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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously agreed last week to ask Interim Superintendent Maurice Ghysels to come out of retirement so he could continue serving in his current position without having to worry about losing his pension benefits.
Following the vote, the board then scheduled a special closed session meeting for this week to discuss the parameters of Ghysels’ new full-time contract, which the district will work on drafting before bringing it back to the board during a future open board meeting for final approval.
“If we decide to go for a contract, it will be between the board president and Maurice,” Board President Mary Jo Carreon said at the Sept. 12 meeting. “We’re not going to be discussing any of (those) financial specifics right here, we’re going to talk generalities.”
Carreon specified that the district’s budget does have a placeholder for the superintendent position so they will not be adding extra costs to the budget, which was one of the main concerns during the last meeting where this topic was first discussed.
During the Aug. 22 board meeting, Carreon explained how because Ghysels is technically retired, he has a limited amount of days that he can work for the district before he loses his pension benefits. Due to his financial cap — how much money he can make as a retiree — he would have to leave his position in PUSD by no later than Oct. 1.
Carreon said at that meeting the other two options would be hiring a new interim superintendent who isn’t a retiree or hiring a permanent superintendent.
But instead, in order to maintain stability as many of the trustees put it, the board decided to ask Ghysels to formally come out of retirement so that he can continue serving the district as PUSD works on surveying residents to find out what they want to see in a new superintendent before actually going out to seek candidates.
The school board picked Ghysels, a former student and teacher at Amador Valley High School and retired Peninsula superintendent, in June to serve as the temporary successor to David Haglund while the district works to hire a new permanent leader.
“I think it’s very, very important with what the district is facing, with our financial situation … issues with teachers, classified (employees), parents … when I think of all the things that are going on, when I think about what is going to be going on, we don’t need to start looking out somewhere right now,” Trustee Steve Maher said during last week’s meeting. “We need to stay the course, keep Maurice and then he will help us move into our next superintendent.
Carreon said one of the benefits of having Ghysels fully come out of retirement is that the district wouldn’t have to worry about paying him benefits or things like paid leave — he is actually going to be taking a two-week unpaid leave soon, according to Carreon.
She also said he is being paid at a lower rate, which further shows how bringing Ghysels on board full time won’t impact PUSD financially.
She said listening to PUSD’s stakeholders on what they would like to see in the next permanent superintendent takes time, which is why the board wants to keep Ghysels rather than having to take up the time to find another interim superintendent.
Trustee Laurie Walker said while she thinks Ghysels is doing a good job, budgetary constraints and the need for fiscal responsibility are key factors for her with decisions such as this one.
Trustee Kelly Mokashi, who brought up concerns at the August meeting regarding financial constraints and how a new contract with Ghysels would affect the budget, further asked on the specifications of asking Ghysels to come out of retirement and as she was told, negotiations for the contract will come further down the road.
First, the district will have to talk about salary and the amount of days Ghysels will work each week.
Currently, his contract states that he shall work three days a week for a base salary of $1,500 every day and will not exceed $74,733. The goal is to create a new year-long contract for Ghysels that will include a 45-day exit clause in the case that the district finds and hires its new permanent superintendent before the year is over.
As long as Ghsyels doesn’t work over two years, he should be able to re-enroll in his retirement plan without seeing any significant changes.
After the board reviews and agrees on the draft revised contract for Ghysels during Wednesday’s special closed session meeting, the district will present it to the interim superintendent before the contract comes back to the board for final approval.
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