By Margaret Hopper

In a special meeting of the Silver District school board, all five members were present Monday for a 6:00 p.m. gathering. Frances Vasquez, Mike McMillan, Chris Arvidson, Tony Egan and president Arnold Torres, sat in a Skype interactive session with Dan Patterson of the New Mexico School Board Association.

The purpose of that meeting was to review how Patterson could help them initiate a superintendent search, and learn what the conditions and expenses would be. The board had previously looked up a number of search groups, and this in-state offering appeared to be both effective and economical, according to John Carter, acting superintendent. So they had scheduled the Skype session for July 11.

Torres opened the meeting officially at 6:02, but it took a few minutes for Ben Potts, Silver's technology director, to get the parties together; that was actually working correctly at about 6:17.

As the board members had already read a general report Patterson had sent them earlier, Patterson then told them a number of steps they must take to get the search going. They needed to set up a timeline for their activities, select the major qualifications they would use in the selection process, develop the profiles, waivers, background checks, committees and other tools they would soon need, then the advertising process could begin.

The board members would likely form one committee. Another committee or two would be developed, possibly staff representatives from elementary, middle and high school areas, along with non-teacher supporting staff, categories such as that. They had some choices as to how these committees would support their efforts. The board itself would have to make decisions about the committees it would set.

He made it plain that these committees could assist and recommend, but in no way would they make decisions; that was board work. That was important. There would be scoring/rating procedures for each individual to apply to applicants well before any discussions could begin. Also, they needed to assure that no one would dominate the process; the committees were to represent and reflect the wishes of many others.

The end result, according to Patterson, would be for the committees to help the board to reach consensus on a few candidates who could then be further vetted and, hopefully, a selection could be made in due time.

If they knew of qualified persons to be included in the application process, they could encourage them to apply, as well as receive those attracted by the advertising process. There was a lot to consider, it would take time to do it.

All the Skype conversations centered on possibilities; Patterson, as a consultant, would help the board set its own boundaries and agendas; nothing discussed so far would be binding. It was a process he would help with, if they chose this in-state group to lead their search. He continued to answer their questions and say how the board could be helped as it went through the steps.

At the end of the interactive presentation, the board went into executive session to discuss that and some limited personnel issues on their agenda. At the end of the session, 8:42 p.m., the board came out and reopened the regular session, stating that no decisions had been made during the closed period.

Back in the open session, the motion was made to accept this proposal from the school board association with Dan Patterson as coordinator. That motion passed unanimously. This would allow the board to begin setting up training times with Patterson. As the work progresses, they would then open up the search activities and start the process formally.

The meeting adjourned at 8:47. The next meeting is scheduled for July 19, at the usual meeting time of 6:00, at the board room in the administration building. More information should be available at that time on the progress of the search.