How to Hire a School Business Official

[Chris_Wendt]

This thread is NOT about whether we should be hiring a school business official at the present time. It is about the process for hiring a school business official.

However, before I go any further, I am going to ask YOU for suggestions and examples of tried-and-true hiring processes may have worked well, or would be expected to work, when hiring the top dog into a school district business office with responsibility for a $66 Million operating budget, $30 Million of Long-Term Debt, a not insignificant annual issuance of short-term debt, all of the district's cash and reserve accounts, plus day-to-day operational responsibility for the physical plant (facilities) and grounds of the school district.

So, please respond to this post with YOUR ideas, examples, or expectations of how you think the Wantagh School District should have gone about advertising, recruiting, interviewing, selecting, and vetting candidates for this super-critical position.

This may turn out to be the most serious post ever put up here.

(Have little doubt about that...)

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

OK, I'll bite.

First comes comprehensive job description, a thoughtful list of candidate qualities and education/experience requirements.

Next in typical recruiting is NY Times, leading trade journals and listservs, use of selective recruiter(s) before an initial HR screen then more vigorous screening (committees) to narrow down a pool of candidates to a few. There may be education laws in place during the vetting process that I don't know about and should be included here.

Somehow, with your comment on seriousness, I'm not looking forward to your next post on it.

[Chris_Wendt]

Lilly: "First comes comprehensive job description..."

...which would include the responsibilities, duties, decision-making level, spending approval authority; to whom the position reports in the organization, and whom, by titles and functions, the position directly supervises, and total number of all employees for whom the position is administratively and functionally responsible. Would you agree? (Not a rhetorical question.)

Lilly: "...a thoughtful list of candidate qualities and education/experience requirements."

Which by necessity and definition should directly address the 'comprehensive job description'. Do you concur?

I mean, it would be irresponsible, perhaps suicidally insane to hire someone into this second most powerful position in the entire school district whose qualifications, training, experience and education did not meet or exceed the responsibilities, duties, and span of control assigned to the position. Am I right or is this expectation over the top?

Lilly: "Next in typical recruiting is NY Times, leading trade journals and listservs, use of selective recruiter(s)..."

I think the specific publications used may not be as important as the results obtained by whatever media was employed. There are also Career Builder, Monster, and the referral services and resume databases of state and nationally accredited accountancy institutes.

But I would like some confirmation that, regardless of what avenues have been used for the preliminary recruiting, it is only the results of that recruiting that matter, and if the results do not turn up a huge number of highly qualified candidates, especially IN THIS ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT where numerous seasoned, highly trained and exceptionally well-qualified applicants ABOUND...then something would have to be considered VERY, VERY WRONG! Yes? No?

Left me hear from you further on my postulations.

Thanks

Chris Wendt

[Chris_Wendt]

"Somehow, with your comment on seriousness, I'm not looking forward to your next post on it. "

Well, it may not be that post, or even the following post.

This issue is percolating on the back burner in a sort of hiatus, acceding to the demands on public attention for the budget vote and school board election. All well and good, I suppose.

I hereby speculate that the district will do the right thing in its hiring of a new School Business Official, namely:

• Appropriately broad-based recruiting resulting in a reasonable number of fully qualified candidates who posses significant actual experience as a school business official
  
• Appointee should possess demonstrable prior experience managing a multi-facility Facility Operations and Maintenance Department of approximately the same number of buildings and square feet under roof, as well as similar acreage of fields
  
• Appointee should possess relevant knowledge of transportation management and management of utilities costs.
  
• Appropriately broad-base interview committee, of which all members sit for all interviews
  
• Avoiding completely any apparent conflict of interest, such as hiring the buddy of a relative of an influential senior Wantagh official
  
• thorough professional investigative background check appropriate to the position of School Business Official
  

I sincerely hope we don't go down the wrong road with this hire. There could be no way back from a trip down the wrong road, here. Please think very carefully before deciding to hire anyone for this position.

Truly, seriously concerned over this.

Chris Wendt

[Chris_Wendt]

May 1, 2009 11:29:15 GMT -5 lilly said:

OK, I'll bite.

First comes comprehensive job description, a thoughtful list of candidate qualities and education/experience requirements.

Next in typical recruiting is NY Times, leading trade journals and listservs, use of selective recruiter(s) before an initial HR screen then more vigorous screening (committees) to narrow down a pool of candidates to a few. There may be education laws in place during the vetting process that I don't know about and should be included here.

'Somehow, with your comment on seriousness, I'm not looking forward to your next post on it.'' -- Lilly

"Alea iacta est!" ("The Die is Cast")
--Julius Ceasar, upon crossing the Rubicon River, in defiance of the Roman Senate...from which ensued a long civil war.

What is done is done.

Now, ON WITH THE SHOW!!!!

As a voice in the wilderness on this issue, but not for lack of trying to raise it as an issue.

Chris Wendt

(Write down all their names next to this one:
Begley
Spagnolo
Quinn
Cucci
Sturniolo
Russack)