Editor, Manteca Bulletin:
As Manteca Unified School District starts its 2018-2019 school year with our new governance team I would like to address the “sniff test” comments of columnist Jeff Tilton concerning the MUSD Board of Trustees.
As a Deputy Superintendent for New Jerusalem School District I know that Mr. Tilton is aware of the importance of relationships for effective district governance by the team of trustees and superintendent. I am sure that he also knows that the breakdowns of such teams can be on a continuum of agreeable to disagreeable. MUSD has had past disagreeable breakups with protests at board meetings, closed session reconsiderations, contract buyouts and other difficulties. This is not our current experience.
Since all the parties involved in this breakup are staying agreeable it seems to me that this change in our governance team “sniffs” more like roses than skunk cabbage. “The average length of service for superintendents in these challenging times for districts under 100,000 is 6.6 years.” (Denesa Superville, Edweek, 5/8/18) Perhaps our Trustees deserve credit rather accusations of “Hoodwink” (Tilton, 6/12/18) for besting this average by about 3 years.
I find it especially troubling that Mr. Tilton implied: “a coverup … (of a) resign or else” (6/28/18) and then added the implication of “laws were broken” (7/4/18). As evidence, he only mentions: “email and text message services with cryptic information”. (6/12 & 6/28/18)
Mr. Tilton also asked “Why did former Superintendent Jason Messer leave with no future employment lined up.” {6/28/18) More recently he brought this up again in his “I can’t make this stuff up” column. “It has been 81 days since Jason Messer resigned as Manteca Unified School District’s superintendent with no future employment.” (7/28/18) Mr. Messer provided an answer to this question: “I make the best decision for my family and the next steps in my career as an educator. … The time has arrived for me to make an impact more directly as I seek out a new path that is innovative and creates more opportunities for my involvement.” (5/9/18). Perhaps Mr. Messer is following our new Superintendent’s “welcome back” advice: “The opportunity to refuel over the summer is a necessary component of the important work that you do.” (7/23/18)
Our former superintendent has presented at national conferences and has developed connections with Cisco, Microsoft, Panasonic and many other corporations pushing digital education. Given his annual compensation of around $300,000 (Transparent California, 2016) I am confident that Mr. Messer is refueling adequately for his takeoff on a “new path”.
Tilton also accuses MUSD of being “administratively bloated” (7/28/18) even after the Trustees listened to him and others and hired from within, thus reducing a Deputy Superintendent position. Now I share Tilton’s concern about the proper balance between administration and staff resources but my concern is about the efficacy of indirect and direct support to classrooms. So I have a “Huh” question of my own for Mr. Tilton. EdData lists Manteca at 5% ($502 per ADA) and New Jerusalem at 31% ($58,233 per ADA) for general administration. (2016-17). MUSD is slightly below the state average so is the word ‘bloated” more appropriate for a district (New Jerusalem) with 16 charter schools?
Finally, I would like to address Mr. Tilton’s question of “Why would any employee of MUSD stick around? (6/12/18) Mr. Tilton himself provided a good answer in his column of 5/16/18: “Being a teacher was some of the most rewarding days in my life. … My relationships developed with students ran deep.” Superintendent Burke builds on Mr. Tilton’s insight in his welcome back letter: “The beginning of a new school year reminds us that the future holds infinite possibilities.” Superintendent Burke also offers a path to these possibilities: “(A) newly comprehensive Executive Cabinet will allow all areas of governance to be represented while all voices and individual opinions are included in the conversation.” (7/23/18)
I wish Mr. Messer well even as I continue to maintain that his building reserves of $70 million while cutting back staff and compensation reflected the wrong priorities. I will continue to voice my opinion that his funding Going Digital with over $40 million of those reserves also reflected the wrong priorities. I also wish Superintendent Burke well even as I will continue to voice my opinion that Measure G needs to go first for safety at all schools, that $2 million for track refurbishing should not come from teacher and student support funds and that staff compensation should not reflect the second lowest percentage (82.7%) of the budgets from Mr. Messer’s decade of direction. In my opinion MUSD’s new governance team needs to return to the future by prioritizing past funding (87%) for our local relationships rather than increasing funding for tech corporations. The latter does not pass my “sniff” test.
Léo Bennett-Cauchon
Manteca
