Although Superintendent Sharyl Allen’s prepared statement singled out one board member as the major cause of her departure, the Mingus Union High School District Governing Board accepted her resignation unanimously.
“There have been a lot of good things that happened at this school under your leadership … not good, great things” have been accomplished during the four years Allen was superintendent, Board President Andy Grosetta said after the vote Thursday, May 10.
Allen had two years left on her current three-year contract. She officially leaves office Saturday, June 30.
“I believe that I have consistently acted in a legal and ethical manner in discharging my duties as the superintendent of this district,” Allen read from a prepared statement. Allen said her evaluations reflected that.
“When personal insinuations or attacks occur, it is usually done because the facts cannot be substantiated. It’s an old, old trick,” she said.
Allen said in her resignation speech that districts suffer when one board member has the impetus to fracture a board.
Allen used the work “ethical” four times in reference to her work and herself.
“Characterizing my request for information as old, old tricks, and characterizing my allegations as vicious attacks is false,” Board Member Jim Ledbetter said during the discussion phase of the motion to accept Allen’s resignation.
The board has presented information to its “[legal] counsel and that counsel asked for more information,” Ledbetter said.
“I believe the board has the power, and indeed the obligation, to look at these questions of hiring and spending practices,” Ledbetter said.
“It is not an attempt to fracture the board. But rather, the board’s legal and fiscal responsibility to do so,” he said.
In other action:
* The board directed Allen to form a search committee for her replacement.
* Allen recommended raises for MUHS Principal Marc Cooper and Student Services Director Dianne Uidenich. The board tabled the proposed 5-percent raises for the administrators.
* The board approved a 4.7-percent raise for all support staff.
During Allen’s presentation, she asked Mingus Union Education Association President Howie Usher whether she was “misrepresenting” their proposal. Usher said she was doing fine.
