Four assistant superintendents in the Santa Barbara Unified School District received raises and contract extensions on Tuesday night.
The school board voted 4-0, with Wendy Sims-Moten absent, to approve new contracts for Meg Jette, assistant superintendent for business services; Raul Ramirez, assistant superintendent for elementary services; Frann Wageneck, assistant superintendent of student services, and Todd Ryckman, chief technology officer.
Jette will now earn $206,296; Ramirez and Wageneck’s new salary is $180,779; and Ryckman’s new salary is $184,397.
The new contracts go into effect July 1 and last through June 30, 2021.
The board also voted to end an employment practice that allowed staff to work on campuses even if they were hired by other organizations.
For example, summer school teachers were previously hired by the Santa Barbara Education Foundation; the Santa Barbara High School’s Media Arts & Design (MAD) Academy employed two support positions hired by the MAD Foundation; and the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy employed a support position hired by the DPEA Foundation.
The school district will now employ those positions.
District Superintendent Cary Matsuoka said the change has been in the works for more than a year, but some members of the public tied the change to the recent controversy at the MAD Academy.
“These motions have been in production for 12 or 18 months,” Matsuoka said. “Some of them take a long time to unwind.”
The MAD Academy is comprised of state-of-the-art facilities, designed by media professionals to accommodate film and photography shoots, and digital media creation, and provide an innovative learning environment. It houses two studios, two digital media labs, a lounge, a food kiosk and offices.
The lynda.com Studio is a nearly 2,000-square-foot silent stage, and Studio S is just over 600 square feet.
Board member Laura Capps acknowledged that even though the change went into effect before the MAD Academy flare-up, it comes at the right time.
“Part of the situation with the MAD Academy did expose a vulnerability,” Capps said.
The MAD Academy has been under fire since allegations of misconduct arose involving the program’s leaders. Parents alleged that former operations director Pablo Sweeney sent inappropriate texts to their son, now a UC Berkeley student, when he was in the academy.
The texts were initially reported in January 2018. They also claimed that former MAD Academy director Dan Williams did nothing to stop the actions, or discipline Sweeney.
The MAD Academy leadership was hired by the MAD Academy Foundation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
