Chairs were set up at Del Mar Hills Academy anticipating a big crowd for the superintendent search input forum. Only three parents showed up Monday night.
By Karen Billing
Source: Del Mar Times, June 6, 2008
As the Del Mar Union School District is on the hunt for a new superintendent, the School Board has sought the opinions of others to help find a perfect match. So far they haven't received much help.
To find out what parents are looking for, the district held three community input forums last week led by hired consultants, The Cosca Group. At three separate meetings at different schools in the district, a total of eight parents showed up. While the groups were small, they nonetheless gave input about the district's strengths, what they need to work on and what kind of person they are looking for to fill the superintendent role.
Only one parent attended the first meeting last Thursday at Ocean Air School. The second, on Monday morning at Ashley Falls School was attended by just four and the last on Monday evening at Del Mar Hills Academy had three parents in a multi-use room set with at least a hundred empty chairs.
"After everything that has happened, I'm shocked," said Sage Canyon parent Laura Eidelson of the low turnout. "After he left it was standing room only."
Eidelson was referring to Tom Bishop, the former superintendent who resigned earlier this year after a contract buyout.
The Cosca Group is a group of 30 consultants — many of them former superintendents — who help school districts with superintendent searches. They will meet with many different groups over the next few weeks — with the parent portion completed, they will now move onto district staff, teachers and principals.
"This is the first step and what we feel the most important step," said Dr. Bill Bragg, a consultant with Cosca.
After they complete the meeting process they will begin the national recruiting process, which will be guided by the input they've received. The school board will receive all input but names will not be attributed to comments.
Those parents who missed the meetings but still wish to have a say can download a survey form from the Del Mar Union Web site. Those comments will also be anonymous.
"The board really wants this," said consultant Frank Cosca of the input process. "The board selected us because we do this rather than other boards that don't because they opt to keep the process closed."
Consultants Bragg and Ken Noonan led all of the meetings, with consultant Frank Cosca attending just the Monday morning one. All of the meetings generated different thoughts although most agreed that the district's strengths lie in catering to the whole child and that it most needs the help in the areas of strategic planning and communication.
In the mostly empty Ocean Air auditorium, the one anonymously participating parent brainstormed alone on the three topics of strengths, needs and superintendent characteristics.
A new parent to the district, her kindergartner was making a successful transition to public school and enjoying her time at Ocean Air. She said the district has "all the right ideas in getting kids to learn." Other strengths listed included principals, teachers, the facilities and the extended studies curriculum. The extended studies curriculum (ESC) includes science, technology, music, art and PE programs and is helped in funding by the Del Mar Schools Foundation.
Of the district's needs and issues, the new parent said she could sense there was a lot of controversy with the board, the foundation and the Spanish language program at Del Mar Heights School.
Characteristics of a good superintendent to her included being "really good with warring factions" and bringing things "out of the closet."
At Ashley Falls, listed strengths of the district were high test scores, ESC, high level of parent involvement, high expectations for student behavior, the zero tolerance for bullying and how the district teaches to the whole child.
One of the biggest needs the four parents listed was that of the district needing to figure out how to stabilize funding for ESC. Other issues they listed included communication, better strategic planning (such as with the Shores property), a perception that the board micromanages, and teacher's contracts. With the teacher's contracts, they felt "Bishop was beholden to the teachers, not parents" and had issues with the amount of prep time they get throughout the day with ESC they should have the time to be available to parents after school. They felt some teachers have not been accessible to parents by getting out the door by 2:35 p.m.
The group felt the new superintendent should be someone who is visible and treats teachers and principals as professionals and letting them do their job. They also wanted someone who has the ability to make thoughtful decisions based on input from different stakeholders and once they make that decision to stick to it and clearly communicate it.
The ESC program was again listed as one of the district's biggest strengths at Del Mar Hills on Monday night. Parents also liked the district's 20:1 ratio in the lower grades, the focus on the whole child philosophy, strong parent involvement, strong Professional Learning Collaborative (PLC) and the fact that parents can earmark the funds they donate toward certain things or projects.
The group of three parents was able to fill up four sheets of paper to list the district's issues. Many of the issues were surrounding the board. The board was called inefficient, financially irresponsible, poor planners and one parent felt they favored and catered to certain schools, as three board members are Del Mar Heights parents. Another parent said that she did not see the favoritism but did agree that there was ineffective communication on the board.
The parents felt the board micromanaged and behaved inappropriately by visiting schools and classrooms unannounced and have divided the community with the Foundation and ESC instead of "bringing the community together." They felt there is a lot of mistrust and also that the board has a lack of respect for parents and teachers.
Other issues brought up were that the district has no full day kindergarten or GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) and seminar classes.
"Because of No Child Left Behind they only pull the bottom up and don't worry about the top," one parent said. "I don't think they value gifted and talented kids."
This group felt that in a superintendent they most wanted someone who values and builds relationships, really understands parents and teachers and someone who's had success in making difficult situations work. They wanted someone who values educating the whole child is a strategic thinker, a good communicator and an innovative thinker.
They also said with the current situation, the superintendent should be someone who has both a sense of humor and a bulletproof vest.
"They have to be strong and be able to stand their ground," said one parent.
Parent input forms on the superintendent search are available online at dmusd.org.
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