La Cañada Unified School District will lose its assistant superintendent of human resources when Jeff Davis starts a new job with the Ventura County School District next month.
Beginning Sept. 1, Davis will serve as the assistant superintendent of certificated human resources with the much larger district whose student population exceeds 17,000. Davis, who lives in Thousand Oaks, also will cut his current hourlong commute in half.
During his two years with LCSUD, Davis helped broker a hard-fought deal with the La Cañada Teachers Association. During the 2015-16 school year, Davis was at the table for 90-plus hours of negotiations before the district and LCTA reached an agreement that sufficiently closed the gap between the compensation earned by LCUSD’s teachers and those at similar high-performing districts.
“I feel like we’ve built some really good relationships with the LCTA and the [California School Employees Association],” Davis said. “We worked really hard together to create that and I’m really happy. We’ve really become partners. When you go through negotiations, you’ve got to remember to focus on the issues; it’s not personal, you’re dealing with issues. And I think we were all able to do that and come out better because of it.”
In a news release from the district, Superintendent Wendy Sinnette said that she and the Governing Board agreed that they will not immediately fill Davis’ position, choosing instead to review and restructure district-level administrative positions. For the remainder of the current school year, Sinnette will largely assume HR duties and Chief Business and Operations Officer Mark Evans will serve as the lead negotiator for LCUSD in bargaining meetings.
“Dr. Davis will be missed by the entire La Cañada Flintridge community,” Sinnette said in a statement. “He worked to improve policies and practices to better serve certificated, classified and administrative staffs within LCUSD.”
Davis has been involved in education for 31 years, working initially as a high school teacher before becoming an administrator. He said he valued his time with LCUSD and he’ll miss his colleagues and the community.
“The people are amazing here,” Davis said. “The students are so talented, the teachers really have a passion for their students, we have an incredible superintendent and cabinet and a school board that’s just so dedicated to this community and the school district. It’s just a great community. They welcomed me with open arms, so it’s hard leaving because I’ve built some pretty strong professional relationships here.”
