School district selects interim leader School district selects interim leader (August 27, 2004)

Eleanor Yick will fill in during board's search

By Julie O'Shea

Mountain View-Whisman school district trustees voted Monday to make Eleanor Yick interim superintendent until June 30, 2005, giving leaders 10 months to find a permanent replacement for its top administrative post.

Superintendent Jim Negri will leave the nine-school district next month to head the high-performing Acalanes Union High School District in Contra Costa County. Negri's last official day with Mountain View-Whisman will be Sept. 30, but he said he may leave sooner than that because he has a lot of saved vacation time.

The school board has decided not to make any quick decisions. Voters will usher in at least two new trustees in November, and it should be the new board, current president Rose Filicetti said, that gets the final say on a new superintendent. Filicetti and Carol Fisher are retiring from their board seats at the end of this year.

Candidates for the election include incumbent Gloria Higgins, and Juan Aranda, Michael Kelly, Rosemary Roquero and Fiona Walter.

Yick, currently the district's associate superintendent, was the superintendent of the Whisman School District before it merged with the Mountain View District in 2001. Trish Bubenik was the first superintendent of the newly merged district; Negri followed her in 2002.

Yick is considered by some parents as the leading candidate for the permanent superintendent position. She couldn't be reached by press time.

"Any transition is probably never easy because you are familiar with the person leaving. You don't know what the next person will be like," Negri said, adding, "Kids are going to keep getting educated no matter who is at the district office."

Negri, who has already started cleaning out his San Pierre Way office, said he plans to sit down with Yick in the coming days and go over issues she will likely face during her appointment -- including the continued threat of a school closure.

Mountain View-Whisman may have to close one of its campuses in the 2005-2006 school year if it can't generate more revenue. The district passed a $1.6-million parcel tax in March, but officials said that may not be enough money to keep all nine schools open.

Yick was on the school closure task force. However, Negri helped develop the process for how a school could be closed, and he said he wants to make sure Yick thoroughly understands his thought process.

Negri's official start date at Acalanes, which serves Walnut Creek, Moraga, Lafayette and Orinda, will be Nov. 1. He replaces retiring Superintendent Randall Olson. Negri will spend October working alongside Olson, getting to know the high school district, which is much closer to his Castro Valley home. He will be paid $170,000 a year, a $10,000 raise from his Mountain View-Whisman salary.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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