As the ink dries on the freshly signed contract, the Board of
Education will publicly announce who will lead Morgan Hill Unified
School District, its 900 employees and 9,000 students at 6 p.m.
tonight.
As the ink dries on the freshly signed contract, the Board of Education will publicly announce who will lead Morgan Hill Unified School District, its 900 employees and 9,000 students at 6 p.m. tonight.
The man was chosen Oct. 8, and contract negotiations began soon after.
Board President Don Moody said little else about the new superintendent, noting legal concerns surrounding the contract negotiations. The board will sign his contract during a closed session at the district office at 5:30 p.m., and then reconvene to the public session at 6 p.m. The new superintendent will not be present tonight, he said.
Moody said that there will be a gathering before the school board meeting next Tuesday, Nov. 10, during which the community can meet the new leader. Moody said this celebration was tentatively be at 4 p.m.
The school board began its superintendent search in June following the resignation of Dr. Alan Nishino, who ended his 39-year education career with four years leading Morgan Hill’s district. Nishino was criticized as a divisive, unapproachable leader by parents and teachers. His contract was also heavily scrutinized, particularly the stipulation that got him a raise each year. If the board rated Nishino’s performance in the prior year as satisfactory or better, he got a 3 percent merit raise. His starting salary in July 2005 was $185,000. His ending salary was $206,000, an 11 percent increase in four years. Moody wouldn’t comment on what the new superintendent’s contract was like until it was all said and done.
Taking into account a 41-page report detailing what 40 community groups wanted to see in the district’s new leader, the board made collaboration a centerpiece in the brochure about the top post.
A total of 21 candidates applied for the position, many of them from the Bay Area, according to The Cosca Group representative Steve Goldstone. The school board chose two finalists for follow-up interviews in early October and visited the top choice’s current district Oct. 8.
From the selection of the search firm on June 16 to next week’s meet-and-greet, the superintendent search process took just less than four months to complete.
Visit www.morganhilltimes.com tonight to learn who the board hired.
