Fresno Unified only interviewing internal superintendent candidates. Here’s what we know

Despite public outcry for more transparency, the Fresno Unified School District has announced closed-door interviews with internal candidates for the next superintendent.

Community leaders, including school board President Susan Wittrup, are calling on the public to speak to the trustees before the closed-door session takes place on Wednesday afternoon.

Last week, the district updated its board meeting agenda for a special board meeting for superintendent interviews on April 3, 5-9 p.m. The board will take public comments before the trustees go into the closed session. Afterward, the board will report any action.

The process has left Wittrup dissatisfied.

“I’m concerned because last Wednesday in the closed session, there was a narrow majority of the board that gave direction to go ahead and forego a search for external candidates, and start with internal interviews,” Wittrup told The Fresno Bee.

Wittrup said she received numerous phone calls, text messages and emails from constituents questioning the closed interviews, and said that their voices were not being captured during the community listening sessions held in February.

As a response, Wittrup was planning a press conference with local leaders, including Fresno City Council members and teachers’ union representatives on Tuesday to “address the need for an open and transparent search.” The group initiated a petition to collect signatures.

The petition, titled “Break the cycle of failure at Fresno Unified,” calls out Trustees Claudia Cazares, Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, Keshia Thomas, and Valerie Davis, saying they are hurting the success of Fresno students and are avoiding an open and fair search. More than 300 signatures were gathered as of Monday.

The Bee contacted the seven trustees to comment on the status of the hiring, and four trustees agreed to talk to The Bee for this article..

Wittrup said the board had been misinformed by the consulting firm Leadership Associates which organized 24 community listening sessions and an online survey in February. Through the $40,000 contract with the district, the firm provides the service of conducting a superintendent search. The fee includes holding meetings and a survey, delivering a community and staff input report, assisting the district’s administration in webpage postings and acting as an adviser to the board.

“The feedback collected will be reviewed by the board, informing the criteria and characteristics sought in the next superintendent,” the district announced to the public in early February.

Trustees received the report one day before the March 20 board meeting. and it was incomplete and had errors, said Wittrup. She added that two trustees’ names were misspelled and another trustee’s name was left out.

The report came with a job description “leading to internal candidates,” said Wittrup. She said she has received complaints that the firm didn’t catch the public’s wishes to look at external candidates.

Wittrup said she can’t share the closed session material. But she said some board members twisted the “strong ties to the community” in the public version of the report that the district’s communications team sent out on March 19.

Leadership Associates didn’t reply to The Bee’s requests for comment.

Nikki Henry, the district’s chief communications officer, said only the board and the firm have access to the additional material when The Bee requested the full report, along with the job description.

Davis said the contract only requires Leadership Associates to do three things: hold meetings, deliver a report with the job description, and conduct internal interviews. She said the board didn’t pay the organization to expand the search to external applicants. The group would complete its contract after Wednesday’s interviews.

“If we want them to do more work, or if we want to do more work, we will have to decide on that Wednesday,” said Davis.

When The Bee asked about the proposed job description, she said the executive report would not be released and that there were inaccurate leaks to the media.

“I thought they belonged to us, that work product belongs to the people paying them, and it wasn’t supposed to be out in the media,” said Davis.

The Bee asked if the full product belonged to the public because the money came from taxpayers.

“I’m not sure, you have to check with our attorneys, because their work is not done,” said Davis.

Wittrup said she asked Leadership Associates for the full notes of the listening sessions, but the firm denied her request.

“They are hiding behind this narrow majority; this is a rigged game,” said Wittrup. “I heard from people across the district that were firsthand in these listening sessions that the information was suppressed. They won’t even release the notes to me, and I’m the president of the school board!”

Thomas said revealing the names of the trustees who leaned towards internal interviews would be a violation of The Brown Act, which is the name of California’s open meetings and public records law.

“The information was (discussed) during closed session, and no one outside of the trustees and Leadership Associates were privy to that information,” said Thomas.

Thomas added that she attended her region’s listening session, and no one talked about external or internal applicants because that question was never asked. She said people would like to have a superintendent lead the district in the right direction, and people outside of Fresno may not have experience with such a large district.

According to four public meetings attended by The Bee, consultants asked three of the same questions: Characteristics you’d like to see in the next superintendent, strengths of the district, challenges facing the district; and in some sessions, a fourth question: Advice for the new superintendent.

The Bee asked after the meeting who prepared the questions. A trustee said the board communicated with the firm, telling them what the board was looking for, but the board wasn’t directly involved in designing the questions and the survey.

Many of the comments urged an understanding of diverse communities, especially with poverty and minority backgrounds, and a willingness to engage with the community and admit wrongs. There were rarely comments demanding to exclude outside candidates. Many have criticized the district as having a culture of disconnection and non-transparency.

“We would like to have town hall meetings throughout the district for engagement,” said Debbie Darden, a community advocate, at Edison High’s meeting. “You can hear from the parents or community what we are facing in the schools, because that’s one of the things we want to hold them accountable for.”

“When you come here, you give us a little box of what we can talk about. I don’t understand it, it’s like you’re going to pick who you want, just like we got our last superintendent,” said Curtis Carlton, a teacher, at the McLane High meeting. “Honestly, we were not solving any problems.”

“I would advocate for the district to have public interviews for the three finalists or more finalists, and to engage with the community leaders,” said Eric Payne, a community advocate, at Edison High’s meeting.

However, the state Government Code allows the legislative body to hold closed sessions to consider hiring a public employee.

One board member told The Bee that keeping interviews confidential is important, because applicants may risk their current jobs to seek a new position. The trustee declined to publicly comment on closed-session items.

The trustee said there has been a wealth of media coverage over the past few weeks suggesting candidates from the district and the teacher union, which may have scared off outside applicants, especially given the large number of school district superintendent vacancies throughout California. The trustee also said the attorney’s statement made it clear that the board would start with internal interviews, and there can be subsequent phases.

Leadership Associates didn’t reply to The Bee’s requests for comment, but Dr. Dennis Smith, the firm’s lead selection partner, explained at Edison High’s meeting that a generation of superintendents is retiring, and the group behind them is growing but doesn’t always have the experience and skills that school districts hope to see.

More than two dozen school districts across the state are currently hiring superintendents or assistant superintendents, including popular districts such as San Francisco Unified and Orange Unified, as well as the nearby Merced City School District, which has been trying to fill the role for more than a year.

For Fresno Unified, the current superintendent Bob Nelson will step down at the end of the school year. Deputy Superintendent Misty Her will be the interim superintendent if a permanent one hasn’t been selected.

Trustee Andy Levine said he is in full support of considering internal and external candidates simultaneously. It’s important for the third-largest school district in California to stay competent and make sure the next superintendent is the best possible candidate.

Levine told The Bee that he won’t be attending Tuesday’s press conference.

“I’d like to make clear that I want my constituents to know that I stand individually,” said Levine. “My preference in my position is to open it up for both kinds of candidates so that’s a comprehensive process, but I will not be attending tomorrow morning’s press conference. I do want to make sure that we’re as a collective board to figuring out where to go on this.”