The Board of Education made a four-year commitment to Superintendent Steve Betando as Morgan Hill Unified School District’s leader for the foreseeable future with Tuesday’s 6-1 vote to tender a new contract.
Board President Don Moody praised Betando for guiding the district in a “unified direction,” building partnerships with local government and nonprofit agencies, maintaining strong employer-employee relations, collaborating with other districts, and advocating for best practices in student learning during the first six months of his one-year, interim term.
Moody, along with trustees Shelle Thomas, Ron Woolf, Bob Benevento, Claudia Rossi and Amy Porter Jensen, voted in favor of the deal that allowed Betando to shed his interim tag.
Meanwhile, Trustee Rick Badillo cast the lone dissenting vote, after unsuccessfully making a motion for the Board to table the vote for the purpose of hiring a search firm. Seven speakers also urged the Board to do so. There was no second to Badillo’s motion, however.
The Board instead added a year and finalized a $210,000 annual salary with a 3 percent pay raise each year, opposed to a previously reported $225,000 three-year deal, according to multiple sources leading into Tuesday’s meeting.
Moody later noted that Betando agreed to donate back to the district the difference of his $190,000, one-year contract that expires June 30 to his first-year $210,000 salary for the remainder of the year.
With a 3 percent raise each year, Betando’s salary will rise to $216,300 in the second year, $222,789 in the third year and $229,472 in the fourth year. The contract includes full health and welfare benefits, 28 days of paid vacation, $300 in monthly business expenses, and a $650 monthly allowance for travel and expenses.
President Teresa Sage of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, along with fellow MHFT officers Gemma Ables and Terri Eves-Knudson, spoke in support of Betando’s hiring as well new contract terms for assistant superintendents Fawn Myers (Human Services), Kirsten Perez (Business Services), and Norma Martinez-Palmer (Educational Services).
