Quick Take
Live Oak School District governing board member Paul Garcia resigned Wednesday, the latest in a string of resignations to hit the struggling school district in recent months. The board hopes to fill the vacancy at its May 8 meeting.
Live Oak School District governing board member Paul Garcia resigned Wednesday, the latest in a string of resignations to hit the struggling school district in recent months.
Garcia told a board meeting Wednesday night that he felt the board needed a fresh voice to help choose a new superintendent for the district, according to several people who were at the meeting.
Lookout sought comment from Garcia but had not heard back as of publication.
Garcia was appointed in December 2015 and served for almost nine years; his term was not set to expire until November 2026. A father of two, Garcia taught middle school for nine years before becoming a director of international language and leadership programs, according to the district’s website.
Garcia’s resignation comes a month after current superintendent Daisy Morales tendered her resignation, effective June 30, amid the district’s ongoing budget crisis. One assistant superintendent resigned in February and another was terminated in March before Morales resigned later that month.
Two board members, board president Kristin Pfotenhauer and Jeremy Ray, are up for reelection in November. Ray said he’s not planning to run again.
Pfotenhauer said she’s open to running for reelection but doesn’t yet know what she’ll do. She added that Garcia will be missed on the board.
“I’ve been really grateful to have worked with him,” she told Lookout. “He’s a really calm presence, he’s student-focused, has a long history in the district and knows a lot of families. …. [We] will miss him and also really respect that he’s stepping back because he thinks that it will serve the community to have someone during this time who isn’t currently on the board to have a new voice.”
Pfotenhauer said the district will open applications to fill Garcia’s position, likely on Monday, and plans to accept applications for 10 days. The board hopes to interview candidates and appoint a new member at its next regular meeting May 8.
She added that the vacant seat won’t have any impact on the district’s search for a new superintendent because the board plans to fill Garcia’s seat before trustees have to make any major decisions.
The board hired executive search firm Leadership Associates with a goal of finding a superintendent who can be on the job as of July 1, immediately following Morales’ final day. The district plans to close applications for a new permanent superintendent on May 6 before doing panel interviews on May 19 and 20.
“What we want is to have whoever is appointed [to the board] to be able to participate in the superintendent interviews,” she said.
Parent Brooke Bond was at Wednesday’s meeting and told Lookout she feels Garcia’s resignation will complicate the superintendent search. She said she’s also saddened to see Garcia go as he “cared deeply about the students” and brought a good perspective to the board.
“This leads me to how we can appoint someone for the board in the middle of this [superintendent] search – it’s too much at once from my perspective,” she said. “They need to pause this superintendent search.”
Some parents and teachers have said they feel the superintendent search is being rushed and want the district to hold off until the fall.
Pfotenhauer said she hopes to find someone who can start by July 1. But if the district can’t find a suitable candidate by then, she said the board is open to appointing an interim.
There are some drawbacks to postponing the search. If the board decides to appoint an interim superintendent, that person would likely be retired, Pfotenhauer said. Retired superintendents can work only a restricted amount of time before it affects their retirement pension, meaning the district would likely have to hire them part-time or hire multiple interim superintendents.
“If we can find someone good, I would rather not put us in that process of having to go through multiple people,” she said. “But if we don’t find someone we’re comfortable with whom we feel like we’ll really be able to support moving forward, then we’ll [seek an interim superintendent].”
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