July 10, 2002      Cupertino, California     Since 1947



News



The review process for CUSD boss not yet done



Bragg will receive report on July 25 after it's completed


By Jennifer Zhang


Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) Board of Education members have been meeting to evaluate Superintendent William Bragg's performance for the 2001–02 school year and set goals for the upcoming 2002–03 school year.

During a four-hour special meeting on June 27, board members approved a 3.87 percent salary increase for Bragg, the same percentage that CUSD teachers received in the 2001–02 school year, according to Board of Education President Ben Liao.

Each year for the past two years, Bragg's salary increase has matched in percentage the district teachers' salary increase in the previous school year. For example, teachers received a salary increase of approximately 11 percent for the 2000Ü01 school year, which is the same percentage salary increase that Bragg received for the 2001–02 school year.

"Bragg is the leader of our school district," Liao said. "We believe he should get the same rate as other district employees. It's not appropriate for us to give him more than what the teachers got.".

The evaluation process began on June 5 as board members discussed and decided on the evaluation method, Liao said. On June 27, in addition to the salary issue, board members made individual comments regarding Bragg's performance and planned for the next school year. The procedure will be finalized on July 17, and a written report summarizing the evaluation will be presented to Bragg on July 25. According to board member Barry Chang, the board conducts two evaluations of the superintendent each year—one midway through the school year, usually in January or February, and the other at the end of the school year, around June or July.

Instead of the usual one-day evaluation procedure, during which the evaluation is done in the morning and the results are reported back to the superintendent in the afternoon, this particular evaluation takes a few days to complete.

The decision to conduct the evaluation in this way has not met with universal approval.

"I don't understand why we have to take so long to do the evaluation," Chang said. "This is my seventh year as a board member and we have always done one-day evaluations. I think it's not good this year because it's impractical and it's not fair to all the concerned community members."

According to Liao, the longer time period that the evaluation procedure requires this year is due to a lack of time on June 5 to complete the procedure. Additional hours have been scheduled for June 27, July 17 and 25.

Although specific comments and plans cannot be revealed at this time, Liao summarized the evaluation of the superintendent as generally positive but with some criticism.

"We need to look into the future and focus on how to help the superintendent achieve some of the goals we set," Liao said. "I hope everything's better next year."

Board members have identified five broad areas that require immediate action—student support, student achievement, human resources, financial stability and leadership—and have designed and prioritized specific, measurable development plans such that Bragg can make improvement in those areas.

These broad areas cover the many important issues that surfaced during and after the recent teachers' contract negotiation, including communication between the district and the community, teacher retention, employee morale and middle school boundary changes.

Bragg joined CUSD at the beginning of 1997 and has been the district superintendent for the past six school years. Before coming to CUSD, Bragg served as an assistant superintendent for the Oceanside Unified School District in Oceanside.



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