Trustees, city outline timeline and public listening sessions for library director search
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Summary
The trustees reviewed the library director hiring process with city HR: 19 applicants were received, HR will screen candidates and the board will participate in interview panels; the board agreed to hold addtional public listening outreach before final interviews.
The South Burlington Library Board of Trustees reviewed the library director search process and set plans for interview panels and additional public outreach as part of a collaboration with city Human Resources. The board reported 19 expressions of interest for the director position; city HR will conduct an initial screening to reduce that pool — board members said the target is to narrow to about seven candidates for the first wave. "At that point, there will be a first wave of interviews for those candidates," the board stated; two trustee positions will join HR and other city representatives on the first-wave panels, and the city manager and board chair will sit on the final round. Trustees outlined a tentative timeline: the first-wave interviews are targeted for the first 10 days of August, with a second-round in late August to early September and a hoped-for hire in early September, subject to the city's offer-negotiation timeline (the meeting record noted a closing date on the 16th). The board also said it hopes to secure two weeks of overlap between outgoing director Jennifer and the new hire, but that schedule may be affected by holidays. The board discussed access and equity measures for the interview process. Donna (last name not specified), a trustee referenced in the discussion, had raised a concern that holding some interviews in person and others by videoconference could disadvantage candidates; trustees said the first round will likely be virtual to ensure consistency. "I think the first wave the intention is for the process to be virtual in the first wave," a board representative said. Trustees also agreed to hold an additional public listening session to gather community input; the board discussed options for virtual, in-person or hybrid formats and decided to hold an outreach session during the week of Aug. 20 (board members later settled on the evening of Aug. 29 at 5:30 p.m. for the special listening session). The board asked communications and friends/foundation partners to help advertise the session widely through city news, library channels and local papers.