Gilroy
– A new school board member is warnings others on how to carry
out the search for a new Gilroy schools chief, though the first
official conversation about the hunt just happened Thursday.
Gilroy – A new school board member is warnings others on how to carry out the search for a new Gilroy schools chief, though the first official conversation about the hunt just happened Thursday.
Just before Tom Bundros, Gilroy Unified School District’s board president, gave a presentation to other board members at Thursday’s meeting on his research into the search process, Trustee Francisco Dominguez said he’s troubled by initial steps taken in the process.
“This is the most important decision we can make as a body, and it has significant impact on the district,” he said. “We need to view this as a very serious decision. It also needs to be one that is transparent in terms of what the process is and input we receive. We need community participation.”
Dominguez, who has sat on the Oxnard School District’s board and has been through two other superintendent searches, said he was concerned that discussions may have been taking place and decisions made that were not in the public eye. He said he’s also worried that recent flurries of e-mail communication among trustees would set a “dangerous pattern of behavior.”
Dominguez’ concerns stemmed from Bundros soliciting proposals and starting an interview process with two consultant agencies that would take over the search process on the board’s behalf all without discussing his intentions in a public forum first. He later canceled the interviews after realizing he’d skipped several steps of the process.
“The urgency of our situation prompted me to approach the (California School Board Association) and get the names of some of the top search agencies,” Bundros said. “I asked for proposals and set up interviews. I later realized I was jumping the gun and that the board needed to have more discussion about the process and if we even wanted to use an agency. So, I did some backing up.”
Dominguez’s unease about two trustees sending out e-mails to other board members were valid. Bundros and Rhoda Bress, the board’s vice president, both sent out e-mails to all trustees. Such communication must conform to California open meeting laws described in the Ralph M. Brown Act.
When a board member sends an e-mail to the rest of the trustees, it must follow certain guidelines, said Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware, a nonprofit First Amendment rights watchdog group. Board members can use e-mail to confirm dates and times they are available for special meetings, such as today’s board retreat at Gilroy High School. They can also provide one another with information to bring to meetings, but they cannot initiate discussion or ask for feedback.
Bundros, Bress and Javier Aguirre confirmed that e-mails sent thus far did not initiate conversations or require response.
“As long as the e-mails did not encourage dialogue, the Brown Act is not violated,” Francke said. “The risk area to me is that board members are using their personal e-mail addresses. Because e-mail is so easy, it seems to me local agencies should have a policy saying, ‘Look, board members, if you’re going to communicate by e-mail (and we know you will), use the district e-mail system, not private e-mail. That keeps it very clean. Then if any doubt of if something is kosher or not comes up, you can look right at the e-mails.”
Such concern over adherence to open meeting laws is not groundless. In recent months, questions have been raised about whether a committee making school name recommendations to the GUSD board violated the Brown Act.
“We know we have to be careful with e-mails – we do not have e-mail conversations because that would be wrong,” Bress said. “Our deliberations have to be public, and they are. Within the last year, we did a special study session and had legal counsel come in and give a presentation on the Brown Act. We’ll be sure that the superintendent search process is done in the public eye in accordance with those laws.”
School board members also have an opportunity for Brown Act training at California School Board Association conferences.
The board is meeting at 8:30am today in the GHS library to discuss the superintendent hiring process and transition plan.
