School’s HR Chief, Overseer of Pink Slips, Exits

The San Diego Unified human resources chief who had the unenviable job of overseeing the issuance of hundreds of pink slips to teachers, bus drivers and other school employees is leaving the school district at the end of June.

I haven’t heard back from Sandra Huezo yet about why she’s leaving, but it obviously hasn’t been an easy time to be in her shoes.

Huezo took the job as the Chief Human Resources Officer in San Diego Unified more than a year and a half ago, a few months after former Superintendent Terry Grier announced his departure. The teachers union recently called out Huezo by name on its website, arguing she and her department “simply do not possess the organizational competence to issue layoff notices in a manner that is compliant with California state law.”

She’s also gotten grilled by the school board about staffing numbers, though school board frustrations with getting accurate, timely information about school staffing existed long before Huezo got to San Diego Unified.

She worked previously at the Sweetwater Union High School District and is returning there now; Huezo also had an earlier stint in human resources at San Diego Unified before working in Sweetwater.

I’ll post an update when I hear back from Huezo about her departure.

Update: Huezo and I played phone tag until Friday morning. She told me the Sweetwater job was a promotion — she’ll be an assistant superintendent there — and not caused by any stress in San Diego Unified. Besides, she said, when it comes to budget stress, “It’s pretty much the same everywhere.”

Please contact Emily Alpert directly at emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5665 and follow her on Twitter: twitter.com/emilyschoolsyou.