V.S. Central High superintendent search under way

The Valley Stream Central High School District Board of Education has enlisted the help of a national educational leadership consulting firm, Chicago-based Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, to lead the search for the district’s next schools superintendent. The search began Jan. 31 and will wind down in May or June.    

The firm has picked many successful superintendents, but some recommended by HYA have been dogged by accusations of abruptly resigning, underperforming in academics, spending excessively, leaving a district in fiscal distress and sexually harassing employees. 

The Central Board of Education referred all Herald questions about the superintendent recruitment process to the search firm. The Herald could not reach Dr. Susan Guiney, the firm’s main associate working on the district’s search, for comment.

Here are some of the firm’s past recommendations:

Rockville Centre

Rockville Centre Schools recently worked with HYA to conduct a lengthy, intensive superintendent search to replace the long-serving Dr. William Johnson. The board chose June Chang, former superintendent of Summit Public Schools in New Jersey, with high expectations for him. But just over a year into his five-year tenure from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2025, Chang resigned on Nov. 19 last year, according to the Herald, a decision that left many in the community stunned. Chang cited reasons related to “family issues” in a Newsday article. 

John O’Shea, president of the Rockville Centre board, spoke with the Herald, noting he was “completely caught off guard” by Chang’s decision. “We’re very disappointed. We spent a lot of time picking him out and recruiting him and had high hopes for him to stay at least for the five years’ worth of his original contract,” O’Shea said. “It’s disappointing to be put into a place where we have to start that search all over again.”

The board conducted another search, this time with the firm School Leadership LLC, to find a new superintendent.

Minneapolis

In Minneapolis, the Rochester Public Schools Board of Education hired HYA to find a school chief in 2015. The firm closed in on a handful of short-list candidates, eventually selecting a superintendent who had been ousted from his previous job in Holyoke, Mass., for widespread academic underperformance.

The board later cut off negotiations a day after a district attorney in Massachusetts uncovered abuses occurring at a Holyoke school during the superintendent’s tenure. A report from The Boston Globe claimed that staff working in a program for emotionally disabled youth had subjected students to acts of physical and psychological abuse, including locking students in unlit closets, slamming them against walls and slapping them.

Ted Blaesing, an HYA senior associate, told Yahoo! News that the allegations had not been made during the initial vetting process and were eventually dropped against the superintendent.

Cancellation of the employment offer, however, left the district with another lengthy search that cost $200,000, according to the Star Tribune. The Minneapolis district paid HYA roughly half of the firm’s initial $80,000 contract and turned to a different search firm and consultant.

Des Plaines 

Then, there was a superintendent of Des Plaines Elementary District 62 in Illinois, who served for one year in 2016. He resigned after allegations that he had sexually harassed five female employees, but not before collecting the remainder of his pay for the year — $127,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.

During the vetting process, HYA was reportedly unaware that the superintendent had resigned from a previous role as assistant superintendent in Wisconsin when he came under fire from the district because nude photos were found on his district computer.

In Highland Park, Ill., the superintendent of Township High School District 113, who was hired in January 2015 upon recommendation by HYA, resigned months before the start of her term in July after allegations surfaced that her husband had cyberbullied parents, according to the Tribune. Additionally, she had been an HYA associate, which the firm had not disclosed during the vetting process.

Nashville

In 2008, Metro Schools in Nashville, Tenn., brought in HYA. Of the three short-listed candidates whom the firm chose, one had left his Fresno, Calif., district in financial turmoil in 2004, according to the Tennessean. Nashville schools hired another candidate.

But in 2015, the Nashville schools again rehired HYA and, among its list of finalists, the firm recommended a candidate who had left his position as the Kansas City Board of Education superintendent with only 30 days’ notice after making sweeping promises to transform the district, according to The New York Times. He left to take a more lucrative job from billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad to head a new Michigan program overseeing underperforming schools in Detroit, the Kansas City Star reported.

The case raised alarm among Nashville school board members and teachers union leaders, questioning the firm’s vetting process and demanding a partial refund of money spent on the firm. After the fallout, the finalist for the position turned down the job offer, and the board was forced to conduct another search with a different firm.