The ghost of Marilyn Shepherd still roams

A gentle reader alerted me to a document produced by former MPUSD Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd dated June 2013. It's a review of the special education department of the Oakland Unified School District. You can find it here.

The reader fumes: how come she didn't do that for MPUSD?

Another reader retorts: how long was Shepherd employed at Oakland? While she was at MPUSD?

To be sure, I contacted the Oakland Unified District and I received this document. Shepherd appears to have been hired to produce the special education report in April. As you probably remember, she begun her leave of absence in January. 

What's more interesting to me, is that the agency who hired her, Strategies for Success, had many contracts with MPUSD up until the time Shepherd left.  Kathryn Catania, I'm told, was very good friends with Shepherd.

I find all of this fascinating. Stay tuned.

Of lawsuits, trustees, and starting with a clean slate

I was once named as a witness in a racial discrimination lawsuit. From my vantage point, the lawsuit had absolutely no merit at all: yes, the person who filed it was receiving a miserably salary, but it had nothing to do with skin color. It had to do with seniority, budgeting, and a series of other unfortunate events that make corporate America the fun place it is.

I've never seen lawsuits the same way since then. Add to that the fact that I've done my fair share of courts coverage, and the end result is my belief that hardly ever what lands in court is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

This bring us to Alain Guevara, the man who was picked as the new superintendent of MPUSD in spite of being named in a sexual harassment lawsuit. I can see why trustees would believe in his arguments. He hasn't been convicted, he's only been accused. And why destroy an entire, 20-plus-year career with a few lapses of judgement?

Here's what I don't get. Why, in the name of Jolly, would the trustees put themselves in this position?

After the bruising battles they had to fight to defend former Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd -- with salaries, with her departure, with the closure of Bay View, etc -- why would they put themselves in that position again? With someone who's not even in the district yet? Was there nobody more palatable and suit-free than Guevara? Is he that AWE-SOME (using my teenager voice here) that there can't possibly be anyone like him? Are the trustees that courageous that they're willing to defy the outcry that was sure to follow?

Or are they just naive?

Or do they just know that, no matter who they pick, the community is never going to be happy?

Board President Curt Parker told me he wants to bring in Guevara because he's the type of man who would bring in people who have not been felt a part of MPUSD. I get that too. The district's already more than 50 percent Latino, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the people who attend board meetings. Maybe if you have a Latino in charge, the common folk would feel more welcome? Who knows?

And there's another thing that I don't get. The lawsuit talks about not just one incident, but what appeared to be a pattern of behavior. Can the sense of humor that apparently so many people found acceptable at Lake Elsinore -- a place where Guevara worked for about 20 years -- be replicated here?

Like teacher April McMillan wrote to Parker " if you have to be defending Mr. Guevara's decision to wear a clown hat with two noses dangling from it at an administrators retreat, you should not be offering him a job."

Scuttlebutt tells me plenty of people will be showing up to tonight's board meeting to express their dissatisfaction. Given past history, it's unlikely that will change anything.

But it will make for good theater. See you tonight.

Save the date! MPUSD consultant wants to meet with you

On March 4 and 5, Wendell Chun of Education Leadership Services will hold meetings with trustees and community members interested in talking to him about what they'd like to see in a new superintendent for the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District.

Trustees get first dibs. He'll meet with individuals for 15 minutes, and with groups for half an hour. He'll be here for the two days and will work until 8 p.m. if need be to accommodate as many people as possible.

In charge of scheduling will be the one and only Tricia Westrick, administrative secretary to the board of trustees, 831-645-1204 or twestrick@mpusd.k12.ca.us.

What do you want in a new superintendent for MPUSD?

Breaking news: the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is looking for a new superintendent!

;-)

Ok. You probably already knew this. So now on to the serious stuff: what do you want to see in a new superintendent? MPUSD trustees are working on a survey they'll soon begin circulating, asking community members what they'd like to see in a new superintendent. You can find the draft of the document here.

So, what do you want to see? Email me cmelendez@montereyherald.com, call me (831) 753-6755, tweet me @MelendezSalinas. I'll be working on a story sometime soon, I hope.

While we're out shopping for a new superintendent...

I highly recommend this great article that ran a couple of months ago in the great EdSource.

It's about the high turnover of superintendents, and the reasons why. A couple of gems:

The “honeymoon” with the school board lasts between 12 and 18 months before “political interests and dysfunction show up” former school superintendent Santiago Wood said for the piece. A board may have hired a superintendent to institute reforms, but when interest groups such as unions or community organizations complain, the elected board gets uncomfortable, Wood said.

“Even if you agree on the results,” Becca Bracy Knight, executive director of the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems in Los Angeles, “change is painful. It is so critical that superintendents have the backing of the governing board when they go down that road.”

The board and superintendents must agree not only on what changes they want to see, but also how quickly and what sacrifices they are prepared to make to get there, she said.

Even Luis Alejo is now chiming in the Marilyn Shepherd brouhaha

Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville), well known for stepping into already controversial issues, has decided to dip his toes into the Monterey Peninsula Unified latest skirmish.

Alejo announced on Monday he's introducing a bill that would limit severance pay for superintendents from 18 months to three months. He plans to modify his bill to limit paid leave of absence for superintendents, a move that's directly addressing the recent departure of Marilyn Shepherd, who was granted a paid leave of absence in January.

More on that later.

Anger over Marilyn Shepherd's pay

An alert reader suggested I perhaps clarify how much MPUSD Marilyn Shepherd will be paid through the end of her tenure with the district.

The reader suggested I do this because there appears to be some confusion, as exemplified by the letter Judi Lang of Monterey that appeared in our august pages over the weekend.

The letter reads: "I am appalled the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District board voted "unanimously" to pay Marilyn Shepherd her full salary of $233,315 a year until her contract runs out in 2016."

The story I wrote for the Feb. 1 edition of the paper states that Shepherd is set to retire at the end of this year, before her contract expires in 2016 -- which means she was giving up future pay, since she's the one giving up the job.

Furthermore, I wrote: "Shepherd's annual salary is $223,315, which is about $18,600 a month. The remainder of the year would be equivalent to $93,000."

What that means is that the district is going to pay her about $93,000. That's what the board authorized, no more.

MPUSD meeting tonight: keep me informed, will you?

I had a day-long date with the Monterey County Grand Jury, so won't be able to attend tonight's MPUSD meeting. Many items of interest, most prominently, the final approval to convert the former Bay View Elementary building into a preschool. If you're heading out there, take good notes for me, will you? And shoot me an email. I'll check in with district officials in the A.M.

Why Marilyn Shepherd really left

Reader: Can you do a true story of why the superintendent is leaving? Dig up some facts or rumors

Me: Do you have some information that you'd like to share? Something that you could give me off the record and could be corroborated elsewhere? 

Reader: there are  lots of suspicions of why she really left

Me:  Yes, I know of those. So far, I haven't received any concrete evidence, and that's why I asked. I was hoping you'd have reliable information. 

Reader: NO RESPONSE

Trust me, I'd love nothing more than writing THE definite story, THE irrefutable truth of why Supt. Marilyn Shepherd is  leaving the district. I'd love to find the smoking gun, the fingerprint in the dagger, insert your metaphor here. And I've looked, I've poked around, I've asked  usual suspect and  unsuspecting bystanders and so far nada.

What that means to me is either a) there's nothing to report, or b) those who really have something to say, and proof of it, are not saying it.

Either way, I can't do stories based on speculation. 

So if you have something to tell me that's worth reporting, please let me know. I'd love to report it, if for nothing else so we can finally put this issue to rest.

Marilyn Shepherd of MPUSD to take a leave of absence

Rumors are flying about Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Marilyn Shepherd's absence from the district beginning early this the week, with some going as far as saying she was escorted out of her office on Thursday.

This is what I've learned, on the record, from Board President Curt Parker.

Shepherd has a family emergency, and she will request a leave of absence effective next week and to be in place until she retires at the end of the school year.

Shepherd had already said she was dealing with a lot of personal issues: an elderly mother, grandchildren, an illness in the family. She cited those reasons for her retirement, and now they appear to have pushed her retirement earlier.

She's still in contact with all personnel in the district, who consult with her on important matters. The board had already tried to relieve her work load last year by enlisting the assistance of three other top administrators.

Leslie Codianne, associate superintendent of student support services, will be acting superintendent at least for the time being. 

There will be more information Tuesday at a special board meeting where the board is scheduled to consider Sheperd's leave of absence, and the process to replace her.

MPUSD to begin search for new superintendent

New MPUSD board president Curt Parker, still green on procedures, failed to include an agenda item to accept Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd's resignation for Monday night's meeting. Not to worry, a special meeting has been scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. to accept it and to begin the search for a new superintendent.

What do you want to see in a new leader for the district? It's your time to voice your opinion.

Incidentally, after being at Monday's meeting, I had yet another revelation on why Dr. Shepherd may have decided it's a good time to call it quits. Yes, I had a conversation with her in which she said she's leaving of her own volition, because it's a good time to do something else. Nothing or nobody is pushing her out, said.

At Monday's meeting, however, the board received a report of the district's financial situation, and even though the district has very good reserves, I don't see how the district will go on without huge budget cuts. The district is deficit spending to the tune of $8 million, so in three years those reserves will be essentially wiped out if those cuts don't come along.

It's going to be interesting. Stay tuned.

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. 

Another email against Monterey's Shepherd surfaces

Periodically an email accusing the Monterey Peninsual Unified School District of being dysfunctional begins traveling through the cyber grapevine.

It usually goes like this: discontent in the district is growing, there are serious problems rooted in "irresponsible, dysfunctional and toxic leadership" and the only way to stop them is to demand the Board of Trustees hold Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd accountable.

The emails usually end up in my mailbox. I puzzle over what to do with them. Write a story about the growing discontent in the district? The discontent seems to have held steady since I began covering MPUSD in 2009. That more board members are questioning Supt. Shepherd? There was a rumor that she was losing support back in 2010, when the board was about to place a bond measure on the ballot. Well, we know how that story ended.

There were suggestions Shepherd was losing support earlier this year, when she was questioned harshly about a couple of budget issues. Yet, the only one to vote against renewing her contract -- and only because it did not include accountability measures -- was Jon Hill, the new trustee on the block.

At Monday night's meeting, two board members voted against two separate proposals by her-- one each. This minor resistance notwithstanding, Shepherd seems to have the backing of the board more than ever.

How's her support eroding, then?

Am I supposed to report on the "toxic" leadership? And how can I do that, when nobody will speak on the record? Not even those who have left, now that they should have no fear of being fired?

It is clear that Shepherd is disliked by many, that she makes unpopular decisions, that she rubs people the wrong way. But how are these emails useful? The drafters acknowledge they don't want to get Shepherd fired, just to hold her accountable. And for her to answer questions.

The same questions that she gets asked over and over again, the questions that make her roll her eyes.

So what's the end game here? For Shepherd to undergo a personality makeover? For her to stop making unpopular decisions? And how will she guess what decisions will be unpopular?

Or maybe, maybe, the emails are just and end to itself. To let Superintendent Shepherd and the Board know that people are watching. With a magnifying glass.

So, if people are watching so intently, how come nobody in the public said a peep about "fiscal accountability"? Am I the only one who believes this is mega-important?

Or is this decision destined to become an "unpopular" one?

MPUSD Marilyn Shepherd's contract

Marilyn Shepherd's contract was extended on June 4, like I reported a few weeks ago. 6-1, with Jon Hill dissenting.

I'm digging this up now because a vigilant reader suggested previously eliminated perks made it back into the contract. I checked and found no new perks, but here's the contract which now is slated to expire June 2015.

What I had not previously reported is that, as per the agreement, Shepherd received a 2.5 percent salary increase -- she now makes $223,315. Enough to pay for that gym membership everyone keeps bringing up.

And another gem. When Shepherd was hired, she was making $170,000 a year. So her salary has gone up by about 31 percent since then.

What else will I find out if I keep digging?

UPDATE: I know this is last year's contract, but it's the one posted in the district's website as being approved on June 4. If another contract exists, modified, approved after June 4, 2012, I've yet to find it.

Where did Marina's John Schilling go?

Well, it could have been that John Schilling, the popular principal at Marina High, decided to take a very good offer at another district, but now that he's gone -- and another person appointed to replace him -- tongues are wagging.

One of the speculations: that the person appointed to replace him has not experience, therefore the school will be set to fail and then close, like many have been fearing will happen.

It's hard to believe that administrators want to set the school for failure, when so much work was invested into launching the SAILS academies. But stranger things have happened.

One thing's for sure, and for the record: MPUSD trustees appointed Alan Crawford on Monday as interim principal of Marina High. Crawford was until last school year the "college and career planning specialist" as you can read from the school's description in the SAILS website.

That clarified, there's still the mystery of John Schilling. Where did you go, Mr. Schilling? Inquiring minds want to know...

MPUSD Marilyn Shepherd wins yet another award

but some parents and teachers in the district are not celebrating.

Shepherd received the "Women in School Leadership" award from the American Association of School Administrators last week in Virginia, besting twenty other candidates in the mix. In its announcement, the Association says Shepherd "is known as a risk-taker and lauded for her systematic approach to improving the quality of teaching and her ability to implement large-scale change."

MPUSD trustees congratulated Shepherd at the regular board meeting Monday. Others were quick to dismiss the award, saying the Shepherd described for the honor does not match the reality of the Shepherd they know.

"Is this really the superintendent of MPUSD? Was anyone you know asked for their input or opinion? Do you have any idea who has pushed all of these nominations?" writes one of her critics in an email blast to the MPUSD community. "Our friends and business associates have an idea, and think that whoever it is has not had any real facetime with MPUSD employees at the school sites. They clearly are not representing our perceptions. Are we, along with our friends, the only ones who feel that the school board and the superintendent's inner circle perceptions are complete off track? ... The only thing systematic that we can detect is her ability to get people (?) to help her win awards."

At Monday night's meeting, a coalition of parents and teachers presented their demands to the district, the result of three community meetings and long hours powwowing. It'd be interesting to see if the district can meet any of their demands -- they're largely based on hiring more teachers. But Trustee Bettye Lusk expressed a desire to start a dialogue with this group and see if they can bridge their differences.