PUSD board to review recruitment firm applications

The Poway Unified School District Board of Education will be reviewing applications from six recruitment firms across the country interested in helping the district find a new superintendent.

The firms sent responses to the district’s request for qualifications, which was sent out in late July.

Board President Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff said the responses are currently with the associate superintendents and once they are reviewed by them, the applications will be passed on to the board members who will also take a look before choosing which firms they would like to interview. O’Connor-Ratcliff said this decision will probably be made at the next regular board meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23 at the district office.

The interviews will be conducted during an open session meeting, O’Connor-Ratcliff said, with the board members going into closed session afterward to decide which firm they will hire.

The school board also decided to release Edward Velasquez from his role as interim superintendent effective Aug. 12 at a special closed session board meeting held last Thursday. Mel Robertson, associate superintendent of learning support services, was re-appointed as acting superintendent at a follow-up closed session meeting on Sunday. She had previously filled in as acting superintendent following former PUSD supt. John Collins being put in administrative leave in April.

Velasquez, who was hired on June 22 with a start date of Aug. 1, took another position as San Diego County’s interim superintendent of schools a few days after beginning his work with PUSD.

O’Connor-Ratcliff said that it was a mutual board decision to release Velasquez.

Velasquez said he applied for the position as the county’s interim superintendent in late July, after a colleague called him and told him he should apply. His hiring was announced to the public on Aug. 3 at a San Diego County Board of Education meeting. He is replacing Randy Ward, who is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into his compensation.