Westover gets hired without the appropriate skills for the job. She might very well wind up being a great hire, but I do not understand why she should receive a full $200,000 contract while learning on the job and paying a consultant $95,000 to do the work. Cushy job to get paid a full salary without required job skills!

Jones gets hired a full year before Vargas opens to help get the school up and running and then quits the Summer beforehand. Cushy job to get paid for a full year without much to do!

Are we getting our money's worth out of these hires? I don't think so.

Where is the Board oversight?

Are you nuts!?!? I would expect someone coming into a position at $200,000 to be QUALIFIED for the position and not require a year of hand holding. Teachers (you know, those folks who actually teach the children) aren't paid even half of this woman's salary and they certainly aren't coddled for an entire year. Get real people. This is NOT how school district fund's should be spent.

To not seek out someone with a financial background (preferably in schools) is seem irresponsible, especially for a high level position of this magnitude. Astonishing that they would go this route.

One can downplay the importance of a financial background, but those with proven financial skills and experience not only have a seasoned skillset, but are adroit at intuitively knowing what to check or double-check...or sensing when something seems awry. The experience also leads to a better grasp of potential ways of handling various situations.
Experience is even more critical in a position where there isn't a next level of review (Dr. Rudolph? Board members?) with financial expertise that can serve as a 2nd set of eyes.

Just amazing. But hey, what can go wrong?

And remind me again how “it’s all about the kids”?

Lots of money being spent at the very top, about as far from the classroom as you can get

MVWSD, the place to go for a $200,000/year trainee position

Can we all remember this the next them this district ask us to pass another bond "for the children"? I've been in this district for 13 years and am so fed up with them treating us as if we're an ATM.

She's making $5K/year less than the previous experienced CBO Robert Clark did in his last year.

In case you folks have not noticed recently, we have very low local unemployment. If you hire someone from out of the area, there are certainly housing issues. As noted, Dr. Goldman had no background in school finance. His predecessor stayed for seven years after working in non-profit finance for nine years.

In Palo Alto they have paid dearly for the "best, experienced people" and had errors in labor contracts, and in property taxes. In Palo Alto! Who'd a thunk it..=)

"I'm confident that Dr. Westover is going to do a wonderful job," Blakely said. "I know she has a lot to learn but I'm confident she's going to ace it."

Just mind boggling. Ms. Blakley please just stop talking. Take a cue from Mr. Gutierrez and Ms. Wheeler. Best to just not say anything at all. You have no idea how she will do so you approved $95K to have her coached and trained. If Clark could barely handle the job, what makes you think she can? Maybe the person you should be wondering if he can handle the job or question whether knows what he's doing is Superintendent Rudolph! He's been making blunder after blunder.

Like I said before, Westover and Ghysels are perfect fits for each other given their similar values, but neither are qualified for these jobs.

And the Voice's marching out with quotes from Goldman, to somehow soften all this is really beyond the pale.

A friend of mine spent a career in these positions at a sequence of Bay-Area public school districts ("assistant superintendent for business services"); his job entailed managing budgets (not unlike a comptroller), managing supplier contracts, auditing, etc.

His background: MBA degree and Certified Public Accountant license. Which seem more in line with the needed skill set than a "doctorate in education" (a type of degree long somewhat notorious in US mainstream universities -- e.g., some schools would award doctorates in "physics education" to people without even an undergraduate-major's-level knowledge of actual physics). Even if I _had_ ever heard previously, even once, of the University of La Verne (formerly a religious-denominational school, which only started awarding doctorates in 1979 according to Wikipedia) -- but precisely because I know little about that school, it's not my real complaint. Rather, that first-class work at a high-leverage, business- and accounting-intensive job would seem to call more for business and accounting training than education, public relations (?!), and and economics minor (I have that myself, it bears little connection to practical business and accountancy)

As a Community, we saddled Goldman with Nelson. Rudolph was hired in part because he could take it. The Board hires the Supt, they don't "employ" other district staff, the Supt does. With all the carping on these boards, we ought have a half dozen candidates for every board election. You are all welcome to run next year...

Yet there is not enough money for a dedicated librarian for every elementary?!

Robert Clark was hired by MVWSD's interim superintendent not its current superintendent: Web Link

School positions are still being cut. Actual positions that interact with the students. Parents look closely at your child's school and lodge your complaints! We have children at Graham and they have reassigned an assistant principal with no plans to hire a replacement. The District has cut support services, librarian hours, and electives. And we heard from the school that there will be more than 900 students on campus next year. 900 students, with less manpower for the office, principals, library and teachers. How can this be?

But the District has all the support they need. This really makes no sense and we cannot believe how the board just continues to go along with it. Shame on them.

@Wait what?!

"Yet there is not enough money for a dedicated librarian for every elementary?!"

FALSE!
The PRIOR CBO's budget (which was compiled to fit Board requirements) did not include a full-time Librarian for the new Vargas school, HOWEVER, the budget did tell the Board what a new Librarian would cost and POINTEDLY left it up to the Board to decide if they wanted the District to find a way to pay for this. Rudolph repeatedly tossed the question directly into the laps of the Board at every opportunity.

The Board discussed the question and based on the data from the budget, the Board chose to authorize the new position for a Vargas Librarian.

Now, just to put this in perspective, Stevenson Elementary was WITHOUT a District-paid Librarian for a few years, but one of our parents stepped into the empty seat and did the work until she was eventually hired as a full-time Librarian for Stevenson.

Also, the district did have a pretty good plan on how to cover the need at Vargas by rotating days from the other librarians of the district. Vargas was NEVER going to go without a fully functional library.

@ST parent
I was referring to the latest round of budget cuts where they plan to cut back the hours of community facilitators, librarians, teachers aides etc.

So Westover, with no experience at being a CBO, gets paid $200,000 the same amount Rudolph was paid his first year as Superintendent?

And we pay a consultant another $95,000 to hold her hand?

What is the Board thinking?

I read this today in the hard copy of the newspaper I got out of a box at the car wash. I was really shaking my head. Folks - taxpayers - government at almost all levels is out of control and on a mad spending spree. We can’t really afford this nonsense. Government most definitely is not managed in a businesslike manner (occasionally, we have politicians who inflict less damage), but really this is just too much.
School districts seem to be particularly poorly managed, bureaucratic, and too numerous in California. There may be a rotating cast of administrators at times.
Today, a grand jury found Oakland school district to have problems, mismanagement, crazed spending on an ongoing basis. This was on Noon KTVU Channel 2 News. The response? - shrug. Somehow, we taxpayers must indicate we’ve reached a limit on state of CA laws, rules, guidelines, bureaucracy that drive of public school costs in inane ways AND local officials must be hired who have reasonable credentials and skills to fulfill the administration of these duties. This woman is receiving luxury pay.

The board have been snowed by the superintendent and the Chief Human Relations Officer. When I heard about Oakland, it sounded much like MVWSD. Money wasted on consultants and administration, hiring by cronyism. Since the board is obviously out of its depth, it's time for concerned citizens (not just parents) to contact the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

While MVWSD's new CBO will be paid $200,000 her first year on the job (with another $95,000 on coaching), MVWSD's outgoing CBO with 11 years of expereince will be paid $170,000 in his new district in Marin.
Web Link
Oakland Unified's seaoned interm is being paid $176,000.
Web Link

Voters need to pay attention to their school board.

Correction: Oakland is paying $176,000 for a half year contract for a seasoned interim to manage their $500 million budget.
Web Link

The other links are correct, the former CBO's new Marin contract $170,000, and MVWSD's new CBO will be paid $200,000 her first year on the job (with another $95,000 on coaching) to manage MVWSD's $50 million budget.
Web Link

Related news, governor preparing for a recession by filling state reserves
Web Link