Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008

Meet the school board candidates

Nicholas M. Gledich, 55

Current position: Chief Operations Officer for Orange County schools

District's enrollment/budget: About 177,000 students/$2 billion

Current salary: $135,233

Fixed failing schools

Nicholas M. Gledich came close to being superintendent several times this year.

He was a finalist for the superintendent job in Lake and Pinellas counties and Memphis, Tenn., this year. Now, he is in the running to head Manatee schools.

Over the years, Gledich has assumed many positions that his boss, Orange County Schools Superintendent Ronald Blocker said has prepared him for the job.

After teaching for six years, Gledich quickly rose through the ranks to become principal, associate superintendent and now chief operations officer for one of the largest school districts in the country.

"He's goal driven but he does it without alienating people," Blocker said. "I definitely gave him pretty tough assignments and he's done a good job."

Blocker credited him for leading a group charged with closing the achievement gap in the district by focusing on a group of struggling schools. The district had 11 F schools and 36 D schools.

"There were high turnovers in faculty and those schools tend to have junior tenure among faculty. There was also high mobility and poverty among students," Blocker said. "I put him in charge of analyzing the situation and coming back with insights and recommendations."

The plans helped reduced F schools to one and D schools to 12, according to the state.

"He's very intelligent," said Mike Cahill, president of the Orange County Classified Teachers Association. "He was given some hard problems, especially with saving money with bus issues, and that has come through very well."

Luis Gonzalez, 61

Previous position: Superintendent of the Mathis Independent School District, Texas

Previous district's enrollment/budget: About 2,000 students/$30 million

Previous salary: $130,000, including benefits

Helped build up reserves

Luis Gonzalez's resume looks impressive - he was a teacher, an adjunct professor, a principal, a consultant and a superintendent in Texas, Chicago and Michigan.

As superintendent, he presided over districts with 2,000 students to 15,000 students, he said.

His past five superintendent stints in various districts ranged between two to four years. He resigned from his last position and has applied to be superintendent in at least five other districts this year.

In the Edgewood Independent School District near San Antonio, Gonzalez resigned in 2004, right before the district's board of trustees met to discuss his contract, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

His relationship with the board soured over an internal investigation of an employee, accused of drawing disability payments and a salary at the same time, the Express-News reported.

"I felt at the time that the best thing for me to do, in view of the political differences," Gonzalez said.

Jesse R. Alcala, an Edgewood board member, said his board did not have a positive experience with Gonzalez.