Fresh off a difficult round of layoffs and hourly reductions to mitigate an impending budget deficit, the Cypress School District did verbal somersaults around a proposed $300-per-hour consulting agreement for former interim superintendent Dr. Tim McLellan.
Though on the agenda, Board President Dr. Lydia Sondhi said it should not have been, yet she proposed an amendment to it, and after hard-to-follow discussions, then decided to ask the board to vote down the amendment and to vote down the contract as well.
But then after all that, the board agreed to let the proposed agreement come back in the form of a recommendation from Dr. Litfin after a more thorough review.
The contract would have allowed McLellan to consult the new District Supt. Grant Litfin, at a rate of $300 per hour and not to exceed $50,000. In addition to healthcare and other benefits, Litfin is being paid a salary of $266,000 per year to administrate a system with six elementary schools.
Litfin comes to Cypress via Tustin Unified, a system with more than 20,000 students and more than 20 schools.
George Pardon, who said he is a close friend of McLellan, nonetheless spoke against the proposed agreement during the meeting’s oral communications session.
“The need for this consulting agreement gives me the sense that the trustees don’t feel he’s qualified enough,” said Pardon. When Dr. (Larry) Ferchaw (who replaced McLellan as Assistant Supt. for Business Services) was hired, I don’t recall the trustees hiring a consultant to assist him in this transition.”
“At $300 per hour, if you were to annualize that over 52 weeks at 40 hours per week, that amounts to $624,000 per year, which is a pretty pricey contract. I have to believe that there is someone who has been laid off, or someone who has had their hours reduced thinks there is a better use for that $50,000.”
“The proposed agreement,” said Pardon, “is tantamount to ‘let them eat cake.’”
The district is still in the process of slimming down, moving teachers around, reducing hours and making layoffs to stave off a proposed $3 million deficit. Officials say the amount may be less since the Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget has been released, as well as some grants received, but nonetheless the restructuring is underway.
McLellan, who had retired after a long career at the district as Asst. Supt. for Business Services, was hired as Interim Supt. after the sudden resignation of former Supt. Anne Silavs and was actively working to bring order back to what had been a chaotic period for the district.
Sondhi tried to provide “a little bit of context” on the agreement, saying the board was presented with the “non-specific scope of deliverables” from McLellan and the service leadership team.
“Dr. Litfin was not yet on board I faced a little bit of a dilemma as to what to do with that,” the board president said. “There was no staff member to hand it off to but I did go ahead and assume as the president, rightly or wrongly, and I wanted to clear that up,” she said, offering a lower rate and a specific number of hours.
Sondhi said since McLellan “chose to formally completely withdraw his proposal via e-mail to the full board therefore theoretically, because the original proposal was legally withdrawn by the applicant it should not be on our agenda at all tonight.”
However, the board president said, “since multiple board members reached out to Dr. Litfin, whose first day was July 1, as the board president I was ready to place the item back on the agenda for consideration.”
Sondhi introduced an amendment to the agreement to lower the hourly rate and limit the hours, and it was approved unanimously by the board.
During debate, things changed again.
Sondhi asked Litfin to comment.
“I’m aware of what a $50,000 price tag looks like, on top of my salary” the new superintendent said, “and I would like to share I have no intention of spending anything close to $50,000.”
Cypress does have a unique situation in that the system owns three apartment complexes, which generates funds for a special account, Fund 40.
This fund is governed by special rules that McLellean is intimately familiar with. A separate complex owned by the district uniquely supports the districts’s educational foundation so, many seem to be concerned the district will need McLellan’s guidance.
“I think many in the system were not happy with the former superintendent going corporate,” said a longtime employee who commented anonymously on why many want to keep McLellan around. “Many feel like they have not been given the truth for a long time. They believe Tim (Dr. McLellan) tells them the truth.”
“Larry is very familiar with the financial situation which is a little bit tricky so it would be great to have a third set of eyes on them when we are trying to solve financial problems and generate funds so we can take care of our people,” he said.
“I would love to have the resource, and I know Dr. McLellan loves this district and he will do the right thing. It’s not about the money.”
Sondhi suggested adding a list of deliverables to the agreement, but Trustee Troy Tanaka pushed back, saying since they were purchasing services, there is no way for the administration to predict the issues around which they will need Dr. McLellan’s help.
“When we pave the parking lot with asphalt, we have specific deliverables and milestones, but not with this,” he said.
In the end, Litfin agreed to speak to McLellan and develop something acceptable to the board and to propose an agreement with a bit more forethought for further consideration.
Also, this month, Teresa Lennox, Director of Maintenance/Operations, Transportation & Technology, presented a detailed inventory of the schools’ major physical assets, including the administration building, all the facilities associated with the six schools, parks, apartment complexes, etc.
In addition, Lennox presented to the board a detailed assessment of deferred maintenance, which she said in total would cost $18 million. Finally, she gave the board a report on the repairs planned for the current fiscal year that current budgeting will allow.