The Morgan Hill School District trustees decided in January not
to renew Superintendent Carolyn McKennan
’s contract when it expires on June 30, 2005.
The Morgan Hill School District trustees decided in January not to renew Superintendent Carolyn McKennan’s contract when it expires on June 30, 2005.
That was more than five months ago, and trustees are just now beginning to talk about the process they’ll use to find a new superintendent. The item will make its first appearance on a school board agenda on June 28. While we pine for those lost five months, we can’t turn back time to allow these discussions to occur back in January, when they should have.
Hiring a superintendent is a lengthy process. Whoever is hired will need time to hire his or her own deputy and assistant superintendents and to come up to speed. Establishing a hiring process and conducting a candidate search are issues that need to be handled sooner rather than later. It’s a real shame that trustees have wasted valuable and irreplaceable time by waiting five months to begin talking about the process.
Luckily, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel to find McKennan’s replacement. We recommend the district copy the process used by Gavilan Community College when it hired Steve Kinsella as its president.
The process, which used community members, faculty and staff in key, not token, roles in sorting through the candidates, and which featured public forums in which the top three candidates met the community and answered questions, produced fabulous results.
Kinsella has been warmly received by faculty, staff, students and the community as a flexible, collaborative, proactive leader with fiscal expertise who understands the community his college serves.
That’s exactly the kind of superintendent the MHSD needs at this critical juncture.
What we don’t need is a superintendent who is wedded to a particular educational philosophy, who can’t communicate a vision to the community, and who doesn’t have a firm grasp on capital and operating budget issues.
We do need a superintendent of the highest moral character whose first priority is the students and taxpayers of the district, not advancing his or her career or philosophy.
We do need a superintendent who can inspire the entire district community – from students and parents to faculty and staff – to make improving the education the district delivers job one.
We do need a superintendent who will keep a sharp eye on spending for both capital and operating expenses and who will not view taxpayers as a bottomless pit of revenue.
Given the current state of the district – divided, untrusting and in a financial mess – finding a leader for the district who embodies these skills is critical.
Trustees will make the final decision on the new superintendent, but it is vitally important that the community and school groups play a big part in that process.
We urge the board to talk to Gavilan College officials about their presidential search process, adopt it and move swiftly to the business of finding the right person to lead this district out of the era of “ordinary neglect” and divisiveness and into an era where fiscal responsibility and student education are the top priorities.
