Board finalizes $30,000 deal with public relations firm
The Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education believes $100 per hour is a fair asking price to employ a public relations firm to “provide communication and public information” and promote the successes of students, teachers and administrators.
By a 6-0 vote during Tuesday’s school board meeting, trustees finalized the deal – which is capped at $2,000 per month, or 20 hours, and $30,000 for the entire 2013-14 school year – with Aptos-based firm Mc2 Communications.
“If this (public relations) person manages to bring five new students to our school district, that will pay the $30,000 for the year,” said trustee Ron Woolf of the board’s decision.
However, 133 of 151 readers who answered the Times’ poll question, “Do you support Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees approving $30,000 to be spent on public relations?,” did not agree – including local attorney Armando Benavides, a member of community activist group, People Acting in Community Together, or PACT.
“Every time I appear before you asking to spend additional funds for our elementary and middle school students for services that would significantly improve their academic standing, I get a standard response that the district has no funds to pay for these critical services,” Benavides said. “But here you are poised to approve the unnecessary spending of $30,000 of our education dollars.”
Benavides pleaded with the board to use “common sense and good judgment” and divert the funds instead to one of the district’s elementary schools for “direct student services” such as after school programs and better instructional materials for teachers. He said that such a move would “go a long way in improving your standing in the community” rather than the “non-sensical” decision to employ a public relations firm.
Before voting to approve, trustee Amy Porter Jensen wanted to make it clear that the contract could be terminated at any point if the board felt the public relations firm was not an effective tool. In that event, the Board would have to give Mc2 Communications a 30-day notice.
Paradise Valley Elementary School introduces new principal
Interim Director of Personnel Fawn Myers for MHUSD introduced Swati Dagar as the new principal for Paradise Valley Elementary School. Dagar takes over for Erika Benadom, who spent only one year in Morgan Hill before leaving for another principal position with the Los Altos School District.
“She is a passionate, enthusiastic educator,” said Myers of Dagar. “We feel very fortunate to have such a hard-working, committed educational leader to join our team.”
Dagar, who introduced herself to the Board of Education, holds an MBA in business, was “Teacher of the Year” and later the Dean of Academic Affairs in the Alum Rock Elementary School District, and, most recently, a school principal in Greenfield during the 2012-13 school year.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit,” said Dagar, quoting Aristotle. “I believe in that very strongly, that excellence over and over is what we need to do. It doesn’t come from one person alone. It comes from the team.”
MHUSD ‘takes back’ special education
Interim Superintendent Steve Betando announced that MHUSD is working to establish its own special education programs for students with moderate to severe disabilities, which will save the district the high costs of using county or non-public school programs.
The district currently pays $44,000 per student to the county to be part of its special education program and $80,000 per student to a private, non-public school for entry into its program, according to Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Perez of Business Services.
“To this end MHUSD, will be taking back five Santa Clara County-run programs and establishing a satellite program for high functioning, behaviorally challenged students,” reads the agendized item titled “Special Education program take-back.”
There are currently two classed housed at San Martin Gwinn Elementary School, two at Jackson Elementary and one at Live Oak High School that are run by the county.
Betando said the district is looking into hiring its own special education teachers and provide its own services to those students. Besides a cost-saving move, Betando said it would help MHUSD “serve more students in our community.”
Perez noted that five school districts (Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Oak Grove, Eastside Union and Alum Rock) are taking back 18 classes from the county this coming year in cost-saving moves. Betando added there are discussions of possibly regionalizing such special education programs to share the cost with other districts rather than paying the county.
As early as this coming 2013-14 school year, MHUSD may provide a satellite program “to support students with moderate to severe disabilities, primarily students with autism in a collaborative venture with a non-public school entity,” reads the agenda item.
