SIMI VALLEY : Consultant Hired to Find School Chief

Simi Valley school officials said Wednesday they have hired a retired school superintendent to assist them in finding a new superintendent for the county’s largest school district.

The school board decided in closed session to hire Leland Newcomer of Thousand Palms after conducting interviews with four other consultants, said Supt. John Duncan, who tendered his letter of resignation Tuesday night.

“He’s a distinguished former superintendent who has conducted a number of searches, most recently for the Orange and Tustin unified school districts,” Duncan said.

“He will be spending full time on this project. It should take about two months to find a replacement.”

Newcomer said he will interview teachers, faculty members and community members to determine the district’s needs before soliciting applicants.

He said he presented two proposals to the board, one for a “fast-track” search costing $11,500 and another for a long-range search costing $16,500. The board is looking for a combination of the two proposals, Duncan said.

Board members will meet with Newcomer in closed session Aug. 7 to negotiate his salary, said Duncan, who will leave the district Sept. 16 to become the head of the San Ramon School District in Northern California.

Duncan recently came under fire during an $8-million budget crisis that resulted in the board laying off 32 temporary teachers and 28 clerical and service employees, including five nurses and four librarians.

In other business, officials said that at a Sept. 4 meeting they would consider forming a task force to study the best method of implementing a middle school plan in the 1991-92 school year.

Under the plan, kindergarten through fifth-grade students would attend elementary school, sixth- through eighth-graders would attend middle school, and ninth- through 12th-graders would attend high school.

Currently, kindergarten through sixth-grade students attend elementary school, seventh- through ninth-graders go to junior high, and 10th- through 12th-graders attend high school.

Board members adopted the $454,000 plan in concept in February but decided to postpone the change, saying the plan would cost less. New estimates are being tallied for costs such as leasing a few more portable classrooms for the high schools.

The board also rejected a proposal by Duncan to ask the teachers union to drop 14 grievances filed earlier this year against the district.

The grievances were filed in protest of the district’s class-size ratio and the board’s decision to cut five nurses, four librarians, sabbatical pay and department chairmen’s pay from the 1990-91 budget.

The district is keeping $300,000 in reserve in case it loses at an upcoming arbitration hearing. Duncan said the money would be better used to rehire eight to 10 of the teachers who were laid off in the spring.

“It’s totally inappropriate for us to step in now and make an offer,” board member Diane Collins said.

“If you haven’t been successful, then so be it. We have to let the process run its course.”

Ronald Myren, spokesman for the Simi Valley Educators Assn., said, “You have given us no alternatives but to proceed. We have to go to arbitration.”