The Palo Alto Unified School District will hold meetings in February to gather input from community members before selecting a replacement for resigning Paly Principal Jacqueline McEvoy, according to district officials.
Scott Bowers, the district’s assistant superintendent for human resources, is responsible for directing the hiring process for all PAUSD principals and other district assistant superintendents. Bowers will look to a Principal Selection Input Committee to gain insight into what qualities the Paly community looks for in a principal.
“We usually ask that members of the input committee are already elected representatives – people who have been willing to serve as part of the functioning community,” Bowers said. “The superintendent then has the benefit of the collective wisdom of the committee members.”
The input committee will consist of Site Council members, Associated Student Body representatives and staff members.
According to district procedure, after consulting with the input committee, Bowers will select approximately six to eight hopefuls from a pool of applicants for interviews in April.
Finally, after multiple rounds of interviews and reference checks on the finalists, Superintendent Kevin Skelly will make the final recommendation to the school board.
According to Bowers, this final stage usually takes approximately a week, which places the school board confirmation of the new principal in late April or early May.
School board member Barb Mitchell emphasized the importance of community input in the decision process.
“Our belief is that the staff, students, parents – the people closest to the knitting – have a great sense of the needs of the school,” Mitchell said.
To ensure privacy of applicants, however, community input meetings will not be open to the public, Bowers said.
Both Klausner and Mitchell expressed their appreciation for McEvoy’s early announcement of her resignation.
“We are fortunate that Dr. McEvoy was thoughtful enough to make her decision public earlier rather than later, which gives the district that much more time to conduct the new principal search,” Klausner said.
The school district’s Human Resources Department has wasted no time in beginning to recruit prospective principals. The deadline for applicants is March 19.
The school district published advertisements yesterday on http://www.EdJoin.org, an online education job board; in EdCal, a state publication; and in EdWeek, a national publication, according to Bowers.
“I suspect we’ll have about 30 to 40 applications,” Bowers said.
The advertisement on the EdJoin Web site (http://www.edjoin.org/viewPosting.aspx?postingID=318169&countyID=43) seeks “a dynamic educational leader” and lists responsibilities from “establishing an environment conducive to excellence in learning” to “building sound relations and communicating effectively with the central office, parents and the broader school community.”
The position, which advertises an annual salary of between $120,000 and $154,000 commensurate with experience, also requires a master’s degree.
“In Palo Alto, we typically have candidates whose resumes far exceed the minimum requirements for the job,” School Board President Barbara Klausner said. “The challenge is finding the right fit for each school community.”
Bowers, while acknowledging that “we do get exceptional candidates,” realizes that the district must select a principal from the choices available.
“After the parents and students have all come up with desired qualities, you’re looking for someone who walks on water,” Bowers said. “You look for an administration team that complements each other.”
Bowers, now in his fifth year of his current position, has presided over the hiring process of at least 10 principals throughout the school district, including the transition from former Paly principal Scott Laurence to McEvoy.
Paly has seen four principals in 10 years, according to Bowers. The list includes Fred Dreier, Sandra Pearson, Laurence and McEvoy.
“Change in an organization of this size is not unusual at all,” Bowers said. “We’re in a constant cycle of a number of people retiring and people simply moving on.”