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The San Ramon Valley school board announced the appointment of a new Bella Vista Elementary School principal following Tuesday morning’s closed-session meeting.
Jen Torres, who has served as assistant principal at nearby Windemere Ranch Middle School for the past three years, takes over as principal of Bella Vista ahead of the school’s second year in existence.
Torres succeeds Barb Mallon, the former Twin Creeks Elementary principal who moved to Bella Vista in August 2015, leading the new campus in the year before it opened and then in its first year in 2016-17. Mallon took a position on the East Coast this summer in order to be closer to her family there, according to district spokeswoman Elizabeth Graswich.
While at Windemere Ranch, Torres led professional learning, the advancement via individual determination (AVID) program, instructional leadership and the safety plans for the school. Prior to her tenure there, Torres was a teacher on special assignment for San Ramon Valley Unified School District and taught math for several years at Charlotte Wood Middle School.
“Ms. Torres is a proven educator and educational leader who is familiar with and fully invested in the success of the Bella Vista community and the District,” Superintendent Rick Schmitt said in a statement. “I am very confident that she will be a wonderful principal for Bella Vista Elementary School.”
San Ramon’s newest campus, Bella Vista became the district’s 36th school and the fifth elementary school in the Dougherty Valley when it opened last year. It opened in August 2016, with the hope that it would alleviate overcrowding at other nearby campuses. The school was built to accommodate about 830 students on its 7.4-acre site overlooking the San Ramon Valley out to Mount Diablo.
In other business
* The school board also announced several other new hires Tuesday.
Ken Nelson was appointed as director of student services. He comes to the district from John Swett Unified School District, where he served as principal of the Willow Alternative Education Center and directed the district’s alternative education programs since 2013.
Natalie Corona was appointed as program supervisor. Previously, she served as lead psychologist in Dublin Unified School District since 2010.
Cheryl Di Grazia will take the post of assistant principal at Monte Vista High School. She joins Monte Vista from Sunnyvale Middle School, where she held the position of assistant principal for curriculum and instruction.
Meredith Bullock was appointed assisted principal at Pine Valley Middle School. Most recently, she taught eighth grade CORE at Pine Valley.
– Annabel Hurlburt will serve as assistant principal at Live Oak Elementary School. She joins SRVUSD from Benicia Unified, where she worked as a primary and upper grade teacher and a Title I intervention teacher since 2007.
* Board members also approved the employment contract for Gregory Medici, the district’s new chief business officer. According to the contract, his term last from Aug. 1, 2017 through June 30, 2019, with the potential for a one-year contract extension determined by the first board meeting in May every year.
The contract offers Medici an annual salary of $211,973, with eligibility for a 5% longevity step increment on July 1, 2020 and every subsequent three years, up to four increments.
San Ramon Unified School District continues to waste our tax dollars on grossly overpaid “administrators”. They hired someone as “New Chief Business Officer” at an annual base salary of over $211,000 a year! What is a “New Chief Business Officer”, and what does he do that the Superintendent can not do himself? This is ridiculous! This is a school district, not Chevron or PacBell, why does a small local school district need to have a “New Chief Business Officer” at over $211,000 a year! I am guessing his primary job duties will be coming up with new sources of income, i.e. more parcel taxes for us taxpayers to pay, to cover his enormous salary. No wonder the teachers are so upset with all these grossly overpaid administrators.
Make sure you vote NO on anymore parcel taxes the school district tries to guilt you into voting for, always claiming they are broke and need money to “support our kids”. This has nothing to do with supporting our kids. This is about accountability, government waste, and an out of control school district treating us parents like we are an ATM machine.
Enough is enough! If the current Superintendent can not himself do the alleged duties of the “New Chief Business Officer”, than he needs to be terminated immediately, or at a minimum his salary needs to be reduced to pay for the “New Chief Business Officer”.
You’re right. The district staff is made up of almost entirely former teachers with absolutely no business acumen. The waste is rampant. Administrators come in for a few years to top off their retirement or to be put out to pasture for failing in another job.
Way to say it Danville and Jim!!! Time for everyone to STOP giving more money to the schools and START making them accountable for their spending. We pay our taxes, now manage your school money wisely!
I have been saying this for over 20 years. People are just now getting the message….
and yet people move here just for the school district and schools. Both rated highly state and nat’l. they must be doing something right, no?
@Danville
You are a fool!
Congratulations Ms Torres!! WRMS will miss you, and BVES is so fortunate to have you! See you at the Halloween Parade!
It would be enlightening to see the organization chart of similarly sized school districts within Northern California. How many other school districts have a “Chief Business Officer”? What is the salary range for this “new” position? Is this really a new position or a new title? What is being cut to accommodate this new expense? There is only limited money, so what one hand takes, the other hand has to give up.
For comparison, Pleasanton Unified has a Deputy Superintendent – Business Services (same position, different title). Effective July 1, 2016 the base pay was $201,613.
Here is the contract for that position https://1.cdn.edl.io/27GiIzT4NiWTkgSjC00HSaq0KeOYdCbat9xg9K1MLiBOKjfK.pdf
PUSD has 15 schools, SRVUSD has 36.
FYI that research only took me 5 minutes.
More details:
SRVUSD students: 32k+ and growing
PUSD students: under 15k
SRVUSD budget: $330m
PUSD: budget $125m
Wow, I hope Ms. Torres is a better principal than a math teacher.