Sausalito schools name interim chief - Marin IJ - Septmeber 9, 2005

Sausalito schools name interim chief
Jennifer Gollan 9/9/05
marinij.com/news/ci_3014454




The Sausalito Marin City School District Board of Trustees hired an interim superintendent through December while it settles the contract of her predecessor, who was abruptly ousted just 10 days before the start of the 2005-06 school year.
In a 5-0 vote, the board yesterday approved a $35,153 contract for Mary Buttler, the county's assistant superintendent of schools, to serve as the superintendent/principal of the district for three days a week from Aug. 15 through Dec. 16. Buttler will be charged with overseeing the district's $4.7 million 2005-06 budget and a staff of 40. Her services will be funded with district general fund money.

Board President George Stratigos said last night Rose Marie Roberson, 58, who was placed on paid administrative leave on Aug. 18, would remain as such until "something changes."

Citing confidentiality rules related to personnel issues, Stratigos declined to answer questions related to the board's motivations for placing Roberson on leave, or when and if the board would decide what to do with her contract.

Under Roberson's employment contract, a copy of which was provided to the Independent Journal by the district, Roberson earned $118,435 annually for the last two years, as well as a $600 monthly allowance for her car and travel. Under the terms of her contract, renewed in June 2004 through June 2006, Roberson will be paid her regular salary until her administrative leave status changes. Under the terms of the contract, Roberson's early termination would require the district to pay her $9,870 a month through the expiration of the agreement in June 2006. That would mean that if the board cut her contract in October, the district would owe Roberson $88,826.

The board last night took steps to find a permanent top administrator by asking Buttler to request information from several executive search firms over the next month.

"The goal would be that the community would be able to know in December who their leader would be," Buttler said. "The superintendent would be a critical partner in planning the opening of the next school year, which takes place in the spring."

Former district board member Mark Trotter, who was appointed to the board in summer 2004, but lost the election in November 2004, said the district had long plotted to give Roberson the boot, and pointed to a "tremendous personality conflict" between Roberson and Stratigos. Both Roberson and Stratigos declined to comment on Trotter's remarks.

Buttler said that one of her goals would be to raise scholastic achievement at all three of the district's schools. The trustees last year adopted a policy called "Vision 900" that laid out the district's intention to have all three schools strive for scores of 800 or above on the state's Academic Performance Index - the state's benchmark for schools statewide. The API scale ranges from 200 to 1,000. This year, although API scores at Bayside and Willow Creek Academy increased, that of Martin Luther King Jr. Academy dropped by 74 points to 629.

Roberson said the district, which has an enrollment of 273 students this year, received the API scores in mid-July.

"We were very proud," she said. "There is something in my contract that says that I will contribute to significant student achievement, and I did."

Asked whether she differed with the board over the gravity of MLK's API scores, Roberson said: "The board always has very high expectations that it needed to be done as soon as possible, which was yesterday. My thought was that you have to look at each individual child. We have kept up remarkable growth."

Stratigos said the district is "determined to be a 900 API district at all levels and at all schools. It's an issue of doing the job for the kids.

"The results of our district are reflective of her work," Stratigos said of Roberson