Simi Interviewing Search Firms

The Simi Valley board of education began interviewing four superintendent head-hunting firms Friday night, in a session that was expected to last as long as four or five hours.

Representatives from each company came to vie for the job of finding a schools chief for the county’s largest school district. They were the Chula Vista-based Giles and Associates, which bid $12,525 to conduct the nationwide search; the San Leandro-based Visionary Group, which bid $17,000; the Sacramento-based California School Boards Assn., which bid $18,000, and the Mercer Group Inc. from Santa Fe, N.M, which bid $12,500.

The 19,400-student Simi Valley Unified School District is now headed by interim Supt. Albert “Bud” Marley, who has said he hopes to give up his post by January.

In the last eight years, the district has seen four permanent superintendents and two temporary leaders, including Marley, come and go.

Several people who attended the board’s meeting implored the five members to forge ahead and hire one of the search firms to ensure a more fair selection process. A number of people have expressed concern about the board’s decision to interview and do background checks on one candidate, Dan Flynn, before a search is conducted.

“This process [of a nationwide search] yields to reason over favoritism,” said Ginny Jannotto, president of the Simi Educators Assn.

Jannotto said she has nothing personal against Flynn, a Republican from Thousand Oaks who coordinates Head Start programs in Los Angeles County. If Flynn is a good candidate, she said, then throw him into the general applicant pool and let him compete with the rest of the candidates.