T Mac fires back
Inyo Schools Superintendent takes on critics.
In January Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Terry McAteer was accused of making an alleged racist remark during a staff meeting with 25 Bishop High School faculty members. The allegation was reported in an article by The Inyo Registe. It’s a charge he strongly denies.
McAteer says that his words at that meeting were selectively taken out of context from a much more comprehensive comment on the importance of making technology available to low-income White, Native American and Hispanic students. He says his actions as the County Superintendent of Schools speaks louder than words when it comes to his support of all students.
Since that initial story, things have been heating up considerably as other allegations of abusing his position have been made by The Inyo Register, citing mostly anonymous sources. Those anonymous sources have alleged nepotism, cronyism, ageism, misuse of a county vehicle by McAteer’s wife, and charges of extravagant spending on trips and receptions.
The stories have created a firestorm of criticism and a backlash against the Register, with sharp censure coming from the public and local businesses, as well as from many of McAteer’s own employees at the Inyo County Office of Education who dispute the allegations made in the newspaper.
Many of The Inyo Register readers were outraged by an editorial cartoon in which McAteer was depicted as a “Hitler-like” figure. The cartoon was drawn by a known disgruntled former graphics art teacher that McAteer fired last May for inappropriate conduct. The Register’s attempts to explain and justify the use of the cartoon and its use of anonymous sources, as well as the perception that it is maliciously attacking the popular County School Superintendent have largely fallen on deaf ears. Some of the newspaper’s readers have canceled their subscriptions and some businesses have pulled their advertising.
“The use of Hitler in any context,” says Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce Board President Chris Ellis, when contacted by phone, “is especially in this instance, completely unacceptable.”
The Sheet met with McAteer at his office on Wednesday. One thing that was clear from the start is that McAteer is unbowed by the recent negative press and remains focused on continuing to build on an impressive legacy.
He came to Inyo County as its newly-appointed Superintendent of Schools in August of 2008 to serve out the remaining two years of then-Superintendent George Lozito. During his tenure, Inyo County has doubled its number of enrolled students, more than tripled its budget, reduced its dropout rate by half, reduced its truancy rate to second lowest in the state, and improved its test scores by approximately 25% over the first five years.
*A new testing system is being unveiled this year so that’s why the numbers aren’t more current in this area.
Inyo County is also poised by next year to become the first County in the State to provide a free laptop computer to every district student.
McAteer noted that he answers to the voters and he has run unopposed in the past two elections. During his 13 years as Superintendent of Nevada County, he only ran against someone in his first election and then ran unopposed in the remaining three elections.
“Being an elected official, you are scrutinized more than almost anyone else in life,” he said. “What your wife does, what your kids do,” he says, “unfortunately comes with the territory.”
Asked why he is so disliked by some people in the county, he answered, “When I came into office, I did not keep an existing bureaucracy floating. I came in saying this place is broken. We have some serious structural problems in Inyo County. Our dropout rate is too high; our truancy rates are off the charts; our test scores are low. And the board said to me, ‘Terry, do what you need to do to turn it around.’ I have done that. I made changes that have made some people unhappy, especially a small number of former employees affected by those changes.”
McAteer continued, “I needed capital to make these changes.”
He found that capital by adopting an entrepreneurial approach and creating and operating Charter Schools all over the State.
Students who attend Charter Schools not located within Inyo County but operated by Inyo County are considered Inyo County students.
YouthBuild Charter Schools provide “dropout recovery” opportunities for 16- to 24-year olds, and fulfill the mission stated by McAteer in a 2009 interview (ironically with the Register).
“So many people talk about raising the bar when it comes to educxation … I want to raise the bar from the bottom up, to bring up the bottom 5 to 10%,” he said.
The Inyo County Office of Education budget has grown from $7.8 million in 2007 to $24.7 million this year and its reserves have grown from $2.5 million to $6.2 million largely due to an aggressive approach to grants and revenue generated from ICOE’s oversight of the YouthBuild Charter Schools. All this activity has added 10-15 additional jobs locally and the $1.8 million alone of undesignated funds from Charter Schools have been used to improve schools, remodel libraries and provide free Wi-Fi access, and put computer technology in the hands of every Inyo County student. It also provides funding for the free Wi-Fi hot zone on Main Street in Bishop and Lone Pine so low-income students have ready access for their school work and local businesses can tout free, readily available internet access to visitors.
Among McAteer’s numerous aother accomplishments:
*The establishement of North Star Counseling Center for disadvantaged families and students.
*The establishment of the Inyo-Mono Promise, offering local students reduced non-resident tuition to attend the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) plus increased access to scholarships.
*The establishment of the Community Reads Program.
McAteer claims that employee morale and relations within the Office of Education are excellent and his district was one of the few in the state that did not lay off anyone during the recent recession. In fact, says McAteer, they have received 3% annual raises over the past five years.
Charges of nepotism, cronyism, and ageism, especially the first two, seem common in small rural communities and counties where many residents’ relationships are intertwined by family relationships, work, school, civic groups, et. al. To these charges, McAteer flatly denies that he is using his office to provide employment or any benefit to any in his family or circle of friends. The allegations are difficult to validate when it is anonymous sources making the charge against him, says McAteer.
As to charges of extravagant spending on trips and receptions, McAteer defended he and the Board’s approval of the expenditures. He noted that he testified before the Inyo County Grand Jury a few months ago on just one issue, the trip for members of the County Child Care Program to attend a training in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
“What doesn’t come out is that last year we sent 12 people to Iowa. That’s where the summer training is for the Reggio Emilia Approach to child care education.”
The Reggio Emilia Approach is a highly regarded educational program focusing on preschool and primary education.
Per McAteer: “I asked Verna Sisk, the Child Care Program Director, to come to me with the best training available for her staff. She came to me with this training. I directed the staff to go find the money. The cost is $40,000 total 9for the Italy trip), which comes to $4,000 per staff member. That includes airfare, food, lodging, etc. They wrote grants. They came up with $20,000. I forked up $20,000 from general funds to send 10 people to the training which just happens to be Italy. Why in Italy? They go to the town Reggio Emilia, that’s the town where the concept was developed and what it’s named after. It’s like Montessori, named after the person who developed it. Every year in May, they have a one week North American (English-speaking) session.”
McAteer said that he is not going on the trip to Italy and that he almost never goes on any staff trips with the exception of the tech trip last month to the Bay Area. Why that trip? Because he says, “That’s my game. I wanted to move technology in this district.”
“If we’re going to spend $700,000 next year supplying high schoolers with laptops, it makes sense to spend $10,000 on a trip to figure out how best to utilize that resource.”
In regard to staff training trips, McAteer believes they are invaluable in helping to relieve isolation and make teachers not opnyl more motivated and curious, but also more global in their thinking. “These teachers have never been to a conference. They are so isolated. They applied to be accepted into this unique program in Italy and were accepted. Ten people. My goal is that, I feel I have the schools going in the right direction, and in my last year and a half, I am focusing on child care.”
“I truly believe that if we don’t have kids ready to go to preschool and kindergarten, we are really missing the boat,” he added. “And we have major deficiencies in a number of our preschools. How do we raise the bar in pre-K? We find the best program out there and we bring it county-wide.
To questions of impropriety in the use of a car purchased for his exclusive use in August of 2013, he feels accusations made against his wife have been overblown, misrepresented, and are personal in nature.
McAteer said he spoke to his Board and told them that he was driving cars all over the place and that, to get to L.A. he would like to have a separate car for just for his needs. He said the Board agreed and told him, “No problem, go pick it up.”
In regard to its use, “Does Liz sometimes drive the car once in a while? Yes she does. Why? She’s a School Arts Coordinator.”
He noted that the photo of a car represented in a recent article by The Inyo Register, which is making many of the accusations against him, was not even his car. The Inyo Register has since apologized for the error, but stands by its claims of possible impropriety.
The County School Board appears to be solidly behind McAteer and at least two of them have publicly written letters to the editor at The Inyo Register in support of him. Many others have publicly expressed their support for McAteer as well.
Reached for comment Thursday, Mono County Schools Superintendent Stacey Adler said, “I think the world of Terry. He’s done so much for the kids of Inyo County. He’s always been aboveboard, and very aware. He comes from a political family (McAteer’s father was a State Senator). If anyone knows what is right and wrong, it’s Terry.”
Adler also credited McAteer for being a mentor in the Charter School process. Mono County Office of Education now operates three Charter Schools in San Diego, Orange County and Shasta County.
