Education

OAKLAND (BCN) ― The Oakland school board has announced that Tony Smith, the deputy superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, is one of three finalists to be Oakland's new superintendent.

The other two finalists are Barbara Adams, the chief academic officer for Boston Public Schools, and Edward Velasquez, superintendent of the Montebello Unified School District in Los Angeles County.

The three remaining candidates are vying for the right to become Oakland's first, permanent locally appointed superintendent since the state took control of the district in 2003 because of its financial problems.

When the Oakland school board was granted partial control of school district operations in April 2008, it appointed Roberta Mayor as interim superintendent with the task of strengthening its finances and preparing for the full return of local governance.

The board also hired the consulting firm of Ray & Associates Inc. to lead the search for a new superintendent.

The firm has conducted a series of public meetings in neighborhoods throughout Oakland to solicit opinion on the qualifications, strategies, values and managerial skills the new superintendent should possess.

The finalists will appear at a public forum at school district headquarters at 1025 Second Ave. in Oakland at 6 p.m. on May 20 as well as before an advisory panel on May 21. The advisory panel's members were chosen by the school board.

The board is expected to choose the new superintendent by June 1 with the expectation that the superintendent will begin work on July 1.

According to information released by the Oakland Unified School District, Adams has served as chief academic officer for the Boston Public School System, which has 56,000 students, since 2008.

Adams manages a $40 million central office academic budget and oversees a number of education programs.

Adams came to Boston from the Portland Public School District in Portland, Ore., where she served as chief of schools from 2005 to 2008.

Among the other positions she has held were serving as regional superintendent of the West Contra Costa School District in Richmond from 2000 to 2003 and serving as principal at Turnbull School from 1993 to 2000.

Adams also served as principal at Audubon Elementary in Foster City from 1991 to 1993.

Adams received an undergraduate degree in education and history from Chicago's Mundelein College-Loyola University in 1970 and earned a masters degree in reading and learning disabilities from Western Oregon State University in 1972.

She received a masters in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University in June 2004 and is expected to receive her doctorate from Harvard in the same discipline next year.

Smith has served as deputy superintendent for the San Francisco Unified School District, which has 55,000 students, since November 2007.

He previously served as superintendent of the Emery Unified School District in Emeryville.

Smith received his bachelor's degree in English in 1992 from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was captain of the football team and graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach.

He then earned his masters and doctorate degrees in language and literacy from UC Berkeley's graduate school of education.

Velasquez is in his fifth year as superintendent of the Montebello Unified School District in Los Angeles County, which has 33,000 students.

He served for five years as the district's associate superintendent and was named interim superintendent in January 2004. Subsequently, the governing board requested that he become the superintendent on a permanent basis.

Velasquez, who is an adjunct professor with the masters in education program at California State University, Los Angeles, received his bachelor's degree and preliminary teaching credential from Whittier College in Southern California.

He earned his clear teaching credential from CSULA and his masters in education and administrative credential from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa.

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