The recent scuttlebutt over the extension of Morgan Hill Unified
School District Superintendent Alan Nishino’s contract was focused
not only on the trustees’ violation – and subsequent correction –
of the Brown Act but also on his merit increase.
Morgan Hill – The recent scuttlebutt over the extension of Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Alan Nishino’s contract was focused not only on the trustees’ violation – and subsequent correction – of the Brown Act but also on his merit increase.
Nishino thinks the public may have a distorted view of the merit increase.
“I am the only employee in the district to have an increase based on merit,” he said. “The previous superintendent and some district administrators had a longevity bonus each year, the teachers have their step-and-column increases which are not tied to merit, but the board was adamant when my contract was negotiated that there be a merit piece built in. I told them I was okay with that.”
Nishino feels he and his staff have brought changes to the district. But he is disturbed, he said, by the controversy created by what he said were unintentional Brown Act issues.
While explaining he was not present when the trustees voted to approve his salary increase during the June 13 meeting, Nishino said the Brown Act – the law that protects the public’s access to government meetings – was not violated because, as he said, “the board had cured it.”
“The act is only violated if you don’t cure the perceived violation,” he said. “If they would have done nothing about it at all, then that would have been a violation of the Brown Act, but they cured it.”
He added: “There was a mistake made… There was no intent to deceive the public. Otherwise they (trustees) wouldn’t have reported the mistake in the public section (of the meeting)… I have nothing to hide…. We’re not doing anything covertly.”
“I’m not embarrased of my salary,” he said, adding that the superintendent of the Franklin McKinley School District signed a contract on July 1 for a base salary of $200,000.
School Board of Education President Mike Hickey said Nishino’s evaluation, conducted during closed session, was confidential. He added that when Nishino was hired, he told trustees he had very specific goals and ideas for what he wanted to accomplish, and that Nishino had already accomplished quite a bit.
Some of the things he told trustees he wanted to do, Nishino said, included putting more staff development in place.
“We want to give our employees, not just our teachers, the opportunity to grow,” he said. “We want to provide opportunities for everyone.
In that same vein, he said, he also believes the district has needed more assessment mechanisms.
“I think we need to give our teachers the tools to do their jobs better, more efficiently,” he said. “If we can give a teacher a measurement so that a teacher can instantly see where a particular student needs help, right after a test, I believe that teacher can then be more effective in reaching that student.”
Something else that is important to him, Nishino said, is creating high expectations for students.
“We’re doing well, but my philosophy is that we can always do better,” he said. “We have established certain gatekeeper subjects, biology in the ninth grade, algebra in the eighth grade … What we really want is all of our kids to be a success, the opportunity to be the best.”
In raising expectations, he said, there is another important goal that needs to be met. He and his staff are working to make sure curriculum across the district is aligned so there is equity among all the schools.
“Some students were not getting things at some schools that they were getting at other schools,” he said.
