Mark Goodman, 10-year president of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District (SMJUHSD) Faculty Association, will step down from office this fall following a vote by Faculty Association members.
Voting for the association’s officers ended on May 6, and Goodman was the only of five executive officers not re-elected to his position, according to Faculty Association Corresponding Secretary Riccardo Magni. Instead, Ernest Righetti High School teacher Matt Provost was voted into the presidency.
“It was an extremely close election,” Magni told the Sun. “I was surprised by the election results.”
Magni didn’t disclose the exact vote count, but said that had 13 or 14 people voted differently, the results would have gone another way.
Goodman has spearheaded the association’s recent efforts for improved treatment of SMJUHSD educators, “a movement that has more to do with culture than with money,” Goodman told the Sun. The association ended the final phase of negotiations with the district on May 11, and now the educators are gearing up to take more extreme measures, which could include a strike.
“It takes a lot of time and a lot of energy,” Goodman said of the association’s imminent efforts in an interview earlier this week. “I’m going to do my due diligence and go above and beyond for the people and make it possible for people, if that’s what they want to do.”
Magni said he was not aware of particular dissatisfaction with Goodman’s leadership among educators.
Provost will begin his two-year term as Faculty Association president on Sept. 1.
This article appears in May 12-19, 2016.