Cascade Union Elementary School District will be seeking a new superintendent in the near future.
After a closed session board meeting last night, Morgan Hill’s school board decided to hire Dr. Wes Smith, 40, as their superintendent starting Nov. 16.
“The search firm the school district hired found me and expressed that I would be a good candidate for the job,” said Smith in a phone interview.
According to Smith his mentor and former Cascade superintendent John Almond was a teacher at Live Oak School in Morgan Hill and after listening to Almond recount his days there, Smith felt like it was his second home and like he had ties there.
“I felt like it was a good fit for my family. The town has 45,000 people in it and its similar to where we live now. It’s a small town and has farms and my kids said it was a lot like the North state. That was a determining factor as to whether I would accept the job,” said Smith.
He said the board has been very positive about the job and he was happy they didn’t share about the problems the district is facing.
“I prefer to listen and talk with people about their concerns and decide where to go from there. I’m really happy the board didn’t share that kind of information with me,” said Smith.
“We had a lot of very qualified candidates so the competition that Wes was up against was formidable,” said Don Moody, Morgan Hill board president in an email. “What separated him from the rest really was a combination of things. If I had to pick a few of the most important qualities I’d say that I sense a real commitment to students with him, I think that his communication skills are excellent, I think he is a “team builder”, and he seems ready for new challenge.”
According to Moody, he really like that Smith spoke Spanish and his level of experience and education. He also said school board visited Cascade and met with 27 people.
“I was part of a group that met when their seven member board came and interviewed all of us,” said Anderson City Council member Keith Webster, a close friend of Smith’s.
Webster said the group consisted of former CUESD Superintendent John Almond, Jim Cloney, now superintendent of the Shasta Union High School District, teacher Rick Copus from Anderson Union High School, Anderson Police Chief Dale Webb and a parent whom Webster did not know.
“Some were from the district but others were community leaders and citizens. Every single person that we spoke with said great things about Wes. Now, the icing on the cake for me is that Wes is going to live in our community and have his children go to our schools. That’s a big statement as far as I’m concerned,” stated Moody.
Smith has worked for CUESD for the past 11 years and has been superintendent for four of them. He said he has been blessed to have been apart of the district because of all events and programs he has been exposed to, but felt like he needed a change.
The Morgan Hill board created a brochure listing the qualities their ideal candidate would possess after their superintendent Dr. Alan Nishino retired in June of this year. A few of the qualities, according to articles in the Morgan Hill Times, were “dynamic educational leadership, ” “bringing people together for a common cause” and “has a strong commitment to high levels of education.”
Morgan Hill Unified School District is comprised of 16 schools and is located south of San Jose.
According to the Morgan Hill Times, the board approved Smith's contract of $190,000 in a 6-0 vote, with Trustee Peter Mandel absent. There are plans for the district to host a reception introducing Smith to the community on Nov. 10 at 4 p.m.
Dr. Alan Nishino was the superintendent for Morgan Hill for four years and resigned in June. Soon after Nishino announced his resignation, the board began their search for a new superintendent.
Scripps Interactive Newspaper Group
©2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.