A promotion from within
Deputy Richard Carranza says he’ll follow path set by Carlos Garcia as superintendent
The San Francisco school board avoided an expensive nationwide search for a new superintendent by officially handing the job Tuesday to the district’s second-in-command, Richard Carranza.
The board voted unanimously to hire Carranza, 45, agreeing to a threeyear contract with an annual salary of $245,000. In addition, he will receive $20,000 in annual housing allowance and $6,000 for a car. The total package comes to $271,000, plus pension and health and life insurance.
Superintendent Carlos Garcia, who plans to retire at the end of the school year, makes $293,000, plus benefits. Carranza will replace him on July 1.
Carranza is expected largely to maintain the status quo by continuing Garcia’s effort to focus resources on the district schools that are struggling the most. For example, he played a large role in identifying the 14 “Superintendent Zone” schools that were infused with extra staff and district oversight to help improve test scores.
“We all agree we’re heading in the right direction, but at the same time
we know we have a lot of work to do,” said board President Norman Yee just before the vote. “We didn’t want somebody coming in and try to put us on another path. We have found a superintendent who will continue the work we’ve been doing.”
Test scores in those schools have been rising, attendance is up, and the achievement gap between low-income, minority students and their more advantaged white and Asian American peers is starting to close.
“What was happening in San Francisco was just tremendously provocative to me and I wanted to be part of that,” Carranza said. “I think if you look at the big picture I think the community is happy with the direction the district is going.”
Unlike other districts that change directions when a new superintendent is hired, his appointment won’t “upend the apple cart,” Carranza said. Teachers and school administrators, he said, will be able to keep doing what they’re doing.
“I give a lot of credit to the board for understanding that seamless transitions, especially if you’re on the right track, really, really sends a message to the field,” he said.
The district’s top job is a long way from Carranza’s first job as an educator. In the early 1990s, he taught social studies and mariachi music in Pueblo, Ariz.
He used music to draw struggling students to school and encourage them to express themselves academically through the class. In 1999, he was named one of the “Twenty Most Influential Tucsonans in Music,” by the nowdefunct Tucson Citizen.
In 2004, Carranza, by then a principal in Pueblo, moved to Las Vegas, where he worked under Garcia, who was the superintendent of the large Clark County school district.
Carranza was promoted to region superintendent in 2007, overseeing the education of 58,000 students in 60 schools. The region saw significant gains in middleand high-school test scores during his twoyear tenure.
He followed his former mentor to San Francisco in 2009.
The road for the new superintendent won’t be entirely smooth. He will take over in July with a $50 million budget shortfall hanging over the district. In addition, the district is negotiating a new contract with the teachers union and the two sides appear to be far from an agreement. The current contract expires June 30.
The union was already unhappy with Carranza for supporting a plan earlier this year that didn’t base layoffs entirely on seniority.
“We hope he doesn’t start his reign with divisiveness, but that’s going to be entirely up to him,” said Dennis Kelly, president of United Educators of San Francisco. “I think we really need to sit back without judgment to give the man the opportunity to show what his real hand is going to be.”