New San Benito High School District superintendent, with varied
experiences, lauded as person to mend relations between teachers,
board
She has a reputation as a skilled communicator, has a passion
for San Benito County from her frequent camping trips to Pinnacles
National Monument, grew up raising sheep for 4-H and wants to forgo
the North Bay for a quite spot in the country.
New San Benito High School District superintendent, with varied experiences, lauded as person to mend relations between teachers, board
She has a reputation as a skilled communicator, has a passion for San Benito County from her frequent camping trips to Pinnacles National Monument, grew up raising sheep for 4-H and wants to forgo the North Bay for a quite spot in the country.
If Jean Burns Slater, PhD., sounds like an ideal candidate to head the San Benito County School District, it’s because she was. Trustees voted Wednesday night to offer Slater the $150,000 a year position, and the associate superintendent for secondary education for San Rafael City Schools accepted. On Feb. 1, 2003, she replaces Dick Lowry, a former band teacher who rose through the ranks and held the job for 6½ years, during the school of 2,609 students’ most explosive growth spurt in history.
“I came down before I even knew I would get an interview,” Slater said in a telephone interview. “I wanted to look at the community. We ate in a Mexican restaurant downtown and there was a huge family there having a rehearsal dinner for a wedding. I thought, ‘These people are real, they’re interested and they all seem to know each other.’ Then we drove over to see the school and there was a football game and it seemed really local, really friendly, and I said right then, ‘I hope I get an interview.”
If Slater’s references are right, the warm and energetic administrator may be just the person to improve morale at the school some say has suffered recently from communication problems between administrators, teachers and parents.
In the Marin County district, which is 45 percent Hispanic and has a growing Asian population, Slater, 53, is a member of the president’s cabinet and supervises the four high schools in the district. Her skills as a communicator – she is the district’s spokesperson and handles union negotiations – were seen as an asset to a board.
“I came into this district,” she said by telephone from her San Rafael office, “when we had difficult situations with the teachers’ union. I became lead negotiator because I believe you get what you give. When you give respect and treat people with integrity, then you get that back. When you treat people as professionals, the whole culture rises.”
As the current superintendent in charge of student expulsions and suspensions, she’ll come armed with experience in dealing with what has been perceived by some parents, at times, to be a heavy handed administration. Slater said she has read newspaper accounts of the issues.
“She truly cares about students, parents, teachers and members of the community,” said her current boss, Laura Alvarenga, PhD, superintendent of San Rafael Schools. “She has very strong people skills and can explain the decisions that have to be made on a district level on behalf of children. She will be a tremendous loss to me personally and professionally.”
Alvarenga said that at the high-school level, where focus is complicated because the curriculums are more fragmented than at, say, the elementary school level, Slater was able to focus curriculum and instruction, coordinate course descriptions and align the schools with state standards.
Board members also were happy that Slater is experienced in construction issues – as principal in San Luis Obispo she oversaw a $10 million campus renovation – which will serve her well as the high school expands on the south side of Nash Road to include a freshman campus.
Trustees believe that by conducting a mid-year search, they removed themselves from potential competition.
“We had 11 applicants, and four were excellent,” said Dr. Kenneth Kovanda, the school board president. “I think the thing that stood out most about her is her experience in construction, her ability to articulate with people – she’s a people person – and she’s very, very smart.”
The board had talked to teachers, parents, community members and administrators to find what they were looking for in a superintendent. After narrowing the field, board members traveled to San Rafael to interview Slater’s colleagues, friends and employees.
San Rafael school officials and employees are sorry to see her go. The San Benito position is one of only two top jobs for which Slater ever has applied.
“She’s the light, a treasure and really the backbone of our office,” said Laura Milholland, secretary to the district superintendent and a classified employee. “I’m sad to be losing her. We all are.”
Slater, 53, earned her PhD in education from USC in 1999, the year she was hired in San Rafael, and her administrative services credential from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where she worked her way up from teacher to assistant principal to principal.
She grew up on 27 acres in El Cahon and graduated from nearby San Diego State in 1970, when California schools were the nation’s best and teaching jobs hard to come by. She majored in English, but saw home economics, her secondary credential and area of masters’ study, as her ticket into a school.
“In the 1970s, there weren’t a lot of jobs,” she said. “I needed something to get me in the door as an English teacher. At the time, home economics teachers were all women, and women get pregnant. I never even took a home ec class in high school. It was a bit of a career strategy for me.”
She filled in for a teacher on maternity leave, taught three years in Riverside County and eventually moved to San Luis Obispo, where she was named Teacher of the Year for the county in 1990.
Her master’s thesis was on parental involvement in adolescent life, which she hopes will help her deal with the challenges of leading a district with many parents commuting out of the area for work and others work two jobs to make ends meet.
“How do you get parents involved knowing there are time and energy constraints? Providing activities for young people,” she said, “that can develop their assets and provide them with a good sense of who they are — without looking for external negative influences — is important.”
At San Rafael she oversees the four secondary schools and their principals in a district of 5,500 students, supervises curriculum development, guides staff professional development and applies for and manages grants. She also sits on community taskforces that deal with an array of issues such as curriculum advisory, law enforcement, and the study of English.
“I feel like I can bring good experience to the district,” said Slater. “This is such a perfect opportunity, a natural retirement. It’s a natural change.”
Lowry will work with Slater during the transition. He has been involved in San Benito County education for 33 years. He preceded Tim Foley as superintendent of the San Benito County School District, a post he held for 13 years.
Lowry has talked about a 2003 retirement since late 1999, and turned in his resignation in July to give the board time to interview candidates. Consultants identified 80 potential candidates for the job, and the top ones were interviewed Nov. 6.
Lowry plans to retire to his home in the Sierras, where he will snow ski with his grandson. He had no input into the selection process, he said, but did answer questions to those candidates who called asking for insight into the single-school district.
“This definitely makes it seem more real,” he said of his move from San Benito County. “I look forward to working with her to make a smooth transition.”
Slater is newly married to a retired school finance officer. She has a 31-year-old daughter and a grandchild. She said she looks forward to finding “a little bit of space” in the country, like she had as a child.
“I think your community is extremely fortunate,” said her current boss, Alvarenga. “I think you’ll be happy with an individual who brings such commitment to children.”
