Source: Carmel Valley News
By Marsha Sutton
Those who remember when Alan Bersin took over as head of the San Diego Unified School District will recall the intensity of the rancor and little else, thanks to the media’s voyeuristic, almost exclusive reporting of sideshows and sound bites.
Bersin’s concentration on literacy, teacher training and principal accountability has been all but forgotten – although these back-to-basics reform efforts are now recognized across the country as the hallmark of improvement for struggling urban schools.
Because Bersin’s management style could sometimes be abrasive, what’s remembered is not the success of his ideas but rather the ways in which these changes were implemented.
Board meetings became circus acts as trustees, parents, teachers and union representatives engaged in legendary fiery interactions. The board, split 3-2, even at one time hired a psychologist to mediate, to try to restore dignity and order to the divided governing body.
But in an odd sort of way, the colorful players in that melodrama were honest. There was genuine dislike among factions that no one tried to hide. At least you knew where everyone stood; no one could be accused of duplicity.
When you compare the openly acrimonious climate during the Bersin years to the insidious divisiveness in the Del Mar Union School District, the public battles at SD Unified seem in hindsight refreshingly transparent.
What makes the situation so bad in Del Mar is the covert nature of the attempts at disruption. Sneaky is the operative word – ironic, given that some of the same people regularly attack the DMUSD school board for being too secretive.
The genesis of this unhealthy situation began during the 2006 election. After a long-reigning school board majority lost power, the anti-reform education establishment went into shock and took the “sore loser” label to new heights with a fearsome determination to discredit the victors and their supporters.
Take, for example, a blog that was established just after former superintendent Tom Bishop’s contract was bought out earlier this year. Begun as a sort of chat room for pro-Bishop extremists to vent against the new board, the site was revamped after the rhetoric became so inflamed that liability issues were a concern.
Established in March 2008, it’s now been transformed into a sophisticated presentation of DMUSD issues. It even appears, falsely, like a legitimate arm of the district, with its header: “Del Mar Union School District News.”
Postings are timely, complete and extensive. Just days after the DMUSD board approved the contract for newly appointed superintendent Sharon McClain, the blog added information from her former district, Hermosa Beach, that was critical of her – and appeared to call into question the board’s judgment in selecting her.
Behind the site’s benign façade, the same people, with the same agenda, rule. Grudges die hard in Del Mar.
Try to find out exactly who’s behind the blog and you run into a solid brick wall. All the casual observer can uncover from the site is the following explanation of the bloggers and their objective: “About Me -- Just the parents of kids in Del Mar schools. We were asleep at the wheel but now we're awake.”
Awake, but in hiding behind electronic curtains of anonymity. It’s a stealth attack on public figures – a cowardly way to run an offensive.
Some individuals have certainly been upfront about their anti-board positions. Let’s give some credit to incoming DMUSD board member Comischell Bradley-Rodriguez, who at least has the guts to sit next to vocal board critic and long-time Del Mar resident Mary Farrell at the last school board meeting, showing her allegiance, in case anyone had any doubts, to the old world order.
Bradley-Rodriguez has made it abundantly clear in numerous public statements that she disagrees with many of the new board’s decisions, calling Bishop “our beloved superintendent” in a recent letter to the editor. No hidden agenda here.
Bishop was hardly beloved by the majority of voters in this district who in 2006 voted out of office a rubber-stamp board whose unconditional support for Bishop kept trustees from properly analyzing his proposals and made them unable or unwilling to recognize that a corrosive culture of fear had infected the district.
The long-shot victory of a new board majority was like opening the windows on a dank house that had been closed for far too long. The airing was refreshing, exhilarating and way overdue.
Those who would criticize this current board for a lack of transparency and unwillingness to listen to the public would do well to remember that it was one of Annette Easton’s first acts as board president to move Public Comment to the beginning of every board meeting, rather than at the end where Bishop placed it on every agenda.
Easton told me years ago that making people wait for hours before they could address the board was disrespectful of their time – not to mention the number of people who were so sleepy by the time Public Comment rolled around that they had left the meeting long before they were permitted to speak.
So those who choose to speak at board meetings today and level harsh criticism at school board members can thank Easton for allowing them to vent at a reasonable hour. If not for her, they’d be sitting there until 10:45 p.m. – waiting, rather impatiently I’d venture to guess – to bash her, with few if any members of the public still there to hear them.
No one expects 100 percent agreement. But when documents posted on the DMUSD Web site from the district’s superintendent search firm reveal parents and teachers slinging mud while simultaneously demanding re-spect, it seems a glaring double standard.
School board members were rewarded for their insistence that the postings be made public with vicious attacks on their character by critics who refuse to divulge their names.
Is it too much to ask for open, civil discourse in these communities known for highly educated parents whose command of the English language certainly goes beyond juvenile name-calling and lame characterizations?
Democracy is messy
Some might long for the days when things seemed to run smoothly under Bishop. Dictatorship is an efficient form of government. In contrast, democracy is messy, especially when its people are just learning how to function on their own after years of autocratic rule.
As much as this board has been unfairly attacked, I’ll be the first to admit that there are legitimate complaints. There are times this past year when we’ve winced at the maddening inefficiency – unsteady zigzagging, meetings that sometimes drift and ramble, an excessive number of last-minute special meetings, lots of questions, lengthy deliberation and uncertainty.
But open government, no matter how sloppy, is far better than a repressive regime.
Thank goodness the children run on auto-pilot – achieving at astonishing levels, thriving intellectually and socially, and blessedly oblivious to the two polarized camps fighting for the hearts and minds of the undecided and uninitiated. Exceptional teachers and high standards for academic excellence are so far insulating students from the conflicts.
But just as Alan Bersin’s personality dominated the other, more important, story of progress in the classroom, Del Mar risks being looked upon in 10 years’ time as a district where bitter upheavals characterized the culture, one where politics overshadowed achievement and student success was lost amidst the chaos of strife and sabotage.
There’s a long list of critical issues confronting McClain – the budget deficit, preserving Basic Aid, enrichment staffing and programming problems, solidifying the reputation of the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation, equity among schools, the sale of the Shores property, finding a new district office, the implementation of a foreign language program, boundary and under-enrollment concerns at the schools west of the freeway, as well as the usual number of unexpected emergencies.
But there are issues she should not have to confront. One of the most toxic is the need to address the defamation of Del Mar Heights School where parents and staff have been deliberately ostracized by principals, teachers and parents from other schools in the district.
As the coincidental home to three school board members, and with a maverick, independent-thinking principal at the helm, Del Mar Heights has been perceived as a hotbed of insurgency. Yet Heights parents are hard-working and dedicated, teachers are loyal and devoted to the needs of the children, the principal’s drive to support the quality of her instructional team is unquestioned, and student success is well-documented.
What will McClain do when she learns that many teachers from other Del Mar schools refuse to sit near teachers from Del Mar Heights at staff and in-service meetings? How will she address the unspoken, tacit approval some of the district’s principals give to their staff and parents for this kind of unacceptable behavior? Will she allow the underground smearing to continue?
Every political body has its dissenters. But what makes this case so unique, and rancid, is the acrimony that lives and breaths just below the surface, undercutting efforts to move forward, fostering tension and conflict, exacerbating the discord, and effectively keeping old grudges alive. It’s hard to know friend from foe when so many people smile through gritted teeth.
As this new superintendent prepares to take the reins, she’ll begin to address a monumental list of daunting educational priorities. But over-riding the budget, staffing, enrollment and facilities issues will be the urgent need to calm the unrest, expose those who seek to destabilize the district and its school board at every opportunity, overcome the political friction from within the ranks of her own staff, and bring principals and teachers together as a team.
Expectations and attitudes start at the top. McClain will need to work hard to defuse built-up animosity and mistrust. Hopefully, she will have zero tolerance for staff dissension, which filters down to parents.
What Del Mar sorely needs now is to become one united district, intolerant of anything less than full cooperation, support and mutual respect – because what the children have built up through hard work and academic excellence, the adults can tear down with unfounded gossip, suspicion and fear.
Into this morass comes Dr. Sharon McClain, by all accounts a skilled administrator who is fair, self-assured, experienced and intelligent. But all that may not be enough.
We wish her lots of luck as well. She’ll need it, to clean up this mess.
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