The new Morgan Hill School District superintendent plans to make
his tour of duty here with this district his last.
The new Morgan Hill School District superintendent plans to make his tour of duty here with this district his last.
“I look forward to working with the district, with the community, to meet the challenges facing the Morgan Hill School District,” said Alan Nishino, who is in the midst of contract negotiations. “I think we can work together to help students reach that level of academic excellence desired by the district and the community.”
School Board President Shellé Thomas announced April 8, after a board visit to the Alameda School District, that trustees had unanimously agreed to offer Nishino the job. He is currently serving as superintendent there.
If an agreement is reached between the district and Nishino, he would take over the reins of the district when Superintendent Carolyn McKennan’s contract expires June 30.
McKennan, who was hired in 1997, did not seek a contract extension.
“This is not a step down,” Nishino said Thursday about the Morgan Hill position. “This is a challenge. I did not seek a new job, but when I was approached about a job, I was intrigued by the possibilities. Don’t call it a ‘last hurrah,’ but call it a chance to be of assistance.”
The Alameda School District is larger than the Morgan Hill School District, with 18 schools, 10,000 students and about 1,100 employees.
Morgan Hill has 14 schools, plus a charter school, and approximately 8,600 students.
Alameda District parent John Newton and Alameda School Board President Mike McMahon said many district staffers were surprised and upset to learn he may be leaving.
“I think I have done my work here,” he said. “I will continue to do my work here until I take my place in Morgan Hill, if we can work out a contract there to our mutual satisfaction. I have not left Alameda.”
Serving as superintendent in the Alameda School District since 2000, Nishino said his current salary is approximately $170,000. There are two years on his contract, which extends to June 30, 2007.
McMahon said Wednesday that Morgan Hill should be pleased its trustees chose Nishino.
“Every district that he has worked with, he left them in a better position,” he said. “I am fully confident that the Morgan Hill School District will be a better school district in five to seven years. He created a strategic plan for us, helped us define our focus. Where our district was getting bogged down in fiscal and personnel issues, he came in and directed our focus to the curriculum.”
With two children in the Alameda School District, Newton has seen the changes Nishino has brou-ght to the district.
Newton has been involved in district affairs for 10 years, serves as PTA president for the district’s Encinal High School and has served on the district’s Council of PTAs.
“He’s been great in his time here,” Newton said Thursday. “He came in and dug into everything, finances, he took a look at the books, opened things up, he talked to people. A lot of districts around us have real financial difficulties. The whole state is facing that. He came in and made some changes to keep us afloat.”
Nishino has had troubles with the Alameda teachers’ union.
An article in the Oakland Tribune this week detailing Nishino’s likely departure from Alameda quoted teachers’ union president Glenda McDowell.
“The communication piece … never really happened,” McDowell said, citing a crisis created in 2003 when the district handed out termination notices to every teacher in the district as a precautionary measure while it prepared for potential layoffs.
McDowell, who leads the Alameda Education Association that represents more than 600 teachers in the district, is said to be “generally critical” of Nishino. McDowell did not return phone calls seeking comment.
“He did come in at a tough time,” Newton said. “We were trying to pass a parcel tax at that point. I think he walked into a tough situation.”
According to McMahon and Nishino, Alameda teachers were a step away from a strike when Nishino came into the district. An 11th-hour agreement gave the teachers the percentage pay increase they wanted, McMahon said, but the district had to make cuts in other areas to pay for it.
“When you’re the captain of the ship, and that ship is sinking, you do what you have to do to keep it afloat,” Nishino said Thursday in reacting to the teacher union criticism. “Sometimes, the people on the ship don’t like what you do to keep it afloat … But it’s still floating.”
The relationship between the union and Nishino did not affect the students, Newton said. “Whatever feelings were left over about the negotiations never affected them at the classroom level.”
McMahon said that the superintendent inherited the problem with the teachers’ union.
“Our district was dealing with a fiscal crisis on the state level, as were other districts,” he said. “Dr. Nishino was able to rally the community around a parcel tax, and later he was able to, with the help of others, get a construction bond passed. What happened with the union was unfortunate, but they were on the point of striking when he came into the district.
“They in essence received what they requested. But there had to be budget cuts in the district associated with that.”
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at md****@mo*************.com or phoning (408) 779-4106, ext. 202.
