Newsmakers with JR
May 26, 20201 min
At tonight's virtual meeting, Santa Barbara's school board plans to announce their selection of a new superintendent, who will guide the SB Unified School District's 14,000 students, their teachers and families, into the uncertain new world of Covid-19 public education.
Forget Lester Holt, Norah O'Donnell and David Muir (not to mention TMZ), airing at the same time, this is must-see TV.
Or must-see Zoom, anyway.
With public hearings still proscribed by the pandemic, the meeting will be conducted remotely. The board will meet in executive session starting at 6 p.m.; the public portion of the meeting, when the new supe will be named, is to begin around 6:30 p.m. and, according to the board's agenda, you can watch it on your device by clicking on his link.
(The agenda is here. Meeting link = https://sbunified.zoom.us/j/93690163599 ).
The new superintendent will replace the outgoing Cary Matsuoka, who decided to retire a year early, following a long stretch of botched controversies, scandals and barely discernible improvement in the district's chronic academic problems.
Tonight's announcement caps a five-month search and interview process by the board, which attracted an original field about 50 candidates -- despite the national and local shutdowns of normal economic and social functioning caused by the coronavirus. All of the interviews, by the school board and a community panel of about a dozen people, have been virtual, however.
Once the selection is announced, Newsmakers will be back with details.