State school board forms three‑member subcommittee to start RFP for commissioner search

The Kansas State Board of Education on Sept. 25 voted to form a three‑member subcommittee to begin the state RFP process through the Department of Administration so the board can consider hiring an executive search firm to guide the selection of a new commissioner of education following Dr. Watson’s retirement announcement.

Board Chair Kathy Hopkins (District 5) opened the meeting and said the session’s purpose was the start of the search process. Hopkins nominated herself, Vice Chair Danny Zek and Board Member Michelle Dombrowski as the three members of the temporary subcommittee; the full board voted to approve the subcommittee.

Board members broadly said they favored using an executive search firm to conduct a broad and fair recruitment, but several members stressed the board must set clear priorities and retain final decision authority. "The money that we will spend to hire that firm is going to be critical to making sure that we have a positive outcome in this process," District 2 member Melanie Haas said, urging the board not to skimp on the search.

Procurement staff from the Department of Administration told the board the RFP is a publicly posted, competitive process and does not obligate the board to hire a vendor. Department staff said state procurement rules require formal bidding for vendor contracts above a specified threshold — cited at $25,000 per vendor per fiscal year — and described the typical timeline and steps: drafting specifications that describe the work the search firm would perform, posting the solicitation on the state procurement website, receiving and evaluating technical proposals first, then considering cost proposals, and returning a recommendation to the board and the Department of Education for contract execution.

Staff said bid postings are typically open for 30–90 days but the Office of Procurement and Contracts indicated it could use the shorter end of that range to meet the board’s timing goals. Procurement staff gave a best‑case schedule that could allow a contract to be executed in November and a more conservative estimate that a contract might not be in place until January or later, depending on questions from bidders and other schedule factors.

Board discussion touched on whether to limit searches to candidates with previous education leadership experience or to broaden the pool to include CEOs and executives from outside education. Vice Chair Zek and others said they favored a broader search that could include candidates with strong management and efficiency experience in addition to education experience. Several members asked that any RFP include explicit qualifications so the board can evaluate bidders on the published criteria.

On procedure, board attorney Mark Ferguson recommended formally suspending the rules to take action at this special meeting. The board first voted to suspend the rules to allow same‑meeting action on the subcommittee formation. The board also approved the agenda earlier in the meeting.

The board set the three‑member subcommittee (Chair Hopkins, Vice Chair Zek and Michelle Dombrowski) to conduct the RFP work and report back to the full board. The chair said subcommittee meetings will be open to the public and posted in advance and that the full board will make all final decisions about the selection of any search firm and about hiring a commissioner.

The board scheduled its next special meeting for Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. and said it will notify members and post any subcommittee meeting dates for public attendance.

Votes at a glance: the board approved the meeting agenda (yes 8, no 1, abstain 0); it voted to suspend the rules to take action at the special meeting (yes 7, no 1, abstain/present not voting 1); and it approved the nominated three‑member subcommittee to begin the RFP process (yes 6, no 3).