Sunday, April 27, 2008

KBE Suit with Ray and Associates Stagnant

Nothing new regarding the suit between the Kentucky Board of Education and Ray & Associates. Lisa Gross informed KSN&C recently, "...after both parties engaged in some discovery, the case has been inactive for about four months."
Meanwhile, this from the Birmingham News:
School officials criticize
superintendent search firms
Previous superintendent hunts seen as costly

The president of the Birmingham Board of Education and three other board members say they don't want to pay headhunters to find the system's next schools chief.

"We had our search firm last time and it cost us a lot of money, and the search firm was not sensitive to our needs," board President W.J. Maye Jr. said. "They didn't understand the dynamics of the city, and Birmingham is a complicated city."

An Iowa-based search firm brought four semifinalists to the Birmingham school board for interviews in June 2006, including the board's ultimate choice for the post. Stan Mims, who came from O'Fallon, Ill., resigned last month as part of a settlement agreement...
...Board member Virginia Volker said she will not support hiring a search firm again. The school board paid Ray and Associates $20,000 for its work when Mims was hired. It also used a search firm to hire his predecessor in 1997.

"I will raise more heck than you have ever seen me raise," Volker said. "We have been burned two times."

In her experience, Volker said, executive search firms push certain candidates by "stacking the deck" of finalists, including only one person who meets their clients' criteria. They coach candidates for a fee, too, she said...

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