Yick steps up to the challenge Yick steps up to the challenge (September 10, 2004)

New superintendent in place for 10 months

By Julie O'Shea

From a costly election lawsuit to an ongoing budget struggle, Eleanor Yick said she is ready to tackle the challenges of being Mountain View-Whisman School District's new superintendent.

"I am confident I can do this job," said Yick, a 30-year veteran of the public education system. "I hope to be very involved in the parent community."

The school board unanimously voted last month to appoint Yick to the top administrative post following the sudden departure of Jim Negri, who accepted a job offer with a Contra Costa County high school district.

Yick, who has been Mountain View-Whisman's associate superintendent for the past two years, was given a 10-month contract. She will be making approximately $133,000 -- the equivalent of Negri's $160,000 annual base salary -- for the 10-month appointment.

This year, Yick's challenges include a lawsuit threatening the legality of Measure J, the district's successful $1.6-million parcel tax election. Fighting the lawsuit could cost the district as much as $50,000. The district is also grappling with continued financial woes and must decide whether to close a school next fall.

But more important than the lawsuit and the budget crunch, Yick said, is the students.

"We are always looking at student achievement," Yick said. "I think you are always a teacher [despite your job title], but your focus changes a little bit."

Asked if she will apply for the permanent superintendent position, Yick said she hasn't made up her mind.

"Let's see what the new board wants," she said.

The current school board decided to hold off hiring a permanent superintendent until after the coming election. With the impending retirement of longtime trustees Rose Filicetti and Carol Fisher, there will be at least two new board members elected on Nov. 2. Incumbent Gloria Higgins and four others are seeking election to the board.

Filicetti, the current board president, said new trustees need to have a say in who is hired as the permanent superintendent.

After spending nearly 20 years with the Saratoga Union School District, Yick, a New York native, became principal of Mountain View's now closed Whisman School. It was known as "the military school" because the majority of its student body came from Moffett Field federal housing. She later became superintendent of the Whisman School District.

When Whisman merged with the Mountain View School District in 2001, Yick was hired as the new district's associate superintendent, while Trish Bubenik, head of the Mountain View district, became superintendent of Mountain View-Whisman.

"It was always understood that it was going to happen that way," Yick said. "I didn't feel slighted."

Bubenik was fired a few months later, and Yick became interim superintendent while the board looked for a permanent leader, eventually hiring Negri in July 2002.

Yick, a Los Gatos resident and mother of two adult children, said she plans on retiring in the "not too distant future." But for now, "I still have a lot of energy and a lot of excitement," she added.

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

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