District waits for the right fit

Apparently even consultants take summer vacations. The Ocean View School District’s search for a new superintendent won’t move forward again until September, when members of the district’s search firm all return from time off, officials said.

But district officials said they were confident they would have a pool of high-quality applicants to choose from, and that getting the perfect superintendent was worth the wait.

“We’re getting back with our search firm,” school board President Tracy Pellman said. “There’s some candidates that had wanted to apply that we never got to see. We’re going to be reviewing all of them.”

The district had appeared close to sealing the deal last week with sole finalist James Kidwell, deputy superintendent of the Ontario-Montclair School District. But final negotiations stalled, and all the other candidates had already been eliminated from the running.

It wasn’t anything wrong with Kidwell, Pellman said.

“Doctor Kidwell was very nice,” she said. “We just could not reach an agreement.”

Interim Supt. Edward Sussman, retired superintendent of the Downey Unified School District, has said he will stay on until a permanent replacement is found.

Interim Asst. Supt. Alan Rasmussen, also retired from public education, has likewise promised to continue his work. Both board trustees and teacher’s association officials have praised their performance.

The district is fortunate in having a transition team willing to wait for the right replacement, Pellman said.

“They told us, ‘We want you to pick somebody who is a match all the way around,’” she said. “‘Don’t be picking somebody and be in a hurry.’ We all want to feel like [the candidate] has got the district together and is a right fit for everything.”