Schools Superintendent Pulls Request for Contract Extension
Brian Sarvis, who drew fire amid complaints about the district's special-ed department, says he wasn't the one to put his request on last week's school board agenda.
Nearly a week after being criticized for a request to extend his contract, Santa Barbara School District Superintendent Brian Sarvis on Monday said he will withdraw that request until the end of the school year.
Last week, the request to extend his three-year contract by one year was discussed but not voted on by the school board, and came during a time of unrest over the district’s troubled special-education department, whose leader recently resigned amid parent criticism.
On Monday, Sarvis, who is about six months into his three-year contract and whose annual salary is about $204,000, said he didn’t ask for the request to be put on last Tuesday’s agenda, saying it was put there by outgoing school board president Laura Malakoff.
However, Sarvis said it is common for superintendents to seek contracts that are three years out.
Malakoff could not be reached for comment Monday. On Tuesday, she and two-term board member Nancy Harter will participate in their final meeting, a closed-session discussion, during which the board will evaluate Sarvis’ performance.
At the last meeting, Sarvis took heat from one of the special-education parents, who said it’s too early for the board to determine whether to extend his contract, as well as from a board member, who walked out of the meeting in protest.
Also on Monday, Sarvis issued a news release spelling out his plans to rebuild the special-education department, whose leader, Anissa McNeil, quit Nov. 21, just six months into the job, making her the seventh leader to leave the department in about as many years.
Before her departure, a group of special-education parents had shown up to several consecutive board meetings to express their dissatisfaction, complaining that their children — many of whom have autism — often were not paired with properly trained aides, and that the district was breaking the law in its failure to provide substitutes on the days the aides were absent.
Parents also said the district wasn’t honoring the legally binding education plans for their children. For instance, one woman said last week that her child has been given only three of the 28 speech-therapy sessions to which he has been entitled. Another said her child with autism once had a seizure in a classroom where the aide was absent, forcing the teacher to stop the class.
Sarvis’ plan calls for an independent analysis of the special-education department by an outside agency. The demand seems to address a concern raised last week by school board member Bob Noel, a sometimes confrontational champion of governmental transparency who, after butting heads with his four board colleagues last week, stormed out of the meeting. Noel was upset that the board had decided to table the request to extend Sarvis’ contract without discussion. That same night, he also pointedly called for the review to be “done independently of the superintendent, because indeed he may be part of the problem.”
Sarvis’ plan also includes gathering significant amounts of input from special-education staff members and parents. He said he will take suggestions from a small group of parents and teachers before hiring an interim director — a post he wants filled before winter break. He wants the permanent position filled by spring.
Sarvis added that top district administrators will meet with parents through December and beyond.
His plan also calls for an immediate solution to the glaring omission of a district policy on substitutes for aides.
As for the independent review, Sarvis said that although it could take the agency until next school year to finish making all of its recommendations, he wants some of them earlier. Specifically, he wants the ones associated with leadership to be completed by March, so he can hire a permanent replacement for McNeil before the end of the school year.
He said the recommendations could address whether the district needs to raise the salary range for the special-education director to attract a bigger pool of qualified applicants. Sarvis said that while he isn’t pre-judging the results, an earlier analysis completed by the district has shown that the higher end of its salary range for the special-education director — about $120,000 — is below that of comparable districts.
He said the district most likely will ask several consultants and agencies around the state to put together proposals, and that the board will decide which group receives the contract.
On Monday, Jennifer Griffin, co-chairwoman of a local group called Parents of Special Education, said it’s too early to tell whether Sarvis’ plan is satisfactory.
“The attitude (among some parents and teachers) is ‘here we go again,’” she said, adding that she has been in Santa Barbara for only two years. “So what’s different now? I don’t know.
“These parents are just asking for what is by law their right: putting a kid in a class with a trained aide. They are not asking for any special treatment.”
Write to .
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 05:23 AM
Dear Rob,
It is a treat to find you writing for the Noozhawk. I hope all is well.
The suggestion to have an independent evaluation of the Sup only makes sense if the board has lost its capacity to provide oversight of the Sup. What should be done is the board needs to sit back and decide what it needs in a sup and do this with the help of others who understand leadership.
Best,
Bob Pohl
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 05:24 AM
Dear Rob,
One more comment--Sarvis does not need a 3 year contract, one is plenty if he is comfortable in the community.
Pohl
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 08:03 AM
Bob Pohl should be the superintendent of Santa Barbara School District. Accomplished, respected, sophisticated, easy to get along with, highly qualified and willing to listen and make changes. Isn’t that what we want in a superintendent???But we let him get away from here, and our students have suffered the consequences.
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 09:40 AM
The L.A. Times reported today that Mr. David Brewer, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the U.S. is paid $300,000 a year. The LAUSD is vastly larger than the SB School District. I believe Mr. Sarvis is overpaid for his services. I would also point out the long history of mismanagement, incompetence, and yes - corruption in the district during Mr. Sarvis’ tenure. His ineptitude and deceit extends from finances to educational programs under his supervision. The SB School District would be well served to find someone more honest and qualified to do his job - and soon.
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 09:41 AM
Thank you,Rob and Noozhawk,for covering this. The residents and parents of the Santa Barbara districts really need to know about how our local school children and young people are educated. Especially after Measures H and I. More! please?
The school board members will definitely need some courage here. Also, it is good to hear Bob Pohl’s input.
Juli
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 10:58 AM
Bob is right on all counts…
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 11:22 AM
Who’s Sarvis kidding? At $204k he’s not going anywhere. I’m sure there are several thousand more dollars in bennies - car, insurance, etc. Call his bluff. The worst (or best) thing that could happen would be his resignation - if the board accepts it.
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 12:15 PM
why is hasbeen politician pohl (who left town with his tail between his legs years ago) commenting on local school board issues?
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 03:03 PM
Wondering hasn’t a clue. Bob left with his head high, his integrity in tact and core beliefs and values defined. The originator of many educational reforms in Santa Barbara, Bob spent four dynamic years as a Trustee. Honest, personable and in the educational know, Bob is a well-respected educator. What’s your problem, Wondering?
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 10:43 PM
Thanks for keeping us informed .......the school system has certainly changed in the last 50 years.....and I don’t think all is for the better.
» wrote on 12/02/08 @ 10:44 PM
Pohl is the reason that the I-98 bond was a big fat flop. He decided to push for a new downtown school rather than spend money on existing facilities, so bye-bye libraries at Washington and Adams...and now there’s no downtown school, either, so wasn’t THAT a good idea. THEN he persuaded the board to give him a $20K consulting fee for a report on how to “turnaround” La Cumbre Junior High a number of years ago--and the report went straight into the round file. The school just needed a strong principal. All I see here is a consultant angling for yet another consulting fee, but I’m sure he’s doing fine wherever he is and doesn’t need to come scrounging here for more cash.
» wrote on 12/04/08 @ 06:32 PM
At the November 25 SBSD Board Meeting, I stated that Wally Olsen, Jeff Gabrielson, and Joanne Pulley left because they refused to compromise their ethics or integrity. DON’T LET SARVIS SPIN THIS INTO A SALARY RAISE SITUATION!
Wally Olsen is now the director of the Santa Ynez Valley Special Education Consortium, Jonata School, Buellton. The SYV school districts seceded from the corrupt SELPA. Everything is peachy keen---they’re running special education with no problems for a fraction of what SELPA charged them.
Jeff Gabrielson ran afoul of SELPA’s Marcia McClish and Bill Cirone. There was a call for an independent evaluation of SELPA and he wrote out his honest concerns. (MAA billing was a concern---and now the ADMHSA is liable for $32 million in a fraudulent billing scandal.) HE’S IN GILROY UNDER NONE OTHER THAN SUPERINTENDENT DEBBIE FLORES.
Joanne Pulley is findable through the well-known whistleblower YOU KNOW WHO.
Annise McNeil was doing EXACTLY WHAT SHE WAS TOLD TO DO and will be passed on to another district. Her letter of resignation is an indication---a glowing report of success and then her goodbye: “Blessings!” Did anyone check to see if their letters of complaint made it to her personnel file? Not a chance.
When Diana Rigby got embroiled in controversy, she was promoted to Assistant Superintendent, received State Administrator of the Year Award from Bill Cirone, and was then passed on to Concord, Massachusetts.
I’m the SBSD Parent Representative to the SELPA Community Advisory Council. Have a nice uprising!