As of Tuesday morning, a little more than 4,000 in Williamson County had shared their thoughts on the ongoing search for the next superintendent of the district.
ZEAL Education Group’s Thoughtexchange shows 4,097 people participated and 3,147 thoughts were shared. The most common topics brought up were pay, support, politics, experience, and environment.
The Williamson County Board of Education voted for ZEAL to help Williamson County Schools hire its next superintendent of schools. Thoughtexchange is an online platform that involves the community in decision-making.
This week, Nov. 9-13, several community meetings are taking place with county commissioners and the mayor, parents and teachers, special education leaders, and other stakeholder groups, according to ZEAL’s schedule.
These meetings establish the foundation for ZEAL’s leadership profile, which serves two purposes: recruiting candidates and assessing their fit.
ZEAL says it will have a leadership profile ready in December, and post it within the month after it is complete. The full timeline is on the website.
How does Thoughtexchange work?
Thoughtexchange has three main parts — one that asks to rank six traits based on their importance (community builder, visionary change agent, instructional leader, operational strategist, student champion, crisis manager), one that asks the top priority for the superintendent of schools and one that allows each participant to rate each other’s thoughts on those top priorities.
People who participate rate each other’s comments using a five-star system, which shares how much they agree with an idea someone else writes down. Thoughtexchange automatically gives new comments five three-star ratings.
“Essentially this technique assumes that every new thought is of average importance and waits for participants to provide evidence otherwise,” the Thoughtexchange website said.
Williamson County's reactions
The top comments focus on paying and retaining teachers. Comments about keeping politics out of board decisions rank among the top 25.
The highest-rated comment, with 4.7 stars, calls for “strong support of teachers and increasing their retention.’” The second-highest-rated comment, with 4.6 stars, says “Pay teachers more to retain top talent.”
Ranked in the 20s are comments that say “Filter out the noise and politics,” and “Keep politics out of school board decisions and focus on teaching and learning.” These both have 4.5 stars.
The survey will be open through Friday, Nov. 13, so the top comments and ratings may change before then.
Remaining In-Person Community Meetings
Wednesday, Nov. 11 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Independence High School
Remaining Virtual Community Meetings
Wednesday, November 11 from noon - 1 p.m.
The virtual meeting links can be found on the Williamson County Schools website.