District nears gender equity in administrative roles

BY SAM MAILEY
[email protected]

In 2007-2008, nine females occupied site and district-level administrative positions in the Roseville Joint Union High School District. At the the same time, 22 males occupied the remaining positions. Currently, however, the ratio of female to male administrators of 16:19, including at individual sites and at the district, is the tightest in at least nine years.

RJUHSD superintendent Ron Severson doesn’t credit the closing of this gap to an organized, district-wide effort to hire females for administrative positions. Instead, he cites a bump in the female applicant pool.

“We’re seeing a shift and it’s going to be reflected as administrative jobs are filled,” Severson said.

At site-level administration, Oakmont High School, Granite Bay High School, Woodcreek High School and Antelope High School have the closest female to male gender ratios of 3:2 or 2:3. Roseville High School has the widest gap in the district with 1:4 female to male admin.

Two weeks ago, student activities director Lindsey Parker announced she accepted an assistant principal position at Antelope High School and plans to leave in the week of April 11. Parker won’t upset the current ratio, as she’s replacing a female assistant principal, Martha Paso, who left to become principal of Woodbridge Elementary School.

As for the gap, Parker sees improving generational assumption of gender roles as an explanation for the pattern in administrative gender representation.

“I know for me growing up I never felt like there were jobs that I couldn’t do because I was female,” Parker said. “And I know if you go back 30, 40, 50 years, that was very different.”

For at least the last nine years, there has always been at least eight more males than female administrators. That changed in 2015-2016, but Parker feels RJUHSD has been gender-supportive.

“I don’t think there’s ever been the sense or the feeling that you can’t apply for certain positions in this district,” Parker said.

RHS’ administrative staff consists of four male administrators, assistant principals Jon Coleman, Jason Wilson, Matt Pipitone, principal David Byrd and one female assistant principal Stephanie Malia.

Malia has been a part of the female statistic since the 2014-2015 school year, when she came to RJUHSD from Washoe County School District in Nevada, where she was an assistant principal. When Malia began at RHS, the gap sat at 11 females and 20 males.

“The year I was hired there was another assistant principal at Antelope who was hired that is a female, and Adelante’s principal is female,” Malia said. “And then we’ve had some changes mid-year this year and two of them have been female.”

One of the two position changes Malia mentioned was the current director of accounting services Jeana Kenyon, who began after assistant superintendent Joe Landon left to become the assistant superintendent of business services. This is Kenyon’s first position with RJUHSD.

At her previous site, Malia was a part of a female-dominated site administration in a gender-balanced district, and discounts gender bias influencing the administrative gender ratios.

“It’s just this kind of trend of more female applicants and more qualifications,” Malia said.

The first woman to work on district cabinet was current director of curriculum Suzanne Laughrea. Laughrea has been working in RJUHSD since 1989, but became the first woman on cabinet in the 2014-2015 school year when the administrative gender gap was at 13 females and 21 males.

Laughrea did not notice a gap in gender representation upon joining the cabinet.

“It didn’t even dawn on me that I was only the female, somebody else had mentioned it,” Laughrea said. “But everybody was my friend.”

Laughrea discredits a bias in the hiring process as an explanation for the gap, rather a general lack of female applicants. The uptrend in female administrators could be indicative of a more supportive environment for females.

“I’ve had a lot of men who were assistant principals and principals and assistant superintendents and even our previous superintendent who really encouraged me to pursue positions and other friends of mine who are female to pursue positions,” Laughrea said. “So I think it’s been a very positive environment for women to move up.”

At the site levels combined, the ratio of female to male administrators is 12:15, nine assistant principals and three principals being female, and 11 assistant principals and four principals being male.

Transferring from a female-dominant to a male-dominant administration, site and district-wide, Malia acknowledges an importance of a balanced board of administrators.

“It’s nice to have both genders on a team because it just balances things out nicely,” Malia said. “And in some cases it’s easier for me to deal with some situations as a female, and some situations are easier to deal with as a male.”

According to coordinator of categorical programs Judy Fischer, who has held her title for eight years, one of these “situations” that a gender-equal team of site administrators would benefit is maintaining relationships with a co-ed student body.

“I think it affects students positively to have both male and female administrators as role models or as a trusted adult that is similar to them so they can seek help, advice or advocacy,” Fischer said.

Byrd, like Severson, also attributed an equalization of demographics in applications, rather than a deliberate push for female administrators to balance the ratios, to the closing gap.

“I think maybe what we’re seeing is more and more women getting into the administrative arena and when they come in and compete for a job, they’re incredibly competitive,” Byrd said.