Teacher Says She Learned Hard Lesson About Union Work : Civil rights: Capistrano district withdrew an offer for Maria Leon to lead Spanish classes. She says her employee association activity was the reason.

Just a week before school began in September, Maria Cristina Leon thought she landed a new teaching job. She received her school assignment as the new Spanish teacher at Dana Hills High School and was issued textbooks for her classes. She even got a parking place.

Two days later, the principal called Leon, a six-year teaching veteran specializing in advanced-placement Spanish, with bad news.

According to Leon, the principal told her that district officials had deemed her a “disgruntled employee” and that he had to retract the job offer. The decision led Leon to file a federal civil rights complaint against the Capistrano Unified School District with the U.S. Department of Education.

Leon alleges that school officials withdrew the job offer because they were upset by her past activities for the Capistrano Unified Education Assn. Leon started her work with the teachers’ union at almost the same time she began teaching in 1986.

The job retraction was disturbing to Leon, who has strong roots in the district. Leon is a 1967 graduate of San Clemente High and her mother, also a teacher, has worked in the district for 20 years.

“I was terribly upset,” Leon said. “It was as if a rock had fallen on me. I was preparing for this (class). I picked up the textbooks, the material and everything else.”

After scrambling to find another job, Leon is now working part time at Marina High School in the Huntington Beach Union High School District. She said she has been forced to supplement her income, which she said is half of what she could have earned at Dana Hills High, by giving tennis lessons.

In 1990, Leon quit her job at San Clemente High School to attend Loyola Marymount Law School. But this summer, she decided to return to teaching and attend law classes at night. She heard there was an opening for a Spanish teacher at Dana Hills High School and applied.

On Aug. 21, Leon met with principal John Smart for an interview. A few days later, Smart called her to say he was recommending that district hire her for the $37,000-a-year job. On that same day, Leon visited the campus to pick up textbooks and other lesson materials.

During the visit, Leon said, Smart introduced her as the new Spanish teacher to various faculty members, including the head of the Spanish department. At the end of her visit, she was issued texts, assignment books and a parking permit, she said.

But on Aug. 28, Smart called Leon and told her she could not have the job. Smart, Leon said, told her that William Eller, the district’s assistant superintendent for instructional operations, did not want to give her a contract.

In an interview, Smart said he did not hire Leon because his first choice, a part-time teacher, accepted the job.

Eller acknowledged that he described Leon as a “disgruntled employee” when he discussed her application with Smart but denied retaliating against her for her union activities. Eller said he conducted a background check at San Clemente High, where Leon had formerly taught, and talked to Principal James F. Krembas. Eller says he was not satisfied with Leon after his check.

“I asked (Krembas), ‘Is this employee the kind you want on your staff?’ The answer was, ‘No,’ ” Eller said. “It was not an issue of competence. Ms. Leon was a fine teacher. The issue was a matter of whether she was a team player.”

Krembas confirmed Thursday that Eller contacted him and asked about Leon.

“During conversation I indicated to him that she was not a team player,” Krembas said.

Leon, however, said a letter of recommendation from San Clemente High Assistant Principal James T. Walshe, who was her direct supervisor, indicated no such problem.