HUNTINGTON BEACH : School Board OKs Hiring Compromise

The Ocean View Elementary School District Board of Trustees, which has been sharply divided over a proposed hiring policy for administrators, struck a compromise this week and tentatively approved a measure to bar discriminatory hiring practices.

The board’s action also includes a definition of what a job vacancy is and represents a major step toward developing a comprehensive hiring policy for administrators. A final decision whether to adopt the measure will be made at the trustees’ regular meeting on Nov. 5.

Two weeks ago, a controversy over hiring arose when Trustee Tracy Pellman proposed a rule for considering applicants for assistant superintendents, district managers, principals and assistant principals. The district now has an official hiring policy only for principals.

Pellman charged that the district, by hiring new administrators mainly from within the Ocean View school system, has kept minority applicants from being considered for top positions. She proposed that the district consider both district employees and applicants from elsewhere for administrative openings.

Other board members argued, however, that the district has not discriminated against minorities. They contended that the district rarely sought outside applicants because Ocean View has been reducing its work force for more than a decade because of declining enrollment.

In addition, Trustees Sheila Marcus and Carolyn Hunt said they feared that Pellman’s original proposal might make administrative jobs less secure because it did not clearly define when a job vacancy would exist.

Marcus and Hunt said they believe that Pellman’s proposal would mean that administrators could be ousted from their positions each time their contracts expired, which, in the case of principals, occurs every year.

The potentially incendiary issue was quelled, however, with a compromise drafted by Joseph Condon, the district’s assistant superintendent for personnel. His idea, which was tentatively approved last week, expands the principal hiring regulations to include other management personnel with some key revisions.

If adopted, the new policy would prohibit hiring discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, medical condition, physical condition, marital status, sex or age.

It also includes a provision that the district will seek applicants for a position only if a new job is created, or if an employee in that post retires, resigns, is fired or reassigned.

Condon’s proposal, which was drafted after surveying the hiring policies of dozens of other school districts, appeared to satisfy the concerns of trustees on both sides of the issue.

Trustee Carol Kanode said she likes the policy, but she objected to Pellman’s insinuation that Ocean View has discriminated in its past hiring practices.

“When I brought this up,” Pellman said, “my rationale was that we did have a policy for hiring principals, but we still excluded many candidates from applying for many positions. It did occur. The purpose of bringing this forward is to make sure those occurrences do not occur anymore.”