Editorial: An Open Letter to the Sonoma Valley School Board 

Don’t Blow It Again

Dear Trustees,

Sonoma Valley Unified School Board has an abysmal record in hiring superintendents. The last three served only two years each, and two of those three required heavy payouts, then you gifted a bonus to the most recent superintendent after she had announced her departure. All this in a District facing a huge budget deficit caused by the Board spending down its reserves as student population declined drastically. 

With the June departure of the last Superintendent, Dr Jeanette Rodreguez-Chien, the situation was so critical that the County Superintendent of Schools intervened,  proposing a retired superintendent hired by the Sonoma County Office of Education direct our District’s hiring process. Unfortunately, that person, Brandon Kreuger, had to resign for personal reasons. Now the County has washed its hands of our search process, leaving it in the hands of two professional consultants, both former superintendents in Sonoma County. But you hired them on November 18, with Trustee Ching absent, without them doing the necessary homework. One of them, before you hired him, unbelievably stated, “I sense, or maybe I read, that you have had some turnover.” Turnover indeed. 

The two consultants hired to direct the superintendent search  presented a document of stakeholder concerns called “Common Threads,” but it is not what it purports to be. It is simply a collection of unusable raw materials, lists from all the stakeholder listening sessions. Please require the consultants to consolidate that material into a profile identifying which qualities and experience were most frequently mentioned, and to clearly define the unequivocally required qualifications. And then, most importantly, adapt that candidate profile into a rubric that the public gets to see and comment on before you Trustees use it to vet and rank the candidates you interview.  

We are concerned that you voted to eliminate the Advisory Committee that provided for teacher and community participation in the interview process. President Landry, in your communication to the community, you justified eliminating that participation on the grounds that selecting a superintendent is the main job of a school board. 

The previous three superintendent searches did not include participation by stakeholders in the screening or interview process. If you are not going to include stakeholders in the process, it is even more important that you be very clear about what criteria you are using and prioritizing. Trustees come and go; the teachers, staff and parents of the district are here for much longer and have to live with the consequences of board decisions, none more important than who they hire to lead our District. 

We understand that Trustees David Bell, Gerardo Guzman and Jason Lehman had no part in the selection of the past three superintendents. Board President Catarina Landry participated only in the selection of the most recent departee, Dr. Rodriguez-Chien; and Trustee Anne Ching has witnessed the failure of two superintendents selected on her watch. But all five of you can learn from the past. 

The series of debacles in District leadership was preceded by the long  and very successful leadership of Superintendent Louann Carlomagno. This could be an object lesson: she was a  Sonoma local and former teacher and principal in our District. Her tenure was distinguished. She was respected and beloved.

Trustees, we need you to get this right, and we will all be watching closely to do everything we can to ensure you do.

Sonoma Valley Sun Editorial Board