MUSD Superintendent Helen Rossi to Retire at End of School Year

Rossi will wrap up 31-year career with Martinez Unified in June, citing desire to spend more time with family; process to find a successor to start with Feb. 1 workshop

Martinez Unified School District Superintendent Helen Rossi will retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year, it was announced at the beginning of Monday’s school board meeting.

Rossi is retiring from a career that spanned more than 30 years and eight positions in MUSD, rising from the position of eighth grade math teacher when she arrived in January 1994 to become the district’s top administrator. She played a key role in navigating the district through the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, first as interim superintendent at the start of the 2020-21 school year, when pandemic lockdowns ushered in remote learning. Following the short tenure of Superintendent Julie Synard, who abruptly resigned in February 2022, the school board tapped Rossi to become full-time superintendent.

Rossi became emotional at Monday’s meeting when she explained her decision to step down when the school year officially ends June 30, saying that she wants to spend more time with her family, including grandchildren, nieces and nephews, both in California and on the East Coast.

“I want everyone to know this was not an easy decision for me to make,” she said, adding that she wanted to make the announcement now to give the board ample time to find a successor. “I have tried my best to model a strong work ethic and make decisions that I felt were best for students, staff and and the district. I tried to be reflective of these decisions, and when in the long run they could have been better, I corrected them, made amends and moved forward.

“I also realized that there were many that didn’t agree with me, and I was OK with that. A well-respected teacher once said to me, ‘We may not always agree with your decisions, but we know that a lot of thought went into them and students were at the center.’ I think of that conversation often, and it gives me the strength to move forward.”

The district will hold a workshop on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the district board room at 921 Susana St. to discuss the process of hiring a new superintendent. Rossi said an agenda for the workshop, which will be facilitated by a consultant, would be placed on the district website on Tuesday.

“You have my word that I will do everything in my power to make the transition to a new superintendent as smooth as possible, having the least amount of impact on our students,” she said.

Rossi said that when she took on the superintendent’s job in 2022, she had planned to stay in the role for two years and retire last June. She decided to stay on an additional year to see the district through contract negotiations with its employee unions.

Rossi spent nine years as principal at Martinez Junior High School before moving to the district office in 2013 as director of student services and secondary support. She later took on assistant superintendent roles in charge of personnel services and administrative services.

In the latter role, she assumed responsibility for managing the district’s budget and finances, maintaining fiscal health in the face of numerous headwinds that buffeted the district, including increasing obligations to finance unfunded liabilities relating to retiree pensions and health benefits, followed by revenue challenges tied to the state’s funding formula that is based heavily on average daily attendance. When district enrollment fell precipitously in the midst of and following the pandemic, MUSD’s revenues slid as well, laying the foundation for its current budget crisis.

Rossi also came under attack from the Martinez teachers union during contentious contract negotiations last year in which the union initially demanded another 10% raise on top of the 19% and 10% hikes they had received the previous two years. The union claimed Rossi was overpaid, comparing her salary on a per-pupil basis to districts with significantly higher enrollment than MUSD; most large school districts have more administrators and bureaucratic layers built into their operations than is the case at MUSD, where the superintendent has traditionally taken a more hands-on role in daily operations.

When the board approved a raise for Rossi bringing her annual salary to $267,858 in May, then board president Courtney Masella-O’Brien said, “I actually think we’re getting a bargain deal.”

After threatening to strike, the union eventually settled for a 6% raise (which was matched for all other district employees), further straining a structural budget deficit that shows no signs of abating. The district and union are again trying to hash out salary issues, with the union requesting a 2% pay hike after initially asking for 3%, and the district countering with a 0.5% offer.

The board is also expected to approve budget cuts for the 2025-26 school year totaling roughly $1.8 million in February, with further cuts expected to follow in coming years as its reserves are projected to fall dangerously low, approaching the minimum 3% required by state law.

The ongoing budget challenges and enrollment decline, which finally stabilized this year, dominated Rossi’s tenure; she and the school board also took aggressive action to address equity and racism issues in schools and help students and staff recover from the toll of the pandemic, focusing on mental and emotional supports. She navigated significant turnover in board and district leadership, hiring a number of new district and site administrators and adjusting to a slew of new board members. None of the current board members were in place when Rossi began her first interim stint as superintendent in 2020.

During her comments Monday, Rossi reflected that serving as MUSD superintendent has had both positive and negative effects on her family. When informed that she had decided to retire, Rossi said, her 14-year-old grandson responded, “Does that mean you’re going to actually spend more time with us?”

She also wants to spend more time with her growing extended family of nieces and nephews, as well as caring for her aging mother. “I want to be part of their lives and not just Aunt Helen on a plane in the sky.”

Rossi’s announcement came at the beginning of a long board meeting in a standing-room-only board room. The room was packed with trade union workers who are attending for the board item to discuss an extension of the district’s Project Labor Agreement to cover new construction projects that will be funded by the bond measure passed by voters in November. Parents and students also showed up for discussions on MUSD’s special education services and proposed budget cuts, and the board is planning to appoint a candidate tonight to fill the vacant Area 3 board seat. During the budget discussion, a number of parents and students spoke during public comment in opposition to a proposal to cut Alhambra High School’s college and career counseling position.

The board meeting was ongoing at the time of this post. Look for a post later in the week on the board appointment and other topics from the meeting.