The Pleasanton school board Tuesday is set to consider selecting Palo Alto-based Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to run the search for the next superintendent, as recommended by the district's superintendent search firm committee.

Trustees will be asked to award a contract for $26,000 plus expenses to the search firm as part of the agenda for their regular meeting, which gets underway at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the district office boardroom.

After firing Rick Rubino as PUSD superintendent last month, the board opted to form the committee and issue a new request for proposals from search firms rather than use the previous firm's services again. McPherson & Jacobson, the group that led the search that yielded Rubino, had said it would conduct a new search at no additional charge if its candidate left the district within two years.

The committee, which is comprised of trustees Valerie Arkin and Steve Maher, district representatives and community members, interviewed four of the five firms that responded to the request for proposals. The firms were asked to deliver a 10-minute presentation and respond to 17 questions asked by the committee, according to district staff.

Based on those interviews, the committee recommends that the contract be awarded to Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates.

The Silicon Valley firm would handle the national recruitment, application and interview process of selecting PUSD's new superintendent. Other tasks would include conducting a preliminary background check, gathering community input and organizing a leadership transition workshop.

The school board fired Rubino on Jan. 6, weeks after it placed him on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into an unspecified personnel matter. That investigation was never completed, and district officials have declined to comment on why it wasn't finished and the matter that prompted the board's action.

Micaela Ochoa, PUSD's deputy superintendent of business services at the time, has been leading the district since the board placed Rubino on leave on Dec. 19, with the board last month formally naming her interim superintendent through June 30.

The school board meeting will start at 7 p.m. at 4665 Bernal Ave. following closed session at 5 p.m.

In other business

* The board will receive reports on possible school lunch price increases, the city of Pleasanton's downtown specific plan update, and the district's budget.

With an estimated $2.3 million in revenue reductions anticipated for the 2017-18 school year, PUSD administrators will ask trustees Tuesday to approve resolutions for the reduction or elimination of certain positions for next year.

State education code mandates school boards take formal action if districts anticipate the need for reducing or eliminating employees' services.

As proposed, a full-time lead student information specialist would be laid off, along with part-time special education account specialists and a part-time computer operations technician.

Three full-time teaching positions would be reduced or eliminated: one multiple subject teacher and two teachers on special assignment. A part-time Japanese teacher would also have their hours reduced or eliminated.

The district's full-time coordinators of human resources, facilities and transportation, and special projects and program improvement would also see their services reduced or cut altogether, according to the resolutions.

The resolutions do not directly name who would be impacted. The moves would take place at the close of this school year.

* Trustees will review and discuss a proposal that would change the current bell schedule at Amador Valley High School.

The school wants to pilot an "access" period during the 2017-18 school year. Adding this advisory time to the weekly bell schedule would shift it to a modified block schedule twice a week. That would mean on Wednesdays and Thursdays, students would have the access period and one half of their classes, with non-advisory class periods those days lasting about 90 minutes, according to the proposal.

If implemented, students would be assigned to a specific teacher who would become their "adviser" for the period, receiving support based on their individual needs. Students could do things like review for a test, get organized for the upcoming week or seek help for stress.

The board will go through a first reading of the proposal Tuesday before it would be brought back March 14 for possible approval.

* The board will be asked to authorize spending $1.8 million toward new English language arts and English language development instructional materials and services for PUSD's middle and high schools.

Administrators are recommending that the board approve agreements with McGraw-Hill School Education LLC for the middle school level and Pearson US Learning Services for high schools.

The McGraw-Hill agreement stipulates a one-time cost of $965,000 for instructional materials, along with $80,000 more for professional development and technology integration services. The Pearson contract includes a one-time cost of $725,000 for instructional materials and $48,000 for professional development.

* In closed-session beginning at 5 p.m., the board will discuss a potential administrative reassignment, anticipated litigation and existing litigation with former Walnut Grove Elementary School principal Jon Vranesh.