Decatur school board releases superintendent timeline | Education

This story will be updated. 

In an apparent response to criticism about the process by which it selected a new superintendent, the Decatur Board of Education on Friday released a timeline of the search process. 

The school board voted 6-1 on Tuesday to hire Rochelle Clark, who had been assistant superintendent of support services. Some public comments at the meeting criticized the hiring process, and board member Kevin Collins-Brown had sought to table the vote until his reservations were addressed. 

Clark was not one of the two finalists brought forward by Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the firm hired last year to conduct the search to replace former Superintendent Paul Fregeau. 

The candidates had appeared in online forums on Jan. 5. One of those candidates, Michael Gaal, later dropped out of contention after he discovered he could not obtain a superintendent’s certificate in Illlinois. Board President Dan Oakes said the other candidate, Malika Savoy-Brooks, had indicated she wanted the board’s unanimous support, which she was “not in a position to get.” 

Clark was interviewed for the superintendent’s position by the board in a closed session on Jan. 31. 

The timeline distributed by the school district appears verbatim below.

Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA) presented to the Board, outlining its Superintendent search process.

Board approved contract for Superintendent Search Firm and Letter of Agreement between HYA and DPS in the amount of $24,950. The consulting fee was payable in three installments:

• 50% invoiced upon execution of the agreement

• 25% invoiced upon presentation of the candidate slate

• 25% upon appointment of a Superintendent

Board received an introduction letter from HYA discussing the groups to be interviewed to create the Superintendent Leadership Profile. These groups would be interviewed by HYA staff, and included one-on-one meetings with Board members and District leadership, as well as meetings with focus groups, union leadership, and selected community leaders.

HYA conducted focus group interviews and meetings to develop the Superintendent Leadership Profile, gathering 1,089 responses in total from the following stakeholder groups:

• 264 teachers and certificated staff members

• 120 support staff members

• 168 taxpayers without children currently in school

• 873 individual written comments

HYA presented the Superintendent Leadership Profile to the Board, used to determine the desired professional and personal characteristics, skills, and relevant experience desired in the next Superintendent. This profile is based on the community and staff feedback received during focus group interviews and surveys.

HYA posted the open Superintendent position nationally and solicited resumes until October 24, 2021, at which time HYA closed its application period. The District did not have an established closing date for applications for the Superintendent position until a final candidate was selected.

HYA reviewed and screened all submitted applications — candidates were selected and sent to the Board for discussion with HYA. Interviews were scheduled with finalists, resulting in the Board selecting its top two candidates.

HYA hosted a virtual community forum for the top two candidates.

Following the virtual forum, HYA advised the Board that candidate Michael Gaal could not obtain certification in the State of Illinois. As a result of the irregularities in the Superintendent search and the inconclusive outcome of the public forum, the majority of the Board did not feel they could move forward with Dr. Savoy-Brooks as a clear choice from either the Board or the community. Shortly after these findings, follow up phone calls were made to the top two candidates.

The final 25% installment was not paid to HYA.

The Board had a consensus to reach out to and engage the Illinois Association of School Boards to assist with the Superintendent search, but ultimately did not need to do that because another internal candidate expressed interest in the position. Board members had a discussion in a closed session meeting regarding the internal candidate; however, no formal job posting was made. The consensus from the Board was to proceed with an interview of the internal candidate.

The resume of the internal candidate was shared with Board members.

Board interviewed Dr. Rochelle Clark during a Special Board of Education closed session meeting.

Board voted in an open session meeting to appoint Dr. Rochelle Clark as the new Superintendent of Decatur Public Schools.