Consultants to launch schools chief search

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

Two former Clark County School District administrators-turned-educational-consultants were chosen Monday by the School Board to oversee the search for a new superintendent and were given up to $20,000 in seed money to launch the process.

School Board member Denise Brodsky was the lone nay vote, saying she was concerned not about the qualifications of the consultants, Robert McCord and Kathleen Harney, but rather the message their hiring would send to the community at large.

"I'm not sure we shouldn't have taken this out for a competitive bid," Brodsky said. "We're starting off with a pre-determined contract. That may make the public feel this is not a completely open process."

The School Board is not required to conduct a public bidding process or even hire a consultant before choosing a replacement for Superintendent Carlos Garcia, whose resignation takes effect mid-July.

Neither McCord nor Harney has been a full-time employee of the district for more than a decade although both have worked as consultants recruiting top-level administrators. In their presentation to the School Board prior to the vote, they both emphasized that they bring no "personal agenda" to the superintendent search.

"The decision isn't ours, the decision is yours," McCord said. "We don't hire the superintendent, you hire the superintendent."

Harney concurred but also pointed out the advantages to hiring a team that already knows the school system well.

"We provide a history of working with trustees during a challenging time of district growth," Harney said. "Both Bob and I share a passion for this district and care very deeply about the future of it."

Harney retired from the district in 1993 after four years as assistant superintendent of community relations. She spent 10 years teaching English at Valley High School and then eight years as a counselor at Western High School before moving to administration. A middle school is named after her and her husband Tim, also a longtime district teacher and administrator.

McCord, an assistant professor of educational leadership at UNLV's College of Education, spent nearly 30 years working for the district as a teacher, principal and central office administrator. He was deputy superintendent of accountability in 1999 when he retired.

The School Board authorized McCord and Harney to spend up to $20,000 in the coming months. Harney said she anticipated that it would cost less than half that amount to develop the marketing plan, determine a budget for the search and prepare an outline for the School Board to review by August.

A tentative timeline would be for candidates to be recruited from September to November with finalists interviewed in December and January, Harney said. The School Board could make its decision next April, giving candidates time to wrap up their current duties and be settled in Clark County by the start of the following academic year, she said.

McCord said he and Harney will focus on gathering the strongest pool of qualified candidates for consideration, based on the parameters set for them by the School Board. While no decision has been made as to the breadth of the search, McCord said he expected it would include in-house candidates as well as individuals gleaned through advertisements in national publications and trade journals.

One job vacancy the district won't have to worry about for the immediate future is that of associate superintendent of human resources. George Ann Rice, who was slated to retire in July, said Monday she has put off her departure "indefinitely." Rice, who originally announced her retirement in March, said she changed her mind after Garcia tendered his resignation the following month.

"I've been here 33 and a half years and the district has been very good to me," Rice said. "With everything else that's going on, I didn't want to leave them in the lurch or give them one more thing to have to deal with, if I could help it."

The district is losing two other key employees this summer: longtime zoning director Dusty Dickens and Maurice Flores, superintendent of the east region.

Rice's decision to stay is good news, said Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations for the district. There's an ongoing push to recruit more teachers and support staff, and negotiations with various bargaining groups are at a critical juncture, Rulffes said.

Rulffes and Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of instruction, take charge of the district on July 13 as co-interim superintendents.

The district's major educational initiatives, including raising the graduation rate, raising the dropout rate and improving early education programs, will continue, they said.

One additional goal will be to reduce class sizes in the lower grades, raised three years ago to help relieve a $90 million budget shortfall, Rulffes said.

There will also be some reorganization of the district's departments and divisions in order to spread the workload and job responsibilities more evenly between the two co-interim superintendents. School Police, the legal department and the government affairs office will report to Rulffes. Educational services, human resources and the research, accountability and innovation division will report to Orci.

School Board member Mary Beth Scow asked what happens when the two remaining "amigos" eventually disagree?

Rulffes, who was given the authority to sign legal documents on the district's behalf and fire employees, said the question was reasonable and down the road the School Board may need to re-think the temporary titles.

"There's going to be times where then are disagreements ... what's going to be the tie-breaker?" Rulffes said. "Eventually you're going to have to say one is the superintendent and the other is the co-superintendent."