Mary Streshly has struggled to articulate a clear vision for the Sequoia District and has provided mediocre leadership during her tenure. The pandemic has highlighted and drawn attention to her inability to communicate, to empathize, to be decisive, and to understand the kind of leadership that is needed during a crisis of this magnitude.
It is not only the teacher’s union and the District’s teaching staff that has lost confidence in her ability to open school and manage the crisis. There is open revolt among other employee groups and a much larger crisis developing.
It is becoming apparent that she cannot continue as District superintendent and that it is more a matter of when and how she goes, rather than if.

I knew she was an absolute disaster when they decided against issuing grades for the Spring Semester. Our students should have been given grades, especially when other large, diverse districts in the state, with even greater challenges, such as San Diego Unified, were able to issue letter grades to their students. Not only was it demoralizing, it put our kids at a unique disadvantage when applying go to colleges. She has to go, along with Carrie DuBois and the rest of the SUHSD Board! Awful, awful, awful.

I am a retired MA math teacher, now doing remote tutoring. Last spring, prior to the decision to give no grades, I had 16 hard working students. As soon as that decision was made I had 3!!! Clearly, grades are a motivating factor. But now those same students are to begin the next year of math. How many will be ready???? How many were given good remote teaching, for which the teachers had no experience and no equipment? That decision was very poor and has cost the students greatly. Can't imagine what she was thinking of, but I'm guessing it was "What's the easiest way out of this?" The district or the state needs to ensure that EVERY student has access to internet and a computer or tablet. That's the real decision and this superintendent doesn't understand the real needs. What has been done over the summer to solve the real problems????

If the teachers union is against her, she must be doing things right!!! The teacher's union is all about themselves and never about the best interests of the students. Renew Streshly's contract and give her a raise!!
High school students lives matter! Defund the teacher's union!

I am sure I am missing something.
I work in a hospital, we take care of the patients, we don’t do it online. People work in grocery store, they go every day. There are safe way to go back to work. How the teachers are different from any other essential worker? School is essential and teacher should be essential workers. Why they have a choice? The only choice is how, safely? Yes, safely. There are plenty of creative ways to bring the kids back to school. Just please do your job and leave the superintendent alone. She did her best in this crazy situation. Find a safe way to do the job you get pay for: in person instruction. Like in person Surgeons, nurses, grocery store people...nobody complains like you do. We DO IT, why can’t you all?

Francesco, I think you miss the risks involved in a room full of children even without COVID-19. Working in a hospital, you're taking care of patients (mostly) one at a time, which is a really different risk than a room full of potential (and, per the science, actual) viral vectors.

The other thing is literal brain damage. Please look at an article in The Lancet titled "Cerebral Micro-Structural Changes in COVID-19 Patients – An MRI-based 3-month Follow-up Study" and tell me that's what you want for kids, especially given the percentage of kids who've gotten it in other areas. And then there are the structural heart changes causing severe cardiac disease in 1 in 8 patients observed in a fairly wide study in the European Heart Journal titled "Global evaluation of echocardiography in patients with COVID-19."

Also, I think you are underestimating the risk to grocery workers. You can look up the NY Times article on the one and only Mono County death so far. That was the guy who delivered my shut-in blind father's groceries.

A couple days ago, my father called me telling me that the owners of the delivery service had, despite being super careful for months on end, yet still managed to contract covid and are quarantined.

You forget that people who work in hospitals work under carefully controlled circumstances that teachers don't and can't. I'd suggest more empathy for their safety.

In response to the Willows parent who seems to have such a low opinion of teachers, I would respectfully say that good teachers work VERY HARD, often taking papers home to mark, doing preps at home, calling parents. It seems that you have not experienced that kind of dedicated teacher, but I assure you there are many. Teachers perform the parenting that you may be unable to offer your child. I always saw myself as "in loco parentis" and made sure I modeled and spoke of the values I think any family would espouse. I'm sorry you've not seen the positive side of what teachers offer, but in my 25 years in the classroom as well as those many years as a student, I knew so many wonderful, dedicated, caring people. I am very grateful for them and tried to emulate them. Please take another look and rethink what teachers do. They raise your children when they are in the hands of teachers.

The comments suggesting the superintendent be dismissed due to the recommendation not to issue letter grades is absurd. So many neighboring districts chose to do the same thing, or odd offshoots (universal As, etc.) that were that the criteria a good dozen districts nearby would be looking for new leaders.

Streshly's recommendation the district open with hybrid instruction as feasible and allowed is also not at all surprising or unique. (As she said at the time, they were not the only school in the Bay Area, or even San Mateo County, with the same proposal, and it was guided by County and State policies.) The teacher's union is upset that so many parents felt last spring that distance learning was a disaster... and that too is how parents felt nationwide. Illinois, New York... there are frustrated parents everywhere. These are unprecedented times and all leaders were doing the best they could. The vote of no confidence seems a tad over dramatic.

As an employee in the district I would like to clarify a few things.
1) Dr. Streshly has lost support among teachers, administrators and other staff. Teachers were urged to put this forward because she will not be able to retaliate as easily against them.
2) Teachers and administrators are dismayed by the total lack of planning around reopening. SUHSD created a task force and Dr. Streshly shut it dow in June rather than let it continue to work over the summer to plan for either reopening in person or online. Palo Alto, San Mateo Union, and many other local districts planned for both things. Dr. Streshly was so hyper focused on bringing students back into the classroom that she discontinued a task force that could have planned for both options. And now a a couple weeks until students arrive everyone is scrambling.
3. Dr. Streshly wasted many hundreds of thousands of dollars in how she tried to open TIDE. A full staff of teachers, principal and Director were hired a year early in order to prepare for the opening of the school. In the few months before it opened the principal was demoted, the Director left for another job and most of the teachers resigned. SDTA warned this could become a colossal waste of money but Streshly ignored the advice and wasted probably close to 1 million dollars of taxpayer money.
4. Streshly was forced out of her last district. She has hired many of her friends who have insulated her but the reality is that she needs to be forced out of SUHSD as well. She is a nice person but is unable to communicate and plan ahead in a way that benefits anyone but her.

Without taking sides on the main issue, it's worth noting this paragraph in a letter that Ms. Streshly wrote to the union last week:

"I write to you because, as you know, but the public does not, our district cannot implement any plans without your cooperation. The time has come, given the gravity of the moment and all the uncertainties of how this pandemic will play out, to find a path forward, truly partner and allow for our district to work collaboratively during this crisis."

I suspect the union's "it's not in the contract" veto ability has had significant behind-the-scenes influence over all the District's decisions and actions. I suppose my wish is that the union was more open about their positions, and their power.

I suspect the idea of dismissing Mary Streshly is one of the rare things on which most parents in the District would agree with Edith Salvatore. For those who have watched and listened to SUHSD Board meetings over the past 5 months, the incompetence of Streshly and the behavior of Salvatore have been shocking. I have great respect, admiration, and appreciation for teachers, but little for teacher unions, especially when they are trying to be unnecessarily disruptive or disagreeable. And Ms. Salvatore has been disruptive. Having said that, the SDTA is correct on this issue. Streshly was clearly in over her head during the past 5 months, and likely just not as exposed before that. Nothing in her resume suggested she was really ready for the SUHSD job when she was hired, and nothing she has done as superintendent suggests she is up to the job.

The real problem is that not only did this current SUHSD Board hire her, but they have extended her contract twice so that it now runs through June 2022. And as recently as June 25, there is a recorded Board meeting of most Board members being glowingly supportive of her work, and Trustee Thomsen talking about the great collection of leadership he was witnessing at the District. Those comments defied logic to anyone who had sat through recent Board meetings and staff presentations.

The teacher's union and school principals do not see eye-to-eye on much. However, both are in agreement that the superintendent's skills are lacking. This is not a recent development as she has received constructive feedback from both bodies prior to COVID. Our current crisis, though, has exacerbated her shortcomings. As Michael stated above, "teachers were urged to put this forward because she will not be able to retaliate as easily against them." Know that disparate groups who are forced to work with the superintendent feel similarly regarding her competence.

Many districts in this area went for pass-fail. What a ridiculous argument. I agree with Francesco above. Teachers are critical workers and therefore need to show up. Time to get down off the cross like many of us essential workers with no powerful union. No sympathy.

Neither teachers or staff nor students should be expected to participate in face-to-face instruction (a) in the absence of County Health Department OK and (b) without effective protection against both bringing COVID-19 infection onto campus and acquiring it there. On the other hand, on-line instruction requires assurances that teachers can deliver and students can and will receive the desired learning. Major challenges either way. Instead of wasting energy on a Superintendent fight, the Board of Trustees should obtain expert advice on which approach is the more feasible. Having decided on the approach, the Board needs to determine whether the incumbent can deliver and establish criteria for holding her accountable. In the absence of confidence that she can deliver or upon failing to satisfy accountability criteria, she should be replaced by someone the Board believes can perform.