Hank Gmitro, who helped in the superintendent search

While superintendent searches for large school districts typically end with outsiders getting the job, the president of the firm working with LA Unified said the insider chosen, Michelle King, a district veteran of 30 years, was a commendable match.

“We spent more time than usual to come up with a profile of the characteristics that the community wanted, and I think the school board found someone who matched that list very well,” said Hank Gmitro, president of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of Rosemont, Ill. “They were very thoughtful and thorough in the potential candidates, and I believe they found the strongest candidate possible.”

In reviewing the process, Gmitro said his firm has now placed 45 superintendents in the nation’s 100 largest school districts. The search in LA Unified started with about 100 applications, the most of any search conducted by his firm, before the board narrowed the list to 25, then to a handful of finalists.

Although the process was similar to most other searches, Gmitro said, the scope was immense. In smaller districts two of their staff could interview the staff and community and develop the Leadership Profile in a few days. This time, it required six people working a full two weeks, and then time to compile thousands of surveys in five different languages.

“The profile took a longer time to develop and make, but it was useful during the interviews,” Gmitro said.

In retrospect, picking King seemed like a no-brainer, but Gmitro said the school board was determined to find as many qualified candidates as possible and making sure the best person was chosen — even if that candidate came from within.

Gmitro estimated that about 60 percent of searches for larger school districts lead to an outsider. But, he added, if a district knows who they’re going to pick internally, it generally doesn’t go through a formal search process, which is what happened at LA Unified.

“Working with them was enjoyable,” Gmitro said about the seven diverse and opinionated school board members. “Yes, they each have their strong opinions, but they were very professional and listened to each other a lot about their thought process.”

It was essentially only Gmitro and two other staff members along with the school board who knew who the candidates were. Typically, Gmitro walked a candidate into a meeting and let the school board members conduct the interview. Then, he would spend about 45 minutes helping the school board assess their initial thoughts about the candidates.

“I would record what their first impressions were, the strengths and questions that the board members had,” Gmitro said. “I thought the board was very professional.”

And they were tireless, he said. Often discussions started in the mornings and continued through early evening, with a discussion afterward. Many of the sessions went into weekends and during the winter holiday break.

As diverse as the school board is, Gmitro said, “It was important to them to listen to each other a lot and hear what the factors were in their decision making. It was important to hear what mattered to each other. They saw that all their opinions were grounded in what was best for the district.”

It didn’t help when media, particularly the Los Angeles Times, speculated on the potential candidates, he said, adding, “Much of the speculation was not accurate anyway. I heard from some individuals, that it only caused some anxiety for potential candidates and the people in their districts. I respected the media outlets that didn’t play into the speculation; there was no purpose to it.”

Board President Steve Zimmer confirmed that the outside speculation was mostly wrong and caused more problems for him than it did for finding the right person for the job. He concluded that the Times’ lists of potential candidates ultimately didn’t hurt the process although the identity of one finalist was not among any the Times mentioned.

“It comes with the territory, and I realize that people really want to know,” Gmitro said about media speculation. “But it is the board’s mandate to pick the right person, and they had to do it in private. The speculation only created difficulty for the people who were named and their communities.”

Hazard Young cited a cost of $160,000 for the entire search, and about $1,000 a day for more days than expected. Gmitro said the search went slightly over the expected time schedule, but his firm did not charge the district any more money.

The open session section is planned for 9 a.m. and will have representatives of the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates reviewing the Leadership Profile Report. Then, the board plans to head into a closed session to discuss the criteria further.

Two committee meetings scheduled to follow have been cancelled.

Hank Gmitro, president of the search firm, said the Desired Characteristics is merely a guideline for the board members to refer to when interviewing candidates. It also could be a reference point for board members for questions that could be posed to the candidates.

Although it seems as if the school board is foot-dragging over the minutiae of the characteristics, the search firm is well into the recruitment phase of the search, taking applications and seeking potential candidates.

By now, however, according to the firm’s own timeline, the school board should be in the third phase of the process, interviewing the candidates for the first and second rounds of interviews. That’s supposed to happen “late November through mid-December.”

Although the school board has yet to finalize a list of characteristics, the search firm posted its latest version (Draft 3) of the Desired Characteristics on its website, where the firm is also taking applications.

Discussions about the criteria among the seven elected board members have included whether mentioning experience in an “urban environment” limits their choices, and if finding someone who has experience in a district of “similar complexity” is even possible because LA Unified is the second largest school district in the country.

Among the slight changes between the second and third drafts of the characteristics is the insertion of the the phrase “assisting the Board in eradicating bias and eliminating deficit thinking,” which board member  Mónica Garcia proposed.

Board President Steve Zimmer pointed out that the criteria doesn’t exclude any candidates and merely serves as a blueprint of wishes compiled by the students, parents, staff and community members gathered from the two weeks of interviews and focus groups.

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So far, people who have attended the meetings, including some school board members and community education groups, say they are disappointed in the turnout.

Among all 1,436,149 potential people who might care about who gets picked as the next superintendent — adding up the number of district students, employees and at least one parent or guardian for each student — only 900 people turned out for any of the community meetings last week and 4,000 took the district’s online survey.

Zimmer might have a better chance tomorrow to encounter someone with 11 fingers than someone who voiced an opinion.

“I want to emphasize how important it is for everyone to feel like they can weigh in on this decision, and we will take it very seriously,” Zimmer said this week after extending the survey and the campaign called “Your Voice Counts” until Nov. 1.

Some observers have expressed disappointment with the turnout. Sara Mooney of the United Way LA, who has pushed for community education groups to be more involved in the decision, said she attended three community forums with only a handful of people attending. “I’m also not a fan of the way the forums are being conducted, or the way they collect the data,” Mooney said. “It is clear that they don’t want the public involved.”

“That is simply not true,” according to Hank Gmitro, the president of the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates who is in charge of finding candidates. “Now, we will be compiling what was being said at all the forums we have held, and gathering information in the surveys, and we will present it to the board.”

Gmitro, who led many of the forums himself, said he has had “robust conversations and input” at all the public meetings. The largest group attending was those of principals, where about 110 people showed up.

The comments, surveys and feedback will be divided up and aggregated in multiple ways, Gmitro said, enabling school board members to learn what people said by ethnic background and district; and whether respondents were teachers, administrators, students, staff or parents. Private interviews were conducted with local business leaders and politicians, unions involved with the district and student groups. The level of participation is about normal, according to the search team.

“This is about the same as we have seen when doing searches in other districts,” Gmitro said.

While some of the board members expressed disappointment in the public input attendance, they turned down two proposals to open up the search process.

“We need to do everything we can do to get everyone to fill out those surveys and assure the public that we will hear everyone’s voice,” board member Ref Rodriguez said.

George McKenna pointed out that he was disappointed that only 10 percent of the voters in his district even bothered to show up to vote for him. “Does that mean that 90 percent doesn’t care?” he saids. “I don’t think so, but I’m sure that all these board members are unified in wanting to find the best person possible for the job.”

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“We are just beginning,”  said Hank Gmitro, president of the firm conducting the search, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. “We provide the venue and see who shows up. This group had a lot to say.”

Last night’s gathering was the first of 24 public meetings scheduled throughout the district as part of the firm’s efforts to identify candidates to succeed Ramon Cortines, who plans to step down in December. The district wants the public to weigh in before the firm develops a list of candidates.

Gmitro, who is the president of the firm, had to pull from his teaching days to get the initially-shy group involved in opening up. He used his “principal voice” to reach everyone in the cavernous room, but went back to using microphones to help staff translating English and Spanish over headsets.

Two of his colleagues, Joe Farley and Maria Ott, both former superintendents, like Gmitro, took notes for a “Leadership Profile” that will be presented to the school board on Nov. 11. Board president Steve Zimmer popped in to see how things were going, but said nothing.

“I think that the school board will listen to us, I think these meetings are important,” said Roberto Bustillo, who attended with his granddaughter and has a son in high school. He is the community organizing director of Innercity Struggle, a group that advocates for economic equity in schools. He said he was disappointed in the turnout but hopes to get the word out for the remaining meetings to his membership.

“We need to tell people how important it is to participate in the process. I am personally concerned about the charter movement,” he said.

Many parents and teachers brought up personal issues with their schools but pointed to how their concerns could be addressed by a new leader for the district.

“We need someone who likes teachers,” said Riverside Elementary School teacher Mario Burrell. “It was obvious that (former superintendent) John Deasy did not like teachers.”

Burrell said he taught at the school for 18 years and worked for nine principals but no superintendent ever asked him or the community, “How do you feel about your principal?”

Lucia Ortiz, 16, got her mom to bring her to the meeting so she could advocate for students’ having greater access to the superintendent. The Abraham Lincoln High School student council president said, “The superintendent and school board are lacking in having a student voice in their decision-making.”

Did she think the meeting would make a difference? “Yes, I think the process will work,” she said. “I think they listened to me tonight.”

As a continuous slide show in English and Spanish showed facts about the district, the search firm solicited feedback by asking what people liked and didn’t like about the district.

A father from San Fernando High School asked, “Is this just a ploy to get parents out here and make us feel better about the process? I think parents should be on the committee to hire and choose the right person. I also don’t think that the district should pay the superintendent the equivalent of $1,000 a day.”

Gmitro explained that the public had elected the school board members to pick the best candidate to lead the school district, an assertion that did not satisfy everyone.

Luz M. Montoya, a mother, said she would like to see a young, energetic superintendent with new ideas, but insisted, “You already have candidates and have the choice made.”

Gmitro explained, “Nothing could be further from the truth. We have no list of candidates, we are getting a sense of what we are looking for first.”

Another mother, Rachel Greene, said she wanted to know how stakeholders can be assured that the process was playing out as advertised.

Roberto Bustillo and his daughter Julieta attend search meeting.

Gmitro assured, “I do not have the sense from any board member that they have preconceived ideas of who the superintendent should be.

Helen Bernstein High School English teacher Wayne Lewis said he thought the next superintendent should be someone already involved in the district. “It should be someone with a clear understanding between public and charter schools and someone who would avoid playing political games with the process.” He later said, “Experience, experience, experience” is important, especially prior teaching experience.

One of the first people to arrive at the downtown school campus was Elsa Villareal, the mother of two high schoolers, who said, “All of the schools have problems. The schools need more support of the superintendent.”

Another parent, Felicity Ortiz, said some schools have teachers lacking credentials. She said she wanted a superintendent who has “a lot of knowledge of science, and be god-fearing.”

With the public meetings ongoing, Gmitro is also meeting privately with other groups, including union leaders and district staff members. On Monday, prior to the community meeting, he met with the Student Advisory Council who works directly with the superintendent.

“They had a lot to say, it is valuable information,” Gmitro said.

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The first of a series of meetings around the districts is scheduled for 6 pm at the Roybal Learning Center Auditorium, 1200 Colton St.

More meetings are scheduled over the next two weeks in each of the six Local Districts across the city, some starting as early as 8:30 a.m. and some as late as 7 p.m.

Just how the gatherings will play out remains uncertain but the search team is preparing for a variety of scenarios.

“It is impossible to determine how many people will turn out at the various meetings, so we will be handling the meetings depending on the number of people,” said Hank Gmitro, the president of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the firm in charge of the search.

Anyone can attend any of the meetings, no matter where they are being held. Each will begin with a short introduction and presentation about how the search is being conducted, followed by public speakers. The meetings could be an intimate group of two dozen or a large group of 200, and each situation will have a slightly different process, Gmitro said.

“We want to primarily listen to what is working well and what the desired characteristics are that the public wants in the next superintendent,” he said.

District officials said the meetings will revolve around three questions: What are the strengths and successes of LAUSD that you want to see continued and enhanced by the new leadership? What are the challenges, issues, and problems that the new superintendent will need to address? And what are the characteristic and attributes that the new superintendent must possess to be successful?

The district has spent considerable time soliciting public opinion and promoting the search process, from an online survey available in Chinese, Korean and Armenian as well as English and Spanish to robo-calls this past weekend, detailing the times and places of the meetings.

Flyers and posters detailing the meetings have been distributed, and the district has also released three videos explaining the search process, including a half-hour presentation made at the last school board meeting by Gmitro detailing the process and how the input will be compiled for the school board members.

Hank Gmitro, president of HYA

The search team hired to find a new LA Unified superintendent is already receiving applications and is putting together a list of potential candidates, while arranging to canvass school board members and the community for what they want in the new district boss.

Hank Gmitro, president of Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates based in Rosemont, Ill., told LA School Report today that he expects to have candidates for board members to interview by late November or early December. That comports with the schedule of the current Superintendent Ramon Cortines who has expressed a desire to leave by the end of the year.

“We have begin to think about potential candidates, but the first piece is to develop the criteria through the board interviews and the community forums,” Gmitro said.

The firm is continuing its interviews with the seven school board members through next week. Public meetings have been scheduled for the weeks of Oct. 19 and Oct. 26 at all six of the Local Districts, to be followed by additional public meetings at LA Unified’s downtown headquarters. The forums are designed to allow for input by the general public and will include community members and groups that the board members have suggested.

Some of the interviews will be done privately, to include leaders like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Gmitro said.

“Some people have begun to express some interest,” Gmitro said. “We have begun to have had some initial conversations, a couple of people have contacted us, some people have applied since we posted the vacancy last week.”

But first, the search firm is planning to distribute a survey on paper and online, starting as early as next week, listing 20 characteristics of what people may want in a superintendent and asking open-ended questions to “find out what people what to share.” He said It will be available in five languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Armenian.

“The survey is ready to go,” Gmitro said. “It is not just for teachers or parents, but anyone in the community that wants to give input.”

As much as he expects very different input from the diverse school board members, the president of the search firm said he believes it’s a bonding process for the board.

“A big piece of the process is often the whole school board coming together on this issue. They have a lot of discussion and they think about the characteristics of who they’re looking for, and in the process, it’s a bonding experience for school boards,” Gmitro said. “They discuss their hopes and expectations of the school district and what they believe and then move in that direction.”

LAUSD has 643,000 students and is the largest school district in the country with an elected board. Gmitro’s firm has its entire team working full time on this search, he said, adding that most of them, including Gmitro, have been superintendents at school districts. Eight or nine associates will be running the community meetings and collecting input for the board. Then, they will plan meetings for the whole district to be held at district headquarters

“The district-wide meetings downtown will bring in a different crowd from those who might attend one that is held at a local high school,” Gmitro said. “The school board wanted the public to be given as much access as possible.”

Input collected from the community forums, surveys and conversations with board members and civic leaders will be compiled to develop a profile for the ideal LAUSD candidate, Gmitro said. Then, HYA will present the board a slate of candidates to consider.

LAUSD currently has the largest percentage of charter schools than any major school district, and Gmitro said that issue does often come up: “Those are questions that get sorted out with the community meeting process. What are people thinking about? Do they want competitive charter schools, supportive charter schools, non-traditional educators or someone who has come up through the ranks with teaching and principal experience? We will get a sense of what the community thinks about those issues.”

The HYA team also believes that the best candidates will come during a more confidential search process.

“The community has elected the school board to represent them to make this decision, people need to remember that,” Gmitro pointed out. “The reality is that if I’m good at my job and I’m happy at my current job, am I going to put that at risk and take my chances to make my candidacy public? If I’m not happy at my job or if the board is looking to fire me I probably don’t care, but if I’m good at my job and I am respected in the community I’m working in and have relationships with my board–and those are often factors that a new board is seeking–am I willing to put all of that at risk with the possibility of a new job, and putting my current position at risk?”

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Hank Gmitro of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates

Even before the superintendent search team passes out the first public survey, members of the LA Unified school board yesterday raised questions over questions that they want the community to consider in finding a successor to Ramon Cortines.

The board held most of the discussion in a closed meeting last night with the search team of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. That team, which seemed to emphasize secrecy more than the other teams that were considered for the search, said that most of the discussion over the first part of the search should be held outside of public scrutiny.

Board member Mónica Garcia even asked, “Can the public know specifics about the calendar” and other parts of the survey? Hank Gmitro, of Hazard Young, answered, “That would have to go in the closed session.”

But, the parts of the meeting that were held in open session showed the board already fine-tuning the 27 questions for online and on-paper surveys intended to seek opinions from staff, teachers and parents that would ostensibly influence the search process.

“I know people are asking, ‘Why is she harping on this survey?’ but this is the first thing that people will be looking at in our search for a superintendent,” said board member Mónica Ratliff. She complained that the questions about management were toward the end of the survey, at 16 through 20, and thought those questions should be higher.

“People tend to focus more at the beginning and lose attention at the end,” she said. “I think management is important.”

Gmitro said he would randomize the questions. The search team, he said, would then use the information, as well as interviewing organizations and community groups, to generate a report for the board.

Board member George McKenna noted that when the community is asked to rank, one to five, the importance of certain skills, “Why would someone not choose all five?” He said, “I don’t know how you say no to any of these?” McKenna said he preferred questions that were more introspective, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you believe in?”

Gmitro said that their team picked the characteristics of the most successful superintendents in education, and wanted to see how the public ranked those in importance. “Not everyone will be an expert in all,” Gmitro said.

Scott Schmerelson said the first question on the survey should ask how important it is to the community for the candidate to have been an educator or a school administrator. “The number one question should be, ‘Have you been a successful teacher and administrator in a public school?’ ” Schmerelson said. “I’d like to know how important that is to people.”

In closed session, the board planned to work on the calendar and structure of the process for community engagement. They need to discuss such issues as how many different languages the survey should be translated into and how to get the word out to stakeholders, parents, community and staff members.

“We will be spending several weeks in the school district interviewing each of you and constituent groups,” Gmitro said. “We are going to have community focus groups.”

Then, they will begin the search for candidates.