LAUSD BOARD APPROVES ONE-YEAR CONTRACT FOR SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY IN SECRET SESSION + smf’s 2¢

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/PocKOB

Updated:   10/10/2012 11:53:46 AM PDT  :: The Los Angeles Unified school board voted 6-0 late Tuesday to grant a one-year contract extension to Superintendent John Deasy.

The board vote took place about 7:30 p.m. in executive session, which came after a lengthy board meeting. Board member Richard Vladovic had been called away for a personal emergency and was not present for the vote.

Deasy was promoted to the $330,000-a-year superintendent's job in April 2011 after serving 10 months as second-in-command to LAUSD veteran Ramon Cortines. He'd been recruited in 2010 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation after a nationwide search determined he was the only candidate considered capable of fixing LAUSD's problems.

An earlier version of the story incorrectly reported that Deasy had received a three-year contract.

 

smf: I don’t recall that “nationwide search”. 

• Were Mayor Tony, Monica Garcia and Eli Broad the search committee? 
• Did the search take longer than ten minutes?
• smf/4LAKids does not believe that extending the contract of the superintendent is a legitimate use of the Brown Act/Open Meeting Law exemption for personnel matters.
• The Board only has two mandated functions under law.
• Hiring and firing the superintendent and
• approval and oversight of the school district budget.
• The superintendent is not a protected employee – he or she is a contractor and performance review and contract approval should be conducted in a properly noticed open meeting with public input.