Posted February 26, 2010

The WSSDA Board of Directors held a special meeting February 20 to continue work on the search process for a new association executive director. As a result of that work, the position is expected to be advertised for applications in early March.

Most of the meeting was devoted to reviewing and prioritizing the results of stakeholder interviews and a membership Web survey conducted by the association’s executive search consultants, Hagel and Company. Discussions centered on board consensus around a) WSSDA’s accomplishments, strengths, challenges and opportunities and b) key attributes, experience and critical success factors for the new executive director. The consultants are using the results of the board’s input to finalize the executive director position profile and move forward to advertise the position.

“The WSSDA Executive Director Search Committee wishes to thank those who have provided input into the process so far and would like to remind members that this process will remain as open and transparent as possible,” said WSSDA Immediate Past President Martha Rice (Yakima), who chairs the search committee.

Additional information about the executive director search is available here. If you have questions about the search process, contact Martha Rice or any member of the search committee.

In other news from the board’s Feb. 20 special meeting:

• There was agreement with a proposal from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to have the WSSDA Board of Directors make appointments to fill vacancies that occur in any the five positions on the State Board of Education that are elected by school directors (the appointment would be for the remainder of the unexpired term). The board was not in favor of a separate proposal to declare an SBE candidate the winner if he or she was unopposed for election, with concerns expressed that it would preclude the possibility of a write-in candidacy and could also disconnect school directors from selecting SBE members. Responding to OSPI concerns about the costs of running a single-candidate election, the board encouraged OSPI to explore the potential for conducting SBE elections online.

• The board agreed to begin work earlier on strategic planning, which means the association’s triennial membership survey will be occurring sooner this year. Watch for details in upcoming issues of this newsletter.

The next regular meeting of the WSSDA Board of Directors is scheduled for April 23-24 at the Silver Cloud Inn at Lake Union, 1150 Fairview Avenue North, Seattle. School directors are welcome and encouraged to attend WSSDA board meetings.

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