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The Pleasanton school board announced two principal appointments at the start of their meeting Tuesday night.
Trustees selected Donlon Elementary School principal Sebastian Bull as the next principal of Foothill High, and Soraya Villaseñor — currently vice principal at Junction Ave K-8 School in Livermore — the next leader of Valley View Elementary.
Bull has been with PUSD since 1999, serving the last two years as Donlon principal. Before that he worked at Amador Valley High for 16 years, spending his last five years there as a vice principal.
He will replace Jason Krolikowski, who announced last month that he would be leaving at the end of June after four years leading the Falcons to become principal of San Ramon Valley High in Danville.
“Everybody who knows Mr. Bull loves Mr. Bull, and I know that Foothill High School will be fortunate to have him,” said Dianne Howell, assistant superintendent of human resources.
Speaking briefly at Tuesday night’s meeting, Bull joked that he “will be working on getting rid of my purple.”
“I love Pleasanton so it’s very exciting to still be here,” Bull said. “It’s going to be hard to leave Donlon — I do love that place — but I think Foothill is going to be an awesome opportunity.”
Bull received his bachelor’s degree in geography from UC Santa Barbara, his master’s degree in education and teaching credential from Mills College, and his administrative credential from Cal State East Bay.
Howell said the district would start recruiting for the Donlon principal position this week, with the goal of appointing a replacement for Bull at the June 13 or June 27 board meeting. The next principal will be Donlon’s seventh since 2009.
Villaseñor, meanwhile will replace Valley View principal Rafael Cruz, who is retiring at the end of June.
She has been in education for 15 years, serving the last year as a vice principal in Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. She previously worked at schools in Fremont and Inglewood.
“I am super excited of what’s to come and enthusiastic of making positive changes in our students,” Villaseñor said Tuesday.
Villaseñor earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from UCLA, a master’s degree in education and teaching credential from UC Berkeley, and her administrative credential from Cal State East Bay.
In other business
* Interim superintendent Micaela Ochoa gave a brief overview of Gov. Jerry Brown’s May revision, which is the updated projected 2017-18 state budget, and its anticipated financial impact on the district.
The May revision projects increased funding for education over what was initially proposed in January. As a result, PUSD is anticipating roughly $150,000 more in revenue from the state next fiscal year, according to Ochoa.
A hearing on the budget is planned for the next board meeting June 13, with adoption anticipated June 27.
* Pleasanton’s 2017 valedictorians and salutatorians were recognized at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.
The valedictorians are Amador Valley High student Charles Hong and Foothill High student Arnav Patel. Salutatorians are Amador student Manan Khattar and Foothill’s Ryan Panwar.
Hong, Khattar and Panwar will attend UC Berkeley in the fall, while Patel will head to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Graduation day for Foothill and Amador is June 2.
I was hoping the secretive school board would at last have some common sense for a change and release the name of the superintendent finalist.
Obviously, though it is unclear whether out of laziness or incompetence whether the board either doesn’t or can’t Google candidates, we know the school board and their set of administrative staff, though they seemed to have Google Mail and Google Everything Else on the Planet and seem to have no problem Googling and copying word for word resolutions like the so-called “Safe Haven” resolutions from other districts, it seems to have not mastered the ability to perform a simple Google search
They continuously prove to the public that they are beyond helpless in this. How do we know this? Let us count the ways:
1. Can’t or don’t use Google to screen candidates
2. Can’t or don’t use Google to find out whether a university that wants to rent space on their property holdings is real or not
3. Can’t or don’t use Google to review what is regularly covered in local newspapers (e.g., the various tons of ink regarding Ochoa from the San Jose Mercury News)
4. Can’t or don’t use Google to screen contractors
5. Can’t or don’t use Google to find properties that may be available for future school locations
6. Can’t or don’t use Google to know what properties they have already passed up way back when for school locations
… and much more.
Yet again, they are insisting on having their finalist’s name kept “secret.”
Why do they keep following the same failed process time and time again? Why can they never alter their process when time and time again, even though when sticking to their old process, they come out looking like complete inept amateurs every time?
It is time for them to reveal the superintendent finalist candidate. Now.
I will bet that they do not post any visitation trip and will attempt to keep everything secret. I never recall them posting a visitation trip for any previous superintendent candidate. If they posted a visitation trip for Casey or Ahmadi or Rubino, I have absolutely no recollection of it.
I’m sorry – “They were advised not to visit the last superintendent’s district?” And that threw up zero red flags? Wow.
PUSD is having major problems retaining talent! The great status of this district is going to pot because we can’t keep talented administration. Incredibly angry with PUSD for allowing Donlon to have yet another principal 7 principals in 8 years! Mr. Bull is incredibly talented, and I thought we had finally been rewarded for our patience is new principals every year, but to no avail, they don’t care about Donlon, But the lack of steady leadership is incredibly alarming, scandals follow PUSD leaders, and that has made the PUSD a hornets nest for administrators. I think given the incredibly sad state of leadership in PUSD that we should band together as parents and petition the state to dissolve the PUSD and start over, it is an incredibly flawed organization. New district and every position will have to re interview, it will be a great way to weed out crap, the good people (there are many) in the district can stay as they’ll have no issues getting hired, but we need to get rid of all the dead weight.
Yay for Valley View! Soraya Villaseñor is fabulous! Smart, competent, compassionate, and respected by all who know her. We whole-heartedly welcome her to PUSD, she’ll be missed at Junction K-8!
We will know the finalist when the Board posts the visitation trip to that candidate’s district. At that point I imagine we can overload Google looking for information.
They were advised not to visit the last superintendent’s district. I don’t think that will happen again. I’d have to look for Casey or Ahmadi.
I cannot remember whether the district posted the announcement that they were visiting Ahmadi’s district, but I do know for sure that there were 9-12 community members who participated in interviewing the semi-finalists (Ahmadi and a few others) before the board made the choice to do final vetting on Ahmadi and offer her the position. I believe it was the first time the trustees had tried out that approach, and I thought it was helpful.
I am not sure if it was attempted again during the hiring process that produced Rubino.
I’ve been saying for quite some time that some new educational options need to move into our community to provide some real variety for our kids and competition for the district. I have heard that at the next first Wednesday Downtown Street Party will be a booth for an independent study charter school (Delta Charter School) and that they will be advertising their school and their programs. I did a quick search on the school’s webpage and found them to be the real deal. They have been operating successfully for over 15 years and have a good track record. I plan to find their booth, welcome them to the community, and offer my help to spreadding the word of their presence.
P’town Mama, reference calls were made. Board members made calls. It isn’t like they did no vetting. That the board was advised that a visit wasn’t necessary was exactly why some did not want the same firm to redo the search. Fool me once . . .
Jim, sorry about Donlon, but rallying now, just before a new person takes the leadership role, wouldn’t serve students well.