District selects final two candidates
Sara Suddes – Staff Writer
ss*****@************ch.com
GILROY
School district officials interviewed five educational legal service firms Monday evening and narrowed the list down to two finalists.
The Gilroy Unified School District Board of Trustees, Superintendent Deborah Flores and Executive Director of Student Services, Jeff Gabrielson selected Lozano Smith and Garcia Calderon Ruiz as finalists for “their breadth of knowledge of many different areas of law … because they were full-service firms … and they had extensive experience in education law,” Trustee Denise Apuzzo said.
In the past, the district outsourced its legal issues to several law firms. “I was surprised when I came on board that we used so many legal firms,” Apuzzo said. “It seemed logical to hire one firm.”
The major areas the district requires counsel in are issues surrounding facilities (construction, bonding, real estate contracts), employment and labor practices, and student issues. The one caveat to the board’s selection of a single firm is its possible retention of the district’s existing special education attorney. The district is considering keeping the Saratoga-based firm to handle its special education issues.
Board president Tom Bundros, said that two items he was focussed on were longevity and price. The board decided on the two firms that offered some of the best prices and were long-established firms, he said.
The board sent out a general request for proposals and nine firms responded. After narrowing the list to five, the board chose the two it thought were best matched the districts needs. Trustees Jaime Rosso and Denise Apuzzo will check three references for each of the firms and report back to the board at the Dec. 6 board meeting, Flores said. From there, a final decision will be made.
“The five firms were all excellent but some had weaknesses in a few areas,” Apuzzo said. Lozano Smith and Garcia Calderon Ruiz had no apparent weaknesses, she said. “They’re both really strong.”
