The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Public gives input on new superintendent

High school board plans to name its new chief July 29

By Katherine Petersen

The community wants to see a high school superintendent who will represent the district's diverse community, demonstrate strong leadership skills, be a visible figure on all campuses and be involved with community activities. More than 15 community leaders, parents and teachers spoke about important characteristics in a new superintendent at the high school board's July 15 public hearing.

Five people have turned in applications for the district's top position. The trustees began interviewing candidates July 19 and will finish on July 26.

The board hopes to announce the new superintendent at the July 29 meeting, board president Randy Okamura said.

Dawn Chu, a member of the Asian-American Parents Association, said the new superintendent should be a strong representative of the district's diverse community and be able to deal well with both "real and perceived" gang problems.

"We need a superintendent who really understands our high-tech, culturally rich community," Cupertino Vice Mayor Michael Chang said. "We have excellence in our schools but also have challenges of cultural difference that a superintendent must deal with both creatively and proactively."

Chang would like to see a superintendent who will make the rounds of the five campuses and interact with students.

"A superintendent needs to have intimate knowledge of what's going on in the schools and develop close relationships with parents and teachers," he said.

Allison Reynolds, who will be a senior at Homestead High School this fall, said she would like to at least know who the superintendent is.

"I didn't know who any of the board members [were] or [who] the superintendent was until I came to a board meeting," she said. "I didn't feel any positive effects from them at all."

Still fearful of a teachers' strike this fall, Reynolds hopes a new superintendent can make some headway in negotiating a contract with the Fremont Education Association.

Ed Walser, a special-education teacher in the high school district, agreed that a strike should be averted. He hopes the new superintendent will foster a comfortable relationship between the union and the district's administration.

"I feel strongly that the priority of us as teachers and administrators is to provide the best possible education for students," he said. "Students always come first. I hope the new superintendent shares my goals and aspirations."

Personnel must be a priority for the new superintendent, Walser said. The district needs new, young teachers and must be able to pay enough to get the most qualified ones.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 23, 1997.
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