With just eight and a half months to go before her contract runs
out, Superintendent Carolyn McKennan will be talking with trustees
at Monday night
’s School Board meeting about the process to find her
replacement.
With just eight and a half months to go before her contract runs out, Superintendent Carolyn McKennan will be talking with trustees at Monday night’s School Board meeting about the process to find her replacement.
McKennan’s contract expires June 30. Trustees have not had a formal discussion about the process to replace her.
Some in the community have criticized trustees for not setting the process in motion sooner; others have said the board has had other issues to deal with.
Candidates for the three school board seats up for election next month agree that the board needs to move forward.
“You get help; the county (Santa Clara County Office of Education) will provide a lot of help,” candidate Peter Mandel said Thursday. “I think what I’ve heard is that Colleen (Wilcox, county superintendent) would be fairly amenable to us asking for help with this. You don’t want to shortchange the process of getting the right person. It might take a little longer, but it is important. This district is coming out of a difficult time, a contentious board, a contentious relationship with the superintendent.”
Candidate Kathleen Sullivan said the hiring of the new superintendent needs to be a priority with the new board.
“An interim person might be way to go for now, it’s something we can look into,” she said Thursday. “If we can’t hire a quality person right away, we can let this community start healing and feeling whole. This is a process were the community wants to be involved. I guess it depends on how hard the board wants to work on that right away and what other problems are facing us.”
The qualities the new superintendent will have are something board members will have to agree on fairly quickly, said candidate Julia Hoover-Smoot.
“I’d like to find a superintendent who could be a leader, break the impasse, but work with a group; also someone who had the same point of view that academics is our best focus, that all children are gifted and can learn,” she said.
McKennan’s contract was last extended in September 2002, before the election of three new board members and re-election of one board member in November 2002. At the time, the contract was extended two years and included a two percent raise and a doctoral stipend of $1,500, for an annual salary of $136,752, not including the annual cumulative longevity bonus of $5,000 per year she receives.
When McKennan’s contract was last renewed, she said it was common, in the educational field, for contracts to be extended several years out.
“What could you accomplish if you worked on a year to year contract?” she said in 2002. “Unless you’re going to be retiring at the end of the year. If you’re going to get a job as a superintendent, it takes some time, probably several months. So if a board does not to renew your contract, you know you need that time to find something else. It would be a signal.”
An evaluation of McKennan’s performance was on the agenda for trustees during their closed session meetings several times last fall, including a special closed session meeting in October 2003. Board President George Panos said in December that “no action was taken, so there is nothing to report out.”
School Board trustees also face the mandated appointment of a seventh board member to fill the remaining two years of former Trustee Tom Kinoshita’s term. They voted at the Sept. 20 meeting to appoint, at the advice of district legal counsel, and the deadline for applicants for the seat was Friday.
Thursday afternoon, only one application had been filed; by the 4pm Friday deadline, there were many applications. The exact number and the applications themselves were not available by press time due to illness of a district employee, but another district employee indicated there were more than eight applications.
Trustees will review the applications and begin interviews with the applicants on Oct. 19.
The regular School Board meeting will be held at 7pm on Monday at the District Office, 15600 Concord Circle. Details: 201-6000.
