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Move by Lodi Unified official signals curriculum transition

By Keith Reid
Record Staff Writer
March 23, 2012 12:00 AM
LODI - Lodi Unified School District Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Odie Douglas filed a request for reassignment last week, opening a window for the district to transition into a new philosophical mind-set at the high school level under new leadership.

Douglas, 54, was hired in Lodi Unified seven years ago as associate superintendent - second in command to then-Superintendent Bill Huyett. He has worked much of this time introducing a new level of "academic rigor" in Lodi Unified high schools under an all-college preparation model, meaning all students are enrolled in the courses colleges want to see on transcripts.

The Board of Trustees has declared recently that the district is to transition from an all college-prep model to the introduction of more career and technical education courses for students who believe a trade school or the work force is more likely to fill their needs than college readiness.

Douglas will be reassigned in July. The job he moves to could be within Lodi Unified, but Douglas said he has an open mind.

"I am looking forward to a new opportunity," Douglas said. "It's known that I've been pursuing a superintendency. I am going to continue searching for new opportunities."

Douglas was a finalist for Stockton Unified's superintendent search in 2010 before the district decided to hire the retired Carl Toliver on a two-year contract. Douglas also interviewed for the top spot in the Natomas Unified School District.

Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer said Douglas submitted his letter requesting reassignment within his credential area. She said the district has posted the assistant superintendent job without any replacement candidates in mind.

The position will pay between $105,000 and $135,000 annually according to an online classified advertisement. Douglas, who has his doctorate degree, is earning $164,000 annually.

Douglas was one of several administrators who were "re-shuffled" into new positions in 2010 after Nichols-Washer pledged to streamline services at the district office to coincide with other layoffs and budget cuts. The associate superintendent's office was purged in that shuffle. Douglas stayed in the superintendent's cabinet as an assistant superintendent.

"(Douglas) has a wealth of experience and knowledge. He's a very good person and a good administrator," Nichols-Washer said. "He is always going to do very well."

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San Jose meth bust: 750 lbs

A Palo Alto police investigation into stolen iPads has led to one of the largest methamphetamine busts in the country's history, federal investigators said Saturday.

Police and federal agents seized 750 pounds of methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of $34 million, from a San Jose apartment Thursday after Palo Alto investigators spotted the drugs while following up on stolen iPads, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The bust "is one of the largest we are aware of," DEA Special Agent Casey Rettig said.

Investigators found "boxes and boxes and boxes containing bags and bags and bags of methamphetamine" inside the apartment, Rettig said.

The 750 pounds, or 340 kilograms, of methamphetamine confiscated in San Jose is equal to about 16 percent of all methamphetamine seized across the country last year, according to figures on the U.S. Department of Justice website.

Three people were arrested on state drug violations after the raid on an apartment in the 4400 block of Woods Drive, authorities said. They have not released their identities. Rettig described the investigation as "very fluid" and said "there is definitely the potential for more arrests."

The home is part of the Woods, a subdivision in south San Jose that its website highlights as a "park-like setting of mature trees, formal landscaped gardens, greenbelts and tranquil ponds maintained to award-winning standards."

Palo Alto detectives pursuing the electronics theft conducted a preliminary search of the apartment and saw "a large quantity of methamphetamine," according to the DEA. They then called in help from San Jose police and the Santa Clara County district attorney, who called the DEA.

Investigators believe the home was being used both as a residence and as a laboratory where powdered methamphetamine was converted into a crystal form, also referred to as "ice." Such methamphetamine has an appearance often described as that of broken glass or shattered ice and is ingested by smoking, federal officials said.

Rettig said it was too early in the investigation to link the lab to known drug cartels or trafficking networks, but she indicated that the trend in large methamphetamine busts in Central and Northern California involves ice conversion labs for drugs primarily smuggled in from Mexico.

Last month, the Mexican army seized 15 tons of pure methamphetamine with an estimated U.S. street value of $4 billion. The sheer size of the haul from that raid in western Mexico "could potentially put a huge dent in the supply chain in the U.S," DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said at the time.

Investigators in the San Jose raid also found stolen items that had initially led Palo Alto police there, Rettig said, including iPads.

Chronicle news services and San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker contributed to this report.

John Coté is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

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