Educators Fear Job Applicants Scared Off

With its size, suburban location and distinction as a school system that sends more than half its students to college, the Simi Valley school district should be a plum assignment for any school administrator.

But despite these hallmarks, trustees are worried that an onslaught of negative publicity has earned the district a reputation as the kind of place where nobody wants to work, scaring away applicants and maybe even current employees.

“People are avoiding applying to this district,” said trustee Norman Walker. “And it seems to be a pattern of ours these days.”

The board’s concern comes after a year of highly publicized flaps, including a bitter union fight that almost ended in a teachers’ strike, sexual harassment complaints among students and heated public debate over an unpopular plan to add ninth-graders to the city’s three-year high schools.

It was capped last week by the abrupt departure of the district’s superintendent, Mary Beth Wolford, who ended her nearly 10-year tenure at the 21,000-student district Friday--six months before she had planned to.

Claims by trustees that she decided to leave after clashing with the board over filling a top-level district post heightened accusations last week of political infighting.

Although trustees quickly tapped her predecessor, Robert Purvis, to take over as interim superintendent, they are still left scrambling to find not only a new leader, but an assistant superintendent of personnel as well.

In the wake of such squabbles, neither search promises to be easy, some trustees say.

Others admit that the year’s controversy hasn’t helped, but say the district is suffering less from a bad rap than from a nationwide shortage of education professionals.

The first sign of trouble came two years ago when the district launched a search for a superintendent of business services.

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Disappointed with the quantity and quality of job applications they were receiving, the district advertised the post three times over a year and half before it finally found one. Then-Supt. Wolford attributed the drawn-out search to the scarcity of applicants familiar with California’s financing laws.

But another search this year for an assistant superintendent of personnel turned up equally disappointing results. Only 13 candidates, many in-house, applied for the job. Professional headhunters say that although the job pool of experienced educational administrators is shrinking nationwide, the numbers applying to the Simi Valley district are exceptionally low.

Generally speaking, they say, large, suburban districts with high rates of academic success, such as Simi Valley, are considered plum places to work.

“I would expect considerably more than that,” said Lee Newcomer, a former superintendent for several California school districts. “It’s the great big cities that are having a hard time getting candidates. It’s the Simi Valleys and Conejos that have most.”

Recruiter Rudy Gatti, a superintendent for the Santa Clara school district from 1974 to 1989, agreed. In a recent search for a personnel chief for the 27,000-student Orange Unified School District, Gatti said he recruited nearly 30 candidates.

“[Thirteen] is low,” he said. “I didn’t think Simi Valley was having that kind of trouble. I don’t have any idea why.”

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Salaries that are typically a “bit low” compared to northern regions of the state may be one problem, said Charles Weis, superintendent of the county board of education. Faced with smaller salaries and Southern California’s higher cost of living, working conditions become extremely important for applicants to districts such as Simi Valley, he said.

And that’s precisely where some trustees worry that the 18,800-student district falls short. Highly publicized squabbles among trustees may be driving candidates away, they say.

“Either we’ve developed a reputation for being a district in transition or for simply being a difficult district,” Walker said. “And Dr. Wolford’s resignation doesn’t help us any in terms of sending signals to qualified candidates that this is a good place to come and work.”

According to some trustees, Wolford left after one too many clashes with the board--this time over the filling of the personnel slot, vacant since April.

In the past year, the board has become increasingly split on key issues, with trustees Diane Collins, Carla Kurachi and Debbie Sandland voting on many issues against Walker and Judy Barry. Wolford supporters say the split made it difficult for the former superintendent and top staffers to follow the board’s lead. Others say Wolford is just as much to blame for the division, and that a new leader might be better able to build consensus.

“I believe strongly that there are issues on both sides,” Collins said. “It is the superintendent’s role to build consensus on the board and take it out into the district. That we have so much dissension at the administrative level is an issue that the superintendent needs to deal with, too.”

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Still others say it’s not the board’s split that is driving candidates away, but its sometimes hostile attitude toward staff recommendations.

“I don’t think it’s as much a divided board as how we treat our people,” said Barry. “I think morale is low with our administrators, and they are possibly not feeling supported. I have to put myself in that position and ask would I want to work here.”

At least one trustee denies there is a problem. “I am refusing to take responsibility for saying that Simi Valley is not a wonderful place to work and live and that the Simi Valley district is a wonderful opportunity for any administrator,” Sandland said. But some administrators say low morale is scaring away not only job candidates, but also current employees.

“A few [top management] people have come to me expressing their desire to leave,” said Karen Dubrule, director of elementary education since January. “With the lack of support the board has given the superintendent, things just haven’t been as conducive to smooth operations and positive morale.”

But Dave Kanthak, who joined the district this year as its business chief, said morale seems no lower at Simi Valley headquarters than in other offices he has worked in. He acknowledged that a few people are unhappy. “But there is always somebody that is not happy,” he added.

Trustees and other district officials cite a host of other factors that may be contributing to the lack of interest in recent openings:

* The district may not have recruited aggressively enough.

* The timing of the search; at the end of the school year, most administrators have already decided where they will spend the next year.

* With three seats up for reelection on the board and the superintendent’s post open, potential applicants may be hesitant to apply for a job without knowing who their new boss will be.

But, whatever the cause, most trustees agree that they need help and will discuss with the interim superintendent hiring an outside consultant to help with their search.

“There is general agreement that that is something we should have done,” said Collins. “We are hoping that this will generate more applications.”