Over the objections of St. Helena parents concerned about the stewardship of local schools, St. Helena Unified School District Board of Trustees went ahead with a plan to award retirement packages to six teachers and two administrators.

The retirement packages are the latest flashpoint between local parents and school leaders in what has been a difficult period since Superintendent Allan Gordon announced his retirement and the board decided to name Gordon’s successor without doing a full-blown search. One trustee has resigned and others are now the subject of a recall effort.

The retirement packages affect several teachers and two administrators, including Gordon. School officials say the packages will save the district more than a million dollars over the next several years. Parents question whether allowing Gordon to take this package was a sweetheart deal.

At Monday’s school board meeting, the board’s attorney, Larry Schoenke of Miller, Brown & Dannis, said delaying approval of the packages could expose the board to litigation. “Right now we are contractually obligated,” said Trustee Cynthia Lane. “There aren’t a lot of choices right now.”

The plan awards participants one full year’s salary, paid out over five years. Gordon agreed to take just 81 percent of his salary, meaning he would receive about $36,000 a year for five years.

Members of the public urged the board to hold off on awarding the plans to Gordon and former St. Helena High School principal Jim Zoll.

They cited a memorandum prepared by four parents charging that Gordon had a conflict of interest when he made certificated administrators such as himself eligible for the Public Agency Retirement Services package.

“The memo … raises some significant concerns,” said Pavi Lawson, who wasn’t involved in drafting the memo. “The school board needs to thoroughly investigate these issues before any of our tax dollars are used to fund these retirement plans.”

Trustees and district officials insist Gordon did nothing wrong. They say Gordon made the PARS plan available to administrators in January because Zoll’s departure was contingent upon getting PARS.

A memo by Gordon’s replacement, Superintendent Robert Haley, states that the board learned of Zoll’s request for PARS on Dec. 11.

During closed session the board authorized Gordon or Haley “to negotiate with Dr. Zoll on its behalf so that Dr. Zoll would resign in exchange for participation in the PARS incentive,” said Haley.

District officials claim that Gordon didn’t decide to retire until April, when his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness.

But St. Helena resident Leslie Ellis argued that since as far back as 2008 Gordon had been telling parents about his retirement plans.

“Unfortunately, I think Allan Gordon … is a very good politician, and led you astray,”  Ellis said.

Neither Gordon nor Zoll attended Monday’s meeting.

On Monday board members didn’t explicitly address the conflict of interest allegations, which are under investigation by the Napa County District Attorney’s office. But they insisted that they’ve consulted with attorneys at every stage of the process to make sure what they are doing is proper.

Toward the end of the hour-long meeting, Board President Ines DeLuna pointed out that the public hadn’t spoken up at the other meetings where PARS appeared on the agenda.

“My information has been on the Web site and available to everybody,” she said. “I’m not sure when you’ve contacted me directly.”

At that time, about 20 people pointedly walked out of the room.

“See you at the recall,” one of them said loudly.

Trustees maintain that the PARS plans will save the district $1.2 million. But the memo argues that including Gordon and Zoll in the plan instead of only teachers cost the district as much as $346,000.

Giving Gordon PARS makes financial sense because a traditional State Teachers’ Retirement System package would have limited how much Gordon could have worked as a paid consultant, said Trustee Cindy Warren.

“If he retired with STRS, we could only pay him $29,000 a year,” she said. With PARS, “We’re paying him $36,000 a year and we have unlimited access to him. We can use him as much as we want.”

New principal

While the school board and its critics sort out the recent past, new St. Helena High principal Julie Synyard is looking toward the future.

She has spent the last few months zipping between Berkeley, where she lives, St. Helena, where she works, and Los Angeles, where she’s getting her doctorate.

Synyard is earning a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Southern California. Her dissertation deals with the challenges faced by urban superintendents in the 21st century.

Synyard grew up in San Rafael. Her educational transcript includes stints at UC San Diego, San Francisco State University, St. Mary’s College, USC and a year studying abroad in Italy.

She taught high school for three years before being hired as vice principal at St. Helena High in 2004, near the end of Shari Cramer’s tenure as principal. For five years she served under Zoll, whom she called “a fabulous mentor.”

Zoll was away from the high school frequently during the last school year, which Synyard said gave her “several months of actual on-the-job training as principal.”

“I’m pretty hands-on,” she said. “I love bouncing ideas off other people. I love to collaborate a lot and steal the best ideas I can.”

Synyard takes the helm as numerous facilities projects are in varying stages of development.

The new multipurpose room is finished, but other projects are in limbo until the state coughs up matching funds.

 A performing arts facility, a barn and a larger facility with classrooms for agriculture, food science and culinary arts are all on hold pending state funding.

Synyard also will make sure teachers are incorporating the tenets of the International Baccalaureate program into their instruction. In the last two school years about 16 new teachers have been hired.

“It’s part of my job to help build a new culture and say, ‘Here’s the St. Helena method. Here’s how we do things,’” she said. “We’re really fortunate because they’re fabulous teachers and all their new ideas have been really refreshing. I can’t say enough about our teachers.”

Benjamin Scinto, currently principal at Excelsior Middle School in Byron in Contra Costa County, is replacing Synyard as high school vice principal.m