The Fresno Unified school board is purposely keeping its superintendent search secret. All board members signed a nondisclosure agreement with a search firm assisting them in finding a new leader for the state’s third-largest school district.

The main reason, several board members and the consultant firm the board hired said, is to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the process.

However, some school districts require their superintendents to inform them if they’ve become a finalist or even applied for another job. Thus, leaks sometimes happen even when the goal is confidentiality. For example former Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson had such as a clause in his contract.

GV Wire’s Edward Smith reports the finalists are interim Superintendent Misty Her; Thomas Ahart, a former superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa; Gustavo Balderas, superintendent at the Beaverton (Oregon) School District, and former Madera Unified superintendent; and Calvert County (Maryland) Superintendent Andraé Townsel.

Even the NDA is subject to nondisclosure. Neither the firm McPherson & Jacobson, LLC, the school district, nor several board members were willing to immediately share the document. A California Public Records Act inquiry is pending.

School board president Valerie Davis referred GV Wire to McPherson & Jacobson for a copy of the NDA. The firm’s consultant, Ben Johnson II, said he would have to check with the firm’s CEO.

“I don’t know what I can’t disclose,” said Davis, who signed the NDA. “It’s confidential because it’s people’s lives, people’s jobs. Maybe the other superintendents haven’t told their board that they’re looking for a job or maybe it’s personal, personnel type of thing, OK? It has to do with employment law,” Davis said.

Seven members of a community advisory panel who met with the finalists also signed the NDA.

Related Story: Fresno Unified Trustees Passed Over a National Superintendent of the Year

Board Talks About NDA

Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas said she signed the NDA this month, but was unsure what she could disclose about the document itself.

She said the board chose to keep the process closed.

“Some candidates may not want to apply because they don’t want their name out there. They’re currently employed, so it might limit the pool of candidates. And so, the search that we conducted was not an open search. So therefore, confidentiality was to be respected,” Jonasson Rosas said.

“We wanted to get the maximum number of qualified candidates.”

Last year, Trustee Susan Wittrup criticized the superintendent search process. The board delayed the search, opening it nationwide.

While she signed the NDA, she wishes there was more transparency.

“I wish the candidates would become public. I wish the community could see who our candidates are, who applied, and what their qualifications are,” Wittrup said.

Trustee Andy Levine spoke to GV Wire, but said he was not willing to talk about the search or signing the NDA.

“We’re still in the middle of this process. And so, when we have an announcement to make, I’m sure we’ll speak to some of those details,” Levine said.

Trustees Claudia Cazarez, Veva Islas and Keshia Thomas did not respond to GV Wire’s questions.

“We have all signed a nondisclosure agreement and anyone who has leaked this story is fully in violation. Quite frankly, there’s some other pieces to this story, and that we’ve begun to negotiate and so on and so forth. And that is absolutely not true,” Thomas told Alexan Balekian on his “Sunday Conversation” show on April 13.

Davis, Islas and Wittrup also served on the board search committee.

Search Firm: Leak ‘Lacks Integrity’

The board contracted with McPherson & Jacobson in February for $34,500 to find the next superintendent. The trustees ultimately vote on the hiring.

“Candidates put their career on the line by interviewing,” Johnson said. “An open search would reduce the quality of candidates you would get.”

He said that transparency and the nature of the search are up to the board, not the search firm.

Johnson was not happy that information about the candidates leaked.

“I’m beyond frustrated … the process has been violated. It lacks integrity,” Johnson said. “Someone lied. Someone signed the document and didn’t maintain that.”

Johnson is concerned that the leak might affect future superintendent searches.

“Someone made that worse. I can’t tell other districts nothing has leaked before,” Johnson said.

While some school districts around the country make finalists known to the public, Johnson said open searches in California are uncommon.