The Washoe County School District Board of Trustees met Tuesday to discuss and possibly take action regarding the process for selecting the next superintendent. They shared plans on the process of selecting a new superintendent, since the current Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield, leaves on February 9th.
The firm who assisted in the search for Dr. Susan Enfield had a clause in their proposal showing if Dr. Enfield left the position for any reason other than illness or death within two years of signing her contract, The Bryan Group would conduct a second search charging only for expenses.
Some of the members on the board said going with The Bryan Group would save them thousands of dollars.
“It seems to me indisputable that The Bryan Group should be the one for free, other than expenses, to conduct the research to save us…$100,000," Trustee Jeff Church said.
But the Board also mentioned they may want a fuller experience or service with another group with a different professional level.
Some who spoke during public comment said they weren't satisfied with the hiring of the last superintendent, regardless of what company the board used to hire them.
“If you didn’t want to use that same company that’s fine, then why wouldn’t someone talk to that company behind the scenes and say, 'we’re either going to go public with it or we need some degree of a refund on what we paid you to give us someone that didn’t fulfill what you say they had to do' and do it over,”
Some other public commenters think the board should get a refund from The Bryan Group to find another superintendent.
“Who made the decision to exclude the Bryan Group? Is what I think we should all know... in previous superintendent searches here at WCSD I made the request the board pass on the $100,000 search for her and use the professionals in the district to perform the search," one person said.
Some other members on the board agree local professionals should be used.
“The last five searches... and I’ve only been part of this current one, but I paid attention to the past ones and the current one and it was a lot of work, it was hardy worthy work and I don’t want to make the same mistake we did on the last five searches," Trustee Diane Nicolet said.
In the end, a motion passed to conduct a national search for the next superintendent of schools for the WCSD, they also hired the group McPherson and Jacobsen to lead the search at a cost up to $100,000. Both motions passed in a five to two decision.
