March 9, 1998FOR RELEASE AT 2 P.M. PST (Richard M. Daniels)
RE: U.S. ATTORNEY ALAN D. BERSIN IS NAMED SAN DIEGO CITY SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT
SAN DIEGO - U. S. Attorney Alan D. Bersin has been named the next superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District as the result of a nationwide search to find the person who meets an exacting list of 15 essential qualities for the position developed by the community.
The Board of Education today announced that Bersin, 51, will succeed Dr. Bertha O. Pendleton this summer as chief executive of the 137,000-student district, more generally known as San Diego City Schools. With 167 elementary, middle and high schools and 26 child development centers, SDCS is the nation's eighth largest urban district and second only to Los Angeles as the largest of California's 1,000 school districts. Pendleton will retire June 30, ending a district career that began 41 years ago as a teacher at Memorial Junior High School.
The superintendent-designate has been the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Southern District of California, encompassing San Diego and Imperial counties since November 1993. In that position, he is responsible for enforcing federal laws and defending federal interests in the most populous region on the U.S.-Mexican border. Bersin has received national recognition for the innovations he has introduced during his tenure.
In his new role, Bersin will oversee nearly 20,000 employees, including 8,300 teachers and other certificated personnel and an $810 million annual budget.
"The community spoke clearly with one voice on the 15 essential qualities that it wanted in a new superintendent for the new century and Mr. Bersin is that 21st Century superintendent," said Ron Ottinger, Board of Education president.
Ottinger said selecting the superintendent to lead the district into the next century is the most important thing the board can do to improve student achievement.
Referring to several of the community's desired characteristics for a new superintendent, Ottinger said Bersin is a proven leader and change agent.
"Mr. Bersin insists on a high standard of excellence and accountability from himself and people who work for him; he has a reputation for personal integrity and the courage to act on his convictions," Ottinger said. "He has the personal and professional characteristics to take San Diego City Schools to a new level of student achievement."
Bersin was one of two persons recommended by a five-member search committee of leading San Diegans, appointed last fall by the Board of Education and headed by San Diego county YMCA Chief Executive Richard A. Collato. The panel included real estate executive Malin Burnham, University of San Diego president Alice B. Hayes, physician Dr. Ralph Ocampo and former San Diego City Councilman and community leader William Jones.
The committee worked with national executive recruiter Dr. Ira Krinsky beginning in mid-December to seek out candidates across the state and nation, inside and outside the education profession, using a list of "The 15 Most Desired Characteristics of the New Superintendent." Those traits were developed earlier by a group of 28 community and business leaders, educators, district staff and students appointed by the board to solicit input from community meetings and letters, prioritize their opinions and develop the desired criteria. The board on December 10 approved the committee's product as criteria for the search committee.
"Those characteristics were our marching orders in helping us search for and screen candidates," Collato said. "Mr. Bersin embodies at a very high level each of the 15 characteristics generated by the community."
After contacting more than 100 prospects, the committee reviewed 34 resumes, selecting eight applicants to interview in San Diego last month. From those, the list was shortened to Bersin and one other finalist, both of whom the board interviewed in closed session before offering the position to Bersin and negotiate a contract. The finalist and other interviewees are not being identified in keeping with a confidentiality agreement made at the start of the search process.
Bersin will be paid $165,000 a year under a four-year contract that provides performance incentives for improving student achievement beginning in the second year.
"Both the board and Mr. Bersin are committed to modeling a contract that holds the superintendent accountable for measurable performance objectives," Ottinger said. "We believe he will rally all segments of our community to support a clear plan for raising student performance year by year, school by school, student by student."
"I am proud and excited to lead our San Diego City Schools into the 21st Century," Bersin said. "The future of our children is the future of San Diego. Public education must be the number one priority on our community agenda. I will be calling on all San Diegans in the years ahead to join us in delivering on this commitment to our children, our city and our future. There is no higher calling."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bersin is a 1968 graduate of Harvard University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and played on the All-Ivy, All-New England and All-East football teams. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and later attended Yale Law School where he earned his J.D. degree in 1974.
Bersin has taught law at the University of Southern California Law Center and University of San Diego School of Law and served as an adjunct professor at Occidental College. He has been honored for pro bono legal services by the City of Los Angeles, the Hispanic Urban Center and State Bar of California.
In late 1995, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Bersin to be Special Representative for the Southwest Border, responsible for coordinating border law enforcement from South Texas to Southern California. He serves as a member of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys and is a founder of the United States/Mexican Binational Laboratory Program and chairperson of the United States Border Research Technology Center and the Southwest Border Council.
Together with Luis Herrera Lasso, Consul General of the Government of Mexico in San Diego, Bersin has been selected to receive the 1998 "Morgan" Award, presented by LEAD San Diego at its annual event this spring. The two are being honored for their joint and individual contributions to creating a cross-border Mexico/U.S. regional vision that unites San Diego and Tijuana.
Prior to his present assignment, Bersin practiced securities and insurance law as a senior partner with a Los Angeles law firm.
Krinsky's search firm, Korn/Ferry International, has conducted more than 25 nationwide searches for superintendents on behalf of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tucson, Portland, Ore., Miami and Cincinnati school districts as well as the University of California, California State University and the San Diego County Office of Education.
Bersin and his wife, Lisa Foster, have three children: Alissa, 19; Madeleine, 5, and Amalia Rose, 3.
Encompassing a 211-square-mile area, SDCS operates 120 elementary schools, 22 middle/junior high schools, 16 high schools, five continuation/alternative schools for grades 6-12 as well as a School of Creative and Performing Arts, a secondary school for science/math/computers, an alternative school for grades K-12 and a school for children with handicaps. Currently, seven charter schools are operating within the district's boundaries.
