How to resolve AdBlock issue? Interim Superintendent Patrick Iaccino was appointed in January shortly after the district board released Superintendent April Leiferman from her contract without cause.
He’s led the recruitment for a permanent district superintendent, and reported that the effort has drawn a good field.
“We have 10 applicants,” he said.
“I paper screened all of them,” he added, and the 10 – all of whom he called “very good” – have been forwarded to the first round of interviews, expected to begin by the end of the week of April 8.
“Nobody knows who they are except me,” said Iaccino.
Iaccino, who retired for the Upper Lake Unified School District’s superintendent job, said he has relied on the same process that he used to hire his successor, Dr. Giovanni Annous.
The process includes a committee of 19 people – composed of community members including parents, teachers, classified staff and student board members – who Iaccino said will conduct the first round of interviews.
Iaccino said he will meet with the panel on April 10 to go over procedures for selecting finalists.
That 19-member panel will pass the finalists on to the board of trustees, which in turn will conduct the final interviews, expected to take place around April 16 or 17, Iaccino said.
The board will make the final decision, with the board to name its selection at its regular meeting on April 24.
“Everything’s right on schedule,” said Iaccino.
The new superintendent will come into a district where Iaccino has been able to resolve some key personnel issues, including hiring a new chief business officer.
He said he’s hired Jacque Eischens to fill that critical role.
Eischens was working at the Lake County Office of Education, which had a booth next to Lakeport Unified’s booth at a job fair. Both were conducting recruitments, Iaccino said.
During the fair, “We got to talking,” and Iaccino found out she had been an interim chief business officer a number of years ago for Middletown Unified. She also completed the chief business officer certification program with the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.
She also has worked with Escape Technology, a Roseville-based company that produces an integrated business system for educational organizations, he said.
To help Eischens settle in, Iaccino said he is keeping on a business officer consultant until late December or early January. That will allow them to work together and accomplish a number of business-related items.
Iaccino said he also has settled contract negotiations with both the certificated and classified union groups for both this year and next, and has approval from the board.
He said they are waiting for the unions to ratify the agreements, after which they will make a formal announcement.
“I was pretty happy with that,” Iaccino said.
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