She says district is micromanaged
By Bruce Lieberman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
http://signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080311-1925-bn11resign.html
7:25 p.m. March 11, 2008
DEL MAR – Two weeks after a divided Del Mar school board voted 3-2 to buy out Superintendent Tom Bishop's contract in exchange for his resignation, Trustee Linda Crawford announced that she too will resign effective Wednesday.
In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Crawford said trustees Annette Easton, Katherine White and Steve McDowell are micro-managing the Del Mar Union School District and not respecting the professional judgment of administrators and other professionals.
Crawford and Trustee Janet Lamborghini had voted against accepting Bishop's resignation on Feb. 26.
“We have slowed down the wheels to a crawl now, because the board asks for more and more information for the next meeting and no decisions ever get made,” Crawford said. “Maybe it's because of their inexperience on the board, not understanding how it works.”
Morale among district staff has been deteriorating because of the board's micro-managing, said Crawford, whose term was scheduled to expire this fall.
“District employees are very disheartened right now, in terms of how board members are treating them,” she said.
White said she and Crawford have had their disagreements, but they have both had the best of intentions for overseeing the school district.
“She's entitled to her opinion,” White said of Crawford's criticisms of the board majority's management style.
“Part of a school board meeting should be a dialogue and there should be questions. Otherwise, why are you pulling all those people together in a room?”
Easton, White and McDowell have formed a political majority on the board since McDowell and White were elected in November 2006. The three trustees had been highly critical of Bishop's leadership on a variety of issues. But generally, they've wanted the board to assert more control over the administration.
Lamborghini could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
On March 5, the school board appointed assistant superintendent Janet Bernard as interim superintendent while trustees look for a permanent replacement.
Jim Esterbrooks, a spokesman for the County Office of Education, said Tuesday it's not common for school board members to resign in the middle of their term. But politically divided boards can leave minority members feeling shut out.
“When a board turns over like that, when a slate gets voted in and all of a sudden someone's on the short end of a 3-2 vote, that's an instance when you do see a resignation a little more often,” Esterbrooks said.
- Bruce Lieberman: (760) 476-8205; bruce.lieberman@uniontrib.com
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