District Settles Racial Bias Suit by Ex-Leader

Centinela Valley Union High School District trustees have agreed to pay $150,000 to former Supt. McKinley Nash to settle a racial discrimination claim as well as two lawsuits that stemmed from a dispute over his contract.

The settlement, which amounts to less than half the $375,000 in salary and benefits that Nash sought in a breach of contract lawsuit, includes an agreement that both sides drop their claims against each other and refrain from filing new ones.

“With this settlement, the district has agreed to no wrongdoing,” the trustee president, Jacqueline Carrera, said Thursday. “Basically, we believed it was the best thing to do at this point in time because we have a new superintendent coming in and we just felt we wanted to get everything behind us and start fresh.”

Earlier this week, the trustees announced that Riverside educator Joseph M. Carrillo had been appointed the district’s new superintendent. He replaces interim Supt. Tom Barkelew, who has been serving as top administrator of the 6,000-student district for the past year and a half.

Nash, who became Centinela Valley superintendent in 1984, was fired from his post in July, 1990, four months after 2,500 students walked out of their classes to protest racism at the racially divided district’s two high schools.

Although the reasons behind Nash’s firing were not disclosed at the time, at least two trustees since then have accused Nash and other district employees of organizing the demonstrations to undermine the school board. Nash has denied he played a role in the student protest.

Soon after he was fired, board trustees asked a Superior Court judge to relieve them of any obligation to pay Nash a severance package. Nash, who claimed he was owed $375,000 in salary, benefits and unused vacation time for the three years remaining on his contract, filed a countersuit that accused the district of breach of contract.

In February, 1991, Nash, who is black, also filed a complaint with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleging that the school board, which is predominantly Latino, harassed him because of his race. He alleged he was fired “in retaliation for having opposed discriminatory treatment and practices against blacks.”

All three claims were dropped as a result of the settlement.

Nash, who is now employed as an executive with the Assn. of California School Administrators and is a lecturer in educational administration at Cal State Fullerton, said Thursday that he is pleased by the settlement, which as a personal injury settlement has the status of tax-free income.

However, he said he will not feel vindicated until other complaints of discrimination still pending against the district are resolved.

Nash is one of 16 former and current employees who accused the district of racial discrimination in complaints filed with state and federal authorities since 1990.

Of those claims, four are still pending while six were dismissed for lack of merit, three were settled and three others, including those filed by former Hawthorne High Principal Kenneth Crowe and former Hawthorne High security chief Jerome Brown, were withdrawn, said Mildred Collins, an attorney for the school district. Brown and Crowe have since accused the district of bias in civil lawsuits filed in federal court.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is also investigating claims of discrimination against the district but has not issued a finding.