Board Seeking Authority to Appoint County Schools Superintendent

SAN BERNARDINO–The San Bernardino County Board of Education is inching toward asking the county’s voters to change the position of the county superintendent of schools from an elected post to one filled by appointment.
“I believe we either need an appointed superintendent and take the politics out of the county office or we do not need an elected county board,” David Stine, a 21-year county schools board member, publicly declared on March 1.
David Stine said his “frustration” with the current arrangement was not a reflection on current county schools superintendent Gary Thomas. Saying his remarks should not be construed as “an attack on our current superintendent or any superintendent,” Stine said it was still his “opinion that there are limited powers for the county board.”
Part of the dilemma for the county board of education in this regard, Stine said, is that the board is unable to propound its vision for regional education throughout the county’s 33 school districts “since the superintendent is elected, [and] he independently is the employer of record and makes all personnel decisions with no checks or balances and does all collective bargaining without any input or influence from the board.”
The county superintendent of schools, as an elected official, has power that exceeds the power of the county board, an elected body. In local districts, the arrangements are that the board members are elected and the school district superintendents are hired at the discretion of the board and are answerable to the board.
Stine suggested the local school board arrangement is superior to the countywide system, which provides the board with about a quarter of a million dollars in spending authority and the superintendent with control over his office’s $350 million budget.
“County superintendents… have absolute power,” said board member Gil Navarro, who said he will seek a resolution that could be brought up for the board to vote on as early as May 3 calling upon the board of supervisors to approve a countywide election measure that if passed will alter the county superintendent of schools position from an elected to an appointed one.