SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Ruling Forces District to Rehire Teacher

It’s been a year and a half since Maria Cristina Leon’s plans to start teaching at Dana Hills High School were dashed when the job was withdrawn and she was labeled “disgruntled” by a district administrator, allegedly because of her union activities.

But now, after a ruling by the California Public Employment Relations Board, Capistrano Unified School District officials have been ordered to give Leon the job taken from her in August, 1991.

Leon, who has taught for the district before and now teaches at Fallbrook Union High School in San Diego County, said she is excited about returning to the Capistrano district.

“My roots are here,” she said. “This is my home. I graduated from San Clemente High School. . . . My mother taught here for 20 years. I felt like I’ve always been a part of this district.”

In ruling that the district “unlawfully” denied Leon the job of Spanish teacher at Dana Hills, administrative law Judge Barbara E. Miller ordered the district to immediately rehire Leon and pay back wages for any time she was out of work. The district is complying with the decision, and Leon has accepted an offer to join the staff at Dana Hills in February. She will begin teaching at the school next fall, once she finishes out her year at Fallbrook Union High School.

A proposed cash settlement of more than $14,400 is also expected to be formally approved tonight by the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees.

“It was a long time coming, but let’s put it this way--there have been many who had similar situations happen to them,” Leon said. “I just happened to have hard-core evidence. I had my teaching books. I had my parking pass. . . . I had been introduced to the entire staff at Dana Hills as the new Spanish teacher. I was given my room assignment. I was given my class assignment.”

After teaching Spanish at San Clemente High School for five years--where she consistently received high marks--Leon quit her job in 1990 to attend Loyola Marymount Law School.

A year later she decided to return to teaching and attend law classes at night. She applied for the job of Spanish teacher at Dana Hills.

Soon after, Principal John Smart recommended that she receive the job, but the offer was withdrawn a week before classes were set to start when district Asst. Supt. William Eller called Leon a disgruntled employee.

In the ruling, Judge Miller ruled that the district offered no evidence that Leon was a disgruntled employee and that her past visible involvement in the Capistrano Unified Educators Assn. appeared to be a factor in the decision, a violation of the state education code protecting union involvement.

“Attempts by district witnesses to explain the comments ‘disgruntled,’ ‘not a team player’ or an ‘unhappy person’ were simply not persuasive,” Miller wrote.