Will Lodi Unified School District hire Manteca superintendent?

A district source Tuesday identified Nichols-Washer as the finalist. The source asked not be named because Nichols-Washer had not been officially announced as the new superintendent.

Nichols-Washer did not return calls for comment Tuesday afternoon.

The news took at least one Manteca Unified School District board member by surprise.

"If she applied for a job, she never told us," said Manuel Medeiros, a board member.

Another trustee, Dale Fritchen, said Nichols-Washer told him she had applied for Lodi Unified's superintendent position, but that he didn't know whether or not she got it.

Fritchen said a Lodi Unified official contacted him a few days ago seeking a reference for Nichols-Washer.

Reached by telephone, Wendy King, Manteca Unified's board president, would not comment.

Both Lodi Unified Board President Ken Davis and Interim Superintendent Len Casanega were unavailable Tuesday afternoon.

Cathy Nichols-Washer has served as Manteca Unified School District's superintendent for about four years. Before being promoted to the district's top seat, she held the assistant superintendent of educational services position, according to Manteca Unified's Web site.

Nichols-Washer also worked as an administrator at Stockton Unified School District and as the director of educational services in Patterson.

She taught elementary school in both Manteca and Sacramento prior to becoming an administrator.

Nichols-Washer holds a doctorate in education.

Manteca Unified serves more than 23,000 students in the Manteca, Lathrop, French Camp and Weston Ranch area and includes 20 elementary schools and six high schools.

Lodi Unified lost former Superintendent Bill Huyett to Berkeley Unified School District in February after more than seven years in Lodi.

Casanega succeeded Huyett as the interim superintendent in February. He will receive the equivalent of $220,000 per year for the time he spends leading the district and has said his replacement will make around the same amount.

Casanega was scheduled to retire on July 3, but has said he would stay longer if needed.

A salary comparison provided by Lodi Unified showed that superintendents of similarly sized district's in California made, on average, more than $237,000.

Davis said in March that the board was looking for a candidate that was familiar California Education Code and had the ability to think outside the box as the district faces unprecedented problems in student achievement and budget cuts.

Reader Feedback

Lodian wrote on Jun 29, 2008 3:00 PM:

" Do we even have the money to pay this salary? "

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Giovanina wrote on Jun 29, 2008 11:11 AM:

" Agreed, it is time to clean out the barn of redundant bean counters. It is also time to push out the political advocacy that has seemed to overwhelm LUSD, pushing their "equity" programs. Kids are not robots and no student is going to have carbon copy brain of another. There are winners and losers in society. We used to say, you can all be winners if you work hard. But, now, we are supposed to say you are are all winners, and they haven't done anything yet. Equity pushes the real hardworking students out of the equation, and promotes the students not following the Ed. Code pertaining to Duties of a Student. "

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edumacation wrote on Jun 28, 2008 10:11 PM:

" Ditto to papercut. I suggest that she start firing the sycophants at the ESC who have the SAME EXACT JOB TITLES and duplicated JOBS as the San Joaquin County Office of Edu-macation. A former school principal should NOT receive $130,000 /year just to count textbooks for the Willams act. Talk about featherbedding! You could teach many children to read with that $130,000. "

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WY wrote on Jun 26, 2008 9:05 PM:

" yep "

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papercut wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:23 PM:

" thanks,sam. As she's only from Manteca and researched the situation that she was stepping into, she is fully aware of who the gobs and those lifer school board members are that haven't accomplished a thing these last ten years except to say yes to Huyett to keep their secure little positions all these years. It's time for those to go, with Mr. Davis to head the long line. "

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sam wrote on Jun 25, 2008 4:55 PM:

" papercut, I was just going to get on this blog and say.
"HEY PAPERCUT, she is not a GOB."

Ya beat me to it. LOL. Have a great evening. "

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papercut wrote on Jun 25, 2008 4:11 PM:

" Good luck Ms. Nichols-Washer, I hope you're the new spark the LUSD is looking for to head them in the right direction. May I suggest that you take a very close look at those around and start a house cleaning projectsoon by cleaning out the leftover and old minded employess left behind by Huyett. Several of those employees are just ornaments and need to be replaced with new faces and ideas. The best of luck to you and watch out for those good old boys and their dark side. "

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