- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
New Upper Lake Unified School District Board continues superintendent selection process
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – On Tuesday, the new Upper Lake Unified School District Board held its second meeting since board members were sworn in earlier this month, with the main business taking place behind closed doors as the board members deliberated the superintendent selection process.
Board members include President Mel O’Meara, Clerk Diane Plante, Keith Austin, Don Meri and Claudine Pedroncelli.
They were selected for the new board by Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg after the State Board of Education approved waiving the election process early last month, as Lake County News has reported.
The official date of the new district unification will be July 1. At that point, the separate Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and Upper Lake Union High School District will formally cease to exist and will be replaced by the new district.
At the board's first meeting Dec. 15, Falkenberg had suggested four options for selecting a superintendent for the new district, including hiring current administrative staff, a temporary superintendent or a consultant, or having Falkenberg himself act temporarily as district superintendent while continuing his duties as county superintendent.
The board at that time appointed a subcommittee composed of Falkenberg, O'Meara and Plante to determine the next steps in the superintendent selection process.
Falkenberg told Lake County News after the Tuesday meeting that the subcommittee met over the weekend to determine the guiding questions for interviews that were held in closed session.
He said two candidates were interviewed during the Tuesday night closed session.
Lake County News independently confirmed that the two candidates the board interviewed were Patrick Iaccino, principal/superintendent of the Upper Lake Union High School District, and Wally Holbrook, the retired county superintendent of schools and Falkenberg's predecessor.
Considering the various options and interviewing the two candidates kept the board in a closed session that lasted close to three hours and 45 minutes.
The board met briefly in open session beginning at 4:30 p.m. before going into closed session in a smaller room adjacent to the main meeting room in the Upper Lake High School library.
During the brief open session at the meeting's beginning, Buddy Thomas, a member of the Upper Lake High School Maintenance Department, spoke to the board as part of public comment.
Thomas read a letter, on behalf of his entire department – which also includes Stanley Aarington, Bob Hemken and Rommell Ellerbrock – welcoming the new board and saying they looked forward “to working with you now and into the future for the benefit of the students and school district.”
However, the main message of the letter was a statement in support of hiring Iaccino as the superintendent of the new district.
“We have been working under his direction and guidance for the past decade and wish to continue doing so. His past hard work and exceptional leadership speaks volumes for what he has done and can continue to provide the new district,” the letter Thomas read explained.
The board also received a letter of support for Iaccino on Monday from the Upper Lake Teachers Association.
The association, led by President Gary Madison, also began its message congratulating the new board. “We look forward to the coming challenges and to your leadership in beginning this new era in Upper Lake education. Everyone has worked so hard in the last few years to unify and create a single district that can improve education for all students along the north shore.”
The letter explained that the association's members voted unanimously to write to the board in support of appointing Iaccino, whose leadership they have valued over the last 11 years.
“Mr. Iaccino has perhaps an unprecedented amount of support from this faculty. More than most superintendents could even hope for,” the letter explained. “Every one of the teachers has come to respect and appreciate both his leadership, his unbelievable energy, and his candor in approaching all aspects of the educational process.”
The teachers feel they've been fairly treated and respected, and that Iaccino led the school successfully during very trying economic times, the letter said.
“Under his leadership we stayed fiscally sound in a economic crisis, we shined repeatedly in the accreditation process, we withstood a 'bubble' of declining enrollment, we were one of the few schools to stay out of mandated Program Improvement the longest by improving our test scores each year and we were led by him to this juncture of the historic unification of the schools in Upper Lake,” the letter continued.
The association also said that one of Iaccino's legacies will be the unification itself. “He helped achieve what many, many before him said they wanted to do, but he helped pave the way for it to actually happen.”
The board remained in closed session while about half a dozen teachers and administrators waited in the library to find out the outcome of the deliberations.
Shortly after 8:15 p.m., the board emerged from behind closed doors and reconvened in open session, with O'Meara announcing that the board had taken no reportable action.
Falkenberg and the board members offered no reports and the meeting adjourned shortly afterward.
The board will next meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12.
Falkenberg said he does not anticipate the subcommittee meeting again before the full board has its first meeting in January.
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