The Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District has entered a new phase of its search for a permanent superintendent with the release of its community engagement report.

The report reflects robust engagement over the last two months with students, parents, staff and community members on the selection of a permanent superintendent.

Collaborate, Inc., the firm hired to compile the report, shared initial toplines with the board’s Community and Family Engagement Committee, and the full report was released on Oct. 21.

Nearly 30,000 members of the LA Unified community participated in the online survey, which was available in eight languages. Of the more than 28,500 respondents, 47% self-identified as parents, 10% as students and 23% as LA Unified employees.

Respondents had clear preferences for experiences they want to see in the next superintendent, including experience as a teacher and/or administrator (90% of those surveyed), experience working in and with diverse communities (90%) and experience managing a very large organization (89%).

Asked to prioritize among a variety of qualities and characteristics, respondents most frequently selected: listens to the community, teaching/administrative experience, problem solver, promotes transparency and effective communicator.

The outreach also included eight focus groups, 14 virtual community listen sessions and direct engagement with nearly 1,000 community members.

From the listening sessions and focus groups, Collaborate identified the following additional feedback themes: someone who will fight for more funding for LA Unified, someone who is a “bridge-builder” and support all schools to increase performance, someone who ensures special education students receive adequate resources, someone who prepares students to be a part of the future workforce and someone who recognizes the importance of equity and representation.

The board will integrate the results of the community input into the subsequent phases of the selection process, such as developing the job description and selection criteria for the superintendent position.

The full Community Engagement Report can be viewed at achieve.lausd.net/suptsearch2021.