Was MPUSD's Marilyn Shepherd forced out?

By now, I'm used to all sorts of rumors coming from Monterey Peninsula Unified. I usually try to chase them in a vain attempt to substantiate them, and most of the times, rumors are just that: unsubstantiated gossip.

The latest: that Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd, who announced Monday night that she's retiring at the end of the school year, was actually forced out.

If that's the case, nobody will say it on the record, naturally. It would be a personnel matter, something that would expose board members to litigation if in fact they asked Shepherd to resign and then blabbed about it.

But here's why I'm convinced this is just one of the many unsubstantiated rumors that surround MPUSD as persistently as the summer fog embraces the bay: the trustees genuinely like Dr. Shepherd. They respect her leadership, trust her advice, and ultimately, vote to support her proposals. They say it over and over again, every meeting, every chance they get.

Since I began covering the district more than two years ago, I've heard constant rumors that Shepherd's losing the support of the board. Then  I go to the meetings, I see one or two board members question her intensely about one proposal or another, sometimes even getting the superintendent a bit flustered; but in the end, her proposals get approved. Usually the decisions are unanimous. Once or twice, she's gotten a dissenting vote. Rarely two. All these votes tell me she's still trusted and respected. In June she got her contract extended until 2015, with only Jon Hill voting against it solely because he wanted to see stricter accountability measures in it -- not because he opposed Shepherd's presence in the district.

I've covered boards where trust for superintendents had eroded, where trustees began negotiating an exit for their top administrator, and MPUSD is far from being one of them.

But what do I know? I've only sat at three out of every four MPUSD trustee meetings for the last two years.