SOMIS : School Trustees Reconsider Contract

Somis Union Elementary School District trustees are reconsidering a recent decision to terminate the contract of Supt. Dale Forgey because opposition to the action has been so strong, officials said Wednesday.

Board President Alda Perry said about 100 parents, teachers and other supporters of Forgey attended a meeting Monday to tell trustees that they are unhappy with a May 27 decision not to renew the 12-year superintendent’s contract.

Forgey’s supporters asked the board to rescind its vote, a request that trustees will formally respond to at a meeting next Wednesday, Perry said.

“Obviously, if people are this concerned, we need to talk about it and see what the board wants to do,” Perry said.

Perry’s position caught Trustee Robert Fulkerson by surprise. Fulkerson, the only trustee to vote in favor of renewing Forgey’s $73,000-a-year contract, said he thought that the issue was dead. Perry and Trustees Debbie Carpenter and Miguel Mejia voted not to renew Forgey’s contract, citing a difference of opinion with the administrator on management style.

The fifth trustee, Beth Miller, abstained from the vote because she only joined the board in April.

Forgey did not return calls to his office Wednesday. Unless the board’s decision is rescinded, he will step down as superintendent of the 350-student, single-school district on June 30.

Perry said she was unable to explain why a majority of the board lost confidence in Forgey because it is a personnel matter. But Fulkerson said the three board members who voted against renewing his contract wanted to manage every facet of Forgey’s administration instead of just directing policy.

“They don’t just tell Dale to do something. They tell him how to do it, when it should be done and how it should be completed,” Fulkerson said.

He called Forgey an able administrator who shouldered the responsibilities of being both a superintendent and principal at the elementary school.