By Shari Kaplan
The Los Gatos Union School District Board of Trustees held a special meeting May 13 to discuss with consultant Lee Mahon and her team of professional screeners the characteristics they would like to see in a superintendent.
The team consists of Betty Pacheco, former superintendent of the Fremont Union High School District; Mary Frances Callan, superintendent of Milpitas Unified School District; and Kerry Bouchier, a board member of the Los Lomitas Elementary School District in Menlo Park.
Board members, as well as teachers and parents in the audience, shared ideas that eventually amounted to a list of more than 25 suggestions for what a superintendent should be. With the May 17 application deadline now past, Mahon and her assistants will begin the process of screening the 37 applicants and their résumés, doing reference checks and noting applicants whose qualifications are best matched with the needs of the district. The team is taking into account input from the May 13 meeting. Candidate qualities listed included:
* active on a professional level in the community;
* able to promote a "vision" for what the district can become;
* a caring "people person;"
* technologically literate and familiar with developments in the ways computers can enrich education;
* experienced on the elementary-school level;
* willing to "roll up their sleeves" and work along with a small staff.
In closed session on June 3, Mahon will report back to the board with the names of 10 to 12 candidates culled from the original 37. The board will select approximately six to interview.
Interim Superintendent Steve Peck expects to see a new superintendent in place before school begins this fall.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 29, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved