The Mingus Union High School District parted ways with its superintendent, Penny Hargrove, Ph.D., back in November.
For the remainder of the 2018-19 school year, Mingus Union High School Principal Genie Gee served as acting superintendent.
After six months on the job, Gee made it clear to the MUHSD governing board that she wants to be finished with it at the end of this year. At a meeting on Tuesday, May 7, the board unanimously voted to begin the process of finding a new superintendent.
“To be very transparent, I have no interest in continuing beyond June 30, because I need to give my full attention to being the principal of
our school,” Gee said. “It was a good year. I think a lot of things happened. Lynn [Leonard, MUHSD Business Manager] is phenomenal. We were able to get things done at the district level that we needed to take care of, and those discussions are happening, but my part is with the principal’s job. There are students I want to serve, to be there, to support teachers and our staff members, so I don’t know what that does for the timeline, but I’ve got to have the summer to plan for that job.”
“We know that she is needed where she is,” MUHSD Governing Board President Lori Drake said at the meeting. “It is a huge job, both being an acting superintendent and a principal.”
In the plan the board approved on Thursday, May 9, the position will first be opened up internally to teachers and staff within the district. If the board cannot find a suitable replacement from within the district, it will consider opening up the search outside of it as well. The board left open the possibility of hiring an outside consulting firm to help with the wider search.
“This process can be long, and we may not be able to fill this position for several months,” Drake wrote in an email. “If the above options are not fruitful, we may continue our search by first hiring a Interim Superintendent pending the outcome of our search. We are in May and many of the possible applicants have applied for and accepted positions at other schools for the next school year. We would then be able to start our actual Superintendent search in January. If needed, we could also hire a search firm.”
Former Mingus teacher Mike Westcott, who taught at Mingus from 1987 through 2017, has indicated his interest in applying. This past school year, Wescott has taken up a superintendent apprenticeship under Gee, part of the process of getting licensed as a superintendent.
