Parents urge Beverly Hills Unified board to pause superintendent selection, cite lack of community input

Parents and other community members told the Beverly Hills Unified School District board at a special meeting that the district is selecting a new superintendent without adequate community outreach and urged the board to pause the process.

Public commenter Jennifer Wolf told the board she is “deeply concerned that this decision is being made without meaningful community input” and urged the board to implement a transparent method for gathering feedback. “As listed in your job description, a leader in this position must possess excellent communication skills, strong collaboration skills to build teams, a commitment to valuing parent, community, and staff input, and a proven ability to develop and implement partnerships with the private and public sectors,” Wolf said. She asked the board to “pause the decision making process and implement a transparent method for gathering feedback from the community.”

Another public commenter, Devorah Wolf, criticized what she described as a lack of transparency surrounding the board’s recent action to “pink slip” an elementary administrator. Wolf said staff were not allowed to share information with colleagues or the public and described a pattern of communications that, in her view, left parents and teachers to discover actions by word of mouth. “When you withhold information and the communications you do offer are untruthful, you make yourself look extremely suspicious and lose all trust from your audience,” she said. Wolf also alleged that board members had called people ahead of meetings with inaccurate statements, saying this “is such an egregious lie in other sittings, it could be considered criminal.”

Devorah Wolf also reported instances she said occurred outside school sites, saying Russell Stewart was “outside El Rodeo informing parents that this is all being blown way out of proportion.” She added that some teachers told her they would leave El Rodeo if the administrator in question were to depart. The commenters did not specify formal claims, grievances, or pending personnel appeals; they framed their remarks as concerns about process and trust.

During the meeting the board moved to approve the agenda after a motion and second; the board then adjourned the open meeting and announced it would move into closed session. No board decision on the superintendent search was announced in the open session that closed on the record.

The public speakers framed their comments as a request for more community engagement and transparency in leadership decisions. They asked the board to use town halls, surveys or other outreach tools so that parents, staff and stakeholders can state priorities and help the incoming superintendent build trust with the community.