The school board embraced an era of openness Thursday night as
they voted to allow an advisory committee of union members to
interview the final three superintendent candidates.
The school board embraced an era of openness Thursday night as they voted to allow an advisory committee of union members to interview the final three superintendent candidates.
Taking stock of inclusive words like “team builder,” collaborative,” “open” scrawled on large yellow pages hung around the board room after a final brainstorming session about the superintendent recruitment brochure, Morgan Hill trustees decided to have an advisory committee interview its final candidates. A representative from each of Morgan HIll Unified School District’s three employee groups will sit on the committee.
The board approved the added community involvement in a 5-2 vote during its special meeting Thursday night. Trustees Kathy Sullivan and Mike Hickey voted against the motion.
Sullivan said pointed out that some who participated in a 16-member community committee formed during the last superintendent search four years ago still talk about their dissatisfaction with the trustee’s choice. Committee members say trustees discarded their input, choosing Superintendent Alan Nishino over the committee’s top choices.
“We’re not going to make people happy,” she said, adding that it was search firm The Cosca Group’s strong recommendation to close the search process after the community input leg of the search, which concluded with the 41-page report presented to the board Thursday night.
Federation of Teachers President Theresa Sage spoke vociferously for the added involvement.
“By starting off the bat not including us you risk setting a precedence. If you want buy in, it starts here. It’s got to start with this process. I don’t want to… set the superintendent up with problems right off the bat.”
Sage said union leaders bring an expertise of their fields that is useful to the board.
But Cosca representative Steve Goldstone said the group has built a reputation on being a confidential search firm. Cosca conducts closed searches because research shows “very good candidates” pass on open ones, Goldstone said. Sitting superintendents don’t want to ignite controversy for applying for a position unless they’re certain they’ll be hired, he said. Further, conducting candidate interviews is not as fruitful as site visits, he argued, since candidates who interview well may not be the best for the position. This will be the first of 36 Cosca searches that will include an interview panel, he said.
Trustee Shelle Thomas was not persuaded.
“When I look around us, I see the need for more transparency,” she said, gesturing to the lists around the board room. “What we’re looking for in a superintendent, is an experienced educator. No where in there is the demand for a sitting superintendent. There has to be some openness.”
Thomas said the unions and administration have been at odds for too long after lengthy contract negotiations and Public Employee Relations Board complaints. To discount their opinion during the search for a new superintendent would be another blow to the already tattered relationships, she said.
“I know where the healing needs to be,” Thomas said.
The board flubbed through three failed motions before landing on the one that stuck. A representative from the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union and Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association will participate in a separate discussion with the superintendent candidates during a second round of interviews, currently scheduled to take place sometime around Oct. 10.
Nishino, who retired June 30 after four years in Morgan Hill, will end his interim contract with the district Aug. 31. The board has yet to decide whether or not they will hire an interim superintendent for September through mid-October.
