Santa Paula Educators Still Undecided on Contract Extension

Santa Paula elementary school board members are having a hard time making a decision these days.

Recently, trustees met behind closed doors to discuss whether to extend the contract of Supt. Dave Philips.

The problem is they cannot agree on what they decided.

So this week they turned the matter over to the board’s attorney to figure out.

The bickering over Philips’ job underscores growing tensions among board members and the superintendent, which some officials say is detracting from more pressing issues that directly affect students.

“Let’s knock it off and get to the business at hand,” said a frustrated Dan Robles, a trustee on the five-member board.

But the infighting appears only to be getting worse, as Philips joined board Trustee Ben Saiz this week in once again accusing board President Janet Grant and Trustee Wannette Juaregui of misconduct. Both opposed extending Philips’ contract.

During Thursday night’s board meeting, the superintendent said Grant allegedly solicited support for a City Council candidate in violation of fair political practice laws.

He said Grant asked five district employees about meeting candidate Robin Sullivan, who recently won a position on the City Council. Philips said it was inappropriate for someone in her position to be making such a request and that some of the employees may have felt intimidated.

Saiz made the same accusations during a board meeting last month.

*

Grant, who served as Sullivan’s campaign manager, said later she did nothing wrong by inviting district employees to coffee receptions with the candidate.

“In no way did I intimidate or harass them,” she said. “What did I do, walk up to them with a shotgun and say come to coffee? I did not do that.”

Philips and Saiz have also accused Grant of knowingly supporting the hiring of a person on probation for passing a bad check. The person in question was applying for a position as a yard supervisor, but did not get the job.

Although Grant contends she knows the person the superintendent is talking about, she says it “wasn’t reported like it happened at all.” She wanted more time to review all the details of Philips’ accusations before commenting further.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, Saiz accused Trustee Juaregui and Assistant Supt. Bonnie Bruington of misconduct.

He contended that Juaregui improperly left the closed session Nov. 4, leaving the board members in an “awkward” position when they voted on the superintendent’s contract with only four members present.

They said this led to confusion over the vote taken on Philip’s contract during closed session. Some trustees said the vote was 2 to 1 in favor of extending his contract, while others contend that the vote was tied 2 to 2, meaning Philip’s contract would still expire next summer.

Juaregui said she was under the impression there were no additional items on the agenda to vote on when she left. She questioned why none of the board members told her to stay if there was a vote coming up.

“The policy of the board has always been to not take action on items of such importance as the superintendent’s extension unless there’s a full board,” she said.

In a letter distributed to the board, Saiz also accused Bruington of attempting to “bully board members into doing things that she believes are appropriate.”

Saiz stated in the letter that Bruington improperly stopped him from leaving a meeting by placing her hands on Saiz and asking him to sign something.

In the letter, Saiz requests that Bruington “refrain from placing her hands on any board member in an effort to prevent them from exiting an adjourned board meeting,” and asks for an apology.

*

Bruington said she was simply trying to remind Saiz that his signature was needed on a complaint against Grant. She said Saiz never signed the complaint and did not hear her when she called him, so she “touched him on the arm and called him by name.”

Meanwhile, the trustees said they will ask the school district’s attorney to determine if the board president’s vote counts to create a tie on the superintendent’s contract.

Philips, who oversees the 3,600-student district, has served as top manager of the school system since 1989.