LYNWOOD — Superintendent Ed Velasquez, who gave himself a deadline of July 31 to fill 10 administrative vacancies within the district, including eight principal positions, has called for a special school board meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. where board members will hear his final recommendations.

With a pool of more than 200 applicants, board members will hear Velasquez’s recommendations to fill the principal positions at Vista Continuation High School, Lynwood High School, Lynwood Middle School, and at four elementary schools.

The new superintendent came close to meeting the deadline he set out for himself, but the interview process will continue into the next couple of weeks, he said. Needless to say, at least one more special meeting will be called before the 2010-11 school year officially begins Aug. 30.

It’s “grueling work,” he said, but he said he will not make any recommendations unless he is 100 percent certain the candidates are a perfect fit for the school sites.

“My recommendations have to be 100 percent solid,” he said. “They have to be a perfect fit and I have to have no concerns about recommending them.”

Velasquez with help from committees he has selected have been conducting interviews for the last couple of weeks. Velasquez said interviewed five candidates on Monday, 10 Tuesday, and another 10 on Wednesday.

Aside from also making a recommendation to the board on Thursday for the Coordinator II, for Academic Proficiency position, there are two other very critical positions on the list that are extremely “hard to find” candidates for, said Velasquez.

“That’s the high schools,” he said, referring to having to fill both principal positions for LHS and for Firebaugh High School. “High school principals are very hard to find, because they are kiss-of-death positions, the demands of those positions are high demands, they worst, maybe second to being a district superintendent, you have football games, basketball games, sports activities, it’s a killer for family, and to top it off, Lynwood’s pay scale is not that great.”

The pool of candidates that made it to the final recommendations will make an excellent addition to the team he’s trying to build, Velasquez said.

“I’m excited about bringing them on board,” he said.

“The committees did an excellent job about narrowing down the number of candidates,” he said. “I stayed out of the process until the end.”

Velasquez said he wasn’t one bit surprised by the amount of applicants for the positions.

“You have to remember that there have been a lot of layoffs all over the country. … There are lot of people unemployed, a lot of whom were administrators,” he said.

“I put the word out that we are looking and a lot of people out there who know me know that I’m about the kids and that I was looking for people with a focus on working with students. There are a lot of dreams and visions and goals that this district has, and I’ve got a short period to make them happen. Sure I’m busy, but I’m excited because we’re building a team. I assure you, it’s going to be second to none.

“I’m excited because these people are student centered, and that’s what we were looking for,” he said. “The pool didn’t include a lot of people from Montebello, They came from all over, from Palmdale, from San Gabriel, from up north. I think there is one candidate who came from Montebello. I can’t stop anybody from applying, if that person made it to the finals, I had nothing to do with it.”

Velasquez said he wants to stay away from the preconception that he is going to fill LUSD offices with Montebello people. He has already hired Paul Gothold, from Montebello for the permanent position of the district’s chief academic officer. He also recently hired a consultant to oversee the district’s fiscal services, Steve Hodgson, a consultant who worked for Montebello once.

And even more recently he hired, with the approval of school board members, Mary Willis, for the recently vacated seat of assistant superintendent of human resources.

“The only Montebello person I’ve brought in is Paul,” Velasquez said. “Steve was a consultant we used in Montebello, but he wasn’t a Montebello person, and Mary is just a place holder until we hire someone to fill that position. One thing I want to make sure [is that] I stay away from is that stereotype.”

There are only two things on his agenda, said Velasquez.

“I have two priorities in my role as superintendent, and that’s the academic program for the next year and resolving the budget issues,” he said. “If I hired Steve [Hodgson], it’s because he is really good and I need someone good to help me turn this place around. … What I want for the district’s new team is people with the knowledge and the ability and the capacity to do the job.”

There will be bumps in the road and Velasquez said he understands that.

“I’ve been here less than 40 days and already I have so much on my plate,” he said. “It’s a challenge and I’m not complaining, but I am preparing for any obstacles or challenges that may occur on first day of school.”

With more interviews taking place on Friday and others next week, Velasquez also has enrollment and staffing issues that are still up in the air.

“No one seems to be able to tell me what our staffing situation looks like,” Velasquez said. “That’s a problem.”

That is why he said he wants to make sure every principal, assistant principal and coordinator position is filled before Aug. 30.

One school, believed to be Firebaugh High School, has 10 teacher vacancies. That’s among the staffing issues he’s having to figure out.

But until enrollment numbers start coming in this month, Velasquez has to wait and see what teachers he can put where.

“Otherwise it would fiscally irresponsible of me to go out and hire 10 teachers for that school, when there might be a school that has 10 teachers over,” he said. “A lot of this stuff should have been figured out in May, but because of circumstances … things weren’t done. There’s a lot of things that weren’t put into place, but I’m putting them into place.”

Velasquez said he is a realist. To top things off, he said: “In two weeks the county is going to send us a letter rejecting the district’s budget, I’m already anticipating it … I’m a realist … so we will have to readjust things when that comes, too.”