DUBLIN — Dublin schools Superintendent Leslie Boozer unexpectedly announced her immediate departure from the top position on Tuesday.
The district said that her departure was a “mutually agreed” to separation. Boozer began at the district in July 2016.
“I am proud of the many accomplishments our schools and district continue to earn and thank our outstanding teachers and staff for making it happen,” Boozer said in a statement Tuesday night.
In her statement, she did not offer an explanation for her resignation, but stated it was effective Tuesday. She was not present at Tuesday’s school board meeting, where the board reported her departure after a closed session.
“I want to inform the school community that today was Dr. Boozer’s last day with our school district,” said board president Amy Miller, as people in the audience could be heard audibly reacting.
Boozer said in her statement that it was her “honor and privilege” to serve the school district.
The school board announced that Matt Campbell, current assistant superintendent of educational services, will serve as the acting superintendent. The board also plans on finding an interim superintendent to help during the leadership transition, and will take “swift action” to hire a search firm in April to help find the next district leader, according to the statement.
“Transitions are often challenging, but we see this as an opportunity to regroup, re-energize and refocus on our shared mission to serve students,” board members said in a statement Wednesday.
According to Boozer’s contract, if the board finds that the superintendent’s performance is unsatisfactory, it is required to write a report to describe the performance in detail, with recommendations for improvement.
Her contact could be terminated before the contract expiration date for three reasons: failure to keep a valid California administrative credential, a mutual agreement of the parties or retirement.
But, “termination for cause,” or firing, could occur if the superintendent failed to have good behavior during or outside of duty hours that could discredit the district, unprofessional conduct, incompetence, neglect of duty or breach of the original contract. Any board decision to fire her would be final, if supported by substantial evidence, according to the contract.
The superintendent is the latest official to resign from the district; two school board members also recently resigned. Longtime board member Dan Cunningham’s resignation was official March 1, and board member Joe Giannini left the board in October.
The board had appointed Niranjana “Nini” Natarajan to fill Gianni’s seat in December. But in January, residents of Area 4, which she represented, gathered enough signatures to effectively remove her from office and call for a special election.
When Cunningham resigned earlier this month, he told this newspaper that the politics in Dublin have recently gotten tense.
“The political tenor in Dublin has gotten really, really mean,” he said.
The district is in also in the midst of negotiating a teachers contract with the union, the Dublin Teachers Association. The union has voted to authorize a strike if needed, and had plans to rally and march to Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Boozer came to the district from Fontana Unified School District, where she had been superintendent in the Southern California district for three years. But Boozer’s time in Fontana was not without controversy — some residents and blogs accused the superintendent of excessive travel spending and hinted at the political turmoil between the city and the school district.
Cunningham, who was board president at the time when Boozer was hired, directly asked her about the controversy at the time.
He told this news organization in 2016 that it seemed the politics in Fontana were a bit “rough-and-tumble” but that he could never see the mayor or city of Dublin trying to run the school district here.
Boozer has a master’s and doctorate in education from Harvard University, is a former teacher and was raised in Indiana and Kentucky.