Poway schools making a change

After months of negotiations, Poway Unified School District may be parting ways with Superintendent John Collins, who has been on paid administrative leave since April.

In closed session Wednesday night, the school board scheduled a July 11 special meeting to end Collins’ leave and the district’s audit of his pay and benefits, and voted to hire Edward Velasquez as interim superintendent, starting Aug. 1.

Officials declined to say exactly what that means for Collins, who has headed the district since 2010 and is one of the highest paid school superintendents in the state, according to data compiled by the watchdog group Transparent California.

The Poway superintendent is paid $308,900 per year, with total compensation of $457,347 including extra pay, benefits and retirement, said district spokeswoman Christine Paik.

Collins could not be reached for comment Thursday. He is under a three-year contract with the district through June 30, 2017.

In December, Collins set off speculation that he wanted to end his contract early, when he hired an attorney to negotiate his employment agreement and advised the district to do the same.

Several Poway Unified trustees did not respond to requests for comment Thursday, or declined to comment on Collins’ future with the district.

Collins and the Poway Unified board came under fire in 2011 after the district issued $105 million in construction bonds using a controversial type of financing that would take decades to repay at a long-term cost of nearly $1 billion.

The vote to hire Velasquez was 4-1 Wednesday, with trustee Andy Patapow opposed.

Velasquez is now serving as interim superintendent of the Alpine School District, and was formerly the superintendent and chief of school police for the Montebello Unified School District in Los Angeles County. Since retiring from that post in 2013, he has served as interim superintendent of the San Ysidro School District in 2015 and in his current position in Alpine.

Velasquez cites 38 years of experience as a school administrator and educator, with a specialty in working with “at-risk” youth.

Poway Unified will pay him $75 per hour for no more than 560 hours per fiscal year, with no vacation or sick leave.

Associate superintendent of learning Mel Robertson will continue as acting superintendent until Velasquez takes the helm in August. She earns an additional $200 per day above her base salary of $175,404 while temporarily filling the superintendent role.

The Poway school board on Wednesday also hired Sandra Huezo as associate superintendent of personnel, to replace Tracy Hogarth, who retires this month.

Huezo, assistant superintendent of human resources for the Sweetwater Union High School District, will earn $175,404 in base pay from Poway Unified, with 26 days of vacation. Other pay and benefits are still under negotiation, Paik said.

deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com