The following is an open letter composed by Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools Nicole Glentzer intended for the citizens of Mendocino County:
Dear Mendocino County Residents,
I am honored to have been elected to be the next Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools. I appreciate the efforts of countless volunteers and supporters that contributed to a winning outcome in the June 7th election. I am especially grateful for the support of educators who collectively and individually made their voices heard this election. Thank you for placing your trust in me.
As a parent and educator, I know firsthand the challenges our schools are facing: the staffing shortage, the impact of COVID, school safety, and student performance. When I take office in January I will continue to work collaboratively to address these challenges and I am committed to leading our schools and our County Office of Education to overcome them.
There is much work to be done in our schools and I look forward to working side by side with educators, staff, administrators, parents, and the public to ensure that the students in Mendocino County receive the very best education we can provide them.
County Superintendent Elect,
Nicole H. Glentzer
To address the school bus driver shortage, maybe allow those of us who were fired for vaccination non compliance to return to work?
Well, it would help if the district and Nicole Glentzer didn’t treat their staff as if their was an infinite pool of people waiting to replace them. I worked for the district working as a paraprofessional educator in the special education classrooms and loved it. I received great feedback from my fellow coworkers and directors as well. After a semester of working on the special ed classrooms I was offered a job as a PE teacher and decided to take it. It was definetly not a good fit and at no point did any other staff or the administrators provide me with guidance or any meaningful support. I was brought into the administrators office and let go because of some vague accusations of “being too mean.” Now, I spoke with Nicole about going back to the special ed classrooms but she would not allow it. I was contacted by the HR manager about a year later asking if I would like to come back to work and I told her about my conversation with Nicole. After reaching out to Nicole she contacted me and told me they would not hire me back on as a paraprofessional. This is common throughout the district. They do not invest in their staff and they treat the whole thing as if there is an infinite pool of workers. My firing was totally arbitrary and Nicole could not appreciate the nuance of maybe one position not being right for me and another being a much better fit.