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Hopkins board to request proposals for superintendent search firms, debates RFP and community role
Summary
After Superintendent Mary Pirie Reid announced she will not seek contract renewal, the Hopkins School Board agreed to request proposals from four search firms and discussed whether to issue a formal RFP, create an executive committee to draft firm‑selection criteria and include community input and training in the process.
Chair Shannon Andresen opened the meeting by telling the board Dr. Mary Pirie Reid has notified the district she will not seek renewal of her contract and that the board must begin a superintendent search.
Board members reviewed four local search firms under consideration — MSBA's executive search, HYA, School Exec Connect (the firm that recruited the current superintendent), and Ray & Associates — and shared informal feedback about each. The chair summarized recommendations he had gathered: “Everyone has recommended that we hire a search firm,” and said hiring a firm would avoid placing the full operational burden on district staff.
The board debated how to select a firm. The chair presented four procedural options: issue a formal RFP and interview; request proposals without an RFP and interview; select firms to interview without proposals; or hire based on recommendation. Some members favored a formal RFP for clarity and competitiveness; others preferred requesting proposals without an RFP to reduce administrative workload. Director Andreessen urged the RFP option as a way to better assess firms’ approaches and cultural responsiveness in past searches, saying it offers “multiple opportunities to really understand the expertise of the organization.”
To keep the process moving, the board settled on asking for proposals from all four firms and planning interviews at the board’s January meeting. To refine selection criteria without calling multiple special meetings, the chair proposed appointing a small executive committee to draft criteria for choosing a search firm — not to choose a superintendent — and then have the full board use those criteria in interviews. Members flagged open‑meeting law constraints on private serial conversations and agreed any feedback from individual board members would need to be collected in a public forum or via formal comment to the committee.
The board also agreed to schedule two kinds of training as part of the search timeline: an MSBA in‑district workshop on “Hiring the Right Superintendent” and an equitable‑hiring practicum (the latter offered through a neighboring district’s director of equity). The chair said the district hopes to start recruiting in February so finalists can be interviewed in the spring and, ideally, overlap with the current superintendent before her contract ends June 30.
Next steps the board endorsed are: request proposals from the four firms, organize interviews at the January meeting, schedule the MSBA workshop in January, and clarify how community input will be gathered later in the superintendent selection process.
