January 21, 2019
EDCAL 3
Ten tips to know before signing that
first superintendent contract
The ACSA Member Assistance and
Legal Support Team, under the direc-
tion of Member Services Senior Director,
Margarita Cuizon-Armelino, assists nearly
100 superintendents each year with their
contracts. In the past 19 years, more than
1,600 superintendents have requested con-
tract assistance.
Since this is the time of the year when
superintendent searches begin, Member
Assistance Advocates John Almond,
Janet Morey, Bill Tschida, Joe Jones, Gary
Rutherford and Lloyd Wamhof have listed
the following 10 important tips to strongly
consider before signing your first contract.
1) Request enough time to review your
contract. Sometimes a new superintendent
is given a deadline to sign his/her contract
that doesn’t allow time to request assistance
in reviewing the wording in the contract.
The contract will govern your relationship
with the district so time for review and
assistance is critical.
2) Make sure the wording in your con-
tract is clear, specific and doesn’t leave room
for ambiguity.
3) The term of the contract should meet
your needs. The Education Code allows
administrators to have up to a four-year
contract. Signing a contract with a two-year
term or less may be problematic.
4) For each year of the term of the con-
tract include language that provides con-
sistent salary increases. You are not asking
for any more than most other staff in the
district who are usually on a salary schedule.
Having consistent salary increases avoids
revisiting your contract on this hot topic
and it also avoids being accused of “spiking”
for the purpose of enhancing your pension.
5) Provide language in the contract that
extends your contract for an additional year
if you receive a satisfactory evaluation. The
language should be clear and the contract
extension must be approved by the board
in the form of an amendment at a regularly
scheduled board meeting.
6) The language in the Termination for
Cause section of the contract must be clear
and lack ambiguity. Education Code 44932
specifies reasons for which a superintendent
can be dismissed for cause. This section of
your contract is extremely important and
you want to avoid unnecessary language
that is subjective in nature.
7) The language in the Termination
Without Cause section (early termi-
nation) should allow for a buyout and
health benefits. Under Government Code
53260, superintendents are allowed up to a
12-month buyout and Government Code
53261 allows for health benefits during the
same period of time.
8) Include an Indemnity Clause that
protects you from any claims, torts or suits
brought against you in your role as super-
intendent.
9) Make use of the ACSA Sample
Contract and Contract Review Check
Sheet. ACSA has sample contracts for
you to use when reviewing your own con-
tract. There are two samples available for
superintendents: Superintendent Sample
and a Small School District Superintendent
Sample. The Contract Review Check Sheet
is a tool for doing a self-review of the con-
tract you are offered. These documents can
be found on the ACSA website when you
login to your member account.
10)
Contact an ACSA Member
Assistance Advocate or a competent attor-
ney to assist you in reviewing your contract.
Call (800) 608-2272 and ask for Joanne
Godfrey to request assistance.
For more information, go to www.acsa.
org/memberservices.
PERB ruling states districts may need to negotiate the
use of employee-tracking devices
The law firm of Fagen Fulfrost and
Friedman has issued a bulletin noting that
a Public Employment Relations Board rul-
ing places limitations on certain types of
employee tracking devices.
In the case at hand, an employer was
required to negotiate a decision to install a
GPS tracking device on a district vehicle.
The data can be used in evaluating or dis-
ciplining employees, and thus PERB said it
must be a negotiated item.
In this case, F3 noted that PERB con- cluded the underlying decision to use the
device was subject to negotiation under the
Educational Employment Relations Act
because the primary purpose of the device
was to track employee activity, as opposed
to a fundamental management prerogative
such as protecting public property or keep-
ing staff and members of the public safe.
PERB did differentiate between employ-
ee discipline and protecting property in a
separate case that involved installing video
surveillance with the purpose of protecting campus property and extending campus
safety.
“PERB held that, in those circumstances,
the employer’s decision to install the video
surveillance furthered legitimate managerial
interests and therefore was not negotiable,
but the decision still had negotiable impacts
and effects because the data might be used
to evaluate or discipline employees,” F3
wrote.
For more information on F3, please go to
www.F3law.com.
ROMOLAND planning and co-teaching ELD lessons. The
coach has also created on-demand profes-
sional learning modules available to teachers
online through Alludo.
All EL students receive one-on-one
goal setting support from a teacher and/or
administrator. Teachers and site adminis-
trators meet with students throughout the
school year to complete a personalized goal
setting form and monitor student progress.
Students are taught the criteria for meeting
English proficiency, and they evaluate their
own learning and progress through the goal
setting conferences.
All EL students and their parents/guard-
ians are taught the criteria for reclassifica-
tion. In addition to students being informed
of the criteria for meeting English profi-
ciency, parents/guardians are informed of
the criteria through a variety of parent/
guardian meetings and outreach conducted
by site EL program leaders, teachers and
site administrators. In celebration of student
achievement with reclassification, parents/
guardians are invited to an annual ceremony
honoring EL students who have reclassi-
fied to fluent English proficient during the
school year.
Students are honored with a certifi-
cate of achievement and medal of honor.
Further, the parents/guardians of all EL
students are offered multiple opportunities
to participate in the education of their stu-
dents. All parents/guardians of elementary
English learner students can participate in
site opportunities for learning home-based
instructional strategies to implement with
their children. All parents/guardians of
middle school English learner students have
the opportunity to participate in the Parent
Institute for Quality Education in which
parents/guardians take a 10-week course to
learn about the requirements for a student
to graduate from high school and enter a
four-year university.
College and career readiness opportuni-
ties are offered to all English learners. All middle school EL students are offered an
elective class of their choice, and this is
achieved through a seven-period school
day. In addition, all eighth grade students
are offered a field trip to the University of
California, Riverside for a college tour and
information session.
Spanish-speaking English learner stu-
dents also have the opportunity to take the
advanced Spanish for native speakers elec-
tive course which puts them on the path for
Advanced Placement Spanish and earning
the State Seal of Biliteracy. Romoland began
offering Advanced Placement Spanish in
grade 8 during the 2017-18 school year,
and 88 percent of the students in the course
passed the AP exam.
At the heart of this system is a strategic
focus on the achievement of English learn-
ers. Offering students personalized goal
setting conferences, daily ELD instruc-
tion, and information about the criteria
for reclassification are no-cost and easy to
implement and monitor. Those practices
have a significant influence on students’
language acquisition and belief in self to
achieve; the practices empower students.
Further, engaging the parent/guardian
community is work that schools already do,
so expanding the messaging to empower
parents/guardians means including informa-
tion about high school graduation require-
ment information, college access informa-
tion, and information about the criteria
for students to reclassify as fluent English
proficient. Combining these empowerment
practices with enrichment opportunities for
students is work we are proud of, and it is
creating success and opportunity for the
students of Romoland School District.
Continued from page 1
cent exceeds the state average of 14.6 per-
cent. The English Learner Reclassification
System objectives include:
• All ELs receive integrated and des-
ignated English Language Development
instruction daily.
• All ELs are taught by teachers highly
trained in integrated and designated ELD.
• All ELs receive personalized goal set-
ting support from a teacher and/or admin-
istrator.
• All ELs and their parents/guardians
are well informed about the criteria for
reclassifying.
• Parents/guardians of all ELs are offered
multiple opportunities to participate in the
education of their students.
• College and career readiness and
enrichment opportunities are offered to all
ELs.
English learners receive integrated and
designated English Language Development
instruction daily. Teachers post their daily
schedules which include ELD, and site
administrators regularly monitor ELD
lessons through weekly classroom walk-
throughs; teachers are provided lesson feed-
back regularly. Teachers monitor student
progress throughout the year with the col-
lection of student performance data and
discussion of data and ELD instructional
methods at weekly Professional Learning
Community meetings.
All English learners are taught by teachers
highly trained in integrated and designated
ELD. To ensure teachers are sufficiently
skilled to offer integrated and designated
ELD, a full-time English Learner Program
instructional coach is available to provide
professional development and coaching to
all teachers. The coach engages in whole
group, small group, and one-on-one peer
coaching of teachers, which includes co-
More information on Romoland SD can be
found at www.romoland.net.
Happy New Year!
A new year can bring
new possibilities, new
hope, a fresh start, a new beginning
– really whatever we want it to bring.
This year, 2019, is no different. This is
the time of year we stop and reflect (or
at least we should take that opportu-
nity) and maybe even set some goals
or resolutions we want to achieve.
I had a conversation with a staff
member recently that I continue to
reflect on. The question she asked
continues to resonate with me. She
asked me “when are we going to
be good enough?” My inside voice
wanted to respond “never”, but I took
a breath and asked her for clarification.
With all of the changes in standards,
accountability measures, curriculum,
student expectations academically and
behaviorally – she essentially wanted
to know when will we reach that place
when it would end.
As a leader, I had to reflect on how
I could do a better job communicat-
ing the case for change. It really boils
down to self-improvement as a process
rather than an act or task. We should
always be looking for ways to improve,
personally and professionally. We
should never be finished with our work;
our students and our staff deserve so
much more than for us to be at a place
where we can kick in the autopilot.
Over the past year, I have had the great
fortune to connect with transforma-
tional leaders who get the importance
of continuing to improve, continuing to
grow, continuing to “do better”. They
genuinely care about getting it right for
the right reasons. I continue to inte-
grate those “nuggets” into what I get
to do each day, the reality is we are all
on this path together and we need to
lean on each other.
Focus on your why, but it goes further
than that. Having a focus on your why
also provides an opportunity for you to
model your why for others. As the lead-
er, demonstrating what is important to
you allows you to show what you are
passionate about and to highlight your
values as a leader.
Celebrate the little victories. Recently
the Harvard Business School found
“Even ordinary, incremental progress
can increase people’s engagement in
the work and their happiness during
the workday.” The work we do is chal-
lenging. It is essential that we recog-
nize that fact and at the same time cel-
ebrate the small victories on the way
to meeting our collective goal. This also
provides you with an opportunity to
share the positives about what is hap-
pening at your school or district.
Be present. As a leader, there is no
end to the demands on our time. The
investment you make in relationships
with your stakeholders is priceless.
As leaders we are constantly reflecting
on how we can move ourselves and
our organizations forward. The begin-
ning of a new year provides an oppor-
tunity to pause and take note of where
we are in that process. I hope each of
you take the opportunity to reflect as
we begin a new year and continue to
“do better” for ourselves and for our
students.
– Holly Edds
ACSA President