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In This Issue...
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The Pajaro School Fiasco in Brief
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The Pajaro School Fiasco in Brief
By Mary Bryant & Michael Thomas
In the first part of this series, The Post talked with Pajaro Valley School District personnel manager Kathryn Benson. Benson’s troubles at Pajaro Schools have come to symbolize what Pajaro Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Mays says distracts attention and resources from the vital work of improving student achievement.
Even thought test scores are up overall â€" Pajaro’s better schools are doing even better and its poorest performing schools are improving â€" Mays believes that another two years of concentrated effort are necessary to raise Pajaro’s rankings to meet State averages. However, she also believes that the petty politics of a handful of trustees â€" along with some of their supporters â€" may drive good staff away from the District. She says this is what caused her to quit.
In the first part of this series, The Post examined the genesis of troubles at Pajaro.
â€" Just before Dr. Mays was to take the job as superintendent, Benson was recruited from San Luis Obispo as the personnel director. In the job she coordinates the hiring and employment terms of the District’s non-teaching workers, from accounting specialists to teaching aides. In this effort, she reports to the District’s Personnel Commission, a three-member group that hears appeals, develops job descriptions and otherwise interprets the District’s merit rules.
â€" In 2002, Dr. Mays was hired to replace Dr. John Casey as superintendent. She served a seven-member elected board of trustees. Unlike Casey, Dr. Mays didn’t reorganize the District’s governance, leaving in place the District’s popular three-zone structure. Instead she focused on student achievement, instituting reading programs, teacher training and developing structured school visit programs known as SCANS that consider each campus individually. In some cases, such as at Watsonville High School, she instituted new models of teaching including small learning communities and block schedules. In other cases, she recommended programs, like privatized tutoring classes aimed at underachieving students, that weren’t approved by the Board and not implemented.
â€" In 2004, during a regular election, Karen Osmundson beat out Dan Hankemeier for Trustee Area 3, which represents the southern communities in the District including North Monterey County. Hankemeier had opposed many of the proposals initiated by a then-board minority including Sandra Nichols, Rhea DeHart and Sharon Gray.
While Osmundson has never clearly aligned in any camp until recently, she often gave Nichols, DeHart and Gray the go-ahead vote. Critics of the Pajaro Three â€" Gray, Nichols and DeHart â€" say that Osmundon’s support also gave certain trustees the appearance of authority which they used to meddle in the affairs of managers. For Dr. Mays, she said that much more of her time was spent chasing down rumors countless administrative investigations. Dr. Mays said that there was a constant specter of distrust for District managers and aspersions cast without evidence consume District resources to investigate.
â€" In 2005, after a succession of new presidents and a top official jailed for child abuse, the District’s Classified Service Employee Association â€" the union that represents the District’s classified workers â€" appointed retired Pajaro personnel director Jack Hayes to the District’s three-member personnel commission. According to many reports â€" from other commissioners, District staff and trustees â€" Hayes behaved unprofessionally, driving away two commissioners. Presently, the Board cannot meet since Hayes is the only member. Hayes is also a friend and supporter of trustees Gray and DeHart, and even though he was appointed to the Commission to represent CSEA interests, he often said he was asked by trustees to advance certain initiatives. To date, CSEA’s top officials have supported Hayes, saying he is knowledgeable, effective and keenly focused on improving the Commission’s work.
â€" On March 22, 2006, Dr. Mays resigned effective in June. A month later, Pajaro Valley associate superintendent of business Terry McHenry retired, offering to work on a consulting basis until December as the Interim Superintendent. After an unprecedented outpouring of support from teachers, administrators, parents and community leaders, Dr. Mays has agreed to stay until December on a part-time basis. She has said that she might reconsider her decision to leave if a November election were to shift the Board’s makeup. Trustees DeHart and Gray are up for election in November. After Dr. Mays’ resignation, a committee led by former trustee Jane Barr announced its intention to recall Nichols and recruit candidates to challenge DeHart and Gray. Since then, a second committee has attracted a number of high profile community leaders to seek, select and support trustee candidates for the November election. Many parents are also calling for the current board to stall any attempts to replace the Superintendent until after the election.
[If you are interested in reading the first part of this series, you can find the article online at www.TheMidCountyPost.com (or www.mcpost.com). The story is available in the archived edition of May 16, 2006.]
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Past stories related to this article...
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