PIEDMONT — The school board ratified the contract with the search firm that will handle the recruitment for a new school superintendent to replace Connie Hubbard, who is retiring at the end of this school year.
Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates was chosen from a field of several firms that presented proposals to the board at a Nov. 21 special public meeting.
The district is paying a $21,500 consultant fee, with additional fees for national advertising, reimbursement for travel expenses of candidates invited for interviews by the consultants, and detailed background checks at $850 to $1,500 for top candidates.
Consultants Bill Levinson and Barbara Young, both of whom were school superintendents, presented their recruitment plan to the board.
“We are confident with our process,” Young said, “with each board member having a piece of the search. Any candidates from the inside will go through the same process as outside candidates.”
The consultants plan to meet with all stakeholder groups as part of the search: parents, teachers, parent clubs, high school leadership students and the rank and file.
They will screen all applicants and cull it down to 10 to 15 candidates, then down to four to seven candidates who will meet with the board for confidential interviews. The three top candidates will take a tour of the schools, then meet informally for dinner with the board, Levinson said. The firm also will mount an online survey accessible to the public that asks what qualities are sought for a superintendent and use responses to develop a leadership profile.
In other business at the Dec. 10 board meeting, chief business official Song Chin-Bendib reviewed the first interim financial report. The board adopted a positive certification that the district will be able to meet its obligations for current and two following fiscal years, but not without belt-tightening in the future.
“If there is not enough money to pay everyone, there would have to be layoffs” in the future, trustee Rick Raushenbush said.
“I’m very concerned about the third year out. There are many unknowns. We will try to maintain what we have,” Hubbard said.
Legislated employer/employee additional contributions to the State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) will rise every year until those pension funds are fully funded in 31 years, Chin-Bendib said.
The increase in CalSTRS employer contributions will cost the district about $735,000 in increased costs over three years. CalPERS costs are estimated to cost the district $182,000 through 2016-17.
“We are facing a shortfall of $1 million in three years,” Hubbard said. “Unreasonable.”
Gain some ground, “then boom, something happens,” Hubbard said.
The district’s budget is stable for now with an ending general fund balance of $2.3 million, including a 4 percent reserve for economic uncertainty.
Chin-Bendib noted that the support from outside sources such as the Piedmont Educational Foundation, fundraisers, the school support tax and other contributions help keep the district in the black.
