In a shocking twist, Carmel Unified School District’s governing board decided not to appoint a superintendent during last night’s closed session meeting.
Despite the item appearing on the meeting’s closed session agenda, the board reported out from closed session that it had decided not to take action on a superintendent appointment.
“Coming out of closed session this evening, the board did not take action to appoint a superintendent in closed session,” board president Sara Hinds said. “A discussion regarding plans for public input on priorities to select a superintendent will be agendized for a special open session meeting as soon as possible.”
After the board approved a $770,000 separation agreement with superintendent Ted Knight, Hinds outlined several options for choosing the district’s next leader at the September board meeting. Those options included a comprehensive executive search process, an abbreviated application and interview process or an appointment of a specific individual at a future closed session. Currently Sharon Ofek is serving as the district’s interim superintendent.
After more than an hour of deliberation, the board agreed to hold off on engaging in a search for the district’s next leader and instead voted to consider appointing a superintendent at a future meeting. The motion passed 4-1, with board member Anne-Marie Rosen opposing.
That future closed session agenda was slated for Wednesday night’s board meeting and outraged several community members, including student and faculty stakeholders.
The student representative on the board, Marcus Michie, opened last night’s board meeting by openly criticizing the board’s failure to uphold its previous commitment to transparency.
“I’m disappointed. I think the sentiment is shared by some teachers, staff and students who have approached me in the past week in the board professing transparency and the importance of community input and then now moving into closed session to appoint a superintendent without hearing from the community to any or little extent and without giving the community the opportunity to make comments on this in a public setting,” Michie said.
Michie’s comments were reemphasized by both the Association of Carmel Teachers representative, Elizabeth Marsh, and the California School Employees Association representative, Lisa Brazil.
“Tonight it is hoped that the school board will not reach an important decision without gathering input from 205 teaching professionals who, together with our CSEA partners and unrepresented staff, make Carmel Unified School District the gem that it is,” Marsh said. “That input has not yet been requested.”
Brazil also pointed out that the members of Carmel’s chapter of the California School Employees Association – which represents 220 employees of the district – only heard from one member of the district’s governing board who reached out to hear what the chapter had to say. Brazil did not clarify which board member that was.
“Like our teacher colleagues, we work and educate students in this district but don’t feel as if our opinions are valued,” Brazil said. “Collectively the group is very disappointed and discouraged that only one board member reached out to our unit to solicit input on the appointment process.”
Brazil also said the chapter expressed concern that the board “is making decisions behind closed doors without obtaining broad community input.”
“In contrast to the last superintendent’s tenure and related board behavior, this time around there have been no town hall meetings, no listening sessions, no open forums or requests to hear from staff or students,” Brazil pointed out. “Something that was done extensively the last time we went through any kind of experience with the implementation of the new superintendent and the removal. What there have been apparently are private conversations with people who would either pick up the phone to call you or a select group of people that you choose to talk to. We expect you to operate in the open and not in closed session.”
It appears that Brazil, Marsh, Michie and other stakeholders’ comments resonated with the board, who pledged to hold off on making a decision until the board could discuss plans for public input at a future special open session meeting.
All of the board members also reemphasized their role in the community and their willingness to listen to members’ input at Wednesday’s meeting.
“We’re here to listen to you tonight and we will take whatever we hear into consideration and it really counts,” board member Karl Pallastrini said.
Board member Jason Reymnse emphasized his availability to the community and encouraged them to reach out, while Seaberry Nachbar pointed out the importance of democracy and reminded community members to “vote with your voice.”
Many of the community members who spoke out against the board’s decision to appoint a superintendent in closed session brought up Pallastrini’s comments at the September meeting.
Pallastrini had strongly opposed engaging in a search process given the board’s history and track record with hiring superintendents.
“Since Marvin (Biasotti) we’ve hired three superintendents,” Palastrini told the community at the Sept. meeting. “Speaking for myself of course, our track record in hiring superintendents via our process has not been very effective. I do not recommend a search process at this time.”
Instead, Pallastrini had pointed out that the board will likely look completely different in 2025 – given that himself, Nachbar, Rosen and Remynse have terms that will expire in Dec. 2024 – and “a different board” should have the opportunity to make the decision.
While board members Hinds and Nachbar agreed that the district should not engage in a search for the next superintendent, Nachbar pointed out that she didn’t think the decision should be pushed to the next board and Hinds recommended appointing Ofek to the role.
Rosen – who opposed the motion to consider appointment in the future – pointed out that the community had not had the chance to provide input on Ofek’s appointment to interim superintendent.
But other board members didn’t think it was necessarily fair to keep Ofek in the interim role in the long-term.
Knight was the district’s fifth superintendent in the past eight years. He was appointed in May of 2021 after the district hired the firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to conduct the executive search. The district paid the firm $22,950 to conduct its superintendent search in 2021.
Most recently, the district paid HYA nearly $15,000 to hire Carmel High School’s newest principal, Elizabeth Duethman.
Previously, Carmel Unified hired Leadership Associates to conduct a superintendent search after Marvin Biasotti retired in 2015. That search – which cost the district $24,950 – concluded with the hiring of Scott Laurence, who served as superintendent for one academic year. Leadership Associates then found Barbara Dill-Varga, who served as superintendent from July 2017 to spring 2020.
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