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Thursday, March 27, 2008
Meet Santiago Wood
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dr. Santiago V. Wood, Ed.D. is a choice for Clayton County public schools’ corrective superintendent. Below is a brief overview of his background based on various news reports.
Experience: 32-plus years of educational experience. Deputy superintendent for the West Contra, CA Unified School District from 1992-1996; superintendent of Alum Rock Union Elementary School District in San Jose, CA from 1996-2000.
Wood served as superintendent of Fresno Unified School District (“FUSD”) from 2000-2004 making $175,000 with $38,000 in benefits and responsible for 82,000 students (consisting of 65 different cultures and speaking 15 languages), 35,000 adult students, and oversaw an operating and construction budget of more than $1 billion. Wood inherited a district in fiscal crisis.
Pros: Percentage of students meeting or exceeding AYP standards for math and English/language arts rose, as did state test scores.
Got voters to approve “Measure K”, a $199 million bond which funded 10 new elementary schools and remolded existing campuses.
Thanks to a joint citywide and district concentration on truancy , student absences fell 5% in 2002. Under the Juvenile Accountability Ordinance, daytime curfews were instituted along with penalties for cutting school which included: taking students and their parents to court, temporarily revoking a student’s drivers license, or withholding government assistance payments. In an attempt to hold administrators accountable, school principals were evaluated on their school’s absences during performance reviews.
Considered a morale booster; delivered speeches that got folks enthusiastic. Improved parent and community involvement in FUSD.
District extended his contract for an additional three years in 2003. Number of high school graduates increased.
Cons: Left behind an estimated $18 million deficit for 2004-05. 40 of 84 schools ranked in the state’s bottom 10 percent in 2004.
Mishandled/falsified construction contracts that cost FUSD $3 million in state fines (reduced from $34.7 million).
Instituted budget cuts that denied teachers raises already contracted, along with cuts in library services, elementary music programs, janitorial services, tutors, and campus security employees. Hired more administrators.
Regarding Wood’s “Compensation Package”: Received a $25,000 raise in salary alone; increased his annual contribution to a tax sheltered annuity from $10,500 to $21k and paid his $14k required monthly compensation to the State Teachers’ Retirement System. Wood justified this stating he had not received a raise in two years due to teacher pay raises. Employees saw this as insensitive as they dealt with classroom cuts, pay cuts and shouldered increases in health care benefits.
It took an angry student protest of 400 marching to Wood’s office (he was out of town) and 500 at Fresno High School for the district to address their concerns about overcrowded classrooms, lack of textbooks and computers, not enough desks for students to sit at, and infestation problems (cockroaches and rats) in school buildings. Students were also upset that Wood got a raise while they dealt with such issues. Many felt Wood talked more than he listened.
Forced to resign one year into his contract extension due in part to the construction scandal, Wood received a severance package worth $489,000 which included: 18 months pay plus accrued vacation time; health benefits for himself and his dependents for five years; and three years of service credit toward his state retirement plan.
His settlement contained a clause “that neither Wood nor the board will discuss reasons behind his leaving other than to refer to a one and one-half page list of his accomplishments.” FUSD never made AYP during his tenure.
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