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The search process for a new Sunol Glen School principal and superintendent is moving forward as the district Board of Trustees met with its search consultant last week and laid out a timeline for recruitment which could have the trustees begin interviewing potential candidates within two weeks.
However, public speakers told the board during its special meeting that they thought the process is being done too quickly and that community input — both from Sunol residents and from commuter parents — needs to be a priority as the school decides who will take the place of longtime Superintendent-Principal Molleen Barnes after this academic year ends.
“The timeline that we have put out is absolutely concerning and that’s what’s talked about on the schoolyard between the teachers, between the families, between everyone,” Erin Choin, a Sunol resident and parent, said at the March 26 meeting.
She said that while she and the community understand there is some sense of urgency to replace Barnes, attempting to do so within a matter of months might not be realistic.
“We think somehow lightning is going to strike and within this very short amount of time, we are going to find some candidate that’s going to come in and wow us,” Choin said.
Barnes, who held the dual position at Sunol for over 16 years, first announced her retirement at the end of January. She previously said mental health and stress were some of the factors for her decision to leave.
After her announcement, the Alameda County Office of Education agreed to help pay about $13,000 for the hiring of a superintendent search firm, which the Sunol school board unanimously agreed during its March 12 meeting would be Leadership Associates, an employment firm based in Glendora — located in Los Angeles County.
The board then decided to hold a special meeting last week so that Donald Evans, one of the Leadership Associates partners who will be working on the search, could come back to begin asking the board questions and setting up dates for the three trustees to start interviewing candidates.
Evans asked the trustees things like what kind of a superintendent they wanted for the small school, what the district’s strengths are and what challenges the incoming superintendent would have to face if they are hired.
The three trustees all said that they want the new superintendent to be a good leader who can resolve conflicts, can handle the day-to-day interactions of both the principal and the superintendent, and can be someone who can build those same relationships that Barnes made with the students, parents and school staff.
As for the district’s strengths that might make the job more appealing for the candidates, Board President Ryan Jergensen said that the small rural town makes it so that there is a lot of interaction between the school and the community. But he also said that because the town has been growing, social interaction has been affected.
Trustee Linda Hurley said that the social interaction in the town is being affected because Sunol has “gotten a little bigger than I think a lot of us feel comfortable with”.
Hurley also said it would be nice if the district could find a superintendent that wasn’t as expensive but the only way that would happen is if the school didn’t have as many students as it currently does.
“We have a school that was originally built … for a smaller number of students,” Hurley said. “I think that it would be nice if we didn’t have to have quite so many people here, we ran a number of years with a smaller number of children, and it was quite sufficient.”
But Trustee Peter “Ted” Romo and many other public speakers took that as an insult to commuter students who make up about 80% of the nearly 300 students at the school and said that it’s important to keep these students as part of the conversation because without them, the school wouldn’t have any funding.
“The school as a whole is an academic beacon,” Romo said. “It’s one of the best schools in the state. That is its strength and one of its draws. That’s why people want to come here, that’s why 80% of the students here are from outside of the district itself. So to suggest to reduce that seems counterproductive.”
Other parents also said that commuter students are key stakeholders because they make up so much of the school’s population and they should have more of a voice when it comes to getting input from the community on who should be the new superintendent.
Some community members said they were a bit mad when the board announced it was holding last week’s special meeting at the last minute and some said commuters need to be more involved as the search process continues.
“I think that really needs to be conveyed to our new superintendent candidate. They need to understand that yes, there are people who live in the town and yes, there are people who choose to come here and all of those voices are important,” said Kindra Mendall, a former Sunol parent. “Our school wouldn’t exist and survive and have the academic programs we have … if we didn’t have these outside students.”
Choin added that she felt the board and Leadership Associates need to do better as they move to gather input from parents, residents and other community members because as Evans pointed out, the search firm will be sending out a survey to the various stakeholders from April 1-15, which Choin said is when a lot of people are out on vacation for spring break.
“Your survey to talk to all the stakeholders in the school … just really reeks of disenfranchisement,” Choin said. “We do have so many international students in this school. When we have a week off, they leave the country. Paying attention to this survey, when they’re getting ready to do such a large trip out of the country is not feasible, and it’s not practical.”
But while many spoke out during public comment about the fast-tracked timeline to get a new superintendent and about wanting to get someone as qualified and experienced as Barnes, there were some who said that people need to give the possible candidates a chance and that the new candidates need to be people who will be focused on bringing the community together.
“Get over it, guys. You’re not going to find her,” Sunol resident Bob Frillman said regarding finding someone exactly like Barnes. “Don’t worry about who’s going to show up, you’ll get a good candidate. You’ll get a candidate who will grow into Molly Barnes.”
Another challenge that the new superintendent will have to face that was discussed at the meeting was the recall election that is set to take place in July for Jergensen and Hurley. Evans said that the plan is to get a new superintendent approved and hired by June 18 and Romo said that the new hire will have to be aware of the tension between the three board members.
Kelly Goldsmith, a Sunol parent who commutes from Fremont, said that as someone who has been in charge of the recall campaign of the two trustees, she is worried about how the new superintendent will have to deal with the community, teachers and staff who have all lost their confidence in the two trustees.
She said she is also concerned about the fact that if Hurley and Jergensen are recalled and whoever, if anyone, is appointed by the current board in June is deemed not fit by a new board in July, then it could pose more problems.
“It seems there is great financial and perhaps legal liability to the district if the superintendent-principal is removed from their posts, and a contract buyout is necessary,” Goldsmith said.
She finally said that while she hopes the district finds its “unicorn” superintendent who is a perfect fit, she still wants to see some sort of safety plan for what happens if they don’t find anyone throughout the search process.
After further discussion with the board, Evans took Romo’s suggestion of meeting with stakeholders during community forums on April 15 and April 18 so that as many people can be heard. He also said he will make sure to bring in commuter parents to get their voices heard as well.
He also echoed what Frillman said and added that he hopes the community will give the new hire a chance to grow into the next Barnes but either way, Leadership Associates will make sure it does everything it can during its vetting process to find someone who can fill those shoes.
Evans added that while he understood the concern about the fast tracked timeline for the search, he is confident that they can find someone in these next few months and if not, they will not stop until they find the perfect person for the job.
“Usually, we take about three months and we’ve been very successful in getting … good, qualified candidates,” Evans said. “Sometimes we do find the perfect person, but there are times we don’t. But we will not stop. We will keep trying to find that right person, we will try to include everyone in this process, we will try to be as transparent as we can.”
