Old Adobe Union school district, superintendent part ways

Sonjhia Lowery’s defenders, including the Sonoma County NAACP, have long questioned the legitimacy of critiques surrounding her performance, saying Lowery, a Black woman in a position of power, has been the victim of racist attacks and double standards.|

The Old Adobe Union School District Board of Education this week approved a separation agreement with embattled Superintendent Sonjhia Lowery, ending months of internal strife within Petaluma’s second-largest school district.

The board’s move, which came during a hastily called emergency meeting Tuesday, caps a tumultuous 18-month period highlighted by sharp public critiques among parents and the district’s teachers union over Lowery’s leadership, including the district’s response to COVID-19.

The public outcry reached a crescendo in late December, when Old Adobe Teachers Association President Diane Wolmuth took the remarkable step of calling on the school board to fire Lowery over what she described as a lack of collaboration and inability to make key decisions.

“It’s time to give us the reprieve we deserve, and give Old Adobe back its hope, joy and commitment for our future,” said Wolmuth, who added that with Lowery at the helm, the district would soon start losing employees.

Lowery’s defenders, including the Sonoma County NAACP, have long questioned the legitimacy of critiques surrounding Lowery’s performance, saying Lowery, a Black woman in a position of power, has been the victim of racist attacks and double standards.

“What’s really at issue here is…someone, from the outside, navigating a district during a pandemic, who commutes, has a big job, and is a person of color,” Sonoma County NAACP President Segretta Woodard said in a June letter to the Argus-Courier editor.

Patsy Knight, president of the school board, declined during a phone interview Wednesday to offer her opinion on Lowery’s performance, or provide specifics related to the separation agreement. At Tuesday’s meeting, she read a statement addressing the board’s decision.

“The board and Superintendent Lowery have reached an agreement believing it is in their respective best interests – as well as the best interests of our educational community,” Knight said.

Former Old Adobe Superintendent Craig Conte was tapped as Lowery’s temporary replacement, and the district has entered negotiations for a 60-day contract with Conte, Knight said Wednesday.

Lowery, who was hired to lead the 1,900-student district in June 2020, did not comment publicly, and has not returned phone calls or text messages seeking comment. But Knight on Tuesday read a statement that she attributed to Lowery.

“I believe we’ve met our many challenges by remaining focused on students and staff, ensuring the continuity of teaching and learning,” Lowery wrote in the statement. “I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the staff, board and community for supporting our programs and services and initiatives during my time at Old Adobe.”

Lowery, who lives in Sacramento, has spent 26 years in education, including nearly two years as assistant superintendent of Educational Services at Stockton Unified School District before she was hired to lead Old Adobe. In 2018, Lowery was named Administrator of the Year for the Central Office of the Association of California School Administrators Region 13. And in 2019, Lowery earned the Outstanding Leadership in Education Award from the California Association of African American School Administrators.

Just one year after Lowery was hired amid the coronavirus pandemic, a simmering feud between an unhappy teachers union and the district erupted, as the two sides hit an impasse in negotiations for the first time in at least 30 years.

The impasse came in the wake of the union’s decision to issue its first no-confidence vote in a superintendent, a move that was widely criticized by Lowery’s defenders as an unfair attack on a new superintendent facing unprecedented, pandemic-related challenges.

“There seems to be a concerted effort to blame the superintendent for issues that were in place under the previous superintendent,” Woodard said in her June letter. “How can Lowery hold a position not even a year and be critiqued and held to a different standard while dealing with an unprecedented global epidemic?”

Wolmuth, the teacher’s association president, who has declined to comment this week, has said previously that the pandemic offered fertile ground for emerging leadership. Lowery, she said, did not capitalize on the opportunity.

“During this pandemic, her skills should have been amplified, and she should have been able to really display stellar leadership…but we actually experienced the opposite – a lack of leadership, a lack of understanding of our district,” Wolmuth told the Argus-Courier this past summer.

In the wake of last summer’s fracas, Board President Michael Fung resigned, and Adriana Smith, a district parent who has been a vocal Lowery critic, was appointed to fill the vacant seat.

Smith, a first-generation Mexican-American and the district’s first Latina board member, has sought to represent and better serve the district’s 42% Latino population. But she has faced headwinds among those who view her longstanding dissatisfaction with Lowery’s leadership as problematic in an era of renewed focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Smith said she could not discuss the separation agreement beyond the statements released by the district and Lowery.

Conte, the district’s former superintendent, returns to a district in upheaval, one that has struggled to respond nimbly to the COVID-19 pandemic, including protocols that left hundreds of students in quarantine during the fall semester and pointed concerns about coronavirus testing for students returning from winter break.

A longtime teacher, Conte is well-liked among the district’s union membership. And Knight, the board president, said she was confident Conte’s return would be positive for the district. Conte could not be reached for comment.

“I think it’s going to be very positive,” Knight said. “Craig Conte has been with our district for 25 years. He knows everybody. It’s going to be very positive, or we wouldn’t have done it.”

Tyler Silvy is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at tyler.silvy@arguscourier.com, 707-776-8458, or @tylersilvy on Twitter.

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