Return to School District stories index

Superintendent Wight Resigns Suddenly

June 2, 2006

By Gary Meyer and Patric Hedlund

Reports of an upheaval at El Tejon Unified School District involving Superintendent John Wight have left rumor mills buzzing throughout the mountain this week.

A special meeting of the ETUSD Board of Trustees on Wednesday, May 31 was held at the district office at 4:00 p.m. with a single agenda item: “Personnel Matter—Possible Disciplinary or Administrative Actions.”

All five board members attended, along with concerned mountain residents, including two reporters from The Mountain Enterprise, Richard Hoegh (Mountain Communities Town Council), Anita Anderson (a parent), Paula Harvey (from the teacher’s union) and Angela Whitham, librarian at Frazier Mountain High School.

All trustees were already in conference before the scheduled time for which they had given notice. With concern about Brown Act (open meeting) provisions, reporters asked trustees to tell what they had discussed before opening the doors for the short public session which by law is required before the board may go into closed session. They were meeting with Robert Harte, from the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office.

Trustees replied that they were not discussing the agenda item and therefore were not obligated to divulge their conversation prior to the scheduled time. They then officially went into closed session.

At 5:35 p.m. trustees emerged from closed session and issued a press release. It said they had gathered “to receive and accept the resignation of Superintendent John Wight.”

Wight’s leadership and judgement had been questioned by many in the district during the past year, but during that time the board has also completed the first successful bond measure in three decades and has launched into rebuilding more than 57% of the district classroom infrastructure.

The press release was three sentences long. The second sentence thanked Wight for his services. The third sentence said “The Board is working with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office to provide an Interim Superintendent as well as conducting the search for Mr. Wight’s replacement.”

Steve Newman, board president, stood and said there would be no additional comment by the board. He said it had been “a gut wrenching day.” When asked when an announcement would be made regarding transition plans, trustee Paula Regan said, “as soon as we have something to anounce, God willing.”

Ray Huning, District Technology Coordinator, said in an interview, “This is a surprise; Educators tend to make moves after the school year is over and during the summer. The fact that that we are going into the bond and ready to start building makes it a bigger surprise, but we’ve got good people here in this district. They are dedicated to helping kids and they know their jobs. We will do fine.”

Return to School District stories index