[img]332|left|Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote||no_popup[/img]One irony of the sudden, unanticipated departure of School District Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté is that the School Board was scheduled to evaluate her job performance in a closed session next Monday.
If the meeting remains on the docket, surprised members will face two obligations.
First, they will scratch their heads and ask why.
Then they will need to decide, before June dies, whom they prefer as an interim Super.
After 3½ years in Culver City, Dr. Coté told Board members, separately, last Friday she is leaving at the end of the month. Even though her contract calls for 60 days’ notice, she will begin work on July 1 in Pico Rivera as Superintendent of the El Rancho Unified School District.
Friends of the Superintendent, who was first approached around the first of April, suggested three reasons of varying importance. They zeroed in on Nos. 1 and 3.
• Anemic pay.
• Daily 80-mile round trips — 90 to 120 minutes each way — from her Huntington Beach home to the Westside.
• Understated philosophical differences with Board members.
Since Pico Rivera is 50 miles round trip from Dr. Cote’s home, that explanation may be placed aside while the thornier matters are reviewed.
Salary and philosophy were the powerhouse persuaders.
Under the broad rubric of philosophy, say school sources, comes a strong attitudinal difference between the leadership in Culver City and in Pico Rivera.
One young administrator compared the two districts to a beautiful woman who knows it (Culver City) and a plain girl who wants to improve her looks (Pico Rivera).
“El Rancho is not a high achieving district,” he said. “Has not been for years. But four of the five members of their school board are educators. They are very focused on student achievement/test scores.
“Culver City is not,” he said.
“People there assume the wind is at their backs. They think the momentum (impressive scores) will continue forever. They don’t talk about achievement, which is what many people regard as of primary importance. They talk about moving meeting sites, a whole range of subjects away from student achievement.
Wrong Emphasis?
“But I ask you, isn’t student achievement why educators go into the business of teaching?
“English learners are a major problem in Culver City. They are a roadblock to higher achievement. This needs to be addressed, but it isn’t. That is not likely to change because it is neither discussed nor recognized by the School Board.”
Longtime Board observers say it has been close to a year since student achievement merited meaningful attention at a meeting.
Some months ago, there was a plan to bring every principal in the district before the Board to acquaint members with a thorough analysis, on separate evenings, of each school in Culver City. A teacher familiar with the process said meticulous preparation went into the presentations.
The short-lived scheme was almost stillborn. It was junked before becoming airborne after the opening administrators met what were recalled as chilly receptions.
One of the best known administrators in Culver City said that the cracks in the pavement cited above grew, almost exponentially, in recent months. “Dr. Cote’s decision was bound to happen the way things were going,” the person said. “I am not shocked at all. We educators are not thanked a lot for what we do, but when you are not recognized by the elected officials…”
As for salary, Dr. Coté becomes the second member of the School District staff to leave for a far larger salary, a matter that will be studied in the next story. In February, Asst. Supt. David El Fattal resigned to accept a position in the Cerritos Community College district for a pay raise believed to be $40,000 to $60,000 north of his $130,000 Culver City salary.
Although it is slightly more complicated, Dr. Cote’s Pico Rivera agreement — this time negotiated with the aid of an agent-type, unlike her Culver City experience — will be around $40,000 fatter than her present $190,000 contract.
Sources said the dollar figure in her salary “barely has budged” in the last 3½ years.
