Before an estimated audience of one last night at School District headquarters, a fascinating story unfolded, gradually and quietly, about Culver City’s search for a permanent Superintendent.
To beat the crowd, to avoid parking hassles on always jammed Irving Place and, not incidentally, to prepare for an evening of pulse-taking, Dr. Frank Cosca and Dr. Don Brann, principals of the headhunting Cosca Group, had settled into their seats by 5:45,15 minutes before the appointed hour.
Cosca is a statewide company of 35 retired supers who have made hundreds of contacts during their careers. At search time when a district calls, they comb their rosters for one who will tuck neatly into the exact hometown mold.
If this is not a newfangled way to track down a super precisely tailored for Culver City, the Cosca Group is at least unique. If the gentlemen were in law, instead, they probably would be branded a boutique firm because they are expert specialists. Taking only one client at a time, they are determined to become intimately familiar with the entire personality of the client before proceeding on their search.
This was to be the Cosca Group’s 16th meeting with Culver City community members as they began the second month of an expected five-month talent hunt.
“We have met with 296 people, so far, Dr. Brann said, “including a large number of students at Culver City High School. We also have received 45 written inputs from people who could not attend the meetings.”
Another Meeting Tonight
The 17th community get-together is scheduled for tonight at 8, in the same building, with PTA councils and booster clubs.
“We have met with groups as large as 175,” said Dr. Brann, formerly superintendent at the Wiseburn School, “and also some one-on-ones. We transcribe all that people have to say, put it into the computer. Then in early to mid-October, we will deliver this information to the School Board in an open meeting.”
The obvious question for the seekers was:
What have you learned about the kind of superintendent the District intends to hire to replace Dr. Myrna Cote, who left in June, and, presumably, Patty Jaffe, the Acting Super?
Succinctly, they cannot say.
“What we have learned,” said Dr. Brann, “will come out at the meeting with the Board when written copies will be distributed to everyone.
Learning Culver City
“We have learned quite a lot,” he added, teasingly. “Much of this (surveying) process is for our benefit so we can go out and recruit someone who matches Culver City Unified.”
Do you have a general profile of the kind of person who may be coming here?
“I don’t think so,” said Dr. Cosca, a superintendent in Ontario during his active days.
“We came in here with an open mind and not much information about Culver City, the community or the School District,” Dr. Brann said. “After listening to all of these people, though, we are getting a fairly consistent message from the 16-year-olds and people of all different ages.”
And that message is…?
Dr. Cosca, sitting in the front row of the non-existent audience, loved the kibitzing, and he chuckled at the question. “We can’t tell you,” he smiled.
Regardless of where they are working in Southern California, they have memorized at least one skin-saving truism that all long-term supers know by heart.
“How long were you a superintendent, Don?” asked Dr. Cosca.
“Twenty-eight years.”
“Okay, and I was a superintendent for 24 years,” Dr. Cosca said.
Flashing a puckish grin as broad and bright as the room, he said: “One thing we learned. You tell the Board first. Always.”
At that, everyone broke into peals of laughter.
Have the searchers found qualities they definitely do not want.
“We don’t know that,” Dr. Cosca said.
“This is going to be the biggest decision that the School Board makes, and none of the members has been through this before,” Dr. Brann said. “This process will be helpful to them, checking everybody else’s perceptions against their own. From there, they can decide what they want to include in the announcement brochure that will go to prospective candidates.”
The Cosca Group has been in business for a decade, and they make the following boast:
The supers they recommend stay put until they are ready to leave education.
“Out of 35 superintendents in the last 10 years, all but three have retired,” Dr. Cosca said. “One left to go to a very large district in Georgia, and the rest remain in their positions.”
The coda was applied by Dr. Brann. “We are trying to leave a legacy in the communities we have worked in that will stabilize the community,” he said. “Often there is a lot of turnover in school board members and in superintendents. We don’t think that is good for boys and girls.”
What does the Cosca Group do differently from its competitors?
“We truly learn about the district first,” said Dr. Cosca. “We understand it, and we help the board to come to grips with what they really want. What they need rather than what they want.
“There are 35 of us. We all recruit” — and he underscored the next word — “specifically for a person who fits this district. We don’t repeat candidates from district to district.”
Briefly correcting himself, Dr. Cosca said: “In two cases, we repeated candidates. But they never got jobs because districts are truly different. We didn’t believe that when we started.”
