By LESTER CHANG
Seeking a new superintendent who would strengthen cultural appreciation, a handful of parents at a school meeting Nov. 19 asked that community members be allowed to help screen applicants for the job.
But the majority of the Cupertino Union School District board has balked at the idea of allowing residents to sit on a screening committee, saying the job of questioning applicants to replace retiring Superintendent Pat Lamson should be done by retired or acting superintendents.
The request by parents came some two weeks after the board, by a 3-1 vote, approved a process that did not include a community representative on the screening committee.
The approved process generally calls for a screening committee to locate candidates and for the board to interview and select a new superintendent.
Only board member Barry Chang voted against the process, saying he thought there should be a community member on the screening committee. Fellow board member Sandra James attended the meeting, but left before she could vote, due to illness.
The need to have residents on a screening committee was later voiced by some of the 10 parents who met with Dr. Lee Mahon at Sedgwick Elementary School Nov. 19.
Mahon, who works for Trident Enterprises, a Millbrae-based executive search firm hired by the district for $16,000, held the meeting to get public comments on qualities residents wanted to see in the next superintendent. Mahon also met with parents at a similar meeting at Cupertino Junior High School Nov. 20.
At the Nov. 19 meeting, Ben Liao, a member of the Asian American Parents Association, said the search wouldn't be complete without the participation of community members on a screening committee, which would conduct background checks and present candidates for the board to consider.
The association's board voted Nov. 21 to write a letter to the school board asking it to consider having a community member on the screening committee.
The association, made up of professionals and business people, is a nonprofit group whose focus is to help the Cupertino elementary district and the Fremont Union High School District remain among the best school districts in California.
"Having community involvement is important," said Liao, who has two children attending Faria Elementary School. "The new superintendent is important to me. ...He or she will decide the fate of my children."
Chang, who attended the Nov. 19 meeting, told some parents the community should play a bigger role in selecting Lamson's successor, but declined to elaborate.
Board President Debbie Byron said retired and active superintendents, who would sit on the screening committee, are best-suited for the job.
"The board chose the selection process to identify the very best superintendent possible," Byron said. "We will make sure our screening committee will be representative of the community."
Following a four-month nationwide search, the district hopes to name a new superintendent by early March.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.