement-and-community-engagement.html

Campbell appears to be BOE president Karla Silvestre's supervisor, so I guess that is the connection to the firm.

Hope this works out.

[Anonymous]

I'm pleasantly surprised they didn't use HYA again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pleasantly surprised they didn't use HYA again.

Me too. This seems like a good thing. Using a different vendor me yield a better outcome, and I'm not really bothered by that fact that they typically focus on higher education given how different MCPS is from most other K through 12 districts.

I'm also someone who has criticized the BOE pretty vociferously on this board, but one of the current board members working in education with someone who was hired through a search run by this firm in the past does not feel like a conflict of interest to me despite what the OP is suggesting.

Basically, this feels good, or at least better, and I'm not going to throw stones at what at least appears to be an attempt at transparency and change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm pleasantly surprised they didn't use HYA again.

Me too. This seems like a good thing. Using a different vendor me yield a better outcome, and I'm not really bothered by that fact that they typically focus on higher education given how different MCPS is from most other K through 12 districts.

I'm also someone who has criticized the BOE pretty vociferously on this board, but one of the current board members working in education with someone who was hired through a search run by this firm in the past does not feel like a conflict of interest to me despite what the OP is suggesting.

Basically, this feels good, or at least better, and I'm not going to throw stones at what at least appears to be an attempt at transparency and change.

+1

[Anonymous]

This is great news. Appreciate your posting it, OP, as I had missed it.

[Anonymous]

Why even bother with this when they're just going to give the job to Felder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why even bother with this when they're just going to give the job to Felder?

This is a signal that they are not planning to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm pleasantly surprised they didn't use HYA again.

Me too. This seems like a good thing. Using a different vendor me yield a better outcome, and I'm not really bothered by that fact that they typically focus on higher education given how different MCPS is from most other K through 12 districts.

I'm also someone who has criticized the BOE pretty vociferously on this board, but one of the current board members working in education with someone who was hired through a search run by this firm in the past does not feel like a conflict of interest to me despite what the OP is suggesting.

Basically, this feels good, or at least better, and I'm not going to throw stones at what at least appears to be an attempt at transparency and change.

What about this was transparent? They did a behind closed doors selection instead of an open, public RFP process.

Oh, you are just the smob posting here. You are clueless as to what an open, public procurement process would actually look like. Enjoy your college scholarship.

[Anonymous]

These search forms are political and obsolete. We have the Internet now. Board should put out an open call, and evaluate applicants. They shouldn't outsource the most important task to a non local third party business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These search forms are political and obsolete. We have the Internet now. Board should put out an open call, and evaluate applicants. They shouldn't outsource the most important task to a non local third party business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These search forms are political and obsolete. We have the Internet now. Board should put out an open call, and evaluate applicants. They shouldn't outsource the most important task to a non local third party business.

😬 same

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These search forms are political and obsolete. We have the Internet now. Board should put out an open call, and evaluate applicants. They shouldn't outsource the most important task to a non local third party business.

I guess Indeed would cast a wider net. Might not be a better net.

[Anonymous]

There are people who are going to complain about everything, either because they are just disillusioned, or because it reinforces their priors, or because it is politically advantageous to undermine faith in public education.

I'd encourage my fellow parents to resist those voices. If Central Office or BoE messes up, call them on it. But if they do something good, let's not just fall into cynical patterns because it's fun to be snarky on the internet.

This is our kids' education we are talking about - and if the BoE has decided to take more responsibility and break out of old, bad, passive, patterns, that's good.

[Anonymous]

More money wasted. They have staff at mcps to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why even bother with this when they're just going to give the job to Felder?

This is a signal that they are not planning to do that.

They did this for Monifa too. It's just pretense.