MV-Whisman picks new super MV-Whisman picks new super (July 01, 2005)

Maurice Ghysels taking helm after stint at Campbell school district

By Katie Vaughn

The Mountain View-Whisman School District board announced Monday that after seven months of searching, it has found a new superintendent.

Maurice Ghysels, 49, has worked as a school administrator, a teacher and principal of middle and high schools throughout the Bay Area, and most recently served as deputy superintendent at the Campbell Union High School District. School board members said Ghysels earned a reputation at his former posts as a team-builder, bringing together teachers, parents, students and administrators.

"My forte is really building teams around identifying talent," Ghysels said. "It's putting the right people in the right place at the right time."

Although Campbell Union is larger than Mountain View-Whisman, with roughly twice the enrollment, Ghysels said there are many similarities between the districts. Both offer a parent-participation school, have faced declining enrollment and serve a significant number of students for whom English is not their primary language. Additionally, both districts have recently been forced to close a school, an important issue for Mountain View-Whisman in the last year.

Despite his years of experience as an educator, in the late 1990s Ghysels took a break from schools. He moved to New York City to work as a vice president of Citibank for five years, then returned to the Bay Area to work as the chief learning officer of a consulting company for a year.

The stint allowed him to develop his leadership skills and gain experience in technology, he said. The latter quality was particularly attractive to the school board, following a management audit released in May that identified the need for a more efficient, technologically advanced infrastructure in the schools.

"Maurice is truly a match for our district," said board member Fiona Walter. "He brings in the skills we need now."

Ghysels replaces current superintendent Eleanor Yick, a temporary replacement for Jim Negri, who resigned in 2004 after serving two years. Yick was unable to apply for permanent superintendent status due to a clause in her contract. The school board began its search for a new superintendent in January, with the goal of making a hiring decision before the start of the 2005-06 school year. Board President Ellen Wheeler -- who introduced Ghysels to a small group of residents, teachers and students Monday night -- said the board narrowed the applicant pool to 16, then interviewed the top five candidates before finally deciding unanimously on their new pick.

When Ghysels, who will earn $165,000 a year, officially begins his four-year contract July 25, the first item on his agenda will be to introduce himself to the community and reassure its members that he will stay longer than his predecessors.

"I need to get in there and establish relationships and build trust," he said. "I need to let people know I'm in for the long haul before we even get into the issues."

E-mail Katie Vaughn at kvaughn@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.