LAKE COUNTY – Another local educator has announced his plans to seek the county's superintendent of schools seat this coming year.
Wally Holbrook, 58, will run for the seat currently held by David Geck in 2010, he told Lake County News in a Wednesday interview.
Geck indicated late last month that he will retire when his term ends at the end of 2010.
Holbrook now joins Judy Luchsinger in the race to succeed Geck.
Luchsinger, 64, held the office for 16 years previously. She announced her candidacy on the courthouse steps in Lakeport on Oct. 16, as Lake County News has reported.
“I welcome the opportunity to publicly discuss school issues,” Luchsinger said Wednesday in response to Holbrook's announcement.
The forming race likely will have resources as a primary issue.
“When we have a loss of revenue then that puts pressure on all the programs and all the districts,” said Luchsinger, who noted leadership and consensus will be key to the way ahead.
Holbrook will hold his first campaign event at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Hell's Bend School, located at Finley Road East at Park Drive.
He said he intends to ask community members at the event to join him in a partnership to support education. On Friday his election Web site, http://electwallyholbrook.com , also will launch.
Holbrook intends to hold a series of small community meetings around the county to discuss the county superintendent's role, and to invite community members to share their ideas. The first such meeting will be held at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 14, at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum on Main Street.
His priorities for the county superintendent's post include adequate funding, improved efficiency, enhanced teacher quality and innovation to make local schools better.
Holbrook holds a bachelor's degree from California State University, Chico, and a master's degree in education administration from California State University, Sacramento.
His resume includes teaching such subjects as woodworking, drafting and architecture in Yolo County schools, where he also served as assistant superintendent.
He moved to Lake County to take the principal's job at Gard Street School, which under his leadership became the county's first California Distinguished School. Later, he was principal at a brand new school, Mountain Vista Middle School, before he was named superintendent of the Kelseyville Unified School District in 1991.
In 1995 he left Kelseyville to take the superintendent's job at Winters Unified in Yolo County, where he stayed until 2000 before moving next to Dixon Unified in Solano County, where he served until 2006.
He and Linda, his wife of 38 years, then moved back to Lake County, where they've lived a total of 15 years.
During his time as an educator he's helped pass a school bond, started educational foundations and, most recently, has started a reading program at Kelseyville Primary. One of his current interests is an effort to get local students guaranteed tuition at Mendocino College in an effort to prepare the community's young people ready to successfully enter the workforce.
Since 2006 he's worked as a leadership coach, working one-on-one with administrators in school districts around Northern California – including all of the local districts with the exception of Lucerne Elementary.
Holbrook said his leadership coaching work is a way of helping administrators craft solutions for the challenges they face at their particular schools and districts. It's administrative education conducted in the real world situation, aimed at finding what works best for the individual, recognizing everyone has different leadership and administrative styles.
“It's a little bit new,” but it gets results, he said of the method.
His experience with leadership coaching led Holbrook to look at the county superintendent of schools job, where he believes he can put his knowledge to work to help districts, teachers and students.
“I bring some experience that I think can really be helpful here,” he said.
Holbrook has recently been involved with some high profile local education issues, including the effort to bring the Mendocino College Lake Center to Kelseyville and the recently completed district consolidation report, which he helped compile as part of a designated committee.
The report was discussed at a joint meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors and the Lake County Board of Education on Tuesday evening, as Lake County News has reported.
Holbrook said the process, and the Tuesday discussion, showed the many opportunities for collaboration and cooperation among districts.
He said he was surprised to hear at the meeting that it was the first time the two boards had sat down together for a joint meeting.
“I think we've got great potential,” he said.
His part in creating the report was to compare districts, and try to find others around the state that looked like Lake's seven school districts.
“I don't think there's any place exactly like Lake County,” he said.
Before deciding if consolidation of any of the districts is a solution, Holbrook said first they need to look at the conditions that are obstacles to unifying districts. He hopes a county education summit will result, where local government sits down with schools to take a focused look at their challenges.
There are going to be very difficult things for schools to face ahead, said Holbrook – resources being a primary concern.
With tough times calling for new ways of looking at problems, Holbrook said he wants to start a process that includes the people of the community – not just educators – in an effort to do business differently. He intends to start that process soon, long before the election.
Having worked with Lake County Office of Education administrators, Holbrook said he's familiar with their duties and issues. But he also brings an outside perspective, and experience with transition, which he suggested would help him if he were elected to oversee the agency, which has 120 employees and an estimated $16 million annual budget.
“The expectation is going to be different,” he said, adding that he'll emphasize transparency and openness with the community.
But if elected Holbrook said he doesn't plan to spend much time behind the desk at the Lakeport office.
“You'll see me at the schools more,” where he'll look forward to interacting with teachers, parents and administrators.
He said both process and people are important to them, and he plans to look at how best to carry out the district's programs.
Holbrook also wants to raise peoples' awareness of the county superintendent's job and what it offers.
He summed up the superintendent's role into four basic responsibilities: leadership, support, administer and partner.
Leadership requires the courage to show the way and also to say no when necessary; support requires looking at programs and not giving blanket approval to everything; administer relates to dealing with the many program the office offers, from court schools to day care; and partner is being able to work together because, Holbrook noted, “We just can't do it alone.”
He added, “If you can do these four things well it will serve the students well.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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