POWAYPOWAY — Speculation is building in the Poway Unified School District that Superintendent John Collins may be negotiating an exit deal.
Collins, who has been leading the district since 2010 and is paid nearly $500,000 in salary and benefits, has declined to comment about whether he wants out of his job and board aren’t saying much either.
In two statements last week, however, the superintendent said that he and the board have been discussing issues that “need to be addressed in a manner that’s in the best interests of the school district and the 35,000-plus students that we serve.”
“The current situation is that the board and the superintendent have agreed that their relationship is not working well and we need to discuss our options going forward in the best interests of the district,” Collins told the U-T Community Press.
The questions began after a Nov. 16 closed door meeting in which the board was set to present Collins with a late performance evaluation for the 2014-2015 school year, according to board President Kimberley Beatty. The superintendent surprised the five-member when he showed up with Lynne Lasry, a San Diego attorney with the firm of Spandler, Lasry, Laube and Byer.
Beatty declined to comment on why Collins brought Lasry. She said the board gave Collins the evaluation as planned.
“People are reading things into this. I can’t say we are doing this or that,” said Beatty.
Still, on Dec. 6, the board hired Maribel S. Medina, a Los Angeles area lawyer, to assist in ongoing talks with Collins. Medina has a long track record in education law. The school district already has a contract for legal services with the well-heeled San Diego law firm of Shinoff, Stutz Artiano Shinoff and Holtz, but Beatty said the board felt it needed a lawyer who was independent and neutral and not connected to Poway Unified.
“We wanted someone who had no previous relationship with Collins or the district,” she said.
Collins, who oversees 35,600 students in the school district, said that the discussions are of “a confidential nature” and that he wouldn’t comment further at this time.
His attorney, Lasry, is unavailable for comment until Dec. 21, when she returns to work.
Collins, 61, is under a three-year contract with the district through June 30, 2017. He is one of the highest paid superintendents in California, earning total compensation of about $494,646 annually, according to a California watchdog group.
Charles Sellers, who attended the Nov. 16 closed-door meeting, said he can only guess what Collins might be seeking.
“Any reasonable person could surmise that he wants to leave and doesn’t want to go for free, so he hired a lawyer to see what is available,” Sellers said in a phone interview. “Technically, we don’t know what he wants to negotiate. He came in and said I have a lawyer and you need one to talk about my contract.
“I don’t know if he wants to talk about extending his (employment) contract, or wants us to buy him out so he can move on — which is likely,” Sellers said.
The Poway Unified board is set to meet with its lawyer on Tuesday, about potential options, then meet with Collins’ lawyer on Dec. 21 when she returns to the San Diego area.
Collins, has seen his base salary bumped 22 percent over the past two years to $287,735, in spite of a debacle over a controversial type of school bond that caused the district’s bond debt to balloon to more than $1 billion.
The district also has become mired in a recall campaign of one of its board , Andy Patapow, a 19-year veteran targeted by the father-in-law of a district parent who was banned from Painted Rock Elementary School after a conflict with school employees. Patapow, who is an ally of Collins, is seen by some critics as being partially responsible for the bond debt.
The recall effort plays into some of the speculation that Collins may be leaving, because Patapow and trustees Michelle O’Connor-Radcliff and T.J. Zane make up the current majority, while Beatty and Sellers — who have argued for changes in the way the district is run — are in the minority.
Some have criticized Beatty and Sellers for bringing a new attorney into the talks with Collins.
“There is no logical reason to hire an attorney,” said Steve McMillan, a former trustee in Poway from 1994 to 2006. “There is a small faction in the community that s these two board (Beatty and Sellers). This is their way of showing that they are in charge.”
