By declining to evaluate their progress on goals, trustees Peter
Mandel, Kathy Sullivan and Julia Hover-Smoot neglected the public’s
desire for more accountability on the part of public officials
With three of seven Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees declining to grade themselves for the Accountability in Community Leadership Project launched by The Times editorial board, we are forced to give trustees Peter Mandel, Julia Hover-Smoot, and Kathleen Sullivan a grade of incomplete.
It’s really too bad that these three trustees refused to participate in the process that is designed to help improve communication between the school district and the public, to shed light on where improvements can be made and to use the newspaper as a vehicle to help the district address these issues. It’s also intended to help the newspaper and the community keep an eye on long-term issues that can be forgotten in the hubbub of the crisis of the moment.
The goals on which trustees were graded were submitted by district officials and the process – quarterly grades from the public, The Times editorial board and the trustees themselves – was clearly explained at the outset.
Mandel, confusingly, said it was “presumptuous” to grade himself – we have a hard time understanding that comment. Private sector employees frequently evaluate themselves as part of performance reviews. Moreover, students are often asked to evaluate themselves. Why is it presumptuous for trustees to evaluate themselves but not for students?
Sullivan did not give a clear reason for “resisting the urge” to grade herself and predicted that she would find the results “amusing.” We hope that she found the results to be enlightening and not just entertaining.
Hover-Smoot simply did not respond to repeated requests for her participation.
We suspect that these trustees find the editorial board and the newspaper’s accountability project to be “presumptuous.” If that’s the case, that’s too bad, and a missed opportunity.
An important part of leadership is accountability. Yes, that accountability comes every four years for trustees at election time, but that does not have to be the only time. In fact, it’s better for the community if it can keep an eye on the issues that impact our school district on an ongoing basis. An educated electorate makes better decisions at the ballot box.
We hope that the results of the first school board report card are placed on the agenda as an action item at the next school board meeting. And we hope that next time report cards are due, all seven trustees participate.
