Kansas State Board forms three-member subcommittee to start RFP for next Education Commissioner

The Kansas State Board of Education on Sept. 25, 2025 voted to appoint a three-member temporary subcommittee to begin the request-for-proposal (RFP) procurement process for a search firm to assist in hiring a new Commissioner of Education after Commissioner Randy Watson announced his retirement.

Chair Kathy Hopkins (District 5) opened the special meeting and said the session’s purpose was to begin the search process. Hopkins nominated herself, the vice chair and Board Member Michelle Dombrowski for the three-person subcommittee and asked the board to vote to suspend the rules so action could be taken during the special meeting. The board voted to suspend the rules and then voted to approve the nominated subcommittee; Chair Hopkins emphasized that the subcommittee’s role is limited to conducting the RFP steps and that any selection of a search firm or final decisions will be made by the full board.

John, a procurement official from the Office of Procurement and Contracts, told the board that state procurement procedures apply to vendor contracts above a roughly $25,000 threshold and described the standard RFP workflow: drafting specifications, accepting technical proposals, reviewing technical proposals first, then opening cost proposals, and returning a recommendation for board approval. John said typical public posting windows are 30, 60 or 90 days and estimated a best-case timeline with a contract executed in November and a more conservative timeline extending to January or February, depending on vendor questions and review time.

Board members debated two procedural points: whether the board should explicitly commit up front to hiring an external search firm and whether a small appointed committee is the right way to manage the RFP process. Melanie Haas (District 2) argued the board should be willing to spend for a quality search firm to avoid an expensive, unsuccessful hire later, saying, “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.” Other members warned against allowing a subcommittee to make decisions without keeping the full board informed; Chair Hopkins and supporters said the subcommittee would only run the mechanics of the RFP and would return all substantive recommendations to the board.

The board also discussed what qualifications and scope to include in the RFP. John advised that any qualifications included in the posted RFP are the only criteria on which bidders can be judged, so the board or its subcommittee should carefully craft specifications to reflect whether it wants firms that specialize in national commissioner searches or a broader executive search capability.

Hopkins said subcommittee meetings will be publicly posted and encouraged full transparency. The board scheduled a follow-up special meeting for Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. to continue the process. The motion to form the subcommittee was recorded as passed in the meeting transcript.