Finalist Announced in Search for New Superintendent

The Ravenswood City School District announced Thursday it identified a person who may be next year’s new superintendent. 

Dr. Gloria Hernandez is the leading candidate.

Hernandez was interviewed by the RCSD Board of Trustees on May 4 for the position, along with four others who applied for the job. 

An executive search firm called Leadership Associates, based in La Quinta, California, helped the district find candidates. Larry Aceves and Rich Thome, two Leadership Associates employees, came to Menlo Park on March 5 to collect perspective from parents, employees, and other stakeholders, according to a notice posted in the office at Willow Oaks Elementary School. It is unclear what parameters they used to find candidates. Neither returned phone calls to elucidate the situation.

Hernandez is currently the Assistant Superintendent of the Twin Rivers Unified School District, which is located in McClellan, California. She leads the Curriculum and Instruction Department.

She has held that position since 2008, according to Twin Rivers USD employees. Twin Rivers district employees declined to comment on her accomplishments and reputation. Hernandez herself could not be reached in time for this article's publication. 

If chosen, she would be tasked with managing nine schools, which are located in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. Board members will be traveling to her district to visit and conduct interviews on May 10.

The next board meeting where her position will likely be discussed starts at 7:30p.m. on May 23, 2013 in the District Office Board Room, located at 2120 Euclid Ave. East Palo Alto, CA 94303.

A few facts to consider when comparing the districts:

The Twin Rivers Unified School District, located in Sacramento County, educates a total of 31,637 students, compared to Ravenswood City School District, which educates 4,296 students, according to ed-data.k12.ca.us. 

Twenty-four percent of schools in the Twin Rivers USD made state mandated performance targets in the 2011-2012 school year, which is the most data recent available, while 44 percent of schools in the Ravenswood CSD met their Annual Performance Indicator targets that year. 

While 25.3 percent of Twin Rivers USD students are English learners, 59.4 percent of Ravenswood CSD’s students are learning English as their second language.

Twin Rivers has 1,444.5 full-time employees, while Ravenswood CSD has 227.3, according to ed-data.k12.ca.us. 

What factors do you think are important to consider when hiring a new superintendent? Scroll down and let's talk about it in the comments. 

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