San Diego Unified Is Vacating All Its Area Superintendent Positions

Early this week, San Diego Unified board members quietly set into motion what could turn into a significant change to the district’s administrative makeup. 

Board members unanimously approved the superintendent’s nearly 50 item consent agenda at Tuesday’s board meeting without discussion, questions or comments. But Item I-26, buried square in the middle of the extensive list, was a proposal to pay the San Diego County Office of Education $45,000 to “conduct an executive recruitment and employment search for eight positions of administrative leadership.”  

As part of that recruitment effort, the district will vacate those eight positions to make way for new hires. Those positions include some of the most consequential in the district, like all six of its area superintendents, and leadership roles in the human resources and special education departments. Those vacating the positions are being encouraged to reapply. 

The goal of the reshuffling is to “recruit employees who best fit the roles laid out in the newly modified job descriptions,” Maureen Magee, the district’s communications director, wrote in an email. “This reevaluation provides an opportunity to make sure these positions are meeting the needs of students and staff,” Magee wrote. Some of those changes include adding a position that will oversee middle schools. 

But it’s also part of a larger effort by Superintendent Lamont Jackson to shape the district’s future, Magee wrote, an effort that’s moved at a slower pace due to the pandemic. 

According to the contract, the search began the day after its approval and will continue through the end of July. Magee wrote the district has previously partnered with the county office on efforts like this and chose to do so in this instance because San Diego Unified doesn’t currently have a head of its human resources department.  

“Enlisting the assistance of SDCOE also underscores the district’s commitment to keeping the hiring process as objective and autonomous as possible,” Magee wrote. 

Everyone interested in the positions, including those who currently hold them, will be encouraged to reapply, Magee wrote. And San Diego Unified board member Cody Petterson hopes they do. 

“The superintendent needs the team he needs. That said my hope is that we don’t have complete turnover and that we retain some of these (area) superintendents so we can retain continuity,” Petterson said. “The reality is a full turnover of all superintendents would be administratively challenging.” 

Petterson said some of the area superintendents have earned the trust of the community, and that he’d heard worries from those community members about the prospect of their loss. Still, Petterson said he joined the board members in approving the item without discussion because he believes the superintendent understands the concerns of the community about a complete house clearing. 

“Area superintendents are a very important position, and the superintendent has to have complete confidence that they can administer in his stead,” Petterson said. “At a certain point you have to have faith in your superintendent.”