Consultants report broad outreach in Beaverton superintendent search; survey translated into 10 languages

Consultants overseeing Beaverton School DistrictSD 48Jsuperintendent search told the board at a Nov. 4 work session they have launched community engagement that includes dozens of focus groups, targeted outreach to multilingual families and a district-wide survey translated into multiple languages.

The consultants said the survey was launched the day before the meeting and has been translated into 10 other languages besides English; they are monitoring responses and will follow up by phone through multilingual staff if needed. "We have translated the survey into 10 other languages other than English," the presenter said. They also said hundreds of people signed up for focus groups and that consultants drew lotteries (pulling eight names per slot) to reach average group sizes of six to seven participants.

The consultants described the timeline and next steps: focus groups are scheduled through Nov. 19 so the student group can be included, the survey will close at 5:00 p.m. on Nov. 17, and a presentation with participant counts, demographic breakdowns and draft superintendent criteria is expected in early December. "We'll be able to say we've done 27 focus groups and this number of participants," the presenter said, and they added that consultants will synthesize themes and prepare a draft criteria document for the board's review.

Board members asked about access to materials and whether anonymized raw survey responses could be provided. Consultants said anonymized, redacted raw responses can be produced on request but would require additional contract work because redaction is time-consuming. They also noted the firm will protect confidentiality and that Human Capital Enterprises will maintain the original data; analysis and reported themes will not include personally identifiable information.

The search team also presented an advertising proposal recommended by the superintendent-search subcommittee aimed at broad outreach to potential candidates. The consultants said the district e-blast reaches roughly 40,000 recipients and that several external listings are recommended; three of the listed external outlets would be no-cost. Board members pressed whether specific affinity groups were reachable through job boards; the consultants said some groups lack formal job boards and they are continuing outreach to maximize diversity of applicants.

Next steps: consultants will continue focus groups, monitor survey-language completion, and prepare a December presentation that will include themes, participant counts and draft superintendent criteria for board consideration. The board thanked the search team and the superintendent-search subcommittee for their work.