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The Pleasanton school board appointed former Menlo Park City School District superintendent Maurice Ghysels as its interim leader Thursday night while the district undergoes the process of finding a permanent replacement for outgoing Superintendent David Haglund.
“I am proud to return to the Pleasanton community and look forward to building relationships and learning from our staff, students and community partners as the district prepares to make important decisions related to budget and identifying a superintendent,” Ghysels stated in a press release from the district Friday morning.
Board President Mary Jo Carreon said during the meeting that the search for a new superintendent after Haglund officially leaves the Pleasanton Unified School District on June 30 is an important decision that requires community engagement, which is why the district decided to hire an interim superintendent.
“As a board, we take the responsibility of hiring our superintendent very seriously. We highly value community stakeholder feedback,” Carreon said. “We need time to meet with community members, teachers, staff and students to make sure our process of hiring a permanent superintendent reflects our organizational work plan goal.”
According to the employment agreement, which the board unanimously endorsed after approving his appointment as interim superintendent during closed session, Ghysels will begin on July 1 and his contract will end on June 30, 2025 — his contract can be terminated before next June for various reasons including if the district finds a permanent replacement.
The employment agreement states that Ghysels will be making a base salary of $1,500 every day and will not exceed $74,733. There will also be a monthly reimbursement stipend up to $1,000 for expenses and an automobile allowance. Medical benefits will not be offered, staff confirmed during the meeting.
According to the agreement, Ghysels will only be working three days a week because he is retired and there is a limit to how much retirees can earn if they work. Staff said during Thursday’s meeting that if the contract needs to be extended the board can bring it back for further discussion.
According to Carreon’s closed session report, the district’s hiring process of Ghysels included three meetings of interested candidates and two presentations from the two top finalists.
Ghysels, who had a long history in education, headed the Menlo Park City School District as superintendent from 2011 to 2016. However, he actually started his career as a teacher at Amador Valley High School after graduating from the school in 1974.
“He believes in teamwork, being visible at our schools and understands the role of an interim and can lead us through difficult times,” Carreon stated in her closed session report.
Ghysels will be bringing nearly 30 years of executive leadership experience in public education and in the private sector, according to the district’s press release. After his time in Menlo Park he took over as chief innovations officer in the Ravenswood City School District and founded the Ghysels Group, which works with school districts on strategic planning; management and leadership change; and organizational development.
But before his time in Menlo Park, he served as the Mountain View Whisman School District superintendent for several years. The end of his tenure at Mountain View, however, was overshadowed by controversy where he admitted to being in a relationship with one of the principals he oversaw while the two were in the process of filing for divorce in their respective mariages, according to past reporting by the Mountain View Voice.
Despite his history, the school board unanimously voted to appoint Ghysels to serve as interim superintendent in Pleasanton.
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Ghysels join the outstanding team that has been built at PUSD in this interim role. Dr. Ghysels brings a wealth of experience and unique perspective as a leader within public schools as well as an expert in advising educational leaders,” Carreon said in the press release. “We look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and leadership as the board prepares to work toward identifying a permanent superintendent next year.”
The decision to hire an interim superintendent had been met with some public criticism on several social media platforms such as NextDoor where people wondered what happened to the succession plan that the board previously adopted, which had planned to move Deputy Superintendent Ed Diolazo to the superintendent position.
Former longtime school board trustee Jamie Yee told the Weekly she shared those concerns and felt betrayed when she heard the board wasn’t going to at least try to give Diolazo a shot.
“I’m very disappointed that the succession plan wasn’t considered and really thought about and at least tried it out for the next several months,” Yee said.
Haglund had also initially told the Weekly that he was going to stay until August in order to help Diolazo transition to the permanent superintendent position, as initially planned, but when he heard the board was going with a different direction he decided to leave on June 30.
Yee said as a member of the school board who hired Haglund seven years ago, she knows how hard it is to find a new superintendent and feels like the current board rushed the decision to hire an interim superintendent.
“I know what the pool (of candidates) is like,” Yee said. “And that’s what I was trying to warn them about.”
She felt like the board could have given the interim superintendent role to Diolazo — even though the previous succession plan was for the deputy to move up to full superintendent and not as interim — until the fall time and then evaluate his progress through community and district input.
But in her closed session report comments, Carreon said there is a reason the board hired Ghysels.
Carreon said as the district faces budget challenges, it needed Diolazo to take over the duties of the assistant superintendent of educational services following the departure of William Nelson while also maintaining his role as deputy superintendent
“These are two very critical roles that we need Mr. Diolazo for to provide stability for our district,” Carreon stated in her closed session report. “This is an organizational decision that our board feels most effectively meets the needs of our students.”
The board separately voted and approved an employment agreement to assign those responsibilities to Diolazo as well as raising his salary.
Carreon also explained how the board wanted to include the community in a decision as big as a new permanent superintendent.
“We value and welcome your input,” Carreon said in her closed session report. “We will be conducting community outreach forums starting in the fall. We will determine next steps in our search for a superintendent after hearing community feedback.”
On the other hand, Yee remains disappointed with the district’s decision to go this route. “To me it feels like they’re not realizing that the Haglund administration did a lot of work to build trust and to bring stability to the district and I feel like that’s being completely dismissed,” Yee said.
