This afternoon, LVUSD released the agenda for the upcoming Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Dec 6. This agenda had three pieces of big news for the District … in order of appearance in the agenda.
To be clear, NONE of these are official until the Board of Education votes and approves on them. That said, all are the actions being recommended to the Board for this coming Tuesday.
First, the Summer School panel is recommending the Summer School program contract be awarded to a new organization. The RFP for the program was put out in October. Two organizations responded: Las Virgenes Educational Foundation (which has been running summer school for 9 years), and a new organization called Knowledge Counts (headed by Penny Sylvester). A panel consisting of the Dan Stepenosky, Phil Scrivano, and Karen Kimmel have unanimously decided to recommend Knowledge Counts as the Summer School provider for 2012-2014. “As you know, I have been very involved with our schools for over a decade. Now I am excited to be given the opportunity to provide the summer school program for LVUSD,” said Penny Sylvester of Knowledge Counts. According to Stuart Selter, “It’s been our honor to serve the community, in part, through our summer school program. The Las Virgenes Educational Foundation will be pursuing other revenue streams in order to continue to support quality education and will be announcing its new specific plans in the near future.”
Second, Jill Gaines (President of the Board of Education) is recommending that Dan Stepenosky (currently the Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources) be elevated to the position of Deputy Superintendent. This is the position that Dr. Zimring held prior to becoming Superintendent. The purpose of the promotion is to assist the Superintendent in operational, policy, and transitional matters. Dr. Stepenosky’s contract as Deputy Superintendent will start on December 1, 2011 and end August 1, 2012.
Third, and the biggest news, Dr. Donald Zimring has requested an early retirement. His current contract as Superintendent will be extended until August 1, 2012. And, Dr. Zimring will make himself available for up to 120 hours of transition consulting services transition services upon reasonable request (and no additional cost to the District) during the 2012-13 school year.
