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After 16 years of serving as the Sunol Glen School principal and superintendent, Molleen Barnes has decided she is at a point in her life where it is appropriate to reassess her work-life balance.
Having been in education for over 37 years, Barnes told the Pleasanton Weekly that while her decision to retire at the end of this school year is a personal one, it does involve numerous factors.
“Part of my decision is indeed connected to taking care of my mental health and realizing that stress does impact one’s overall health and therefore this was indeed a contributing factor to my decision to retire this year,” Barnes said in an interview after announcing her impending retirement last week.
Sunol Glen Unified School District Trustee Peter (Ted) Romo said that stress most likely has to do with all of the politicized back-and-forth that has been going on in the small-town community over the last year. From the recent efforts to recall fellow trustees Ryan Jergensen and Linda Hurley, to the tense school board meetings that have been causing community outbursts and made national headlines, Romo said there is only so much one can handle and he understands why Barnes has decided to leave.
“Given the past several months of tremendous disruption and divisiveness at the board level (that) has filtered through into the school in terms of what conservative members of the board have taken on, I think that there’s been … the creation of an environment that has been particularly hostile to not only to the superintendent, but down line through teachers and staff,” Romo said.
“Her choice to retire early is a reflection of that type of pressure,” Romo added. “It’s an unfortunate reality that what has happened has essentially caused her and driven her to say enough, and to seek retirement.”
Jergensen, on the other hand, told the Weekly that as he became aware of the news of Barnes’ retirement, he always thought Barnes was a great educator and that he brought his own kids to Sunol because of that fact.
“My kids are in this school,” Jergensen said. “I don’t hope for more disruption. I hope we can have a successful second half of this school year, a smooth transition and continue to be an exceptional school.”
He also said that he is sad that the people behind the effort to recall Hurley and himself are using Barnes’ retirement announcement “as yet another opportunity to attack.”Â
“They are using this to attack Sunolians, locals and our representation. Despicable,” Jergensen said.
But Romo said that Barnes’ mental and physical health must come first — and that with all the divisiveness and disruption that has been going on in the community, it had to be hard for Barnes to continue working at full capacity.
“It’s very difficult to get up every day and be a positive influence, a leader and an educator for kids in the school when you’re faced with a background environment that is hostile,” Romo said.
Some of that hostility was actually seen first-hand at the last school board meeting when Sunol parent and former school board candidate James Lowder angrily called out Barnes and demanded the board discipline her for various reasons. Lowder had also called for Barnes to resign.
Barnes found herself butting heads with the board’s conservative majority in recent months, particularly during the flag policy debates that centered on LGBTQ+ Pride emblem and cast Sunol Glen into news headlines across the Bay Area and the U.S.
But despite everything, Barnes hopes to be going out in a positive way on June 30 and said that she is going to miss her amazing and talented staff, all the families that have been integral members of the school community, and most of all the children.
“My students give me so much joy and fill my cup every single day,” Barnes said. “I try to be out every morning to greet each and every student as they enter the school grounds. I gather my hugs, fist bumps and smiles.”
But Barnes didn’t just interact with the students, as Romo pointed out.
She had her superintendent roles of working to obtain state and federal funding to help with the repair of the flood damages that the school experienced in January 2023 and has been dealing with everything that comes with the $10.9 million Measure J general obligation bond that aims to fund the necessary repair work for the school’s infrastructure.
That ability to connect with everyone while also taking care of the administrative duties that come with being both principal and superintendent of the single-school, K-8 district is one reason Romo said it is going to be difficult finding someone to replace Barnes.
“It’s not just like she’s got one hat to fill,” Romo said. “She’s been having and filling multiple hats and it’s remarkable at how successful she’s been in all of those roles, and yet at the same time is able to know basically every kid’s name in the school and have a relationship basically with the vast majority of families of children in the school.”
He also said it is going to be difficult finding someone who is going to be willing to work with a school board that has such tense dynamics, and that even though that could change with the potential of a recall election, there is no guarantee that the recall will even succeed.
“I think it’s gonna be a difficult process to find people who are even willing to step into the role of superintendent principal, under these circumstances,” Romo said. “I can imagine it’s gonna be a tough thing to find someone who would voluntarily be wanting to step into this type of role with this type of board dynamics.”Â
But Barnes said that as the secretary of the board, she will be working with the rest of the board in the search for her replacement. She said that the process will require that the board put out a request for proposals to fund a search firm that will help guide the board in the process, steps and timeline to find her successor.
“I have full confidence that a wonderful administrator is just waiting to take this little district on and I will do everything I can to ensure a smooth transition and that they are set up for success,” Barnes said. “Our students, our families and our staff deserve nothing less.”
Even so, Romo said that the search process will have to be as transparent as possible in order to assure the public is confident in whoever the board chooses moving forward.
And as Barnes finishes her last few months at the school, she said that she is still incredibly sad to leave and has been feeling the overwhelming love and support from the community who have been sending her emotional messages since she announced her retirement in a letter to the Inform Sunol community newsletter on Jan. 31.
“I have been blessed in my career with being able to do what I love — educate young people, lead and work with amazing colleagues, and engage in meaningful relationships and partnerships with families that I will treasure for the rest of my life,” Barnes said.
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