Grandmother's Wisdom, "If Somthing Stinks, Its Rotten"

If something stinks, it means something is rotten. It is not a quote from Mark Twain but rather my Grandmother. Simple and seemingly old fashion, it sums up perfectly our School Board’s utter disrespect last Thursday. The School Board had received numerous emails and calls asking for qualification on rumors Allan Gordon was retiring and asking for clarification on details for hiring a new super-intendent.

Our School Board has know for months that Allan Gordon was planning to retire. It seems a clear conflict of interest given they are charge to oversea the role of Superintendent as an independent elect body. Something stinks.

Consider the details regarding the most important decision impacting our school and our children. The is an excerpt from an email sent by Ines DeLuna at 1:36 PM Thursday afternoon (an earlier email did not mention the special agenda and was only sent in response to another email.)

“Our regular meeting will officially open at 5:30pm at which time we ask for Pub-lic Comment on matters not on the agenda. We then adjourn to closed session and then come out again at 6:30pm for the regular meeting. Tonight I have scheduled a Special Board Meeting at 7:15pm to address a resignation letter submitted by our Superintendant Mr. Allan Gordon yesterday. We will have time during that Special Meeting again for Public Comment and I am sure we will have plenty of discussion by the board during the meeting. “

Others were not notified to much later including the Star. The School Board has know for months that Allan Gordon was leaving, why such short notice. There is no mention of in Ines’ email that the Special Meeting intended to address the hir-ing a new Superintendent. Despite the late notice, many concerned and actively involved parents attended the School Board Meeting on Thursday. The School Board announced and accept Mr Gordon’s resignation. They then moved to hire DC Haley. What happened to posting a job opening and performing a search? Is minutes a fair denomination for posting a job and finding qualified candidates? Something really stinks!

The involved parents who could attended Thursday’s meeting all encourage and pleated with the School Board not to hire Dc Haley and to perform a fair search. The School Board broke to closed door and returned an announced they were hiring Dc Haley. It was all pre-planned and scripted. The question is can they le-gally do this? They can’t justify their actions ethically. Something stinks?

Mr Gordon and the School Boards planned the retirement announcement and hiring Dc Haley the day before our school broke for Spring Break. Perfect timing given most parents would will only hear of the news until after the new Superin-tendent’s contract was signed (originally scheduled for last Thursday) and not have the ability to provide input. No teacher input either, although fear of re-taliation would hamper their voices without a fair search process.

The School Board not only announced Allan Gordon’s retirement but hired a new Superintendent. No best practices in hiring. No Search. No time for due dili-gence. No time for public, teacher or administrator input. No Transparency. What justification is there for hiring a new superintendent without adequate pub-lic notice? Something stinks, there must be something rotten going on.

The Board send out a long email the next day. The email must have been written in advance of the Board meeting given its length (the Board meeting finished up around 10:30pm). Every detail of the announcement and hiring was perfectly planned and scripted - remember, the Board has know Allan Gordon was leaving for months. Mr Gordon has been working on firming up consulting contracts for months with the Board. They justified hiring Dc Haley, saying he had experience, they wanted to promote from within and save money on not paying for a search. None of these reasons justify there utter disrespect for public opinion. There is collusion, secrecy and conflict of interest. There is no transparency required of our public officials. Twain said, “Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.”

The School Board has created an environment of turmoil and distrust. Parents are in disbelief. Many are angry. We will never know if Dc Haley is actually qualified for the job. We do know he was Superintendent in Sebastopol where he quit with little notice shortly after a teacher’s vote of no confidence. He left the Sebastopol’s district in turmoil. We know Allan Gordon has been retained to consult to the district. He said it wouldn’t cost the district another penny for his to consult There are hundreds of people who volunteer their time and expertise to our school as volunteers. Is he volunteering his time? Are we paying him? If so, what are we paying him?

Why would the School Board take such rash hiring decision, disregarding best practices in hiring and fair and reasonable public input? Why would they collude with Gordon and Haley, disregarding their charter to oversea our school admini-stration? All of this stinks, something must be rotten.