After conducting a nationwide search for the next permanent leader of Tucson’s largest school district, the TUSD Governing Board on Tuesday selected the guy who’s already doing the job, interim superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.
Trujillo, who temporarily took over the superintendent’s post in March after the board forced out former superintendent H.T. Sanchez, beat out three other finalists for the position, including former C.E. Rose K-8 School principal Stephen Trejo, TUSD’s director of elementary and preK-8 schools Maria Marin and Donna Hargens, the former superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky.
Trujillo said he was eager to begin the job permanently, with the ability to do some long-term planning within human resources, budgeting and relationship building.
“Now I can really dig in and do a lot of that work. Instead of just sort of managing from agenda-to-agenda and making sure to get us through our current budget cycle, I can now look long-term,” he said.
In a surprise move, the Tucson Unified School District board majority decided to publicly name Trujillo at its Tuesday meeting rather than sticking to its previous plan to keep the finalist secret until the board and candidate had negotiated the contract.
Mark Stegeman was the lone vote against Trujillo’s nomination from the five-member board. Stegeman said he voted against the nomination because he disagreed with the decision to name the candidate publicly before the terms of his contract had been worked out.
Stegeman compared the decision to announcing a wedding before the proposal.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” he said after the meeting.
TUSD Board President Michael Hicks said he voted for Trujillo because he has faith that given a chance, Trujillo can succeed permanently.
“I just think he can do the job," Hicks said. "The community likes him, all the community likes him, or at least 98 percent of the community likes him.”
Trujillo will be paid a base salary ranging from $180,000 to $230,000 to oversee more than 47,000 students in 89 schools and programs. The board hopes to have the terms of Trujillo’s contract ironed out by its next meeting on Monday, Aug. 28.
TUSD has spent at least $9,725 in consultant fees for the superintendent search.
Trujillo has been with the district since last September, when he became assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. In March, the TUSD Governing Board elevated him to interim superintendent, but only after their first choice for the temporary job backed out. Before joining TUSD, Trujillo was director of human resources at Phoenix Union High School District, where he was previously a high school principal. Trujillo holds a doctorate in education from Arizona State University.
Trujillo boasts that he has made a career out of taking a temporary position and making himself indispensable.
In one of his first jobs as a teacher, for example, he started with a 10-day contract, and ended up holding the position for seven years. When he was named interim principal at a troubled school in Phoenix, he originally had a 30-day contract, and ended up staying for 10 years.
As the interim superintendent, Trujillo had a head-start on the other candidates for the job –he’d already conducted listening tours and visited all of TUSD’s 89 schools, he’s built relationships with the TUSD Governing Board members and set a series of goals for the district.
Trujillo said his immediate goal will be to focus on recruitment and retention of kids. He also sees a need to tighten the district’s curricular focus and ensure standards being taught align with the state’s standards and standardized testing. He also wants to ensure TUSD’s leadership is visible and customer-service oriented, which can be as simple as making sure every call or email is returned.
