Members of the Carmel Clay Schools board of trustees are at odds over whether the board fully followed the district’s policy for selecting a new superintendent.

According to Policy 1004, which addresses employment of the superintendent, the recruitment procedures shall include “solicitation of applications from a wide geographical area.” The board did not look beyond internal candidates while conducting its search, according to school board members Greg Brown and Katie Browning.

The school board voted 5-0 July 22 to approve a contract for Thomas Oestreich, CCS assistant superintendent, to become superintendent beginning in the 2025-26 school year. He will replace Michael Beresford, who is retiring after the 2024-25 school year.

Brown, who was elected to the board in 2022, told Current that the requirement to solicit applications from a wide geographical area was not brought to his attention until days before the July 22 vote, when a member of the community emailed the board. He said he recommended an external search as a best practice before he knew it was required in the policy.

At the board meeting, Brown described Oestreich as “highly qualified” and said he had “absolutely no problem” with the selection. However, he said he does not believe the board followed its superintendent search policy and that it should have done so to ensure the best candidate was selected.

“We did not (search externally). We would have done that, had there been some red flags. I’ll make it clear, I did not see any red flags, so we didn’t do that,” Brown said. “When I shop for anything, a lot of times I think I know what I want, and when I take the time to go out (it can) confirm if there might be something I’m not thinking of or might be better. I recommended we do that. (The board) decided as the majority that we would not do that. There was so much excitement and support for Dr. Oestreich that we didn’t do that.”

Browning did not respond to a request for comment. But at the July 22 meeting, Browning read an email she sent to all other board members in response to concerns from Brown that the policy wasn’t followed. In the email, she stated that she feels “the board has adhered strictly to Policy 1004.”

“While our policy does mention solicitation of applications for a wide geographic area, it does not mandate it as a sole approach,” Browning read from the email. “Our internal candidate, Dr. Oestreich, met and exceeded all predetermined requirements and priorities established by the board, and given his exceptional qualifications the board determined that extensive external search was unnecessary.”

Browning said legal counsel was present at school board executive sessions, where the superintendent search and hiring process was discussed to ensure compliance with employment laws. The policy requirement to solicit applications from a wide geographical area is not a state law.

CCS Director of Community Relations Emily Bauer declined to state whether district officials believe the policy was followed and issued a statement about the matter.

“As the policy states, ‘The Board shall actively seek the best qualified and most capable candidate for the position of Superintendent.,’” the statement reads. “After careful consideration, the Board determined Dr. Thomas Oestreich, an exceptional internal candidate, fully embodied these qualifications as was supported by a unanimous 5-0 vote.”

Board President Kristin Kouka stated that the board had legal representation present at all meetings and referred Current to Bauer for additional information.

Read the policy at go.boarddocs.com/in/ccsin/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=B6GRJZ6426BA# by searching for Policy 1004.