Photograph by George Sakkestad
Monta Vista High School teacher Nancy Vincent voices her opinion on contract negotiations.
By LESTER CHANG
Teachers are calling for her to step down. Parents say they don't know what she stands for.
Fremont Union High School Superintendent Mary Panucci is caught in a crossfire of criticism, with three-fourths of her teaching staff giving her a vote of no confidence and hundreds of parents joining a union effort to speed up contract talks with teachers.
To top it off, the complaints come at a time when the Board of Trustees is engaged in Panucci's performance evaluation for the final year of her three-year contract.
Besides complaining about what teachers call "foot-dragging" on contract negotiations, the Fremont Education Association claims Panucci lacks the skills to lead one of the best school districts in the state. At the same time, many parents say they are in the dark about Panucci, mainly because she doesn't attend many public meetings and hasn't met them.
Panucci blames the dissension partly on the delay in the contract negotiations between the district and the FEA.
"These are difficult times. And people are a little upset," she said.
Because her job review is confidential, board members declined to comment on whether she has done a good or poor job.
Panucci's employment contract with the Fremont district runs from Jan. 3, 1994, to Jan. 3, 1997. She earns between $104,012 and $109,277 a year.
She was given a satisfactory performance evaluation last year, but school officials declined to comment on how she fared in 1994, her first year. The latest evaluation should be completed by the end of June, officials said.
Bob Pimental, a science teacher at Lynbrook High School for more than 30 years, said "it would probably be a good idea to let her go."
"She isn't a good manager," Pimental said. "Compared to people we have had in the past, we could do better."
Fred Keep, who heads the English department at Monta Vista High School, said Panucci "hasn't done anything as far as I can see" during her first two years on the job.
"It is time for her to leave," Keep said. "She is a nice lady, but we need leadership. I don't see any signs of leadership. Maybe what she provides in the district office is different from what we see out there at the schools."
FEA president George Gredassoff said many of the association's 400 teachers don't have confidence in her ability to lead a district with a $43 million budget and about 8,000 students.
"We don't know what her philosophy on education is," Gredassoff said. "Other than saying she wants quality education, she hasn't articulated, that I have heard, what direction she wants the district to go in."
In the absence of leadership, each of the five high schools "do what we see as being necessary," Gredasoff said. In areas where she could help improve education, she hasn't, he claimed.
"In her interview (for the job), she said she would wire all the schools for the Internet. That was done, but most classrooms don't have computers," he said. "Our libraries are a shambles. Seven thousand books were thrown out and haven't been replaced. Ultimately, Mary is responsible."
However, Joe Hamilton, Fremont's associate superintendent of administrative services, claims the district got rid of books with outdated information and is using a 21st-century approach to helping students get in touch with the latest information.
The district has library computers that have Internet connections and has CD-ROMs for networking purposes, Hamilton said.
Panucci declined to respond to the complaints, saying she wanted to address those who are complaining herself.
"I don't know who they are," Panucci said. "They haven't told me."
Some parents said she remains an enigma even though she has been at the helm of the Fremont district for two years.
"We don't know whether we should let her go or keep her," said Dennis Low, an internist at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and a parent of a Monta Vista student. "We are still in the evaluative mode."
His wife, Vivian, a nurse, said the district has made decisions in the past without input from parents. "The visibility (Panucci's attendance at public meetings) would at least make people feel they are involved with the process," Vivian Low said.
Panucci, who attended a Monta Vista Parent-Teacher Association meeting on April 25, said she, the board and staff will meet with parents at any time and are willing to listen to their needs.
"I don't know of a time when parents called and we weren't responsive," Panucci said. "I know many, many people. But, unfortunately, I don;t know all our parents, nor have I had a chance to be acquainted with them. This is a large community."
Before coming to Fremont, Panucci served as the superintendent of the Red Bluff Union High School District in Tehama County for nearly 10 years.
An educator for at least 25 years, Panucci started teaching in parochial schools in Oregon and Washington. She has taught math, English, science and foreign language.
The contract provides her with a yearly expense allowance of up to $4,800, a yearly allowance of up to $4,800 for travel in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and $780 toward the purchase of a $250,000 life insurance policy. She also was entitled to a one-time moving expense of $10,000 for temporary housing within the district.
Under her tenure as superintendent, the district won national recognition when Cupertino High School was selected by the U.S. Department of Education for a Blue Ribbon award.
The award recognizes academic excellence at some of the nation's most successful schools. Some Fremont schools also have been tapped as distinguished schools by the state Department of Education.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 1, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.