Edhat Staff
Cary Matsuoka (Photo: SBUSD)
Update by edhat staff
Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) Superintendent Cary Matsuoka will not extend his contract after it ends June 30, 2021.
Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts first broke the story early Wednesday evening stating it’s unclear “whether [Matsuoka] wants to serve out the remaining 20 months of the contract as a lame duck, remaining in his post until June 2021.”
Santa Barbara Unified School Board President Wendy Sims-Moten released the following statement:
“Superintendent Matsuoka’s contract is in place through June 30, 2021. He has not asked for an extension to his contract, and he has informed us that he will not seek one as connected to his evaluation process. The Board will not be voting on his contract since it is valid through June 2021 and he has not asked for an extension.”
“With regards to the superintendent’s evaluation process: at the October 22, 2019 board meeting, the Board will complete the evaluation process in closed session. There is no voting involved with an evaluation process, nor reporting out of about the evaluation outcome, as it is a personnel matter.”
School Board Holds Special Meeting Ahead of Superintendent Vote
By edhat staff
The Santa Barbara Unified School District Board held a special meeting on Tuesday ahead of a vote on whether to extend Superintendent Cary Matsuoka’s contract.
The public was given just 24 hours notice of the meeting on Monday, which has been criticized by parents as an effort to prevent comments from the public.
Nine public commenters showed up at the meeting and urged the Board not to extend Matsuoka’s contract due to “fiscal irresponsibility and poor test scores,” reports The Independent.
Matsuoka was hired in 2016 under a three-year contract making over $330,000 a year. His tenure has been plagued with several controversies including the demotion of San Marcos High School Principal Ed Behrens in 2018, a potential lawsuit by conservative “watchdog group” Fair Education over the district’s contract with Just Communities, and allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct at Santa Barbara High School’s MAD Academy that have yet to be fully explained.
A petition organized by members of the Fair Education group has garnered over 850 signatures opposing any extension of Matsuoka’s employment contract. The petition cites poor academic performance; unacceptable school facilities; reckless financial oversight and budgeting; inadequate community outreach, communication, and responsiveness; and irresponsible management style.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 22 to vote on whether to extend Matsuoka’s contract.
He has done a totally sub-par job. He should leave a lot sooner than 2021 and he can take Laura Capps with him.
Can’t he just be fired? Now?
11:12 Am – Who cares how Transparent California is funded? They are not making up their data. The information on the site is provided by the individual counties and cities themselves. Are you upset that salary and benefit information is so easily accessible by the general public? These public employees are payed with taxpayer dollars. Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is spent. If knowing the truth undermines support for public employee unions, then maybe the unions are the problem.
After what he did to cover his own ass at San Marcos this comes as no surprise! I thought he would be the one fired then. Why wait this time? Basically he is giving everyone the finger and collecting a huge paycheck on his way out. What’s going to motivate him to do anything beneficial for our schools now? I say send him packing no later than when school gets out for the Summer!
SBUnified is top heavy with inept, unresponsive Exec administrators pushing hard their shared indoctrination philosophies rather than allowing teachers and parents to instruct students. More execs need to be terminated. Demand better from elected Trustees. Do you care? Half or more of all students are not proficient. Do you make $200,000- $345,000 plus lifelong pension with benefits with no accountability? District Execs and Trustees need to do real work rather than neglect our students. .
2018 salaries for Santa Barbara Unified | Transparent California
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/school-districts/santa-barbara/santa-barbara-
CAASPP 2018-19 Test Results – CAASPP Reporting (CA Dept of Education)
https://caaspp-elpac.cde.ca.gov/caaspp/
2019 CAASPP Scores Announced – Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)
https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr19/yr19rel68.asp
I read the petition and read some of the comments signed by petitioners. It reads like a list of Who’s Who of ultra conservatives. Come on, SB. Don’t let right wing racists take valuable time and energy away from the classroom where all the attention needs to go. Ditto for all the brouhaha at City College. Flag waving racists caused much of that upheaval.
Pfft. Several of the commenters on the petition are the same ol’ conservatives who don’t have kids in our school district yet rant and rave about the Superintendent, Just Communities, etc. I hope everyone who signed the petition donates several hours a month to the local schools, especially those schools where poverty impacts the lives of the students. Or better yet, I hope the petitioners make financial donations so the kids can get enrichment classes, field trips, etc.
Saying – those people should be doing better – is not a solution. Kids do poorly in schools for many social reasons like broken families, lack of parental support, lack of food, mental illness, etc. The schools have to try to address those factors as best they can, but they are not social workers and are not funded for this. It puts them in an impossible position. If you think you can do better then please get a job in the education field.
Easy to criticize sitting in the cheap seats.
PITMIX knows how it is. Many reasons why children don’t do well. But if you look at actual data, the students are improving across the district in ELA and Math. Not quickly, but they are improving.
Yeah, I’m just slightly left of Antifa. And I am all for Matsuoka getting out of SB ASAP. He has known about significant threats to kids and school abuse of children and has not only done nothing but has been nothing but hostile to parents who are trying to make it better.
When evaluating claims like this, you should consider the source, which is neither transparent, nor California.
“Transparent California” is just one of the many names used by the tax-exempt “free-market think tank” Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI). NPRI refuses to divulge its own funding sources, stating, “NPRI respects the privacy of our donors, which includes the amount of a donor’s gift”.
NPRI’s primary funding source, as determined by The Conservative Transparency Project, is Donors Capital Fund, a dark-money source of funding for conservative groups. Its donors also include The Cato Institute, co-founded by the Koch brothers, and organizations affiliated with the climate change denial movement.
NPRI spends 75% of its revenue on six-figure salaries and benefits. Its goal is to undermine support for employee unions nationwide, thereby decreasing salaries and increasing corporate profits.
I think this is a great thing that he is moving on, but I’m still disgusted by these types of people who call themselves “educators” who are really only out for themselves and their own bottom line rather than actually affecting change in our children’s lives. The system is broken and bloated with people like this. In economically good times, there should be enough money to sustain our schools with good teachers, excellent programs, extracurricular activities, and safe, operable buildings.