Orange School Trustees Dismiss Superintendent

The Orange Unified School District Board of Trustees announced Thursday night that it had fired Supt. Kenneth D. Brummel and named John Ikerd acting superintendent.

Board president Robert Elliott made the terse announcement at the beginning of a regular board meeting. He disclosed that the seven-member board had met behind closed doors Monday and, on a 5-2 vote, approved an agreement with Brummel that prematurely ends his three-year contract.

Nothing was said during Thursday’s public meeting about why Brummel was being fired, and after the session ended board members had little to say. As part of the agreement through which Brummel’s contract is being terminated, neither side can speak critically of the other.

The agreement put Brummel on vacation for the rest of this month and then on paid leave of absence until next June 30, when his three-year contract was to expire. His annual salary is $76,000.

Ikerd, the acting superintendent, has been the district’s personnel administrator since 1985 and a district employee for 22 years. Brummel has been under fire from some parents and teachers because of budget-cutting actions he initiated shortly after he took office July 1, 1984.

Storms of Protest

Those actions included a proposal to lay off up to 50 teachers and to close four elementary schools. He rescinded both of those actions after storms of protest.

Nonetheless, even Brummel’s critics conceded that he had inherited a financially strapped school district and one that subsequently was rocked by other troubles, including an ongoing investigation of a bid-rigging scandal that took place before his arrival.

Both board president Elliott, who voted to remove Brummel, and board member Russell Barrios, who voted to keep him, said in interviews that the bid-rigging scandal and investigation did not figure in the decision to remove Brummel.

“I voted the way I did because I felt the district would be losing a valuable asset in Dr. Brummel,” Barrios said. “Many of the things that this board has commended in education in our district have been started by Dr. Brummel, including the plan devised for class-size reduction.”

The other board members who voted to end Brummel’s stay as superintendent were Joe Cherry, William Steiner, Sandy Englander and Ruth Evans. The other member who opposed the action was Eleanore Pleines.

‘We’ve Lacked Leadership’

Mark Rona, president of the teachers’ union, the Orange Unified Education Assn., said in an interview that he was pleased that Brummel had been fired “because we’ve lacked leadership in this district for a long time.” But, Rona added, “it’s true that when Dr. Brummel came into this district, he stepped into a bucket of snakes.”

“He came in at a very difficult time,” agreed the union’s vice president, Wilma Wittman.

Brummel has a doctorate in educational administration from Columbia University and came to Orange Unified after being superintendent of schools in Grosse Pointe, Mich., an affluent suburb of Detroit.

Some Villa Park parents who were at Thursday night’s meeting told reporters that they were pleased that Brummel had been fired. Brummel had drawn the wrath of many in Villa Park, a wealthy part of Orange Unified, because two of the four schools he targeted for closing had been in that city.

The bid-rigging scandal allegedly involved a former maintenance supervisor in the district, Steven Presson. According to sworn affidavits filed in July in Orange County Superior Court, Presson gave inflated contracts to some companies between 1979 and 1984 in exchange for gifts, home improvements or money.

Police Were Brought In

Brummel, in an interview last summer, said he became suspicious shortly after he took over as superintendent about how some district matters were being handled. He said he ordered an internal investigation and later asked Orange police to “take a look at some things.”

Brummel’s first crisis as superintendent was the 1984 budget crunch in the school district. The district faced a budget deficit of more than $2 million, and Brummel said there would have to be more schools closed and possibly some teacher layoffs.

The teachers’ union vehemently opposed any layoffs, and there were bitter comments about Brummel by some teachers. In the end, layoffs were avoided.

By June 14, 1985, Brummel was able to announce that the school district was back in the black and was ending the fiscal year with about $500,000 in unspent reserves.

The transformation, said Brummel, was the result of many cost-cutting measures he had to implement.