On June 21, the school board reviewed the performance of the Superintendent whose contract was scheduled to be approved Thursday for another three years which will lead to a raise to his current base salary to over $322,000. At the June 8 board meeting, a resolution was reviewed from its March 2020 implementation authorizing the Superintendent to have “Emergency Executive Authority” including but not limited to “to take any and all actions necessary to ensure the continuation of public education and the health and safety of the students and staff”. However, at this meeting it was insisted by the Administration and Board that authority only included contractual negotiations necessary to keep schools operational, insisting that the Board had maintained authority over the remainder of the operational function of the Administration. To emphasize, the Administration’s point, six contracts entered and all dated September/October 2020 were presented. Further evidence to the extent of the Superintendent’s authority came in Summer 2020 when board member Jim Kelly deferred opening decisions to the Superintendent since “he has total power”.
On June 15, the current resolution was allowed to expire based on a 4-1 vote by the Board – Clerk Kelly opposed. However, once again, it is imperative that the community understand actual facts and not be distracted by the “Shiny Object”. It was under this previous executive authority that our district failed to prepare our secondary schools to open last fall, resulting in online learning for an additional five months despite surrounding larger and more densely populated districts being able to open.
It is under this resolution that the Board supported the trimester learning, an untested suggestion by “Challenge success” which proved to be a disaster and a model the Administration insisted would not be considered going forward. However, the recently proposed “shiny object” the “4 by 4” education model is from the same “Challenge Success” model that the District embraces despite a recent report that only 29% of those districts that originally embraced the “Challenge Success” still participate in the program. Additionally, the decision of the 4×4 fell under the Emergency Resolution and passed onto the site principals stating it was a “bell schedule”, despite the Challenge success indicating it is a learning model. Learning model approvals must be considered by the Board. Our Administration used the Emergency Resolution to circumvent board oversight. Lastly, under the emergency resolution, there has been significant turnover of the Administrative staff which includes a top-level executive team that is all male. Significant in an industry where the majority is women. Despite all this, the Superintendent’s contract and salary has been extended. Shouldn’t students successes, parents’ concerns, and college readiness results (54% in recently released data) be the benchmark for our District success? I guess in this world of smoke, mirrors and shiny objects, the answer is no.
Sheri Morgan, Laguna Beach
