Dear Saratoga Community Members,

We have included a picture of the non-response to our email we sent to Superintendent Sanderson listing our expectations regarding the Independent Investigation.

No further response was given apart from the automatic out of office notification to our last communication included here. We are assuming he was out due to the power outages and torrential rains last week.

Phishing for information to identify the authors of our communication by suggesting he will reach out to them is an insult. He has yet to have a sit down meeting with the countless parents who have reached out to him in regards to this troubling situation.

His refusal to sit with community members only indicates he wishes to wait it out and have time erase our desire to fix a systemic problem which we can clearly observe comes from the top. Leadership should not shield themselves from accountability as it only leads to undesirable working conditions. These conditions then test even the most dedicated at heart to the point of questioning whether any teacher has enough strength to continually confront the uncalled for challenges hindering their desire to go above and beyond to offer the best educational experience for their students. This situation is very unfair, it should not be tolerated nor should we ask our Music directors to withstand the constant negativity.  As of today, there is zero accountability, this implies we are at a point where we are close to losing our music directors and have our music program implode. 

We know that our music program is a major magnet drawing many families to Saratoga High, and by not rooting out the causes of workplace toxicity will eventually lead to the music department’s demise. Consequently, the demand to attend this school will fall, our neighborhood will become less attractive and our property values will suffer. This is a probable effect of taking the wrong actions and we will not sit idly by and watch a slow moving erosion of all that is important to us. 

Now that we know the Superintendent is not interested in serving his community on behalf of our board of trustees, we must now redirect our efforts to his five bosses.

This Superintendent was hired by just two of the five sitting board members. Very briefly, the three new board members consist of two retired teachers from our district and a parent who, among other impressive facts, has a love for the arts. Information obtained by their campaign fliers and community input. Brief bios are available here.

We can assume the two (Steve Chen and Alex Shultz) retired teachers are not foreigners to the shenanigans going on in the district and we expect that one of their many goals was to have this particular issue resolved without crippling a vibrant and prestigious department.

Misty Davies, the third addition to the board of trustees, truly calls bullpucky when things do not add up and has been a good parent advocate. Her advocacy can be corroborated by many co-signers of this petition. For further documenting proof please refer to the SUSD board minutes: items such as block schedule, rotation of principals between elementary schools etc. With respect to this last point, we can roughly remember her questioning the rotation of the principals by saying something in the lines of: ‘rather than rotating principals, it sounds like someone needs to be fired’. Of course she was right and the principal eventually resigned after a year of the rotation.

We look to these three fresh board member additions with hope, and they, in turn must ensure that Superintendent Sanderson does not mislead them or his community again. We are sorry they have ended up with a Superintendent they did not select and we are sorry that they have inherited an important problem that at present is being deplorably handled by Sanderson. Our recommendation is that his contract not be renewed and it would be wise he be prompted to tender his resignation on our behalf. This is a community request. He clearly is not here for building up the schools, he is on his way to destroying a department that is of great pride to Saratoga. 

Sanderson’s departure will enable all board members to select the superintendent with the kind of leadership skills required to keep harmony in schools for the betterment of students and faculties. This is only achieved with a solid foundation of honesty, mutual respect and trust. Toxicity has no place here. 

The two other board members, Katherine Tseng and Theresa Bond, whose terms expire this coming 2024 election, chose a superintendent who is unable to problem solve and they actually approved Sanderson’s abusive behavior to threaten our directors. Revoking teaching credentials was the threat used and of course its was uncalled for, and shows a complete misunderstanding of how to handle workplace situations with grace and respect (just for information purposes the threat used was based on CAEducation Code 44433 - the revoking is not mandatory, the district ‘may’ choose to suspend and these two board members have served long enough to have known better).

Our advice to all board members is to absolutely challenge your superintendent always, he is not worthy of your trust nor does he operate in an honest way. His arrogance is so palpable we expect him to see this petition as insignificant but to you, as elected board members, the number gathered as of now is at least ⅓ of your vote needed to seat you at the table next time. Trustee Bond and Tseng, you should be worried, especially after giving Sanderson his job.

Next update to come will document further reasons why Sanderson must leave and how we must keep our board members on track to fully represent us.

Respectfully,

Los Gatos Saratoga Community Members

Timeline of community action: 

12/06/2022 Requested an in-person audience with District Leadership. Still waiting to secure a meeting time/date.

12/09/2022 Petition was launched.

12/13/2022 Community members attended the LGSUHSD Board Meeting.

12/15/2022 Community members attended the SHS School Site Council

12/16/2022 Community members attended the SHS Friday Family Time Meeting with SHS Principal

12/18/2022 Released first petition update.

01/09/2023 Sent update with email notifying Sanderson (cced Board of Trustees) of our expectations and parameters around the independent investigation.