THE WEST CONTRA COSTA Unified College District is becoming a member of a couple of dozen different California faculty districts searching for its subsequent chief. The superintendent place is the district’s highest-paid job, and filling it is likely one of the most important selections a faculty board could make.
College board members accepted a $45,000 contract with Management Associates throughout a particular board assembly final month to recruit the East Bay district’s new chief. The agency has carried out superintendent and different faculty management searches for 28 years and is presently additionally trying to find superintendents for Las Lomitas Elementary College District, Tamalpais Union Excessive College District, San Pasqual Valley Unified College District and the Santa Clara Workplace of Training.
At West Contra Costa, interim Superintendent Kim Moses changed Chris Hurst in December after he introduced his retirement. Hurst led the district for greater than three years and stepped right down to take care of a member of the family with well being challenges.
The brand new chief will face daunting challenges, together with ensuring the district doesn’t run out of money and is positioned underneath state management. Additionally, like different California districts, the district is coping with instructor shortages, low take a look at scores and assembly the wants of its numerous and huge low-income scholar inhabitants.
“One thing that would be very crucial, given our current circumstances as a district, would be crisis management,” mentioned scholar board member Jorge Espinoza Jr. in the course of the particular assembly. “That would include not only advocacy for our students as well as our staff and teachers and principals, but transparency when communicating.”
College students and households deserve a frontrunner who will drive educational good points and “have the courage to disrupt the status quo,” mentioned an official with Go Public Colleges West Contra Costa, a nonprofit advocating for high quality schooling, in a press release.
“This is a chance for the district to either repair or deepen the wounds caused by years of broken trust and stagnant progress,” mentioned Natalie Walchuk, Go Public Colleges’ vice chairman of native influence. “The next superintendent must be someone who can restore transparency, rebuild accountability and deliver real results for all our students.”
Prioritizing cultural competency
Board member Cinthia Hernandez mentioned the subsequent superintendent must be somebody who commits to fairness and is culturally competent. Practically 59% of the scholar inhabitants was Hispanic or Latino within the 2023-24 faculty yr; about 12% of scholars had been Black or African American, whereas 10% had been Asian and 9% white.
About 63% of West Contra Costa college students certified free of charge or decreased lunch in 2023-24 and 32% had been English learners, based on state knowledge. Practically 26,000 college students are enrolled within the district’s 54 faculties throughout Richmond, San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules and El Cerrito.
“They (the next superintendent) have to be innovative, inclusive and bilingual in whatever language —the more languages the better,” mentioned board member Guadalupe Enllana. “They have to know how to listen, not just hear.”
“I want an anti-racist leader. Understanding our district is not just knowing the data of our district. Understanding our district is really understanding who we are and what we need. I want someone who chooses us.”
WCCUSD Trustee Jamela Smith-Folds
For board member Jamela Smith-Folds, nonetheless, understanding range, fairness and inclusion is just not sufficient.
“I want an anti-racist leader,” she mentioned in the course of the particular assembly. “Understanding our district is not just knowing the data of our district. Understanding our district is really understanding who we are and what we need. I want someone who chooses us.”
Smith-Folds mentioned the district wants somebody who understands the funds and has confirmed to enhance educational outcomes and faculty tradition. She urged those that haven’t attended a West Contra Costa board assembly or different committee conferences to not apply.
“There is a difference between transparency and honesty,” she added. “Transparency is, ‘If you ask me I’m going to tell you.’ Honesty is, “I’m going to tell you before you ask.’ I want an honest leader.”
Many districts are additionally trying to find leaders
The aim for West Contra Costa is to rent a superintendent by June — about two months earlier than the 2025-26 faculty yr begins. It’s typical for districts to need superintendents to begin earlier than the beginning of the varsity yr. Group engagement with stakeholders, surveys of communities, and listening classes will ramp up within the coming months.
Hiring leaders is tough at a time when many superintendents have retired or left due to heightened political climates at board conferences, stress and threats. Districts throughout the state are additionally coping with dwindling enrollment, faculty closures, funds cuts, and leftover results of the pandemic, together with decrease take a look at scores and the necessity for extra social-emotional assist.
These challenges have induced veteran superintendents to retire early and get replaced with much less skilled educators. Newly elected board members have additionally pushed out superintendents. And districts are keen to pay high greenback to discover a match for the high-stress job.
No less than six open superintendent positions in California are posted by means of the Affiliation of California College Directors Profession Middle. Greater than a dozen open positions are posted on EdJoin.
Superintendent search timeline
Prior superintendent searches present that the West Costa Unified College District group needs to be concerned.
Final time Management Associates looked for the superintendent, about 5,000 survey responses had been submitted — essentially the most the agency has acquired from a district, mentioned Jim Brown, a associate with the agency.
“One of the reasons is the communication office and the principals and the teacher leaders did a really good job at making sure at almost every meeting that was held, there were copies of the survey and computers available, so people can fill out the survey,” Brown instructed the board in the course of the particular assembly. “We’re hoping for repetition of that.”
Sometimes, 1,000 survey responses is an efficient signal of group engagement, mentioned Sandra Sánchez-Thorstenson, associate at Management Associates.
Board member Smith-Folds reiterated the significance of surveys being consultant of various areas of the group.
Management Associates will start partaking the West Contra Costa group, employees, educators and college students in the course of February. A survey might be despatched out to the varied communities from Feb. 17 to March 3.
Management Associates will determine potential candidates in February and March. The deadline for functions is March 24. Purposes might be reviewed in April, and interviews might be carried out in Could.
The district’s subsequent superintendent is slated to be employed on the finish of Could or the start of June with a begin date of July 1.
This story initially appeared in EdSource.
