MorganHillTimes.com | Unity is key for new supe

Unity is key for new supe

Nov 5, 2009
By Natalie Everett

The thing the school community needs most, is what its new leader has: a collaborative spirit.

Dr. Wesley Smith, who was officially hired Tuesday, said he saw in the brochure created to find candidates that the community ached for collaborative and inclusive leadership.

"That's one of my passions," he said. "Collectively, we're all smarter than we are individually."

Smith will begin as superintendent of Morgan Hill Unified School District Nov. 16. While he hasn't led a unified school district before, he's got the humility and enthusiasm to make up for it, trustees say.

For three years, Smith, 40, has led a small elementary school district in Northern California. Cascade Union Elementary School District in Anderson, a small town south of Redding in Shasta County, serves about 1,450 students in three elementary schools, a middle school and a day school.

By contrast, Morgan Hill Unified School District serves about 9,200 students in 16 schools.

"I don't know a lot about the district yet. I'll just admit that up front. I've researched it a ton, but I haven't had a chance yet to talk to people (to see) what really are the values you have for your district and your students," Smith said. "My number one task is to get up to speed."

Before becoming superintendent, Smith taught English, Spanish and leadership at Anderson High School for three years. While there, he got his first taste in administration as director of student activities and also coached football and baseball.

Smith then spent six years as principal at Anderson Middle School. From there he was promoted to assistant superintendent under John Almond, who spent the bulk of his career in Morgan Hill. Almond was principal of Live Oak High School for six years before moving north.

Almond alerted Smith to the superintendent opening.

"(Almond) spoke so highly of Morgan Hill it was almost like a second home to me and I'd never been there," Smith said.

Smith will do well in Morgan Hill, Almond said. He credited Smith with taking Anderson Middle School, then the lowest performing middle school in the county, into a California Distinguished School.

Smith said the school worked hard to achieve this success.

"We used our collective wisdom and dedication," Smith said. The school increased its Academic Performance Index (API) score by 160 points, Smith said proudly.

Then, under Smith's leadership as superintendent, Cascade Union's API score increased from 720 in the 2004-05 school year to 768 last year, according to state data.

Almond said Smith has all the qualities that make a great leader.

"He always reads his audience well and knows with whom he is speaking. And he's a very caring individual. He looks at all sides of an issue before drawing a judgment," Almond said.

Board President Don Moody said the board was impressed with Smith's enthusiasm.

"It's a step up for him. He was ready for a new challenge," Moody said

Smith will live in town with his wife Julie and three children. Daughter Jordan, 14, will attend Ann Sobrato High School. Daughter Taylor, 11, and son Jaxson, 6, will both attend P.A. Walsh Elementary School.

"We're going to bump into him at the grocery store, he's going to put his children in the schools and they're going to be taught by our teachers," Moody said.

The board approved Smith's $190,000 contract in a 6-0 vote, with Trustee Peter Mandel absent, Tuesday night. That's $1,000 more than Superintendent Alan Nishino started at. Smith's contract also includes the 3 percent raise that the board was heavily criticized for under Nishino. But, Moody noted there's no "evergreen" clause in Smith's contract. Nishino's contract stipulated that a satisfactory review would earn him 3 percent each year, plus an additional year on his contract. Smith's contract doesn't have such a clause.

And, faced with concerned parents from every gamut and an increasingly tight budget as the economy steadies, Smith will have to earn his 3 percent, Moody said. New contract language also stipulates that to get the 3 percent, Smith would have to be reviewed by the board.

Julian Mancias, spokesman for Co-LEAD, a group of Hispanic parents, said the group was outraged by the selection. About 8 percent of Shasta County's 180,000 people are Hispanic or Latino, according to 2008 census figures. Morgan Hill's population is 42 percent Latino.

"We feel that the school board has slapped the Morgan Hill Latino community in the face. This selection is the polar opposite of what we were lobbying for," Mancias wrote in an e-mail to the Times. "Co-LEAD does not place any blame on Mr. Smith for this selection. In fact, we look forward to having a good working relationship with Mr. Smith and his staff."

Mancias said while Smith speaks Spanish, he can't understand Latino issues because any experience he's had with them has been as an outsider.

Smith copped to this assessment.

"I don't say I'm bilingual. I can't appropriate that. I'm biliterate. I'm not bilingual, I haven't lived those experiences, and I wouldn't try to appropriate them," he said.

Smith noted that while Anderson may be predominantly white, his first year as a teacher was at Azusa High School in Southern California. He taught English as a second language to Hispanic students there. They made up 72 percent of the student population there.

"Throughout my career, this area has been very, very important to me," he said. Smith spent two years on the Equity, Achievement and Diversity for Success Committee of the Association of California School Administrators. The committee's focus was on diversifying school district administrations.

"If our kids can see people who look like them in the school district, they'll aspire to those positions. That's something I'm passionate about," he said.

Special education parents may be concerned to learn that Cascade Union had an Office of Civil Rights complaint filed against it three years ago, during Smith's tenure. Smith pointed out that his district was "totally cleared."

"(The office) thought we did a great job," he said. His dissertation was on the impact of efficacy and self-concept on student achievement for special education students.

"I saw children being labeled, ostracized, being given what I considered life sentences, if you will," he said. "What I ... theorized would be significant is taking away those labels and offering support without labels."

Theresa Sage, president of Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers Local 2022, said she was excited to work with Smith.

"I'm hopeful there will be a real positive relationship between him and the district," said. "There's always a difference when someone's at the end versus the beginning of their careers."

Moody stressed that Smith is up for the challenge of a larger district.

"This guy is so high energy and he smiles all the time," Moody said. "He's an excellent communicator. We were so impressed with how he handles himself."

Unlike this board's first superintendent search that produced Nishino, Moody said board members did their due diligence this time, going off The Cosca Group's path by interviewing people not on Smith's list of recommendations.

"They all said, 'You are so lucky, our loss is your gain,'" Moody said.

Almond said Smith did all this while keeping a good report with the community.

"He's very genuine, very approachable," Almond said. "The community will warm up to him quickly."

Natalie Everett

Natalie Everett
Natalie Everett is the education and city reporter for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106, ext. 201, or neverett@morganhilltimes.com.