Data Dobbs on Leave, Being Pushed for Top Job at Old District

Stan “Data” Dobbs’ days as chief financial officer of the San Diego Unified School District may be numbered.

Dobbs is currently on “family leave” from city schools, district spokesman Bernie Rhinerson confirmed this afternoon. But Dobbs is also being pushed by community and union members in Hayward, CA. to seek the position of interim superintendent at the Hayward Unified School District.

Dobbs worked in Hayward before coming to San Diego earlier this year. His short tenure so far in San Diego has been marred by controversy stemming from a February interview with Voice of San Diego, in which he claimed the average teacher at the district earned $92,000 a year plus benefits, and said there’s not one piece of literature proving that increased class sizes impact student learning.

We fact-checked both of those claims, labeling the first false and the second “huckster propaganda.” Dobbs quickly apologized to the teachers union for his comments..

While Dobbs may have raised the ire of the local teachers union in San Diego, up north, he seems to be the darling of the Hayward Education Association.

Mercedes Faraj, president of the Hayward union, said she could not confirm that Dobbs has applied to lead the district. She said Dobbs’ name came up in discussions within the union and with the community about who would be a good leader.

“We kicked names around and his came up,” Faraj said.

Dobbs’ troubled start in San Diego provoked a lively discussion in the comments section of EBCitizen.com, a political blog that published a story about Dobbs seeking the superintendent position earlier this afternoon.

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