A Spanish-speaker with 25 years of experience in education and a
history of raising student achievement has been hired as the new
assistant superintendent of educational services.
Gilroy – A Spanish-speaker with 25 years of experience in education and a history of raising student achievement has been hired as the new assistant superintendent of educational services.
Basha Millhollen, 57, was chosen as the next head of the educational side of the Gilroy Unified School District by staff and approved by the board of trustees Thursday night. Staff laud her varied background, which includes teaching, consulting and administration at the district, county and state level.
“She has statewide done a lot in terms of instruction and draws on her vast and varied experience just naturally,” said Linda Piceno, assistant superintendent of human resources.
Raised in Gomez Palacio in northeastern Mexico, Millhollen started her career as a mathematics, home economics, typing and history teacher in Folsom and Rancho Cordova in Sacramento County. She spent 19 years from 1980 to 1999 in the classroom, and in later years juggled work as a program administrator with an emphasis on improving services for English learners.
In recent years, Millhollen has worked with the Sacramento County Office of Education as an instructor for teachers in how to use assessments to plan classes and with the California Department of Education, where she helped develop the standardized test now used to measure language proficiency in English learners.
Millhollen currently serves as the director of the Center for Educational Leadership and Effective Schools with the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she oversees professional development at 47 schools. She will finish her doctorate degree in December, submitting a dissertation titled “Organizational Change and District Reform: a Multi-Shareholder Team Perspective.”
Incoming Superintendent Deborah Flores, who was part of the team that selected Millhollen, believes the hire will be a valuable addition to the district.
“I think she’s going to provide very strong leadership in the area of curriculum and instruction and provide excellent support to principals and teachers in the areas of student learning,” she said.
Millhollen, who was attracted to the district because of its Latino population and steady growth, believes the key to student success will be communication between schools and the community.
“We will move further if we move together,” she said.
Millhollen is contracted to begin July 1 and will fill a hole open since December when Jacki Horejs retired.
While the district has filled one hole, it is still looking for someone to replace Linda Piceno as assistant superintendent of human resources. The district, which planned to hire a replacement Thursday night, asked Piceno to change her retirement date from June 30 to Aug. 3.
“Actually, it’s not bad to stay on,” Piceno said. “I’m really committed to having Dr. Flores have her full complement of administrators in order to hit the ground running in August.”
The district will have hired a qualified candidate by then, said Flores, who cited a small pool of candidates and a finalist taking a different position as reasons why the district restarted the search. Hazard, Attea and Young – the consulting firm has been running both assistant superintendent searches – will continue the search at no additional charge.
“We’ve developed a very aggressive recruitment plan,” Flores said. “We’re hoping we’ll have a better pool of candidates to consider.”
