Monday, June 24, 2013

Some in Odessa want H.T. Sanchez to Stay as Their Superintendent

Posted By on Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 10:09 PM

According to the Odessa American, tonight's meeting of the Ector County Independent School District's board of trustees went from looking at search firms to help the Texas school district in its superintendent search to a call for a special meeting to name the district interim superintendent, H.T. Sanchez, the lone finalist.

Sanchez was Tucson Unified School District's lone finalist to replace outgoing Superintendent John Pedicone chosen in a 4-1 vote by TUSD's governing board. While some in the Texas district are trying to figure out a way to keep Sanchez in Odessa, the TUSD governing board is expected to make a decision on the details of the Texas candidate's contract during a special meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25, in executive session at 4 p.m.

From the Odessa American on tonight's meeting:

Without Sanchez sitting in on the Monday night workshop to comment on the back-and-forth of the last few days — Will he stay? Or won’t he? — the board called for the special meeting to start at 6 p.m. Monday where they will take a vote to name Sanchez the lone finalist for superintendent. The board took no action at the workshop and the only agenda items were to discuss the profile of a superintendent, search firm, conducting the search; and to approve a plan for conducting the search, which was not made.

Following public comments from 13 different members of the community, trustee Nelson Minyard asked that the board have a special meeting to name Sanchez the lone finalist for superintendent to which trustee Luis Galvan seconded.

The meeting was initially called to outline a list of qualities to hand over to a search firm “if” the board were to go that way — the words “if” and “should” were used often by the board on Monday night.

“Should we find ourselves having to use a search firm, we’re probably looking a request that is in adverse times; most superintendents for 13-14 school year already have been placed,” trustee Steve Brown said. The board did discuss using a search firm though only in gathering more information from each of the four firms presented and to identify a list of characteristics. No vote was taken. The discussion was tempered by the fact that the board will be voting to name Sanchez its lone finalist next week.

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