The Sweetwater Union High School District shut its revolving door of superintendents this week with the announcement of Karen Janney as its permanent superintendent.
The board of trustees came out of a closed-session meeting Monday night to unanimously appoint Janney to lead the largest secondary school district in California.
Janney, a former Sweetwater District educator, becomes the first woman to take over the reigns in the district’s 95-year history. She will replace interim superintendent Phil Stover once trustees approve her contract at its June 22 board meeting.
Janney delivered a short speech Monday in a room full of parents, teachers and district staff.
“One of my goals as superintendent is to restore Sweetwater’s reputation,” she told the crowd. “Not only locally, not only in the state of California but across the nation.”
She said she plans to achieve this by working corroboratively with stakeholders and taking action that “truly puts students first.”
The board’s announcement of Janney was mostly welcomed by claps and loud cheers.
“I am thrilled,” said community member Mady Adato. “She can have a positive effect on the district.”
Adato sat on the Superintendent Search Advisory Committee, a group created to guide the community outreach in hiring the superintendent.
Part of Adato’s duties included interviewing the candidates. She was blown away by Janney’s interview.
“She knows the who, what, when, where, why and how of this district,” Adato said.
Her appointment doesn’t come without controversy.
Parent Chris Shilling ran against board President Frank Tarantino during last year’s school board election. He said Janney and Tarantino have a close relationship. Shilling also said he saw Janney at several candidate forums supporting Tarantino.
“From an ethical perspective, I don’t think board members should be voting on jobs for close friends or volunteers,” he said.
Tarantino acknowledged that he and Janney are friends but said she did not help on his campaign.
“She was not part of my campaign, so that’s that,” he said.
Community member Aurora Clark also questioned Janney’s appointment.
“Her appointment really goes to show that the board really doesn’t care what the community as a whole wants, because the community made it very clearly that they wanted someone with experience as superintendent,” she said.
“And we kept asking for someone who didn’t have any friends in the district to avoid favoritism.”
Shilling and Clark said the process wasn’t transparent because the district didn’t make candidates’ applications public.
Adato said she doesn’t have a problem with Tarantino and Janney’s relationship.
“I know they are friends, but everyone in the education world knows each other,” she said.
Tarantino also said there weren’t any backroom deals and that Janney was truly the best candidate for the job.
“She got (the job) on merit, she got it on preparation,” he said. “I’ll speak for myself but the other candidates just didn’t resonate with me.”
The Cosca Group conducted a nationwide search for a permanent superintendent, which included 19 applicants. Seven of those came outside of California, six candidates were superintendents elsewhere and the others served as administrators, Tarantino previously said.
Janney has some familiarity with the district getting her start in 1978. In 2004 she was awarded Principal of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.
She was once fired from the district then sued for wrongful termination. She lost that case.
Janney comes from San Diego State University where she worked as a lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership.
The Sweetwater District had been without a permanent Superintendent since former superintendent Ed Brand was placed on administrative leave last July. A temporary school board, mainly consisting of county Board of Education members and John McCann, appointed Tim Glover to the post.
Glover suddenly resigned in February with a little more than a month left on his contract.
Assistant Superintendent Sandra Huezo led the district for a few weeks before trustees hired Stover as its second interim.
“I think we’re finally moving forward,” Adato said. “We have a new five-member board and now a new superintendent.”
