Superintendent search group seeks community vision

Throughout the day last Thursday, teachers, students, parents, administrators, classified staff, community leaders, representatives from non profits, PTA, private citizens (retired, business owners, volunteers, etc.) met with Leadership Associates representatives Larry Aceves and Jim Brown to tell them what they hope for in the new superintendent for Sonoma Valley Unified School District. In the evening, seven Spanish-speaking parents and two English-speaking parents gathered in consecutive meetings to contribute their thoughts.
Brown said that generally, what he’d heard so far was that people wanted someone who is experienced and will be visible in the schools and community. “He or she should have good communication skills, good listening-speaking-writing skills, and have a collaborative, not ‘top-down’ style,” he said. “It would be desirable, too,” he said, if the person were bilingual and sensitive to different cultures.
In the evening meeting, people did not hesitate to bring up difficult questions. “How do we get the community to be one community?” one parent asked, explaining that it wasn’t just the English-speaking vs. non-English-speaking, but the achievers vs. those who don’t seem to want to do anything, who create big divides. “Yes,” Brown said, “we’ve heard that from a lot of people.” The parent expressed the hope that the new superintendent would have the kind of leadership that could bring diverse groups together.
Another thorny subject was the failure of Measure E. One parent said it wasn’t that they didn’t have community support, it was just hard to get 67 percent of the community support. Another said that people just hadn’t been sufficiently informed. Aceves said, “We have to get those people who think, ‘Why should I fund something that’s already failing?’”
When a parent asked whether the district, with its problems, will be appealing to a top candidate, Aceves smiled. “I often say, if I was still in the business, this is one I’d take a crack at. Well, this is one I’d take a crack at. It’s a half-full glass. So we just want to fill the rest of it.”
The group will start active recruiting this week. Their plan is to present to the board a list of three to five candidates that they hope will be hard to choose from, they will be so good. Then, they will recommend the board choose one to interview.