Open Meetings Editorial Was Inflamatory

Dear Editor,

The statements made in the July 8 editorial of the Morgan Hill Times are sadly, and probably unfairly, inflamatory, especially the implications that there are “more things” going on about which the public is not being informed.

I have been a vocal critic of the Morgan Hill Unified School District for a long time. It’s why I ran three times to get elected, after being branded “anti-education” because of my criticisms. Although there have been many things to criticize, this might be one of the times when the criticism is not truly justified.

The board of education is aware of the provisions of the Brown Act and indeed, the wording in the preamble of the Act is probably some of my favorite words anywhere in the public sphere. I take to heart the act’s statement that the school district exists to serve the people of the state of and that open meetings are the way to retain control over the institutions that serve the public. There was absolutely no intent to violate the law on June 13.

The law protects both the privacy of the employee, in this case Dr. Alan Nishino and also the “need to know” of the public. Some of the employee action was appropriately private. The mistake appears to be that we only “reported out” what we should have actually “said” in public. For that I am sorry. Luckily the Brown Act is a “do-over” law, giving the public entity the chance to rectify the improper procedure, which we did as soon as the problem was brought to our attention.

The result was the same, of course, as the intent of the board was to recognize the fact that Dr. Nishino had met every single goal we had set for him this past year and indeed had far exceeded the goals in many areas. 

I thought I might just mention a few of them that were the reasons behind my vote for his raise:

First, Dr. Nishino has, for the first time in our district, implemented an organized strategy of using data and assessment to determine where we are and where we are going. Data used to understand a student’s weak areas and strengths is probably the number one cited strategy in successful schools today. Morgan Hill has been lacking in this area for a long time.

Second, he has focused ways to increase professional development for our teachers and administrators, another area that has lacked in the past. Effective teachers and administrators are key and Alan has explored and implemented ways to make that happen.

Third, he has implemented the state curriculum across the district, something that had not happened before now. He has made sure the classrooms are teaching the same thing, with the same books, for the very first time in this district, and which will hopefully help our lower performing schools move up.

Fourth, he has, with great difficulty, made changes in principals and assistant principals that are better fits for the sites and the skills of the administrators. This is something that has not been done for years and years.

Fifth, he is actively working to change school culture and set high expectations for all of our students, not just those at our high perfoming sites. This attitude is a breath of fresh air and you would be surprised by how radical it is, and how much resistance there is to that idea in some quarters.

Finally, he has focused our efforts on improving the quality of instruction in the classroom. There is still much to be done on this issue, but he has set the ball in motion and worked hard to identify why we just can’t seem to budge quality-wise. The number one indicator of the quality of an education is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. He knows that and he is working to make that a priority.

Add to these the fact that he also recreated from nothing the district office and hired key, bright people to work on curriculum and personnel. This has literally brought the district office back from its moribund status to a position where it can work to develop a plan to get our district moving again.

Those are the reasons I voted for the raise. It is part of my job as a board member to evaluate the superintendent. His evaluation was excellent and I stand behind the raise we gave him.

Your editorial implied that all kinds of misdoings were happening at the district. Well, there’s “doings” all right, but they’re the kind I think everyone is going to like. 

Julia Hover-Smoot, member

Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education