Saturday, April 3, 2010

In brief ... / Both dumb and indefensible

In brief ... / Both dumb and indefensible

Source: Union Tribune

So the Del Mar school board has burned through another superintendent, at a likely cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sharon McClain’s judgment is open to question, given her apparent attempts to rewrite her contract to spike her pension. But evidence suggests this is one more example of muscle-flexing in a small district by a bullying, micromanaging school board. Now this board is trying to use one of the tiredest tricks around to avoid explaining why it dumped McClain: claiming its hands are tied because of legal threats and state personnel privacy laws. Bunk. There is no law that says a school board can’t give its reasoning when making important personnel changes. Nor is this risky – at some point in legal proceedings, the board is going to have to explain its decision anyway. To refuse to do so now is both indefensibly secretive and dumb.


Note: Counsel for the Capistrano school board released a 54-page document detailing the reasons for termination of their superintendent at the same time he was fired.

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