Novato's NUSD Mystery Mounds

One of the NUSD Novato Mystery Mounds.

This has always puzzled the Novatologist. Novato is known for the quality of its schools. Indeed, many people move to Novato just for the schools, along with the relative quiet and safety (Marin crime rate is a tenth that of Sonoma County), proximity to Marin Open Space hiking and environs, and of course what some see as Novato's, "magic triumvirate," the corporate intersection of Whole Foods, Starbucks and Trader Joes. But all is not well, schoolwise. The Novato Unified School District (NUSD) spends less per pupil than any other school district in Marin. And interestingly enough, NUSD has the highest paid administrators in Marin County, while Novato teachers are paid 25% less than other teachers in Marin -- and this with the NUSD sitting on an $18 million slush fund.

What's this nest egg for? Administrator pensions? No one seems to know. And no one will openly talk about it, for whatever reason. The Novatologist has never seen this mystery mound mentioned in the local rags (which are feckless, at best), but wait: as Yoda said, "There is another."

The NUSD also owns a large chunk of valuable, undeveloped real estate off San Marin Drive, catecorner to Apple Market, just down San Andreas on the southeast side. It's a big parcel, allegedly for "future school expansion," but the last the Novatologist looked, the NUSD is laying off teachers, closing schools and consolidating, so a future school site isn't in the works. Even with depressed real estate values, the NUSD would make enough money off this San Andreas land sale to bring Novato teacher's pay competitive with all other Marin County teachers (which snags the best teachers because they pay more, hello?) for at least a decade -- and new houses always sell in San Marin.

So, what are they thinking of doing with this other mystery mound of moolah potential? More administrator pensions? More to the point, do we even need administrators? What exactly do they do? Can they be replaced with a council of active teachers, who'd be thrilled to take on the mantle of administatorness if they were paid more? If anyone knows what the NUSD is thinking, or anything else in terms of this mystery, feel free to comment below and the Novatologist will share it with the rest of the class.

-What do you mean I'm not helping?
-I mean you're not helping. Why is that, Leon?