Gilroy
– The leadership vacuum at Gilroy Unified School District
deepened this week, with the announcement that two more veteran
administrators will leave in coming months.
Gilroy – The leadership vacuum at Gilroy Unified School District deepened this week, with the announcement that two more veteran administrators will leave in coming months.

The lure of advancement or retirement has now claimed five top administrators at the district.

Linda Piceno, the assistant superintendent of human resources, and Juanita Contin, an administrator who helps craft the district’s attendance boundaries and manages enrollment, are the two most recent to announce plans to leave the district in coming months. Piceno expects to leave by June and Contin has said she would like to retire by fall, though she has agreed to continue serving as a part-time consultant to help manage the change to new attendance boundaries – the area from which a school draws its student population. The district is bracing for a bit of chaos next fall as more than 800 students find themselves re-assigned to different schools.

The departure of Contin and Piceno have long been rumored, but were disclosed officially this weekend as school board members discussed plans to replace Superintendent Edwin Diaz, who has accepted a job as head of the Pasadena Unified School District in Southern California.

“It’s hard for us in the short term because we’re really understaffed, but I’m looking at it as an opportunity, even though it’s making life a lot tougher right now,” said GUSD school board trustee Denise Apuzzo. “I think it makes the situation better for whoever is coming in, because maybe they can bring in some people they’re familiar with.”

The district is already grappling with a succession of departing administrators, including Jacki Horejs, assistant superintendent of educational services, who left in December to head the Campbell Union School District. Her temporary replacement, GUSD director of curriculum and instruction Olivia Schaad, plans to retire in March.

School board members plan to tap the GUSD ranks to replace Schaad, meaning that some other administrative position will have to be filled.

“It’s going to be a challenge to fill those positions with the same level of quality,” Diaz said. “However, when you have a new superintendent coming, it would be important to have them have some input into who those people are, so they can choose people who share their philosophy.”

Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman was unavailable for comment.

Diaz is working with the school board to find an interim superintendent while a consulting firm could help round up candidates for the assistant superintendent jobs. School board officials expect the hiring process to last six months. Diaz is expected to leave in March.

Though lauding the benefits of allowing a new superintendent to help choose his or her supporting cost, Diaz regretted the continued loss of “institutional knowledge” at the district.

Contin, who could not be reached for comment, has been with the district for more than 15 years and Piceno has spent her entire 32-year career with GUSD. Piceno started as a history teacher at Gilroy High School before moving on to roles such as counselor and principal, to name a few. Twenty-five years of her career have been spent as an administrator – the last five of them as the district’s top personnel manager.

Like Contin, Piceno has offered to stay on for a few months beyond her retirement date to help ease the transition. Her replacement will inherit the task of hiring and retaining teachers in a district with sky-high home prices and wages below those of nearby school districts. Contin’s replacement will have to balance student enrollment across the district as a new elementary school opens in the fall and a second high school comes online in 2009.

The tasks may seem daunting, but Piceno said the district would persevere.

“Everything is about change,” she said. “I’ve learned that in my 32 years. Things move on. I lived through the death of [former Superintendent] Rod Kelley in 1982, when we couldn’t imagine the future without him. But the kids keep coming in and you move forward.”

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