Firm hopes to unify Galt High School District, school board with new leader

After one failed attempt in mid August, the Galt Joint Union High School District board of trustees has hired an outside head-hunting firm to find its next district leader. Superintendent Tom Gemma's last day was June 30.

The board first appointed fellow Trustee Diann Kitamura to oversee the district office and started its own search before Gemma even left. But after a series of interviews, including those performed by groups of community members, it was decided to scrap the first batch of applications, find an outside search firm and restart the process.

In meantime, Chief Business Official Audrey Kilpatrick has been appointed interim superintendent though the end of year, when the board expects to permanently fill the position.

Leadership Associates, chosen by the school board Aug. 11 to handle the search, is concentrating its efforts in California, but is open to applicants outside of the state. Rich Thome is this search's lead consultant.

Founder Jake Abbott, who retired as a superintendent after 19 years, recently answered questions from education reporter Jennifer Bonnett regarding the company's background and its search process for Galt's next superintendent.

Q: Tell me about your track record in choosing superintendents up and down the state.

A: We've been doing superintendent recruitment's since 1996 and have done approximately 200 searches in California. We've done a number in your area ... including Lodi when Bill Huyett came there. We didn't do the last one. All of the jobs we get are from referrals from previous districts. We don't advertise.

Q: There are currently three openings for top level administrators posted on your Web site. How do you build a job candidate profile for each district?

A: The first thing we do is come in and sit down with the board to ask what they're looking for in a personal profile.

Then we ask the board who would you like us to meet with. We were in Galt on Sept. 2 and started meeting with groups at 8 a.m. and finished at Liberty Ranch High School with a community forum around 8 in the evening.

We met with the Chamber of Commerce, the teachers' union, the classified union, both principals of the high schools, teachers, two City Council members, the assistant city manager and the city manager, as well.

What we ask those people is the same thing: What kind of professional would you like to see in the position? After we've gotten all of that data, we look for the common threads and go out and start to recruit people.

Q: I understand you don't actually choose the next superintendent, you just provide job candidates for the school board. How does this work?

A: What we do is try to go out and recruit people that are successful. There are a lot of people out there looking.

We don't try to get 500 people; we try to get the board five or six candidates. Then we sit down with the board and spend about four hours with them. We do make recommendations on who are the best candidates that fit the district's profile.

We also go through some really personal things because oftentimes those things are most critical to a board.

Then the board starts interviewing, and we help with that. We sit in, but we don't take part.

Q: There were reportedly some issues with background checks during the first round of interviews that were conducted in house. How will your firm insure this doesn't happen again?

Leadership Associates, Inc. at a glance

— Founded by retired Fresno Superintendent Jake Abbott 14 years ago.
— Since then, conducted an estimated 200 top level administrative searches in California.
— Today, the staff is made up of nine partners with offices up and down the state. All are retired school administrators.
News-Sentinel staff

A: What you expect from any firm is they have vetted a candidate ... most of the people that are hired by boards are people that search firms have checked out.

Q: In sum, how will your search differ from the first one?

A: The district went out (itself), and obviously board members weren't happy with anyone that was brought in.

Basically, what they did is advertise. They made no effort to recruit anyone and just took anybody who applied.

Our job is to go out and recruit. Before we do that, we have to go in and find out why the district didn't find anybody. It makes it a little tougher for us to go and recruit.

At this point in time, though, we've been pretty successful. Although no one has officially applied, we have interest. We are optimistic we are going to be able to give the board some good people.

Q: The board of trustees agreed to pay your firm more than $20,000 for the selection process. How do you justify what some might argue is a high price in this economic climate?

A: It's really not that high a price.

If the district goes out and finds someone, they will leave in a year. We can go out and find somebody that will be there a long time ... we don't justify (the price); we just tell them this is a service we provide.

There are two of us working on it. We spend four days in the community and another seven days recruiting.

You only get what you pay for, and we feel we have an excellent track record.

Q: During the community input meetings held earlier this month, one speaker said the next superintendent needs to possess a collaborative leadership style and be able to bring the district's special interests together. How can this be achieved?

A: Several ways. You have to have somebody who comes in there with a proven track record

The board is going to have to be willing to sit down with the superintendent and an outside facilitator to talk about roles and how to have a working relationship. Then the superintendent has to establish how he or she is going to have to ask questions and be very visible in the schools and the community. There isn't a magic bullet; it's just going to take time.

With the climate in Galt, it appears to me that collaboration has to be one of the highest priorities in Galt.

Q: Some speculate Gemma left under a cloud of suspicion, as did former superintendents. In your experience, when does it become an issue with the climate of a district?

A: It becomes an issue when the leader leaves, and there's a void there.

Every district needs to have a vision of where they're going and how they need to get there. That's the job of the superintendent. That needs to be translated into goals for the board.

When a district is without a head coach, I think the team has a tendency to flounder, and the longer without a leader, the bigger the problem is.

The timing of getting someone in there and starting to pull this thing together is important.

But I must say, the schools seem to be doing well. We spent two days on the campuses, and I was very impressed with the students. They moved from classes well, there wasn't any graffiti.

Galt has a lot of positive things going. They need someone to come in who can communicate that to the public. As a superintendent, you've got to be open.

Q: What would the ideal working relationship between a superintendent and a school board look like? Are there particular policies that govern that marriage?

A: There are. There are some facilitators that can talk about the roles of the policy makers, the chief executive officer.

That becomes a communication situation, but your superintendent is only going to be as strong as you let him.

Q: Outside of recruitment efforts, you provide other services for school boards. Could any of these help unify the Galt high school district?

A: It could very much help ... they're going to have to someone to help facilitate that effort.

I'll be very honest with you that there wouldn't be anyone who would accept that position on a split vote.

Boards need to agree to disagree. There's nothing wrong with that as long as the people on the short end of that vote understand that's the democratic process and can move on.

We've had some discussions with the board. They understand they are going to have to work together. That relationship between the board and the superintendent has to be built on strong communication.

Contact reporter Jennifer Bonnett at jenniferb@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Pat Maple wrote on Sep 19, 2009 9:10 PM:

" Hey Alf: We agree on something! Go to the Galt Herald and read some of the rants there about GHS from a former appointed Board member...he was their choice! We had put away enough money in the Mello Roos fund and construction fund to build a new stadium and all-weather track. Parker, Prouty, Pearson and Oelsner saw fit to spend it on changes to their new school and the Ag Taj Mahal...you know the one they ran out of money to build and now want to borrow another $3M to finish it and THEIR $49M school that cost US $71M... "

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alf wrote on Sep 19, 2009 4:59 PM:

" lets just hope they get someone who cares about all the students at this school. we need to improve our academic departments, our visual & performing arts, we really need to fix the football stadium. it is out of compliance and the band-aid they did with the bleachers is a joke. fix the stadium, fix it now. "

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Pat Maple wrote on Sep 19, 2009 6:52 AM:

" Jennifer: Good interview...except with Galt you could have stopped with the second question and answer. If it doesn't say Ag it doesn't get done...just ask Dr Hoffman...or the last person the 15 person "Interview Panel" chose. The only qualification is if the person is approved by the mullahs trying to build a Taj Mahal. "

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