Wes Smith, Superintendent of the Morgan Hill Unified School District for 3.5 years, has accepted an offer to serve as the Executive Director of the Association of California School Administrators effective July 1.
The MHUSD Board of Education will be working on a transition plan in the next couple of weeks that will “protect the district’s success and momentum,” Smith wrote in a mass email sent to all MHUSD staff and board members. Smith also notified a key contact list of 50 to 60 community members, including all home and school club presidents, the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club.
“I wasn’t actively looking (for another job). Not at all,” said Smith, who this week is in Washington D.C. where he is advocating for California students with a team from ACSA. “In fact, I’ve received calls from larger districts for more money. I wasn’t looking to do that work (a superintendent’s job) for anyone else.”
School Board trustees will discuss the selection process of a new superintendent – it’s eighth since the district formed in 1966 – during their next regular meeting April 30. Smith’s 3.5-year tenure is the shortest since the original superintendent, Dr. H.M. Nicholson, lasted just one year in 1966.
“I’m committed to working hard every day until that moving truck leaves Morgan Hill to put the district in the best position possible,” Smith said. “I know that we’ve built a great team in Morgan Hill…this district is going to continue to thrive.”
Board of Ed. President Don Moody said Smith was hired for his new position Saturday morning in Sacramento. An ACSA spokeswoman said the organization is not at liberty to divulge salary information for any of its employees.
According to the ACSA website, the organization’s mission is to “support California’s educational leaders; ensure all students have the essential skills and knowledge to excel; and champion public education.”
Board trustee Claudia Rossi said she knew Smith’s talents and effectiveness at MHUSD would catch the attention of other school districts and organizations.
She believes that Smith can now impact more students as the executive director of the largest umbrella organization for school leaders in the nation, serving more than 16,000 school leaders since 1971.
“When you have top-notch talent, you know that talent is going to be recruited,” Rossi explained. “I don’t think it was a surprise to any of us. It is a disappointment, absolutely. We hate to lose him.”
MHUSD replaced former superintendent Jim Crow with Carolyn McKennan in 1996. Both served nine-year terms. McKennan’s successor, Alan Nishino, served for four years from 2005 to 2009 before Smith took over. Before retiring, Nishino was criticized as a divisive, unapproachable leader by parents and teachers.
Smith was not without his critics either, leaving MHUSD at a time when the district’s graduation rate is reported by the California Department of Education as the lowest in the county. Also recently, a charter school management organization, answering the cries of hundreds of Hispanic parents who believe the district is in a “crisis” when it comes to serving their children, has submitted its petition to open a new charter school in 2014.
“Regardless of when he left, there’d be some unresolved issues,” said board trustee Amy Porter-Jensen, who said the qualities she would look for in a new superintendent would be “a good communicator” who can “really gain the respect of the community.”
Armando Benavides, a local attorney and self proclaimed “advocate for youth,” said Smith fell short of his promises to “lower the achievement gap” for Hispanic students within MHUSD. Benavides said Smith met with the Hispanic community when he was first hired. Smith was given 10 key points from the community on how he could work to lower the achievement gap.
“He really shifted focus away from those points,” Benavides said. “Hopefully, the new (superintendent) will look at those 10 points and give them due attention…hopefully, they will focus resources, staff and energy in closing that achievement gap.”
In past hiring practices of superintendents, the Board hired a search consulting firm that helped walk the trustees through the hiring process, beginning with identifying a pool of candidates. The Board can decide to employ an interim superintendent during the search. Trustees have also held community forums to gain input – something Moody eluded to doing this time around – and have appointed community members to be involved with the interviewing of candidates. Trustees have the final say and are the ones who vote to make the hiring official.
“We were lucky to have him for the time that we did,” said trustee Rick Badillo, of Smith. “The next superintendent will have some big shoes to fill.”
After a starting $192,500 salary in 2009, Smith’s yearly income rose by three percent to $198,200 in 2010 and remained at that figure through this year because he turned down his annual three percent raises in 2011 and 2012. Smith donated that money back to the district.
“I knew that this wasn’t going to be his last position,” said Moody.
I hate to see him go. We have made so much progress in the time that he’s been in the district. But an opportunity like this doesn’t come across very often for him.”
Besides the successful passage of Measure G – a $198 million voter-approved capital improvements bond passed in November 2012 – the district’s Academic Performance Index (California’s yardstick for measuring academic growth and success) has increased 25 points and the Latino subgroup saw a 50-point climb since 2006. Smith was hired in 2009. MHUSD also has the county’s third highest percentage of Latino students meeting A-G Graduation requirements needed to qualify for acceptance into a UC or CSU school.
Smith, who previously worked as superintendent at Cascade Union Elementary School District in Anderson, Calif. before coming to Morgan Hill, was an active ACSA member for the last 13 years, serving on local and regional boards. Along with being ACSA’s 2013 Superintendent of the year, Smith was the 2004 ACSA Region I Administrator of the Year and 2003 Shasta County School Administrators Association Middle School Principal of the Year.
“I got into this business to help kids. If I can help all the kids in California, then I’m willing to take that chance,” Smith said.
