The controversial reign of Superintendent Tim Cuneo ends in June when he retires. This will be the fourth superintendent for the school district since 2006.
By Knowles Adkisson / Special to The Malibu Times
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education heard bids from three search firms at a special meeting Monday vying to conduct the search for outgoing Superintendent Tim Cuneo’s replacement, settling on the Los Angeles search firm Leadership Associates.
The contract is worth $28,500 and will be finalized at a special meeting Jan. 3, pending a review of references from other school districts that have used Leadership Associates in their own superintendent searches. Cuneo is stepping down in June for retirement.
It was the second meeting of the Board with new members Laurie Lieberman and Nimish Patel. The board voted last week to name board members Jose Escarce and Ben Allen as president and vice-president, respectively.
The recent history of SMMUSD superintendents is turbulent. The new superintendent will be the fourth permanent one since 2006, when John Deasy left the post for a school district in Maryland. His replacement, Dianne Talarico, lasted just two years before leaving for a district in Northern California. Cuneo was appointed interim superintendent, and seven months later he assumed the full title.
Several board members stressed their desire that the next superintendent commit to a long tenure.
Peggy Lynch, who will lead the search for Leadership Associates, told the board on Monday that the average tenure of superintendents in school districts comparable to SMMUSD was six or seven years.
The next superintendent will inherit significant challenges. Funding for education has been drastically reduced statewide, and the board was forced to make painful personnel cuts in May. The new superintendent will also have to learn how to balance competing interests from Malibu and Santa Monica constituents. Outgoing Superintendent Cuneo angered many Malibu parents with his strong opposition to the Point Dume Marine Science School Charter Application. Malibu City Councilmember Laura Rosenthal, at the Dec. 2 hearing during which the board voted to deny the charter, accused Cuneo of spreading rumors of teacher terminations at other Malibu schools should Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School attain charter status. Parents from Point Dume also said Cuneo had indicated that the school would be on the chopping block and close if the district’s financial crisis worsened. He has denied the allegations.
Leadership Associates is a Los Angeles search firm comprised of nine former California superintendents. The firm would present the board with three to five final candidates. Direct interviews between the candidates and the board would then take place over the course of two days, until a candidate is chosen. The process would likely conclude in May or June.
Each of the three search firms who competed for the contract testified that the names of the superintendent candidates would have to be kept confidential from the public. Lynch classified SMMUSD as “absolutely a high-profile, marquee district that [candidates] will want to know about.” Since most of the candidates will be superintendents in other school districts, confidentiality is necessary, she said, in order to field the best possible pool of candidates. Lynch said that sitting superintendents do not want to damage relationships with their districts if they do not get the job, and so would withdraw their names from consideration if the search was made public.
Several board members stressed the need not to restrict the search to California superintendents.
“I like the concept of a national search,” said Board Member Oscar De La Torre.
Board member Ralph Mechur agreed, stating that California’s unique educational laws and financial environment should not prevent consideration of candidates in other states. “A good [candidate] is going to be able to learn really quickly the local rules,” Mechur said.
Board of Education actions
– The Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a resolution supporting the full funding of County Mental Health Services for students with disabilities. A budget cut proposed by outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Oct. 8 shifted $133 million in annual Special Education funding away from counties (24 counties has banded together in a lawsuit against the state over the cut). The annual bill for SMMUSD would be as much as $4 million, a potentially crippling figure. The board’s resolution will express its support for the full funding to the Santa Monica City Council.
– At the Dec. 9 Board of Education meeting, the board voted unanimously to restore two nursing positions to the school district that had been eliminated by the board in austerity measures passed in the summer. Nurses had warned that an unmanageable workload was putting children’s health at risk. The two positions will be added for the rest of the school year, after which they will be re-evaluated.