Steering Committee officers: Melinda Bochner, Brock Gustafson, and Dana Miller
While Mr. Edwards has withdrawn his candidacy for the principal position, we would like to address recent questions and concerns. Many of you have made inquiries and provided feedback (both positive and negative) about our principal hiring process and the candidate the Principal Hiring Committee (PHC) brought forth, Mr. Edwards. We thank you for your input and your care, and we have noted all of your feedback both online and through direct correspondence. Many of you have asked why we selected this candidate. In our attempts to answer your queries, we have been blocked by administrators in the Jefferson County School District and unable to disseminate any additional information through official school channels (SchoolMessenger), including the candidate’s application packet which includes his resume, philosophy statement, cover letter and letters of recommendation. The PHC is a 14-member group of parents (from both D’Evelyn and Dennison), staff, administration, Steering Committee, and a (non-voting) district representative. All of the members from both schools believe in D’Evelyn, love D’Evelyn, and want the very best leadership for D’Evelyn. PHC committed endless hours to this process, reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, talking, debating, and coming together (some members even participated while traveling out of the country and during spring break). After posting the opening on more than a dozen local and nationally focused websites for more than a month, contacting recruiters and reaching out to district and other personal contacts, we received 15 applications. Twelve of the 15 were incomplete and we contacted each candidate to encourage them to complete their application. In the end, only three applicants completed their applications. The three candidates provided a resume, philosophy statement, cover letter, transcripts from any post-secondary education and at least three letters of recommendation including one from their current supervisor. Although, after the first review of the application materials, the PHC had reservations about some of the candidates, especially in the areas of philosophical alignment, in the interest of transparency, fairness and thoroughness, the PHC voted to interview all three candidates. The evaluation of our three candidates was extensive and intensive. Each candidate was interviewed, in person, using the same, prescribed list of twenty questions. Each candidate also prepared a writing sample that was completed shortly before or after the in-person interview. In-person questions came from previous hiring committees as well as new questions from the PHC. D’Evelyn’s policies list requirements for hiring staff, including a principal, and those policies include: SF-01 Hiring and SF-02 Regulation Principal Hiring. All of these documents are available to the community at the links above. The PHC’s guiding principles were to determine if the candidates met the criteria gleaned from the Founding Document (FD). After the first round of interviews, consensus was reached within the PHC that only one candidate met the above criteria, especially with regard to experience and alignment with the philosophy of the school. At this point, the PHC, knowing that the remaining candidate had a prior tenure at D’Evelyn and the circumstances around his leaving were related to a criminal conviction, the PHC did further background information searches, including reviewing past Steering Committee minutes and exhibits regarding the conviction, the Steering Committee’s decision to retain the candidate and later his dismissal. The PHC read the criminal complaints and the trial transcript. Consensus was reached within the PHC to move forward with a second-round interview with the candidate to satisfy additional questions gleaned from the further research done on the candidate. The second-round interview included seven pre-written questions from the PHC, follow-up questions, a statement from the candidate and many additional questions following the candidate’s statement. After the final candidate’s second round interview, robust debate took place. The PHC took into consideration all aspects of the candidate’s application materials, interviews, and background information. The PHC considered the many recommendations included in the application packet from teachers, administrators and community members who worked with the candidate in the past, including founders of the school and teachers who have been at D’Evelyn for more than 25 years. There is no doubt amongst the PHC that Mr. Edwards demonstrated extraordinary leadership skills throughout his career and especially during his time at D’Evelyn. As a committee, we read and heard the words “he was the best principal we’ve ever had” more times than we can count. We also considered letters from the candidate’s spouse and family members. Throughout the process, we gained additional understanding about both his criminal conviction and about his growth as a person. The committee unanimously believes the candidate had proven to be an excellent principal and has all the skills to be an excellent principal again. There was concern expressed and much debate held in the committee about the public perception of bringing forward a candidate with a criminal conviction related to domestic violence and the potential threat to D’Evelyn’s reputation. The committee believed that the candidate had completed his sentence, had shown no pattern of abusive behavior through an absence of further arrests and through written testimony from his wife and his wife's family, and the candidate had shown remorse for the incident and had grown since his conviction. At no point did anyone on the PHC believe that the candidate would jeopardize the safety of the D’Evelyn community. Given the candidate’s history of success at D’Evelyn, and that his philosophical alignment and his leadership skills were so overwhelming, the majority believed that the candidate should be moved forward in the process to focus groups. The focus groups would not only be a gauge of community sentiment, but would also be an opportunity to see if the candidate could overcome objections related to his criminal conviction by meeting with the community, sharing his story and how he had grown since his criminal conviction. Although it was not a unanimous decision, after considering all the information about the candidate, a two-thirds majority (including all but one female member) voted to move the candidate forward in the process to focus groups to gain feedback from the D’Evelyn community. In that same session, the JeffCo Schools Administration communicated to the PHC that the “District’s stance is that we want the process [focus groups] to move forward.” It was not until after our candidate’s name was released to the D’Evelyn community that our Jeffco Schools Administration contact sent his formal letter of non-support to the Steering Committee and Jeffco Schools subsequently released the letter to the press. We understand that bringing forth this candidate to our community through focus groups has been controversial. We were aware that in doing so, there would be blowback, but the PHC believed strongly enough in our community and the potential of this candidate to provide an opportunity to hear from him, ask questions and formulate their own opinions on whether he is suitable to be the next D'Evelyn principal. It has always been our intent to hear from our community and consider feedback before engaging in the next step of the process which would have been either to recommend this candidate to the district or pass on this remaining candidate, declare a failed search, and start the process over. Please understand that this group of dedicated parents and staff volunteers has only the best interest of the school at heart and has not been influenced by any parties outside of the principal hiring process. The PHC did receive a number of questions regarding diversity in the candidate pool. Although unrelated to the candidate pool, women made up the majority of voting members of the PHC. As a part of being a PHC member, each member was trained on Jeffco’s Equal Opportunity policies within the hiring process. Jeffco School’s policy forbids discrimination with regard to race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, veteran status or disability. As such, the PHC could not ask questions regarding a candidate’s race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, veteran status or disability. Neither could the PHC consider a candidate’s race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, veteran status or disability in any discussions with or about any of the candidates. The PHC is also not able to provide any information regarding the candidate pool’s race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, veteran status or disability.
David Lucero
4/25/2022 11:05:14 am
I really do appreciate the committee's dedication and hard work during this whole process of finding someone who meets our school's standards but, I feel the search process is to personal and close to home now. Its time to remove the steering committee from the process and hire a professional consulting firm to handle the search going forward.
Melinda Bochner
4/28/2022 01:02:35 pm
David, thank you for your feedback. Per the Founding Document (p. 22) the Steering Committee is charged with hiring the principal. To your point, however, we plan to retain a professional recruiter to help us conduct a more fruitful, nation-wide search for qualified candidates. Please contribute to the upcoming DEF campaign to support our principal search. Thank you. Comments are closed.
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The Steering Committee is the governing board of the school and establishes policies designed to maintain and enhance its liberal arts philosophy. The Steering Committee appoints Directors to the Board of the D'Evelyn Education Foundation. Archives
March 2023
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