Leader to retire after only one year
Superintendent Harry Ervin cites family, health and professional goals in decision to leave the post
San Bernardino City Unified School District Superintendent Harry “Doc” Ervin will retire at the end of the school year, he announced Tuesday.
Ervin, the district’s first Black superintendent, was hired a year ago to replace longtime Superintendent Dale Marsden.
In a news release Wednesday, district officials said Ervin made the decision to retire “earlier than expected after carefully considering family, health, and progress toward his professional goals here.”
Across three decades, Ervin has served as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.
“When I joined the SBCUSD team,” he said in the release, “my goal was twofold. First to reopen schools to in-person learning after the pandemic pushed classes online for a year, and second to set us on a transformational path toward becoming a high-performing public school district.
“I am proud to say we accomplished the first and have good curricular, instructional, and assessment systems and structures in place to support the second.”
Early in his tenure, Ervin gathered community input through his Listening & Learning Tour, and with the help of the district’s leadership team, helped develop a handful of overarching goals to strengthen student outcomes, according to the news release.
He then encouraged district stakeholders to join a task force to build on those goals, creating the Framework for Excellence: Vision 2025.
The plan is expected to provide the district a roadmap to future success.
In the news release, Ervin said the San Bernardino school district community seeks transformational change.
“Success is possible,” he said, “if everyone stays focused on making decisions in the best interests of kids.”
Ervin faced backlash in the fall for his alleged attitude toward teachers and community members.
At board meetings in September and Octo
ber, public speakers criticized the superintendent for as much and called for his removal. Dozens of local dignitaries spoke up in Ervin’s defense before district leaders discussed the allegations behind closed doors Oct. 5.
“I can say the board did, as we always do when people bring concerns, we talk about those concerns,” board member Gwen Dowdy-Rodgers said in a phone interview Oct. 6, “but ultimately the most important thing is that we found no need to take any action.”
In addition to overseeing the district’s return to in-person learning this school year, Ervin spearheaded myriad other programs amid the coronavirus pandemic, including efforts to focus on equity, educational access and innovation, as well as a systemwide digitized four-year plan to guide high school students toward graduation and improve their college readiness.
District leaders will discuss the process of replacing Ervin at a future board meeting.