Board selects CESA 7 to lead superintendent search after two consultant presentations

The Green Bay Area School District Board of Education voted 6–1 on Sept. 8 to hire Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 7 to manage the district’s superintendent search. The board considered two responses to its request for proposals — from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) and CESA 7 — and heard 30‑minute presentations followed by board questions.

Why it matters: the search will determine the district’s next chief executive and leader for policy and operations. Board members said they wanted a process that produced a broad pool of qualified candidates while preserving the board’s authority to make the final hire.

WASB presentation: Ben Niehaus, identified in the meeting as director of member services for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, and Patty Vickman, a WASB search consultant and former superintendent, described a standard WASB process that emphasizes wide marketing, a planning meeting to set the leadership profile, and transparency through a Revelus portal that makes all application materials available to board members as soon as the posting closes. Niehaus said WASB distributes vacancy notices to a portal of roughly 600 applicants and syndicates postings through a national consortium of state school board associations and the American Association of School Administrators.

WASB told the board it does not proactively recruit sitting superintendents who are members of its organization but will post broadly; the firm also said it uses a third‑party vendor, Absolute Background, for background checks. Patty Vickman said WASB provides a transition meeting and a complimentary one‑year subscription to a new superintendent evaluation process as part of its package. WASB’s “not to exceed” price for the proposed engagement was stated in the meeting as $24,005.50.

CESA 7 presentation: Aaron Malcheski, agency administrator for CESA 7, said his organization would present a locally grounded process that leverages CESA’s regional networks, a dedicated recruitment website, community summits, dashboarded survey results, an applicant‑at‑a‑glance packet for quick review and a prescreening option to help the board narrow a large applicant pool. Malcheski said CESA 7 has recently run searches exclusively in Wisconsin and highlighted the agency’s capacity to staff and scale outreach and interview logistics for the district. He quoted an all‑inclusive price of $14,050.

Board discussion and decision: Board members asked about applicant pool size, how many focus groups are included, whether sitting superintendents would be contacted and how background checks and internet/social media checks would be handled. WASB said it “does not go out and recruit individuals from our member districts” but will market broadly; it also said roughly 20 applicants per search was typical pre‑pandemic and that recent searches had rebounded to about 11–12 applicants on average, with significant regional variation. CESA 7 said it would actively recruit sitting superintendents when appropriate and that it had recently reached 20+ applicants for some quick searches.

After a short break and a roundtable of board member views, Lynn moved that the board contract with CESA 7; the motion carried on an electronic vote, 6–1. The clerk read the recorded individual votes: Becker — yes; McCoy — yes; Lyerly — yes; Gerlach — yes; Minow — yes; Canell — yes; Meister — no. The board’s motion directs staff to proceed with final contracting and next steps with CESA 7.

What the contract covers and limits: Both respondents said their role is to facilitate the search; the board retains authority to select and hire the superintendent. Both firms offered vetting and background check approaches; WASB described use of Absolute Background and encouraged board members to conduct reference checks themselves, while CESA 7 described multi‑tiered vetting (preliminary internet searches, reference checks before second‑round interviews and full background checks on finalists).

Next steps: The board said it expects a planning meeting to establish the leadership profile, scope stakeholder engagement (surveys and focus groups), set a posting period and set interview formats. The timeline presented by WASB and CESA 7 suggested a typical window of three to five months from planning meeting to hire, but the board will finalize dates to fit local schedules.

Speakers quoted in this article are those appearing in the meeting record and identified by name and role in this writeup.