Friday, April 24, 2020

BANAL LOCAL POLITICS STILL ALIVE AND WELL DURING THE PLAGUE

by Bob Walsh

John Deasy was, until Tuesday night, the Superintendent of the Stockton Unified School District. He was hired ten months ago on a two year contract. He came to Stockton via Maryland, Rhode Island and Los Angeles. The public comment and board meeting were all done via internet. The seven member board then went into closed session and after about 90 minutes voted to either fire him or accept his resignation. The news article cites both situations. Deasy had been given the gig by a unanimous vote of the board, as had his pay raise from $275k to $283k.

One of the board members, Dan Wright, who was previously the acting Superintendent, openly voiced his concern for the necessity of doing this as an emergency move. The cost to the district in closing out his contract early, legal fees and paying a headhunter to find a new person, will be significant.

S S, D D.

4 comments:

Trey Rusk said...

School Board Superintendents, City Managers, Coaches, etc. all got raw deals for years. They would move around until fired then network for a new gig. In the 80's & 90's they organized and were beginning to be hired with contract clauses for large sums of money. Early terminations are costly. Most still travel from city to city but remain in the same retirement system. Most now retire with some wealth. As always, the tax payers get stuck with the bill.

bob walsh said...

I was wrong. It was a three year contract. My bad.

Dave Freeman said...

um...if it's not too much to ask...why was he fired??

bob walsh said...

They aren't saying. Gossip mill says something about progress benchmarks not being fully met. Damned if I know which progress benchmarks they are talking about. Perhaps pregnancy reductions. Nobody seems to give a shit in CA if kids can read and write when they get a H S diploma. It seems to be more geared towards making sure they get their free meals and don't commit any violent felonies on grounds during school hours. Ca high schools are more like cafeterias with daycare and an athletic program. Scholarship and academic achievement is pretty much an afterthought.