Spectrum June 2013 Issue - The Spectrum Magazine - Redwood ...

28, lives in Santiago, Chile, where he works
for a large multinational engineering firm. His
specialty is designing structures for long tunnels.
Enjoys traveling, hiking
and reading
When he is not busy with his superintendent job,
Lianides enjoys traveling. He’s been to not only
Peru but also Mexico, Turkey, Greece, Albania,
Italy, Spain and Holland. Additionally, Lianides
enjoys hiking and reading.
Good at construction
Lianides is pretty good at construction. His father
was a sheet metal worker and he has been able
to apply those skills in his home. “I know how
to frame, how to do plumbing,” he said. “I have
installed tile floors.”
Loves rocks and minerals
What’s one thing most people don’t know about
Lianides? He is passionate about geology and
collects rocks and minerals, he said. He has a
large collection at home and a small collection in
his office. He likes to know the names of different
formations, how they were formed and where they
are found, he said.
Extremely loyal
to everyone
Gary Bulanti, broker associate for Alain Pinel
Realtors in Menlo Park, has known Lianides for
about 41 years. Even though they are both from
Redwood City, they never met one another until
they were freshmen at the University of California
at Berkeley. And they’ve been friends ever since.
“He is extremely loyal,” Bulanti said. “He is loyal
to his family, his friends, his students and his coworkers.
He is very intelligent but has a calm about
him that is very assuring. And he is unflappable.
He will remain calm in all matters and any crisis.
His intellect is very steady and unmeasured.
“Over the years, we have traveled together with
our wives and children to Peru and the Sierra
Nevada mountains. I have watched him start as a
teacher who is bilingual, [then become] a middle
school principal, business manager for a school
district in Pacifica, to business manager with
the Sequoia Union High School District, to his
current position as superintendent.
“He is well-respected by co-workers because
he has a great ability to be empathetic because he
has done those jobs. I would imagine that not that
many superintendents have that much experience
or that diverse of a background [when they take
the position]. I know he cares deeply for the district,
that it is important for him to keep the district
moving in the right direction now and in the future.
“Jim is one of my very, very best friends. He is
like family. He makes himself accessible to everyone
in his organization, to parents. He really cares that
every child in the district gets the best possible
education they can. … He is just a really caring
person. He is a loving husband and father. He’s
golden. I’m a lucky guy to have a friend like him.”
Wonderful to work with,
honest and forthcoming
Susan Vickrey first met Lianides around 1996,
when she was principal at Roy Cloud Elementary
School in Redwood City. Lianides was a principal
in another district at the time, but his two sons
attended Roy Cloud.
A few years later, Vickrey and Lianides worked
as peers in Pacifica when Lianides was the
business manager and Vickrey was director of
curriculum.
At Vickrey’s retirement dinner in 2010,
Lianides asked if she would be interested in
helping him out for a few weeks because his
human resources person had left suddenly. He
needed someone to start the school year while he
looked for a replacement.
“Somehow, at the party, that seemed like a
good idea,” she noted. “So I went to work for him
in Sequoia for the month of August. Well, a few
weeks became two years. I retired the second time
from Sequoia in 2012.”
Vickrey noted that Lianides “is wonderful to
work with. He is honest and forthcoming. His
word is good 100 percent of the time. He has
a quick understated sense of humor that can
leave one wondering if he was joking or not.
He is thoughtful and careful in his decisionmaking
process. He collects information and
communicates with those affected by the
outcome. There have been a number of times over
the years when I have disagreed with him. But
I knew he had evaluated the situation and done
what he honestly believed to be best.
“We are friends. Jim and his wife have been
longtime friends with my husband and me. He
was supportive through my cancer in 2008. He
is kind. He is a wonderful father for his two
successful sons.
“Professionally, Jim has made a difference to
thousands of kids. He taught bilingual education
in Redwood City. He was a successful middle
school principal. He balanced a difficult budget in
Pacifica. He remodeled every school in Pacifica on
time and on budget. He found funding for my many
curriculum projects that increased the district’s
Academic Performance Index (API) to over 800.
“He is working to better the educational
opportunities for all students of Sequoia. He is
magic at school funding. He understands it better
than anyone else in education and he can explain
it. He works to secure every dollar that a district
is entitled to and ensures that the money is spent
appropriately to enhance education for kids. San
Mateo County has been lucky to have him in each
of his varied positions.”
“Professionally,
Jim has made a
difference to
thousands of kids.”
“This is a district
that will continue
to meet its
challenges.”
“It is a great
community today,
but it was a great
community then.”
The Spectrum 15