Seattle school board holds three-hour interviews with superintendent search firms; board to submit scores for April 23 selection

The Seattle School District No. 1 Board of Directors held a special virtual meeting to interview three executive search firms — Ray and Associates, McPherson & Jacobson, and HYA — as part of the district’s superintendent search process. President Top opened the April special meeting and said, “This special meeting tonight though, is to conduct interviews of 3 executive search firms.”

The presentations and director Q&A focused on each firm’s proposed timeline, plans for community engagement and stakeholder surveys, candidate recruitment and vetting methods, retention guarantees, and costs. The board set a submission deadline for interview scoring sheets: directors must send completed scores to the board office by April 22 for tabulation and review at the board’s April 23 meeting; the board will select a firm for formal action at the regular April 23 meeting.

Why it matters: the board is hiring a firm to run the search and recruit the next superintendent for Seattle Public Schools, a process the firms said requires extensive stakeholder outreach, confidentiality for candidates until finalists are named, and active national recruitment to build a diverse candidate pool.

Ray and Associates (presentation led by Steve Chestnut and Libra Ford) emphasized deep stakeholder listening, a five-stage process (board input; community engagement and profile development; recruitment; candidate pool development; candidate selection), and use of structured tools including a…