Minneapolis school board likely won't fill superintendent job until 2024

Minneapolis families and community members have a chance to weigh in this week on what they want in their next school district superintendent, who likely now won't be hired before next school year.

The school board's superintendent search committee voted Tuesday to delay the search for a new district leader until the fall of 2023, saying the added time allows for more community input.

That decision, opposed by Board Members Lori Norvell, Kim Ellison and Collin Beachy, came as an amendment to a resolution to hire the executive firm BWP & Associates to lead the superintendent search for no more than $40,000. Board Member Abdul Abdi, who voted in favor of the amendment, later opposed the amended resolution.

BWP won't start its search efforts until next September, the board decided.

The board will vote in February to extend Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox's position. Cox was not at Tuesday's meeting, but Board Chair Sharon El-Amin said Cox had agreed to the extension if that's what the board decided.

Norvell and Beachy pushed back against the delay, saying the current board was tasked with finding a superintendent for this year.

"I don't want to stay in limbo again," Beachy said. "I'm not comfortable in slowing down."

Despite the change in the timeline, the district will host the rest of a dozen listening sessions through Saturday that will inform its pick for its next leader.

A survey asking what community members, staff and students want the next district leader to focus on is also open until Jan. 23.

The feedback will be presented to BWP to inform the superintendent search. Both the survey and the input sessions focus on elements of the district's strategic plan and ask participants where they want the new superintendent to focus. Possible topics include academics, student well-being and overall school climate and culture.

That approach differs from the one taken to aid in the district's 2016 superintendent search, said Radious Guess, managing partner of EPU Consultants, the company that led the community input effort back then and is doing the same this time.

In 2016, the listening sessions focused more on the leadership and personality qualities of the leader the community wanted.

"This year is really about the strategic priorities," Guess said. "The board only hires one person — the superintendent — so they want authentic engagement to hold themselves accountable to constituents."

Still, gathering such authentic feedback can be difficult, said Greg King, a parent who attended the Washburn listening session last week. Some parts of the strategic plan that were up for discussion included terms or details King and other parents weren't familiar with.

"If we want the district to do better, we have to be part of these events," he said. "But the structure can make it hard to give that true feedback."

Guess noted two other challenges, too: the weather and a tight timeframe.

"I do wish we'd started this in the summer," she said. "It's hard to do this work in the winter and get good attendance."

The first input session drew only a handful of board members and just one parent. The second one — at Washburn — had about two dozen attendees.

But more than 4,000 people have filled out the online survey, Guess said.

The board members who supported delaying the search said they want to hear from more families.

"I do not feel like we have yet figured out how to engage our community in the way that the community deserves to be engaged for a decision with this scope and level of importance," said Board Member Sonya Emerick before voting to push the superintendent search into next school year.

Upcoming community listening sessions