Updated Sunday, July 7.
The final sprint in the hunt for the next superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system starts at 9 a.m. Monday and does not end until a final vote Thursday night.
In between, a whirlwind series of interviews, visits, meals and meetings are on tap. Originally, there were three finalists set to participate, but that changed Saturday morning when Krish Mohip, a chief education officer for the Illinois State Board of Education, withdrew his name after informing school officials he'd taken another job.
Mohip's exit shrinks the field to two finalists, one a Louisiana native and another who has made her name in other states:
- Kevin George, director of the LSU Lab School in Baton Rouge.
- Andrea Zayas, former chief academic officer of Boston Public Schools.
Not participating will be interim Superintendent Adam Smith, who failed to make the round of finalists when they were selected last week.
A fresh schedule for the week was released publicly Saturday, hours after Mohip's exit.
The two remaining finalists will start Monday morning with private breakfasts at different restaurants. This is the first of several scheduled private meals with finalists. Board members and unnamed "invited guests" will join the finalists. To avoid triggering a legal quorum, no more than four of the nine board members are attending any one meal.
After breakfast, the finalists head to the district’s Professional Development Center, or PDC, at 3000 N. Sherwood Forest Drive for a busy set of activities, stretching from 10:30 a.m. to 7:40 p.m.
The events at the PDC on Monday are all open to the public. Attendees will be able to use a QR code to provide feedback via an online survey.
Three panels will convene from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will interview the finalists for 75 minutes each. There will be a one-hour lunch break. Mohip's exit means that only two of these three panels will be meeting at any given time.
The sessions will use several meeting rooms at the PDC. A panel with principals and teachers will be in Room A. A second panel with business leaders will be in Room B. And a third panel with community leaders will be in Room C.
“The panels will stay in the same room,” said Christel Slaughter, CEO of SSA Consultants, the board-hired search firm. “The candidates will move.”
Slaughter said SSA has prepared a few “core” questions to help kick things off, but the panelists will have a chance to ask their own questions, and time for audience questions will be set aside at the end.
The panelists were selected based on the suggestion of board members. There were 69 panelists in all as of Sunday. Board members Dadrius Lanus and Shashonnie Steward opted not to submit names.
After those panels conclude, there will be a “community meet and greet” from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. when members of the public can meet one or all of the finalists. In this case, the candidates will camp out in separate meeting rooms.
After the meet-and-greet, starting at 5:30 p.m., a panel of parents, also recommended by school board members, will hold two successive 60-minute sessions to interview with George then Zayas. There will be a 10-minute break in between.
While open to the public, Monday’s panel interviews won’t be recorded or livestreamed by the school system, but members of the public may chose to do so. For instance, parent Tonja McMillan posted Saturday that she will be streaming interviews on her Suite Tea Facebook page.
At 8 p.m., this long Monday will end with private dinners for each finalist at separate local restaurants.
Tuesday will also be busy.
After another series of private breakfasts, the finalists will finish the morning visiting three district schools: Baton Rouge Magnet High, Southeast Middle and Park Elementary. The candidates will visit the schools separately, each accompanied by a district representative and an SSA staffer.
After lunch, the finalists will head to the School Board Office at 1050 S. Foster Drive for formal, public interviews conducted by the nine board members.
The board will hold a special meeting starting at 4 p.m. Finalist interviews will last from 4:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The board will interview George and then Zayas. The interviews will be 90 minutes in length with a 15-minute break in between. A planned 2:30 p.m. interview with Mohip has been canceled.
Each board member will be assigned a predetermined question and then will be allowed to ask one additional question of their choice.
The interviews will be livestreamed on the school district’s YouTube channel, EBR School Board, where all board meetings are streamed.
After the interviews have concluded, the board may opt to hold a closed executive session to discuss the finalists in private.
The final vote, however, won’t be until two days later when the board convenes at the School Board Office at 5 p.m. Thursday. The first finalist that garners at least five votes will win.
