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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Arnold “Woody” Carter, Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2002


NOTE: Arnold "Woody" Carter is not included on the alumni pages of the Broad Superintendents Academy Web site.

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JUDGE DISMISSES EX-CAPO CHIEF'S $5.5 MILLION LAWSUIT, January 26, 2010, The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – An Orange County judge has dismissed a $5.5 million breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by fired schools chief A. Woodrow Carter against the Capistrano Unified School District, his second such ruling since Carter's termination more than a year ago.

Superior Court Judge Steven Perk in Santa Ana said Friday that Carter had "no facts" to support the argument that he was wrongfully terminated under state labor laws, and no right to have been notified of performance-related issues before he was fired…

Carter, a retired Army colonel, was fired March 9, 2009, after a tumultuous, 18-month tenure at the helm of Orange County's second-largest school district.

Capistrano's school board released a scathing, 54-page termination report that painted Carter as an insubordinate, scheming administrator who tried to sway school board elections and double bill the district for travel expenses.

In the termination report, Carter also was accused of showing "disturbing disregard" for student confidentiality matters, violating school board policies and state laws, and deliberately working to undermine and embarrass the school board…

Carter sued the school district in May 2009, asking for 18 months' severance pay that he said he was legally entitled to receive under the terms of his contract.

After the judge tossed out the lawsuit in December, Carter re-filed his lawsuit, this time seeking $5.5 million for future lost pay and benefits, including vacation pay, sick leave, health insurance and retirement pay…

Most of the damages Carter was seeking in his wrongful-termination lawsuit stemmed from the future earnings he purports to have lost, although he also demanded to be compensated for lost pay and benefits under his contract.

-$4 million in future lost salary, fringe benefits and annuity payments
-$887,250 in lost salary under his contract, which was terminated prematurely
-$250,000 in lost fringe benefits
-$125,000 in annuity payments
-$107,000 in lost vacation and sick leave
-$4,700 in moving costs to relocate to Orange County
-$1,400 to seek comparable employment elsewhere

Carter also was seeking 10 percent interest on the $5.5 million, plus attorney fees.
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FIRED SCHOOLS CHIEF SUES CAPISTRANO UNIFIED FOR $5.5 MILLION, January 26, 2010, The Orange County Register
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Fired Capistrano Unified schools chief A. Woodrow Carter has filed a $5.5 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the school district alleging his termination has resulted in "future lost salary" and benefits, his second such attempt to be compensated since he was let go nearly a year ago.

Carter says Capistrano's school board violated the terms of his employment contract when he was fired in March 2009, according to a filing last week in Orange County Superior Court…
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JUDGE DISMISSES EX-CAPO DISTRICT CHIEF'S $487,425 LAWSUIT, December 18, 2009, The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – An Orange County judge today tossed out a $487,425 breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by fired Capistrano Unified Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter asking to be paid for 18 months remaining on his three-year employment contract.

Superior Court Judge Steven Perk in Santa Ana said the former school district chief was not entitled to money under the terms of his contract. Carter was terminated in March in a unanimous school board vote…

In spring 2008, shortly after the school board approved a permanent contract for him, Carter was accused of attempting to alter the contract by inserting a lucrative termination clause guaranteeing him 18 months' severance if fired.

The school board was forced to rescind the contract and approve a new one – without the clause. (Even so, Carter went on to claim in his lawsuit he was owed this 18 months of compensation.)

Later, after he was fired, the school district released a memo from Carter explaining how the contract was altered…

Carter, a retired Army colonel, was fired March 9 after a tumultuous, 18-month tenure at the helm of Orange County's second-largest school district.

Capistrano's school board released a scathing 54-page termination report that painted Carter as an insubordinate, scheming administrator who tried to sway school board elections and double-bill the district for travel expenses.

Carter also was accused of showing "disturbing disregard" for student confidentiality matters, violating school board policies and state laws and deliberately working to undermine and embarrass the school board.

Carter denied the allegations in a 23-page rebuttal.

The district, meanwhile, spent $66,758 in legal fees from December 2008 to February 2009 to fire Carter on March 9, according to invoices from the school board's law firm.
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NEW FAIRFIELD-SUISUN CHIEF SETTLES IN, June 30, 2005, TheReporter.Com
Three and a half months after the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District [FSUSD] board appointed Arnold Woodrow Carter as superintendent, the administrator and retired Army colonel arrived Monday, eager to get started…

Carter, 56, has served as deputy superintendent for the Oakland Unified School District for the past two years.

The Floyd County, Kentucky, native, who goes by A. Woodrow Carter, spent 27 years in the Army, serving as a battalion commander with the 101st Airborne Division during the 1991 Gulf War. Carter retired from the military in 1998 to become the state administrator of the Floyd County school district and returned to school to study education and public administration.

From July 2001 to December 2002 Carter served as superintendent of Bourbon County school district, and was nominated to attend the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems…

Carter said his interest in education began when he served as a school board member in Killeen, Texas, while still in the Army…

[In August 2007, Carter left Carter left FSUSD for the position with the Capistrano Unified School District]
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EXECUTIVES TRAINED BY TURNAROUND NONPROFIT, August 11, 2003, The Oakland Tribune
OAKLAND -- The school district's new chief of staff is among a crop of administrators produced by an increasingly influential education nonprofit that trains executives to turn around urban school systems.

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Arnold "Woody" Carter graduated last year from an academy created by the politically-connected Broad Foundation to train urban superintendents. Oakland schools chief Randolph Ward also is participating in the foundation's training program, called the Broad Center for Superintendents…

[The Broad] Center was called in by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to recommend an administrator to run the Oakland schools following a state takeover.

Brown and Broad are longtime allies, and O'Connell is a major recipient of Broad campaign contributions.

"When we learned about the problems in Oakland, we wanted to be helpful," Broad said…

According to Broad, Chaconas' admitted lack of financial expertise was partly to blame for Oakland's fiscal crisis.

"The problem that Dennis (Chaconas) and others like him have is they start as teachers, and then 30 years later they become superintendents with no training in finance, labor relations, etc., and they surround themselves with people like them," Broad said. "I think people need the kind of training we give them. There's no other place I know of where they can get it."

The Broad Center for Superintendents accepts only about 1 in 10 applicants, all top executives in business, the military, nonprofits, government or education.

"I think we're going to see more and more of what we call non- traditional superintendents," Broad said, citing New York City and Chicago as examples of major cities where non-educators were put in charge of schools.

Whether that trend will prove successful in such cities as New York and Los Angeles remains to be seen.

Broad played a key role in former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein's appointment as New York schools chancellor…
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Arnold W. Carter is listed as a graduate of the inaugural class of the Broad Superintendents Academy in the Broad Foundation’s November 2002 news release.

More about the Capistrano Unified situation here @ http://www.cusdrecall.com/page26/files/tag-woodrow-carter.html

2 comments:

  1. This guy was a sexual predator throughout his army career and constantly in violation af army and federal government laws and regulations pertaining to standards of conduct and conflict of interest. It has all just finally caught up with him, however too late.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Snake oil salesman, for sure. His suit was galling, considering the cuts all districts are facing. Good riddance!

    ReplyDelete