Dear Music Community,

We have a great deal to update you on and as well as offer our assessment of recent and current events but that will come next week. It is our intention this week to leave you with an email sent March 7th, 2023 from the Superintendent himself titled: ‘SHS Music Program Personnel Update’, and allow you time to draw your own thoughts/reflections.

With the hope of providing you with good information we are sharing the posting of the next LGSUHSD board meeting scheduled for this Tuesday March 14, 2023 and full agenda details are available on this link. The zoom link to this board meeting is here.

Respectfully,

Los Gatos-Saratoga Community Members

Below follow the mentioned email:

Hello Mr. Holt, 

Would you mind sharing the following message with your Music Booster Listserv. 

Dear Saratoga Music Booster Parents,

I wanted to take this opportunity to follow up with you regarding the personnel issue discussed prior to the Winter Break. While many parts of personnel issues are confidential, I wanted to share what I could on the findings of the independent investigation that was issued to the District in mid-February.

As we have shared, the district expects all employees (teachers, support staff, and administrators) to act as a model of professionalism for our students and the community. When there are any allegations of inappropriate or unprofessional conduct, the District takes the allegations seriously and will conduct either an internal or external investigation. 

In November 2022, the district received allegations that the conduct of named employees at Saratoga High School fell below the expectations of the district. Therefore, the District hired an outside licensed investigator to investigate and issue a report regarding the conduct of the individuals involved. All individuals involved in the meeting were interviewed and a final report was issued to the District on February 10, 2023. 

As a result of the findings from the investigation, the District will:

Work to repair and address the malfunctioning HVAC systems in the music building and McAfee Center

Improve communication practices to ensure some form of receipt and acknowledgement of requests and concerns are made within a timely manner

Address with all staff the expectations for appropriate and professional behavior

Additionally, written directives to employees who displayed unprofessional behavior will be issued. Going forward, the music department will report directly to the principal.

There is room to grow and improve at all levels of our organization and we are committed to nurturing and fostering an educational environment that is collaborative, communicative, professional, respectful, and responsive.  We will work to rebuild trust among all of our stakeholders and we thank you for your patience as we have waited for the results of this independent investigation. All our actions and conversations are led with a student-focused mindset. We look forward to an incredibly productive spring semester and thank you for your continued partnership in bringing enrichment and opportunities to our students at Saratoga High School.

In partnership,

Bill W. Sanderson

Superintendent

and

Katherine Tseng

Board of Trustees President