Gilroy
– The post for the job of district superintendent has brought in
a flood of responses, the board reported.
Gilroy – The post for the job of district superintendent has brought in a flood of responses, the board reported.
As of last Thursday morning, Hazard, Young and Attea – the consulting firm hired by the Gilroy Unified School District – reported that it had received 38 applications for the position from a diverse set of individuals.
“Which is great news,” said Tom Bundros, president of the board. “It’s going to certainly be easier to find a very strong candidate out of 38 as opposed to 12.”
Of the applicants, 18 currently hold the position of superintendent, 13 are assistant superintendents or part of district administration, three are principals and four work in other capacities of leadership, such as dean of a school or head of a foundation.
The head consultant in the superintendent search, Bill Attea, told Bundros there are some very strong candidates in that pool and he thinks (the board is) going to be very pleased.
The applicants also hail from a variety of geographic locations, with 29 from California and one each from Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas.
The consulting firm will screen many of the applicants when they come into San Francisco this weekend for a national meeting of school district board members and administrators. The search process is scheduled to last another month.
The board will then meet with the consulting firm April 23 in an open session to discuss what questions should be posed to applicants during the first round of interviews, which will be conducted in closed session April 26 and 27. Finalists identified during these sessions will not be made public, but will be invited back to interviews April 30 and May 1 and 2.
During these three days, the board will “have an opportunity to entertain and spend some time with the real finalists and their families,” Bundros said.
The board will meet May 3 to identify its choice for new superintendent. In the two weeks preceding the May 17 announcement of the board’s decision, trustees can conduct site visits with the preferred candidate.
Having 38 applicants bodes well for the board finding a good match, said Darrel Taylor, district interim superintendent, who has witnessed search processes in six other school districts where he also served as interim superintendent.
“I think it’s a good response rate in today’s world,” he said. “The more you get, the better chance you get of having more top-notch people in the pool.”
The initial response is good, but choosing a superintendent is difficult and success is not guaranteed, said trustee Jaime Rosso.
“Even when you get strong candidates in the final analysis, it will be up to the candidates themselves,” he said. “You don’t know until you go through the whole process that they’ll accept the position.”
While this can mean more work, this is all part of making certain the candidate and the district are a good match, said Rosso.
“I want to make sure that we’re all confident that we’re picking the right person for the job.”
