School District Administrators Reject Union

In a conciliatory gesture toward controversial school Supt. Cesare Caldarelli Jr., administrators in the Ventura school district have voted more than 2 to 1 not to form a union, it was announced Thursday.

School principals, assistant principals, school psychologists and other mid-level managers hope to set a good tone for the next school year by meeting regularly with Caldarelli to discuss problems, said Terry Holts, president of the Ventura Administrators Assn., which conducted the vote.

The tally for the mail-in ballot was 40 to 19. There are 80 administrators in the district.

“The decision was to work with Caldarelli,” said Holts, assistant principal at Cabrillo Middle School. “This is what I personally had hoped would come out of this.”

Caldarelli was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

A group of eight to 12 administrators is to meet with Caldarelli in August, Holts said.

Although principals and others have met occasionally with Caldarelli in the past, next year’s meetings will be ongoing and scheduled, Holts said.

A facilitator from the Assn. of California School Administrators, a statewide professional group, has been asked to serve as a mediator between administrators and upper-level management in the 25-school district, Holts said.

The facilitator will present samples of policies and procedures that are used in other school districts to aid Ventura officials in improving communication between Caldarelli and his administrators, Holts said.

“We’re going to make every effort to make sure our members are satisfied with any new policies or procedures we come up with,” Holts said.

Asa Reaves, a professional services executive with the association’s Los Alamitos office, said representatives from the 15,000-member group are often called in to help school districts settle labor or management disputes.

Unrest in the Ventura district began last fall after some administrators complained that Caldarelli was making management decisions that affected their jobs without consulting them.

Administrators were particularly upset when they received notices in March informing them that they could be reassigned. Some administrators feared that reassignment could lead to lower-paying jobs.

Teachers this month voted overwhelmingly to express no confidence in Caldarelli and ask the school board to remove him. Ninety-three percent of the teachers, or 524 of the 660-member Ventura Unified Educators Assn., supported the no-confidence vote.

However, blue-collar employees, including supervisors of maintenance workers, skilled laborers and bus drivers, sent a letter expressing support for Caldarelli.