Vote on Sausalito Marin City school leader’s contract scrubbed

The Sausalito Marin City School District board of trustees canceled a vote this week on a controversial one-year contract extension for its superintendent.

“I am requesting the board to postpone the conversation about my contract extension,” superintendent LaResha Huffman said in an email Thursday to the school community.

“Instead, I want to focus our collective energy on increasing student achievement, rebuilding relationships, deepening transparency and sustaining the academic momentum we’ve created for our students,” she said.

The matter was pulled off the agenda 15 minutes before the Thursday board meeting was set to begin. Huffman, who is at an impasse in contract negotiations with staff for 2025-26, in the email emphasized her accomplishments over the past two years since she was appointed to the job. Her current contract expires in June 2026.

“This includes revisiting survey results with the staff, engaging in more structured listening sessions, and improving systems of shared input and accountability — starting now, not later,” Huffman said. She referred to a teachers’ survey earlier this year that resulted in a majority of staff approving a “no confidence” vote in her leadership.

Board president Lauren Walters told a crowd of upset teachers, parents and community members at the Thursday meeting that the board would still hear public comment on Huffman’s contract extension request, but the trustees would not vote.

“I was planning to vote no re the extension,” Walters said in an email Friday, adding he was surprised by Huffman’s statement to become more attuned to community engagement. “I wish she had done it some time ago and focused on developing a strong trusting relationship with families and teachers.”

District parent-guardian Danelle Threatt was equally distressed. Threatt on Thursday read aloud a four-point “Call to Action” letter signed by more than 35 parents, teachers and community members that called for trustees to deny Huffman’s contract extension.

“A safe and healthy school environment is the bare minimum a school district is legally required to provide for their students,” Threatt read from the letter. “The failure of the district leadership to do so in a tiny, one-school district with less than 300 children is an act of either outright and willful neglect or complete and utter incompetence.”

The letter also demands increased supports for English learners and other vulnerable students and “a transparent, stakeholder-led process for appointing an interim principal,” Threatt said.

David Finnane, principal at the district’s school, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, is set to depart June 30 to accept a principal’s post in the Mill Valley School District. In addition, Jamal Graham, longtime executive assistant in the district, is also retiring, leaving the district office without anyone in place to do clerical administration and human resources.

The district has scheduled a town-hall-style meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 200 Phillips Drive, Marin City, to seek feedback on hiring a new principal, and to recruit community members for an interview panel for principal candidates.

At 12:45 a.m. Friday, after almost seven hours of public comment and presentations, trustees voted 3 to 2 to expand the job description for Nixon Diaz, the district’s information technology and communications director, to include human resources duties. Trustees Bonnie Hough, Caroline Tiziani and Rebecca Lytle voted yes.

Trustees tabled a similar proposal to add human resources duties to the job description of Daceia Malone Slocum, another district director, until the next regular board meeting in July.

The board acknowledged that neither Diaz nor Malone Slocum have experience in human resources. But Hough said Diaz’s work in this area is needed immediately to replace the duties of Graham, at least in the interim, until the district could find a part-time human resources specialist.

“The county is transitioning to a new finance system, which will handle payroll, among other tasks,” Hough said Friday. “Having Nixon Diaz take on those time-sensitive needs on an interim basis will allow the district to thoughtfully search for long-term solutions.”

Walters, who voted no along with trustee Danielle Diego, disagreed.

“I thought he didn’t have HR experience and qualifications,” Walters said Friday. “It had nothing to do with cost, but rather my view that expertise matters.”

District parent Danielle Phillips said she was alarmed by Diaz’s lack of human resources qualifications, saying that a highly knowledgeable and experienced person was needed to handle sensitive personnel matters and to avoid litigation.

“I challenge the board to ask why we placed ourselves in the position to force an appointment of unqualified people,” Phillips told the trustees on Thursday. “From the conversations made tonight, it sounds like zero effort and due diligence has been given to finding an experienced HR professional.”

“As we transition into the new school year and implement a new HR system and procedures, all staff involved will receive appropriate training and support,” Huffman said. “The staff member stepping into this interim role will be fully supported to ensure continuity of service while we work toward a long-term staffing plan.”

Due to his expanded duties, Diaz will be promoted from a “director I” to a “director IV” job category. The pay range is $92,458 to $130,097, according to the revised salary schedule.

“We are also responding to community concerns about the size of the district office team,” said Huffman of assertions that the district was top-heavy with highly paid administrators.

“Rather than backfilling all of those roles, the plan was to distribute the responsibilities among existing staff to reduce overall staffing,” she said.