PUSD Board begins process to hire new superintendent

The Poway Unified School District Board of Education took the first step Wednesday night on the long road to hiring a permanent superintendent to replace John Collins.

Collins was fired on July 13 by a unanimous board vote after an audit of his contract revealed he had received over $345,000 in overpayments and unauthorized payments.

Members of the board met in person with Velasquez for the first time Wednesday night, where members discussed both the search for a new superintendent and the expectations and goals they have for Velasquez.

The first step in the process will be sending out a Request for Qualifications to firms in California and nationwide that specialize in hiring in the education field. This process means the firms will send back their qualifications to the board, a process that will take about five days, Velasquez told the board.

Once the board members receive the responses, they can review them and select which firms they want to interview. The interviews will be conducted in an open session meeting.

The RFQ will be prepared by Sandra Huezo, the new associate superintendent of personnel, who was recently hired to replace Tracy Hogarth, who retired in June. Preparing the RFQ will take about a week, and includes sending it to the board members for feedback.

Though no official date for the interviews has been set, the board discussed holding them in the second week of August.

The board also discussed with Velasquez its goals and the expectations for him as interim superintendent.

“The goal is to heal and move forward,” said Velasquez. “You can’t change the past, but there is a lot we can do in the future.”

Velasquez also emphasized that he was here in PUSD mainly to help the kids. “I want to do the best job I can, to make sure the kids have a quality education, a safe environment and that there is accountability,” he said.

Velasquez said he would like to schedule individual meetings with the board members, to get everyone’s opinion on issues in the district and what needs to be done. “I don’t believe there are bad boards,” he said. “I just think that sometimes information isn’t getting to where it should.”

Board President Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff listed several goals for the board, including resolving existing issues, filling the leadership void and sustaining the district’s current direction and continuing doing what the district is doing right while making improvements.

Some areas O’Connor-Ratcliff focused on for needing changes were internal controls, the district’s Public Records Act processes and the district’s IT department and its policies and procedures. Many of these were brought to light by the audit report, O’Connor-Ratcliff said.

The board also needs to update its board policies, according to Velasquez, something to which O’Connor-Ratcliff agreed. A three-day workshop to revise those policies is already scheduled for September 14 to 16, she said.

Board member Kimberley Beatty said that the district first priority should be getting the search for a new superintendent underway. Board member Andy Patapow disagreed, saying that the district’s first focus should be on making sure the new school year starts normally. Then the board can meet after the school year begins to discuss the new superintendent, he said.

Velasquez agreed that getting started on the search for a new superintendent was important, as it is a process that can take three months or longer. Velasquez will be offering his expertise to the board during this process, as he assisted in eight searches for superintendents in California as worked for a search firm for two years. “I’m very familiar with the process,” he said.