JOB OF TOP SCHOOLS CHIEF SUBJECT OF FORUM

Community members can give their input for the search for the next San Diego County schools superintendent at a public forum Monday night.

The county superintendent leads the San Diego County Office of Education, which provides guidance, services and oversight to the county’s 42 school districts and 130 charter schools that altogether serve 476,000 public school students. The county office also runs schools that serve specific student groups, including students with severe disabilities and juvenile court, homeless and pregnant students.

Current Superintendent Paul Gothold announced in October that he will retire at the end of this school year, in June. He has led the county office for more than six years.

“As we look for the next leader of the County Office of Education, we want to gather feedback from educational partners regarding what they would like to see in their next superintendent,” said San Diego County Board of Education President Rick Shea in a statement. “We hope to hear from representative voices from communities throughout the 42 districts we serve countywide.”

The forum will run from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the JRRTC Comm Labs room at the county education office’s Linda Vista campus, at 6401 Linda Vista Road, San Diego.

Child care and Spanish language interpretation will be provided. If members of the public need American Sign Language interpretation, they can email Carmen Aguilar at cpaguilar@sdcoe.net.

Community members can also provide input through an online survey until Dec. 22. The survey can be found at sdcoe.net/pages/superintendent-search.