The Valley Home Joint School District Board of Trustees voted 3-0 to hire Educational Leadership Associates (ELA) to facilitate the process to fill the interim Superintendent/Principal position at the Oct. 11 regular meeting. The district will be receiving a discounted fee of $6,000 for the contract term and not to exceed $6,500 from the firm owned by retired Oakdale Joint Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Wendell Chun. Trustees Ron Smith and Susan Calvin were absent.
Current interim Superintendent/Principal Fred Rich, who is also a retired OJUSD Superintendent, said it’s expected that the Valley Home board will be able to offer a contract by Dec. 17 and have a new interim administrator signed to a contract and in the role following the Christmas break for the spring 2012 semester.
According to the Superintendent/Principal Search timeline, after the approval at the meeting, the position was advertised and recruitment began. Ads will be placed in ACSA’s EDCAL for Oct. 24, 31, and Nov. 7, 14.
The community and staff will have input Oct. 27-28. The consultant, Chun, will then develop the leadership profile of expectations and qualifications.
On Nov. 8, the board will begin developing interview questions and each board member will individually select 15 questions from a bank of sample questions. The initial interview questions are due to the Valley Home School Executive Administrative Assistant on Nov. 14.
The timeline further states that the application process closes on Nov. 28 to allow ample time for advertising and for candidates to apply for the position. The applicant paper screening process will be done by the consultant and the board on Nov. 29. The board will receive copies of each candidate’s application and confidential files. From Nov. 29 through Dec. 6, Chun’s firm will complete reference checks on each candidate selected for interview. On Dec. 6, the board will receive Chun’s recommendations and select candidates to interview.
On Dec. 13, the board will choose the final interview questions, which will be due to ELS on Dec. 16. Interviews will be done by the board Dec. 16-17. The board will select the top candidates for second-level interviews. On Dec. 17, the board will make a tentative selection of a new superintendent. The board will also have the option to visit the community of the top candidate to validate their findings.
Dates to still be determined are when the board will negotiate the contract with the top candidate, and also when the board will take action to hire the superintendent and introduce the individual to the community.
For candidate privacy, some of the board’s meetings will be closed sessions.