The Sweetwater Union High School District’s search for a superintendent is down to six candidates.
Sweetwater board President Frank Tarantino said the board originally received 19 applications for the permanent superintendent job, but six were selected for an interview during Tuesday night’s closed session.
Of the 19, Tarantino said, there were seven applicants from outside California, six applicants are current superintendents elsewhere and the rest serve in a variety of capacities as administrators.
Tarantino said because of privacy issues, he cannot give the names of the 19 applicants.
“We can’t give that out (names of applicants) and the reason for that is because the candidates have been promised confidentiality up until the final round,” Tarantino said. “I can’t tell you anything else other than we have six candidates (to interview).”
Interviews are to take place in an open meeting on May 29 at the district headquarters.
Tarantino said each candidate will get about 15 minutes to answer two questions from each board member.
He said each board member will ask the same two questions in the same order for each applicant so the interviews are fair.
After the interviews, board members will meet with the district’s advisory committee, a committee made up of community members and district employees that will give the board feedback on the candidates.
“From that feedback and that interview, we will decide who to bring back for another (final) interview the next day, which will be Saturday, May 30,” Tarantino said.
Tarantino said the committee will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement saying that they can’t disclose the names of the candidates to anyone.
After its May 30 meeting, the board will select its finalists.
Then, Tarantino said, board members will visit the workplaces of the finalists and interview coworkers so the board can acquire more information about the finalists.
To help with the superintendent search, the board of trustees last March selected the search firm The Cosca Group, which will help facilitate the interviews.
Tarantino said trustees are expected to announce a permanent superintendent June 8.
The Sweetwater district has been without a permanent superintendent since former Superintendent Ed Brand was placed on administrative leave last July. A temporary school board, consisting of county Board of Education members and John McCann, appointed Tim Glover as the interim superintendent.
Glover resigned in February, a little more than a month before his contract was set to expire March 31.
Upon Glover’s resignation, Assistant Superintendent Sandra Huezo lead the district for a couple of weeks before the school board hired Phil Stover as the district’s second interim superintendent in less than a year.
