The Palisades Charter High School board voted at a June 8 meeting to hire retired Los Angeles Unified School District administrator Mike Smith as interim executive director instead of Tom Stekol. Smith and Stekol interviewed for the position on May 26. Following that meeting, the board offered the job to Stekol, a field director in the office of staff relations at LAUSD. ’After receiving the offer for the position of interim executive director, I entered into negotiations with the board’s designated representative,’ Stekol wrote to the Palisadian-Post on June 9. ‘I submitted a counter-offer to Pali-Hi with terms that I considered important to the prospective success of an executive director who would be called upon to resolve the complex issues the school now faces. ‘I regret to say that we could not come to agreement on terms mutually acceptable to both the board and me. I very much enjoyed meeting with the members of the Palisades community and remain enthusiastic about the future possibilities for the school and the community.’ Stekol desired a permanent position with the school. Board chair Karen Perkins wrote to the Post on June 9 saying that until work with the UCLA School Management Program is complete, the board is hiring only interim leadership. On June 8, the board voted 7-2 with one abstention to retain UCLA School Management Program consultants for another year at a cost not to exceed $33,000. The board hired the consultants on March 9 to help facilitate the selection of a new principal/executive director. So far, PaliHi has spent $7,000 on UCLA’s services. The consultants have met with teachers, classified staff, parents, students, administrators and board members to define the school’s vision and the leadership needed to achieve it. ‘The board is committed to working with all stakeholders towards developing a consensus around our school vision, organizational structure of upper management, and the qualities and characteristics we want in a permanent leader,’ Perkins told the Post. ’The board hopes that the outcome of our work with the UCLA School Management Program is that we will choose a permanent leader and stakeholders will be confident that their views were important to the process, so they can support the hire of the individual over the long term. The ultimate goal is that we hire a leader whom all stakeholders can support.’ The consultants will now meet with the board to develop the selection criteria and job descriptions for the new leadership. They will help with the formation and training of a selection committee. In addition, they will give the board guidance on operating with greater efficiency and better collaboration. Meanwhile, Smith will replace Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held, who has taken an executive director position at Citizens of the World, a start-up charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in Hollywood. Dresser-Held has served on Citizens of the World’s school board since January. An educator for 37 years, Smith retired in 2009 after spending the previous five years as an LAUSD director overseeing secondary schools for District 7. He has experience as a teacher, middle school vice principal, elementary school principal and high school assistant principal. Stekol told the Post ‘When the high school resolves to pursue a permanent executive director to lead it into the future, I would be happy to be among the candidates it considers.’ At the meeting, the board also voted 5-4 to approve a $22.7-million budget for the 2010-11 school year, which calls for dipping into the reserve by $337,564. ’This budget was not one that was created in a back room,’ explained Rob King, chair of PaliHi’s Budget and Finance Committee. ‘Everyone was brought in early. We had period-by-period meetings, where it was spelled out what was happening at the school. We explained that it would be a tough year.’ The school community spent months deciding where cuts could be made, King said. This year, summer school will be eliminated. Next school year, teachers and classified staff will take four furlough days, while administrators will take six furlough days. Custodial and food services will also be reduced. PaliHi’s Chief Business Officer Greg Wood reported that school officials expect 50 additional students in September. The students will be enrolled in distance learning courses and at Temescal Academy, located below the high school. PaliHi took over Temescal High School from the LAUSD this school year and renamed it Temescal Academy. As a result of the additional students, the school will receive more money from the state, which pays schools about $6,200 per student, Wood said. King told the board that the committee decided to use part of the $2.9-million reserve because forecasts indicate that educational funding will increase in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years. ’We are hoping this next school year is the bottom of our recession and that it is time to climb back out,’ King said. ‘We believe that if we dip into the budget reserve about $300,000, it will be a sound, sound strategy.’
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