Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Superintendent Search topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Palo Alto board approves 20‑person ad hoc panel to interview superintendent finalists after wide community input
Summary
After a three‑week community input process that gathered more than 1,400 responses, the board approved a 20‑member ad hoc interview panel representing administrators, certificated and classified staff, parents (including seats for special‑education and English‑learner families), students and community members.
Nicole Anderson, a search consultant with McPherson & Jacobson, told the Palo Alto Unified School District Board that her firm collected record engagement for a superintendent search: 470 in‑person participants, 964 survey responses and 1,434 total community touchpoints.
"We saw an amazing amount of input," Anderson said, outlining themes that included stronger student voice, rebuilding trust, addressing mental health and improving special‑education services. She told trustees the firm recommends a community interview panel large enough to reflect programmatic needs and to include labor partners and student voices.
Board discussion focused on how to compose the panel and how to balance random selection with programmatic representation. Trustees asked the firm to hold two parent seats specifically for English‑learner and special‑education families so those program areas would be represented in interviews. Students who participated in the firm’s listening sessions urged that student voice be elevated in the hiring process.
The board voted to approve a 20‑person ad hoc interview panel to help interview and vet candidates during the next phase of the superintendent search. The panel will include administrators, certificated and classified staff, four parents (including reserved slots for special education and multilingual families), four community members and multiple student representatives; the firm will confirm exact participant names and alternates and will return to the board with logistics for the closed‑session interview dates.
Board president (presiding) moved to approve the ad hoc committee; the motion was seconded and passed by the board.
What’s next: the consulting firm will narrow the applicant pool to a short list, facilitate interviews with the ad hoc panel and bring finalists back to the board for final interviews and a hiring decision, with a likely regular‑meeting approval date targeted for June 16 and a July 1 start for the new superintendent.
