Vrankovich Leaving District, Board to Choose Replacement

Superintendent Barbara Vrankovich Wednesday night confirmed her retirement this June. The Board of Trustees is weighing three options upon Vrankovich’s departure: promote an interim superintendent from within, search for a temporary superintendent outside the district or hire a permanent superintendent.

The Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District’s — Superintendent Barbara Vrankocivh recently declared impasse with the teacher’s union, a and the board still has to cut $4.9 million from the budget.

Although the board intended to make a final decision Wednesday, trustees weighed the district’s budget deficit, and came to a consensus to look at potential interim candidates first — a move that could cost less. They asked Vrankovich for a list of names, with their qualifications, and are expected to make the decision at the April 12 board meeting.

Longmire asked if anyone within the district is qualified to serve as interim superintendent, and Vrankovich said there was. She is also looking into a pool of retired superintendents, and for help from the county, to compile the list of candidates.

“I would like to go the interim route,” said trustee Karyn Pulley. “With things being the way they are financially in our district and the uncertainty of the finances, I don’t think we have money to pay for a search. I think we can find an interim superintendent from either in house or through the retired supes.”

“That’s kind of been my feeling along … who would want to come an apply for a job here knowing that a year from now the state could pull the rug from under us and that person we just hired could be losing a job,” board president Ed Gilardi said.

"We need someone who doesn’t see that as an option, we need somebody who’s going to make it work," said trustee Marc Orloff.

Trustee Leffler Brown said he’d like like to see a permanent superintendent right away. Trustees Andrew Longmire and Orloff said the upside to getting in a permanent replacement right away was to start to develop a long-term plan.

“In this economy there are a lot of available people who have credentials,” Orloff said. “At the same time, I understand the complexities of our budget problems.”

"I do look at it as we have a chance to reinvent ourselves," Longmire said.

The price tag to conduct a formal permanent superintendent search is hefty: $8,500 for the Sonoma County of Education to do it, and anywhere from $13,500 to $22,000 to employ a professional firm.

Vrankovich serves also as in-house attorney and human resources manager for the district — both positions that would have to be filled, although the district may be able to get by without an attorney, and the human resources position could be less than full time. 

“You could certainly get by paying someone less than I make, I would imagine somewhere in the $400 to $500 a day range. We could get you a list of names, people that could be potential interims.”

According to School Accountability Report Card, published for 2010-11, Vrankovich’s salary is $165,000.

“A full time human resources salary could be $100,000 alone,” she said.

It’s a race against time. When Longmire asked, Vrankovich didn’t say the district was late in finding a replacement for herself, but she said “we’re at the tail end. You can’t spend anther three weeks talking about it. There are three superintendent positions open in Sonoma County now."

Orloff, Pulley, Longmire and Gilardi acknowledged tensions amongst the board last night as well. They’re looking into a trustee workshop to iron out whatever issues the board might have, and to develop a vision for the school district.

They said they were apprehensive about spending $2,000 on a California School Board Association workshop. Vrankovich said she could probably get someone to do it for free or at a very little cost.