Interim district chief guides fractious board
One of the first things Gilbert Schools’ new interim superintendent did when he came on board in July was to cut short school-board meetings that had begun to run past midnight.
John “Jack” Keegan came to the district from Utah to take charge temporarily while Gilbert Public Schools’ governing board searches for a superintendent. Keegan is expected to head the district for the rest of the school year.
Since landing the post four months ago, the retired former superintendent’s no-nonsense style has commanded schoolboard meetings and district decisions.
Keegan came to the district to work with a governing body that has had board meetings that often ran five hours or more; most notably, the last meeting before Keegan’s arrival was an eight-hour marathon that lasted until 3 a.m.
About his decision to streamline the meetings, Keegan said, “People can come back and say if you’re going that late, you’re trying to hide things from us.”
“You can’t go on all the time to 11, 12, 2 (in the morning). You’re not going to make any good decisions at that time. People are exhausted and if it’s contentious all it does is add to the contention,” Keegan said.
Any contention on the school board might be mirrored by the division in the community, Keegan said.
“It’s very obvious the community is divided not only in the school but in ... town government and then it flowed over into the schools,” Keegan said.
Working with the school board has meant not only curtailing long meetings but trying to help those with opposing viewpoints to find middle ground, Keegan said.
“We’re trying to get (the board) to work on common issues and reach common ground,” Keegan said.
But he said he welcomes differing opinions.
“I don’t think it’s bad at all that you have a real good spread on a school board in terms of divergent opinions,” Keegan said. “I think that builds a stronger board as long as … (it’s) willing to work together.”
Part of being willing to work together is knowing when to come to the center and start compromising “instead of just belaboring my side vs. the other side,” Keegan said. “You spend a lot of time going nowhere.”
The biggest surprise during his short time so far leading the district was when the board voted during the first school-board meeting he attended to hold an override election, Keegan said.
Keegan said he thought the board had made the right choice in going for a reduced 6.6 percent override from its previous 10 percent override.
“I don’t know that you had the support (for 10 percent),” Keegan said. “Some people still thought the district was too flush and that we didn’t have our priorities in a row, and in some ways we might not have.”
Although the override ultimately failed at the polls, during his first few months as interim superintendent Keegan worked with the community during the election to try to bring together people who had been on opposite sides of the issue the previous year.
Part of Keegan’s willingness to work with divergent viewpoints might stem from his belief that there should be equity in the school system.
“The most important thing that we do is, is it equitable to all students and that, to me, is the bottom line,” Keegan said.
A desire for equity was behind his initial decision at the beginning of the school year to close a dual-language kindergarten class because too few students were enrolled.
“We can’t afford to run those kinds of class sizes at 15 when other classes are 25. We’ve got to have equality for kids in programs,” Keegan told
in September. “If you’ve got such disparity — even in the school — it creates discontent.” Keegan ended up temporarily rescinding that decision by taking a parent’s suggestion to combine the class with another grade level, but a similar aspiration for parity postponed possible action in July to expand Gilbert Classical Academy, which spends more per student than comprehensive schools in the district.
“I don’t want to sound like a bunch of pious platitudes, but I try to look at what is best for the students and the school system and then make the decision that way,” Keegan said. “Every person that owns property in the district pays the same tax rate and therefore they should have equal opportunity.”