Stockton Unified seeks public input on next superintendent Friday

Ben Irwin, The Record
·2 min read
The Stockton Unified School District's Arthur Coleman Jr. Administrative Complex is located at 56 South Lincoln Street in downtown Stockton on July 13, 2022.
The Stockton Unified School District's Arthur Coleman Jr. Administrative Complex is located at 56 South Lincoln Street in downtown Stockton on July 13, 2022.

Community members looking to provide input on Stockton Unified’s next superintendent will have their next chance Friday.

Stockton’s largest school district will hold a superintendent search committee meeting open to the public at 5 p.m., May 5, at the Arthur Coleman Jr. Administrative Complex. The meeting makes up for the canceled April 28 superintendent search committee meeting.

“We feel we don’t have enough community input yet,” Board President AngelAnn Flores told The Record earlier this week. “We want to ensure that we are having that transparency with our community and giving them as many opportunities as possible.”

At the May 5 meeting, the committee will review the list of “stakeholders” to serve on a panel to interview candidates. A list of 30 community leaders was established earlier this year to seek input on Stockton Unified’s next superintendent.

Flores said she hopes to have an additional opportunity for community input in May, with a future date to be determined. The hope is to have a new leader by summer, ahead of the 2023-24 school year.

The board had initially fast-tracked the superintendent search to make a hire by the end of May. Flores said meeting that timeline would depend on the final candidates, scheduling, and community input.

The “accelerated search” is a process “frequently” offered, said Bill Huyett, a consultant with McPherson and Jacobson, LLC, the firm contracted to search for Stockton Unified’s 14th superintendent in 17 years.

But it does come with some tradeoffs, like fewer weeks of advertising the opening.

“We’ll also compress our time for vetting the candidates and save a week or two there,” Huyett said at a March Board of Trustees meeting.

The upside, Huyett said, is a faster process may have a better chance of the district landing a more competitive candidate ahead of hiring season.

“It’s a very competitive season this year; there are a lot of districts out there looking for superintendents,” Huyett said. “If you do accelerate your search, it’s possible that if you’re competing for someone with another district, you might have a better chance.”

This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton Unified seeks public input on next superintendent Friday