Superintendent’s Resignation Still Heating Up Board : Education: Whether former Palos Verdes Supt. Jack Price should get severance pay is just one of the bones of contention.

It was sound and fury in stereo at the Palos Verdes Unified School District board meeting this week as board members who were charged with mismanagement and political manipulation went on the offensive by accusing their critics of misrepresentation and a hunger for power.

The meeting, only three weeks from an election where a majority of the board will be selected, grew so heated that a recess was called to cool things off.

A key dispute concerned severance pay for former Supt. Jack Price. He resigned earlier this month after calls for his ouster by board challengers Peter Gardiner, Barry Hildebrand and Marianne Kipper, who oppose the proposed closing of Miraleste High School.

Although board President Jeffrey Younggren, who is running for reelection, has said no board member pressured Price to resign, the board now is negotiating severance pay with the former superintendent. Price’s contract contains no explicit provisions for severance pay.

Board critics said at the meeting that severance pay would indicate that the resignation was arranged to rid Younggren and Marlys Kinnel, the two incumbents running for reelection, of a political albatross.

“It is highly unusual to pay severance to someone who resigns his job,” Palos Verdes resident Bill Snyder said at the meeting.

Snyder told board members that they have “an obligation to explain to the public this unusual expenditure of funds. I hope this whole resignation matter was not simply an election ploy to remove a piano from the backs of the incumbents who are seeking reelection to the board.”

Snyder’s request for an explanation was greeted with silence.

Younggren said in an interview after the meeting that the terms of Price’s severance would be made public Monday at a special 7:30 a.m. meeting of the board. He criticized those questioning severance pay for Price of conducting “a witch hunt.”

In an interview after the meeting, board Atty. Paul M. Ostroff said Price was due severance pay because of state education law and the way the former superintendent worded his resignation.

“He could have offered an unconditional resignation as a district employee, but he didn’t do that,” Ostroff said.

As a district employee and administrator who served more than four years, Price cannot be fired from those positions without a protracted process, Ostroff said.

“If he wanted to come in and sit at his desk for two to three hours a day, there is nothing the board could do,” Ostroff said.

In Sacramento, State Department of Education spokeswoman Suzie Lange took issue with Ostroff’s interpretation of state law that Price has employee status separate from his job as superintendent. She added that granting severance pay would undercut the board’s characterization of Price’s resignation as voluntary.

“Normally, when someone resigns, that would void whatever severance pay he is entitled to,” she said, pointing out that coupling severance pay with a resignation “sounds like they are allowing (Price) to save face. They offer him severance pay to cut a deal. That’s not unusual. It’s a graceful way to get out of a situation (the board members) want out of.”

The sharp, contentious meeting--with its acrid exchanges--is typical of the tone at recent board sessions. Opposition candidates have said they want to turn the election into a vote of confidence of the school board.

In the most heated exchange at the meeting, Younggren unsuccessfully attempted to silence east side critic Dawn Henry, who was responding to charges by board Vice President Jack Bagdasar.

The incident was the second public altercation in two weeks between Bagdasar and Henry, who tangled Oct. 2 when Price announced his resignation. At that meeting, Bagdasar had ordered Henry--who was charging the board with favoritism in issuing developer-fee exemptions--to stop talking after she had exceeded a three-minute limit on comments from the audience.

On Monday night, Henry began her criticism where she had left off two weeks before.

“Is it true that Ron Florance (a local commercial developer) received 42 exemptions, none of which qualified under the original resolution to collect developer fees?” Henry asked. “Is it true that Ron Florance’s corporation employs (board member) Marlys Kinnel?” (See related story, B3.)

A few minutes later, Bagdasar defended the board’s handling of the 1986 sale of the Peninsula High site for $6.65 million, which critics have said showed financial ineptitude. Turning to Henry’s comments about developer fees, he called them “just an old rehash,” and then mimicked her.

“Is it true,” he asked, “that Mrs. Henry doesn’t have anything positive to do with her life (other) than harassing the board?”

At that, a trembling Henry walked to the microphone, demanding to respond to “a personal attack.”

Younggren refused to let her speak and attempted to gavel her to silence.

“You don’t want to hear the truth!” Henry shouted.

“I don’t want to hear your lies!” Bagdasar shouted back.

Failing to silence either one, Younggren declared a brief recess.

Another dispute at the meeting concerned an invitation to residents living near Silver Spur Elementary School, on the west side, to attend a candidate’s night for the three east side candidates. The invitation is headed: “Let’s keep Silver Spur Elementary School open.”

Board member Joe Sanford said the invitation is a scare tactic, adding that Silver Spur is “open, and it is going to stay open.” He said there has not been any discussion since the 1982-83 school year about closing the school.

In an interview, Hildebrand pointed later to Price’s budget statement to the board, dated June 5, 1989. The document includes the superintendent’s recommendation to “consider the closure of Rancho Vista, Silver Spur or Soleado Elementary School and distribute those students to the remaining schools.”

In a plea to change the tone of meetings, Sanford said it was time to stop criticizing the board and to speak of what the board was doing well. As examples of what the board is doing right, he cited an 8% raise for teachers, the reinstatement of sixth period for high school students and progress on instituting an extended-day program for intermediate students.

“Is that mismanagement?” he said. “How could it be . . . ?

Sanford, whose term has two years left, said the three east side candidates represented “a last ditch effort” to control the school district by people upset with the planned closing of Miraleste. A voice from the audience labeled his comments “a campaign speech.”

Gardiner, Hildebrand and Kipper resigned from the East Peninsula Education Council (EPEC) to run for the school board. EPEC is fighting the planned closing of Miraleste in court and has sponsored an unsuccessful secession effort that would have permitted the eastern portion of the peninsula to form its own school district.

Kinnel denied she has worked for Florance, a developer and former Palos Verdes Estates city councilman and termed the tactics of her opponents “dirt.”

Younggren, a psychologist, said he is upset about an allegation from critics that he had received patient referrals from the school district. Critics have cited a school referral list of three psychologists that includes Younggren.

The board president said his records show he has had no patient referrals from the school district in 1989.

INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT: Former peninsula superintendent unanimously named acting leader of district. B5