It has been almost a year since my service on the school board
ended, so I cannot speak with authority on anything that has
occurred this past year, but I think it is important to provide
some historical perspective on Carolyn McKennan
’s record and compensation issues for other school
personnel.
It has been almost a year since my service on the school board ended, so I cannot speak with authority on anything that has occurred this past year, but I think it is important to provide some historical perspective on Carolyn McKennan’s record and compensation issues for other school personnel.
The vast majority of all school personnel are underpaid for the value they provide to the students and the community. Bus drivers and other support staff shoulder an awesome burden and work for low hourly wages, teachers seldom work less than 50 hours a week when school is in session (especially those that coach and lead other activities) and most administrators find themselves working at their schools and in the community six or seven days a week.
New teachers begin at about $40,000 per year and eventually work their way to about $70,000 per year after about 25 years of service. Many teachers make a financial sacrifice compared to a career in the private sector, especially those qualified to teach math or science. On the other hand, their work is rewarding in other ways and the employee benefits far exceed what private sector folks receive.
School administrators make more money than teachers. They are required to complete additional training and their responsibilities are entirely different. Despite the additional money and responsibility, during my six years on the school board, we actually saw the pools of applicants for administrative positions grow significantly smaller as fewer and fewer teachers opted to become administrators (yes, almost every school administrator was a teacher first).
Administrators are on the front line of every emergency, every crisis and every discipline issue (both students and staff). They are responsible for the safety and achievement of every student. After observing the incredible commitment most administrators make to their students and the never ending barrage of concerns voiced by parents, teachers and other staff members, I’m surprised school districts can find anyone both qualified and willing to take these positions.
Senior administrators are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On a daily basis, administrators deal with out-of-control students, irate parents (and their lawyers), disgruntled employees, the police, the press and community members working to correct perceived wrongs in the school system. No wonder the line to join the ranks of school administrators grows shorter every year, and no wonder that superintendents in larger California districts average less than three years in their positions.
Carolyn McKennan’s tenure with the Morgan Hill School District has not been perfect, but she does not manage alone. With responsibility for more than 8,000 students, 600 employees and 16 facilities, the superintendent must manage all of this within the budget priorities and policies established by the school board. She also receives assistance in managing the district from other senior administrators as well as teachers, staff and community members who volunteer on a wide variety of district committees and she all too frequently must also seek advice from specialized law firms.
Just to set the record straight – the recommendation to hire the construction firm that later became Jacobs Engineering came from a district committee that included many people from both the district and the local community that had extensive backgrounds in construction, real estate and finance. After this committee had conducted interviews, it was the Board of Education – myself included – that followed their recommendation to hire Jacobs. In hindsight, it was a bad decision. But the superintendent did not either recommend or select Jacobs – it was this committee of experienced people who recommended Jacobs and the school board who made the final decision to select them.
The superintendent’s performance is evaluated every year by the school board. Without disclosing confidential information, let me indicate that we used a variety of different methods to evaluate her performance including seeking written comments from teachers, parents and community members. Although the process varied, the evaluation was detailed and very thorough every year. At least three times during my six years, we also sought comparative data from the county office of education and other sources.
Carolyn McKennan is a very good manager. She inherited a district where many employees had not received an evaluation for years, where curriculum guides were often more than 10 years old, where principals spent a majority of their time on administrative rather than academic duties, and where both the drop-out rate and scholastic achievement at the high school were dramatically affected by the 20-year-old “temporary move” of the 9th graders to the two middle schools.
One by one, she weeded the garden, moving ineffective employees out, and bringing in new administrators to the district. During the first few years of her tenure she made several very good hires including new principals. She constantly reminded everyone in the district to keep “improving student achievement” as their number one priority – even when many of us were focused on running three bond campaigns and building new facilities. Employees received evaluations and improved. Curriculum guides and other academic infrastructure were strengthened. Principals were trained to focus more on academic performance and less on administration. And guess what – student achievement improved!
After improving academic achievement in all of our elementary schools, middle schools and continuation high school, the superintendent and supporting cast are about to remove the final obstacles to improving results in our high school(s) with the opening of Sobrato less than one year away.
Do I wish the superintendent was better at public relations? Do I wish she and her team had recognized the lies being told by Jacobs sooner? Do I wish she wasn’t so sensitive to criticism? You bet. But every year during her evaluation, what she had accomplished always far outweighed these negatives. During the early years, she had several opportunities to leave the district for more significantly money than she was being paid (our comparisons at that time showed she was one of the lowest paid superintendents), but she felt a strong loyalty to Morgan Hill Unified and stayed to complete the job she was hired to do.
I appreciated that loyalty as well as her accomplishments. Weighed against the disruption to the district of changing leaders as well as paying an extra year’s salary (typical of all superintendent contracts) to make a change, it was never a difficult decision for me to renew her contract. I found both the contract renewal and compensation increases to not only be reasonable, but prudent for our district. As noted in this newspaper, I was seldom a “rubber stamp” and frequently was a minority vote during my time on the board, but I never once disagreed about renewing the superintendent’s contract.
Perhaps the circumstances have changed, and perhaps the current board will take a different view, but I sincerely believe the results prove that it has been in the best interest of the students in this district to retain a strong, resourceful manager like Carolyn McKennan as superintendent.
John Kennett is a former Morgan Hill School District trustee. Readers interested in writing a guest column should contact editor Walt Glines at ed******@*************es.com or 779-4106
