SAN BENITO — The school board is leaning to hire the Texas Association of School Boards to conduct a search for the district’s next superintendent while interim Superintendent Teresa Servellon helps officials draft the district’s new budget.
During a special meeting Tuesday, board members are set to launch the search, planning on TASB to make a presentation, board President Ramiro Moreno said Monday.
“We’re looking at very possibly going with TASB,” he said, adding the agency would charge about $7,800 to conduct the search.
“I’d like to meet with them so they can propose a timeline,” Moreno said. “I want to take the necessary time to select a qualified candidate. We want to make sure the next superintendent is high-caliber and in the best interest of the school district.”
Moreno said the search will likely bump up against officials’ drafting of the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, expected to be finalized in June.
“I don’t want a two-month timeline and not make a good (decision),” he said. “The person we brought in as interim has the experience to move the district forward so we’re not in any rush.”
TASB ‘option’
Board member Janie Lopez described hiring TASB as an “option.”
“The board may decide to open up applications to the public or the board may decide to hire a professional agency with superintendent search expertise,” she stated. “At the next meeting, the board will listen to a presentation from Texas Association of School Board, a consulting group that will explain how they assist districts in recruiting applicants. We will analyze the best options for our school district.”
Delaying search until budget’s set
Meanwhile, board member Ariel Cruz proposed Servellon lead the budget process before the board launches a state-wide superintendent search.
“I would be OK with leaving the interim as superintendent through the budget process and then doing a more thorough search,” she said. “I would like to do a wider search.”
Concern over Servellon guiding budget process
However, board member Orlando Lopez said he wanted to hire a search firm for the job.
When he and the past board hired a firm to conduct the search in which Carman was selected, the firm, hired at a cost “comparable” to $7,800, offered the board a list of 50 applicants, he said.
“It would be nice to have a pool of (applicants) — someone with no ties who’s going to give you a variety of superintendents with vast experience,” he said.
“When we bought someone in from the outside with no political times, we saw positive results,” he said, referring to Carman, who resigned this month to take a job with the Socorro school district, with nearly 50,000 students.
Meanwhile, he said Servellon, a former district principal who was serving as the South San Antonio school district’s chief academic officer when a split board offered her the interim superintendent’s job, isn’t familiar enough with the district’s finances to guide the budget process.
“I’ve got concerns with the budget under the interim,” he said. “Now we have an external interim superintendent who’s not aware of our situation making decisions to impact our budget. One of the things is setting the budget and that’s why the district is so financially successful. My concern is moving backwards. We owe to the kids and the community to move San Benito in a positive direction.”
