Advocates: Crucial bank law softened under Trump proposal
https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/HISD-officially-hires-new-superintendent-from-San-9171272.php
New Houston ISD superintendent Richard Carranza getting $345,000 annual salary in 3-year contract
By Ericka Mellon
Updated 11:16 pm CDT, Thursday, August 18, 2016
Richard Carranza sings with a mariachi group composed of students from Northside and Sam Houston high schools on Thursday. The HISD board officially hired Carranza as the superintendent.
Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle
Richard Carranza, a bilingual, career educator who leads the San Francisco school system, on Thursday evening became superintendent of the Houston Independent School District after a unanimous vote by trustees.
Carranza and the board agreed to a three-year contract that pays him an annual base salary of $345,000, the district said in a statement. There's no performance bonus the first year of the deal. The written contract, which was not immediately available to the Houston Chronicle, also includes an agreement that Carranza and the board will come up with a performance incentive for the 2017-18 school year.
After signing his contract, Carranza shook hands and hugged the nine school board members as high school mariachi musicians played in the background.
In his first message to the community, Carranza said: "First and foremost, what you see is what you get. I'm a teacher." He pledged to be visible in the community and to continue a tradition of innovation in the "world-class city" of Houston. He also addressed the crowd in Spanish.
Overall, the new superintendent is being paid much less than his predecessor Terry Grier. Grier received an annual base salary of $300,000, but his total compensation topped $500,000 annually with performance bonuses and other perks. Also, Carranza's base salary is lower than the $375,000 paid to the new Katy ISD superintendent, Lance Hindt, hired in July to lead the 70,000-student suburban district.
In San Francisco, Carranza was making $310,000 a year, plus had $25,000 deposited into a savings account after his first year. The contribution was set to increase to $45,000 in his third year.
His hiring comes just days before students return to class Monday, starting a new era in a district dogged by academic and financial challenges.
"I am confident you are going to make an extreme mark here," HISD board member Greg Meyers said after the vote. "We have a lot of work to do."
The Houston job will be Carranza's second stint as a superintendent, moving from a 55,000-student district to the nation's seventh largest, with 215,000 students.
Carranza, 49, is in Houston Thursday to be introduced to the public for the first time following the HISD board's action. The board unanimously named him the sole finalist for the superintendent's job in late July but had to wait 21 days to making the hiring official under state law.
Carranza, a native of Arizona and the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is the Houston district's second Hispanic superintendent, reflecting the majority of the student population here. Like many of Houston's students, Carranza did not learn English until elementary school.
Carranza will be charged with improving the district's low-performing schools — 40 landed on the state's unacceptable list released this week. He also will have to shepherd the district through tight financial times. HISD must forfeit about $160 million in local property taxes under the state's school-funding system because it is considered too property wealthy.
In addition, Carranza will inherit the district's $1.9 billion construction program, approved by voters in 2012 but far from finished.
Carranza has a reputation as a charismatic leader who in San Francisco worked to increase the number of bilingual graduates, to decrease suspensions, and to form partnerships to expand social services for needy students. A noted mariachi musician, he also strongly supports arts education.
HISD has been without a permanent superintendent since Terry Grier retired at the end of February after a controversial six-and-half years on the job. His tenure here was about double that of the average superintendent of an urban district.