There will be an open forum at the EUSD DIstrict Office tonight. Rene Townsend and Mike Caston of the consultant firm Leadership Associates are heading the search. You can email Rene Townsend at renetown@cox.net and Mike Caston at mwcaston@cox.net with your hopes of what you want in a superintendent if you can't make the forum.
A parent spoke at last Tuesday's board meeting about her concern about the lack of transparency in the superintendent selection process, and specifically her concerns about contributions made by Rene Townsend to sitting board members campaigns possibly leading to Leadership Associates hiring. Whether those allegations are true, I don't know but I do know Del Mar Union School District went through the same process last year, and the process is the same. One of the board members at the February board meeting said something to the effect of "This is the main job the board is elected to do." The process needs to be timely and effective. My district went almost a year without a superintendent, which is possibly the reason why the budget is hitting us so hard. Make the forum if you can, definitely email your hopes and expectations, and expect our elected officials to keep our kids best interests as their top priority.
9 comments:
This accusation (Leadership Associates making campaign contributions to board members' Strich's, Parker's, Skiljian's & Regan's campaigns) is absolutely true and could be verified with official documents at the San Diego County Voter's Registration office.This is a conflict of interest.
1. Few would dispute that a search firm should be used in this situation; the issue is that the contract with the search firm was not taken out to bid, especially given the high costs.
2. There was no accusation that Rene Townsend's contributions to sitting board members campaigns led to Leadership Associates' hiring. The accusation was simply one of a lack of transparency and openness on the matter.
3. The last issue also related to lack of transparency, that the Board WILL NOT allow a parent or teacher to sit on the hiring committee, thereby ensuring buy in from both parties. This may be "the job the Board was elected to do", but one would hope they would aspire to do it with parent & teacher input and support. Apparently not. Just like when they hired Paul Ecke's new Principal.
I met with the selection 'team' today and felt they listened to my group's input. However, i'm slightly disturbed that this is the ONLY stage of the selection process where parental/community input is allowed. There will be NO input outside of the EUSD board for the candidates selected.
Parents, please make your voice heard. The current board needs to understand that they are practically the only people with a pulse that were fond of Lean King. We as parents and VOTERS need to remind them that our votes count, and should we get Lean King II, there will be some serious shake up of board members come election time.
My understanding is that MO Muir is the only Trustee that agrees with allowing 1 parent and 1 teacher on the final selection process. Why is it that the other Veteran Trustee's don't GET IT!!!
Doesn't anyone realize that -why is there a Board? Strich, Skiljin ,Parker and Regan only listen to King. Why not just cut out the middle man and ask King who he has decided on!
These Board Member should resign. It is unthinkable what they did in taking this money.
Why doesn't the board want us to "really" participate in the selection process - is it because they have already accepted money from the new superintendent???
The EUSD has given notice to 18 teachers. More non- teachering employees were given termination notices. The Board needs to make sure-in this market-that they make sure to lower the 200k+ that is being paid to the past superintendant.
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