Superintendent's  Message

Constituents of the Ojai Unified School District, 

I am honored to have served as your superintendency since August. I assure you that you will see me at a broad array of school and other events throughout the District and City. As you will note from my biography below, I have been the "new superintendent in town" three other times. I learned from those experiences that the most significant priority in my professional and personal calendar must be spending time with the people in the District in the locations where they do their work. in this regard, I urge you to invite me to any meeting of your organization which you feel would be appropriate for me to attend.

In the past two months, the financial picture of the 2010-11 school year has become clearer, impacted significantly by severe underfunding of K-12 education from Sacramento for the third consecutive year. The cumulative, negative effect on our available resources needed to maintain present personnel, class sizes and programs next year is significant.  

Presented below is a letter I sent recently to the parents or guardians of all our students. I want the Ojai community to know that the Board of Education members, the administrative team, and union leaders are doing everything possible to minimize the programmatic cuts. I will report back to you when the 2010-11 Budget is finalized.

Parent Letter Follows Below:

March 4, 2010

Dear Parents/Guardians:

In my seven months as your superintendent, I have been consistently impressed by the commitment of our students, the professionalism of our staff, and the various ways in which you support our schools.  On behalf of the Board of Education and our more than 300 District staff members, I thank you. 

I so desperately wish that the reason for writing today’s letter was to outline plans to enhance or even maintain our staffing, class sizes, and programs for the students next year.  Instead, I am reporting to you that at the March 2, 2010, Board of Education meeting, the Board very reluctantly authorized notices to 51 faculty members indicating that they may not be employed here next year.  Unlike in recent years when almost all teachers on such a list were eventually reemployed, this will not occur next year.  Our financial condition for the 2010-11 school year is radically worse than in prior years.  At this juncture, we must reduce our 2009-10 Budget of about $25 million by 12% - or almost $3 million.  With 85% of our Budget represented by personnel costs, the reduction of staff members in each of the three employee groups – teachers, support staff, and management – will be significant.

By May 15, we must determine which teachers on the March 2 list will not be able to continue with us next year.  At a similar point in time, we will be making decisions about the balance of our reductions for other employees.  The members of the Board of Education, the principals, and I are acutely aware of the emotional and educational impact which the loss of these outstanding people will have on the adults and students at each school site and the District.  To address personally the broad array of issues involved, I will be available to attend a meeting of any school parent group which the principal and parent leadership determine would be appropriate.  In addition, I welcome a phone call (640-4300 ext. 1012) or e-mail (hbangser@ojai.k12.ca.us).

These are extraordinarily difficult times in all employment sectors and in all regions of our nation.  So unfortunately, numerous staff members in the Ojai Unified School District will become classic examples of great people and professionals whose livelihood will be seriously affected by the impact of deteriorating national and state economic conditions and the funding system for schools in California.

Sincerely,

Henry S. Bangser, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

 

About The Superintendent...

Henry S. Bangser, Ph.D.

Dr. Bangser began his Ojai superintendency on August 17, 2009.  He spent the first eight years (1971-1979) of his 35-year career as a teacher (U.S. History, Political Science, and Constitutional Law), student council advisor, athletic coach (assistant varsity football), and assistant principal at New Trier East High School in Winnetka, IL.  From 1979-1983 he served as the Principal of Lake Forest East High School in Illinois. 

He completed the first of his three superintendencies in Pelham, NY from 1983-1987.  Dr. Bangser was then appointed in 1987 as the superintendent of the St. Charles (IL) Community Unit School District, approximately 50 miles west of Chicago.  In 1990, he returned to New Trier and served as its superintendent for 16 years until he retired from that role in 2006.

For the past three years, Hank was the Chief Executive Officer of Hazard, Young, Attea, and Associates, the nation’s largest executive search firm predominately serving school boards.  He accepted the role with the understanding that he would seek to return to the superintendency in no more than four years.

Hank grew up in a small town in suburban New York City, graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1970 and received his master’s degree and doctorate from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1971 and 1977, respectively.  He and his wife Sara, an Associate Director of Major Gifts in the Development Department at Northwestern, have three children:  Jill, a community development consultant, who lives in Ventura with her husband Marc and daughter Margo; Marc, an assistant state’s attorney in suburban Chicago; and Matt, Director of the Blum & Poe Gallery in Los Angeles, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife Abby.