The Beaverton School Board voted unanimously Sept. 26 to hire Human Capital Enterprises to lead the district's superintendent search.

Carrie Delph, presenting the superintendent search committee's evaluation, said the committee reviewed proposals, board interview feedback and ranked preferences and concluded that "Human Capital Enterprises had the highest scoring." The committee's averaged proposal score placed Human Capital Enterprises first (91.7 out of 100); the board interview tally (out of 34 possible points) averaged 28.4 for Human Capital Enterprises, ahead of McPherson and Jacobson (25.5) and Ray and Associates (23.4). Ranked-preference scoring also put Human Capital Enterprises in the lead, with 12.5 points to McPherson and Jacobson's 5.5 and Ray and Associates' 3.

Board member Karen moved that the board "select Human Capital Enterprise, to provide executive search services to assist the district in the recruitment and selection of its next superintendent, subject to negotiations and execution of contract terms acceptable to the district." A board colleague seconded the motion and the presiding official recorded a 7-0 vote in favor.

Why it matters: the selection starts the formal superintendent search process. The district will negotiate a contract with the chosen firm and the search committee plans an initial meeting with the consultant to outline next steps.

What the board said: Delph told the board that the committee considered three quantitative measuresproposal scores, board interview feedback and ranked preferencesand that Human Capital Enterprises led across all three. On public access and timing, Delph said interviewing search firms is a public process but interviewing actual superintendent candidates is confidential and handled in executive session "until the point where the board is coming out with a finalist's names to present to the community." She also told the board that "Any contract is public information."

Contract process and oversight: Delph said staff will reach out to the selected firm to begin contract negotiations and aims to have a contract in place within days to a week; she noted that the board normally authorizes expenditures above $250,000 and does not typically approve line-item contract details, although contracts are public records and will be provided to the board when available.

Next steps: the committee will meet with the firm to plan the search, and the board is scheduled to receive an update on the superintendent search at its Oct. 14 regular meeting.

Action taken: motion to select Human Capital Enterprise as the district's executive search firm, motion passed 7-0.