Glendale Unified board agrees to shared leadership
The Glendale Unified school board on Tuesday agreed to hire not one, but two interim superintendents to guide the school district through the end of next June, when the board is expected to hire a new full-time superintendent.
The board voted unanimously to hire Joel Shawn and Marc Winger, two retired superintendents who will share leadership duties as they oversee Glendale schools.
Both Shawn and Winger will earn $1,000 per work day, according to a district report, but no more than a total of $40,321 each, which is the amount that the state’s retirement system set as the limit for what retired educators can earn if they go back to a school position within the 2015-16 academic year.
For the past 31/2 months, Don Empey, a former longtime Glendale Unified administrator, has been the interim superintendent for Glendale Unified, but, as a retiree, he is nearing his salary limit.
“We stretched him out as long as possible,” said Christine Walters, the board’s president.
She acknowledged the limit is a challenge, saying it “makes some sense on one side, but not when you need really good people to help you out in the interim.”
School officials had been talking to Shawn and Winger individually about being the interim superintendent, but the two former administrators suggested a tandem arrangement might be a good idea.
Board member Greg Krikorian agreed it was a good idea. “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to get through this time,” he said.
Empey was brought out of retirement as the board launched its superintendent search after former Glendale Supt. Dick Sheehan left the district to lead Covina-Valley Unified in May.
“Your time actually was awesome,” Krikorian said to Empey during the board meeting.
A couple of months into the search, however, Glendale school officials said they wanted a broader candidate pool than they had attracted and announced in August they would ditch their original plan to hire a new superintendent by mid-September, and extended their search to place someone in the position by July 2016.
Officials have said board members expect to interview candidates in January before making their selection later that month.
Shawn retired from the Arcadia Unified school district at the end of the 2013-14 school year, after working 36 years in education, including six years as superintendent for the Arcadia district.
Winger led the Newhall school district for 18 years, and had spent 40 years in education when he retired this past January.
