New Golden Valley Unified school board reappoints superintendent ousted by recalled trustees

Golden Valley Unified School District’s new board of trustees voted to return Andy Alvarado to the superintendent’s seat at its meeting Tuesday, ending a chaotic and costly chapter in the district’s short history.

The move was one of the first by the newly assembled school board. On Sept. 1, trustees Carla Neal, Kathleen Crumpton and John Moseley were recalled by wide margins. Neal was replaced by Mona Diaz in Area 1; Crumpton by Maria Knobloch in Area 2; and Moseley by Brian Freeman, who defeated Dale Overbay for the Area 4 seat.

Freeman, Knobloch and Diaz joined trustees Mike Kelly and Steven Lewis for the new board’s first meeting Tuesday.

The rehiring of Alvarado, who had served as Golden Valley’s superintendent from July 2011 to February 2015, closes the circle.

Kelly and Lewis said they believe Alvarado was forced to leave earlier this year by the board’s previous majority, and more than 400 parents, teachers and concerned citizens roared in protest at a public meeting. The move ultimately cost taxpayers $135,699 to buy out Alvarado’s contract.

“They paid me to go away, basically,” Alvarado said Thursday. “I didn’t have any intention of leaving. I had been there for 13 years. The district was moving forward.”

Kevin Hatch, the district’s assistant superintendent, took control of the district on an interim basis. During the same February meeting, the board also voted 3-2 to eliminate the assistant superintendent position – a move designed to save about $115,000 annually.

Kelly and Lewis were furious with the decision, saying it deprived teachers of a valuable resource during an important transition to state-mandated Common Core standards.

The board made Hatch the district’s permanent superintendent June 16. According to public records, his annual salary jumped from about $130,000 to nearly $168,000.

After the recall, the new board held an emergency meeting Sept. 10, and Hatch resigned as superintendent.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the new board voted to reinstate the assistant superintendent position before going into closed session. When they emerged, Alvarado was named superintendent, and Hatch was appointed assistant superintendent.

Alvarado agreed to work for the next four months under his old pay rate. When he officially takes over Monday, his base salary will be $133,139 per year plus about $25,000 in benefits. Beginning Feb. 1, he will be paid according to his newly negotiated base rate of $147,615 per year.

“The new agreement is fair,” Alvarado said, “as it takes the separation agreement and buyout into account. The new rate is competitive with other superintendents and acknowledges my service as an administrator within the district.”

Alvarado has held various administrative roles within the district since 2002. After his buyout, he accepted a position as director of educational services with the Mariposa County Unified School District on March 3. He will leave that post to return to Golden Valley.

As part of the agreement, Alvarado agreed to drop a claim he had filed against the board saying it had not honored the separation agreement. This saved the board $19,000, which was the amount it had set aside for legal fees to fight the claim, Alvarado said.

According to trustees Diaz and Lewis, Hatch voluntarily agreed to demote himself. Because he resigned, Hatch received no buyout. He returned to his previous position at his old pay rate, Diaz said, meaning he took a pay cut of about $40,000.

“I didn’t get into education to be rich,” Hatch said Friday. “I just did what I thought was right. Now we can pick up where we left off and continue to move forward.”

The end result is this: The board is out $135,699 from Alvarado’s buyout. He said he has no intention of giving that money back, as it was meant to compensate him for the public damage to his career.

The board saved some money by paying Hatch to essentially fill two roles from February until September, but Lewis, Diaz and Alvarado believe this decision hurt district teachers at crucial times, such as state testing and the start of a new school year without an assistant superintendent, whose job is to coach and work closely with teachers.

“These teachers need that position – they’re begging for it,” Lewis said.

Lewis said the board also lost $30,000 to $50,000 in legal fees related to Alvarado’s dismissal.

“The buyout was very, very foolish,” Diaz said. “They basically paid him for the rest of the school year for no reason. Now, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

Diaz had previously served on the board from its inception in 1998 until 2014, when she left for an unsuccessful run for Madera County supervisor.

Alvarado said he is ready to put the past seven months behind him and begin the healing process.

“Politics do not belong in public education,” he said. “And we are going to do our best to keep them out of the classroom from now on.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "New Golden Valley Unified school board reappoints superintendent ousted by recalled trustees."