Fresno Unified’s hot-mess search for new superintendent gets a needed reboot | Opinion

Hopefully emotions have cooled now that the Fresno Unified School District board has rebooted its search for a new superintendent.

A moment of calm can afford the trustees the chance to develop a renewed hiring process that is more disciplined than the last one. The end goal that everyone should want is to hire a new chief administrator who can skillfully manage California’s third-largest school district into a place where student achievement rises and teachers feel valued.

If that leader could be a Latino man or woman, given that Hispanic students are the solid majority in FUSD, so much the better.

The district announced in January that Superintendent Bob Nelson would step down July 31 for a tenure-track faculty position at Fresno State.

A series of meetings at district schools were then conducted by a recruiting firm to learn what parents, staff and the public wanted in the next superintendent.

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Things got heated earlier this month when a majority of board members appeared ready to interview candidates from within the district’s ranks for the top job.

The president of the board, Susan Wittrup, who represents the Bullard High area, called a press conference to criticize her colleagues for marching toward a decision without interviewing any candidates from outside Fresno Unified.

Joining her at the press conference were some Fresno City Council members and Fresno Teachers Association leaders. It was an in-your-face move by Wittrup, but it proved effective when one of the board members who had been in the majority, Claudia Cazares, announced she would favor launching a national search. That brought efforts to a halt; internal candidates who were ready for interviews were left waiting.

Now, the first order of business will be hiring a new recruitment firm to help find candidates. The previous one quit once it became clear the board was going to seek outside applicants.

On Wednesday evening, the board made it official that it will broaden its hunt by seeking external applicants. Make no mistake: Seeking applicants from outside of Fresno Unified is the right move.

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Some question that approach. The result, however, is that by inviting applicants from outside the district to apply and possibly interview, the board regains credibility.

If an internal candidate is ultimately chosen, that person will also have good standing for having emerged from a full process.

Ideally, the board will conduct a national search. That would be the best way to get applicants from communities with diverse populations, which is a premium given Fresno’s cultural and racial richness.

Among the values identified from more than a dozen listening sessions at Fresno Unified campuses during the first go-round were these: strong educational background; transparent and authentic communication; the ability to use data to develop a strategic vision; experience engaging parents and families; and the ability to innovate and adapt.

“Strong community ties” and “ties to the Valley” were also listed. But frankly, being plugged into Valley life can be overstated. Such thinking tends toward being insular, even closed-minded, if taken to an extreme.

The point of an external search is to find candidates with new ideas and fresh perspectives that would prove beneficial to Fresno Unified.

The reality of the challenge facing the next top administrator is daunting: In the 2022-23 academic year, 66.8% of Fresno Unified students did not meet the state requirement level for English language arts; 76.7% of students did not meet the state requirement level for math. The district has also been struggling with declining enrollment and falling attendance.

Be united

Moving forward, the board must show it can work with a single voice in a straightforward process. Qualified applicants might hesitate if there is a sense of disunity among the trustees.

Ideally, there should be a deadline to make a hire. Enough time has already been lost, and this does not need to drag out.

Parents, teachers, staff and the public must be able to see the process at work. “Transparency” is not just a word, but an action. Here is an idea: Conduct final interviews with the top candidates in public, in the theater or multipurpose room at one of the high schools.

It will take everyone — parents, teachers, administrators, a new superintendent and the board — to move Fresno Unified into a district producing strong graduates who are poised to succeed in life.