When will we hold SUSD board members accountable?
In case you missed it, just recently the Stockton Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 4-2 (with one absence) to accept the abrupt resignation of Superintendent John Ramirez Jr., reportedly to, “take care of his elderly parents.”
On June 14, the Board appointed an interim superintendent, making this the sixth superintendent the district has hired in as many years.
As a group of community leaders, citizens, and parents, we are once again left asking why? There is an old saying that goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
But how does the saying go when as a community we’ve been fooled six times? We think the originator of this phrase would probably say shame on us five-fold. It is time to finally learn from past mistakes to hold the individuals involved in these decisions accountable for their actions.
It is widely acknowledged that the single most important job of any school board is to recruit, hire, and retain an outstanding superintendent to lead the district. We elect them to manage the superintendent, because the superintendent has the power to set a budget (which in Stockton is nearly $400 million annually), hire and fire staff, and set a vision for how to improve schools.
When you have a different superintendent in place every 12 months, it is impossible for a school district to effectively create any type of sustainable improvement. Our Stockton children continue to get left behind and under-served in our schools as a result.
Just last year, before this latest resignation, a local grand jury weighed in on this destructive trend. Their report found "there is widespread concern about the short tenure of SUSD superintendents, especially in the last 15 years. This turnover rate, which is as high as anywhere in California, is a foremost indication that the trustees have failed, and will continue to fail, to effectively lead the district."
Did the SUSD board heed the report and take positive action? No, they did not. Recently, the grand jury issued a second report noting the district is teeming with poor business practices, an inadequate duty of care, a lack of transparency, and headed for a multi-million dollar shortfall of at least $30 million by 2024.
San Joaquin grand jury: SUSD needs better financial management, leadership policies
In a world with as many problems as ours, it is tempting to become cynical about issues like these. But this issue both hits too close to home and is something we can control! As the voting public, we get to choose who governs our schools, and this November the majority of the board seats (four of seven) are once again up for election. We can select Board members who promise to transparently choose and manage a leader who will sustain a vision of school improvement for our children.
Imagine for a moment, that the Stockton schools are your favorite sports team, and as a Stockton voter you are a part-owner of the team. The superintendent is the coach, and the school board members are your front office.
Your team is on a six-year losing streak, where some of the events seem predictable based on decisions and maybe others harder to control.
You want nothing more than your team to experience a few winning seasons to benefit your community. As parents, employers, voters and citizens who want to be proud of Stockton, we are all part-owners of this franchise, after watching the coach get replaced six times in six years, don’t we think it might be time to look more closely at the front office?
Editor's note: several other local residents contributed to this commentary.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton Unified School District trustees must be held accountable
