Laguna Beach Board Fires Schools Chief

Ending two months of mystery, the Laguna Beach Unified School District fired Supt. Reed Montgomery on Tuesday for failing to show up for work since early December or provide evidence of an undisclosed illness.

Montgomery becomes the second school chief in less than two years to be forced out of the 2,500-student system, which has been plagued by financial turmoil and staff changes since the middle of 1996 and, this year, is burdened by problems of aging school buildings and a possible surge in enrollment. He headed Laguna schools for just seven months.

The board’s unanimous vote to terminate Montgomery followed a closed-door meeting that lasted nearly 90 minutes. School officials say Montgomery breached his contract with the district, exempting him from receiving severance pay. His salary was $95,000 a year plus additional incentives for performance.

Neither Montgomery, who is 51, nor his lawyer were present at the meeting. But in a news release, Montgomery said he planned to sue the school board to recoup his salary and benefits for the remainder of the three-year contract, which he calculates at about $300,000, as well as his legal costs.

“The board made me look like I was a criminal,” he said in a telephone interview before the meeting, “but in reality I was sick.” He declined to elaborate on the nature of his illness.

Because Montgomery said he plans to sue, school board members declined to comment on the firing, except to say that the action would be held up in court.

“We are confident that we are within our legal rights and are acting in the best interests of the students, staff and the entire Laguna Beach community,” Kathryn A. Turner, the president of the school board, said.

His brief tenure with the district has been in jeopardy since before Christmas, when he asked for a paid medical leave for reasons he would not reveal. Eight weeks later, school trustees say they still don’t know what, if anything, is wrong with him.

“Our position all along has been that we have insufficient information about this,” Turner said.

There were hints of discord from the beginning.

Since Montgomery joined the district July 1, the school board has held seven closed-door meetings with him to discuss his performance, according to the school board’s minutes. During the last session on Dec. 4, he reportedly excused himself at the beginning of the meeting and left. A day later, he complained of being sick and went home. He never came back.

Montgomery’s contract requires that the board send him a written termination notice and allow him 10 days to respond. That letter was mailed after Montgomery said he could not accommodate the board’s most recent offer to discuss the matter by Jan. 23.

Montgomery became superintendent in Laguna after holding similar posts in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. He is renting an apartment on Balboa Island and owns a house in the Lake Arrowhead area.

Marge Earl, a Laguna Beach resident who, along with her husband, Bob, headed the search committee that selected Montgomery, said, “He was head and shoulders above everybody else.” She interviewed 12 of his references as part of the selection process, she said.

“I thought Dr. Montgomery provided very strong leadership to the district, and I think the district is going to miss that,” she said.

Montgomery was hired in Laguna to restore stability to a school district damaged by a fiscal crisis in 1996 that resulted in a 5% salary cut on all employees and forced Supt. Paul M. Possemato to retire early.

Montgomery lacked any real foes or friends even in a city with such strong community support for schools that a private fund-raising group, SchoolPower, has raised nearly $6 million for the district since 1981.

“I don’t know if he was here long enough for us to form an attachment to him,” said Karen Vaughn, president of the Laguna Beach PTA Council.

At a recent school board meeting, Dennis Haryung, the president of the Laguna Beach Unified Faculty Assn., offered his public backing to the beleaguered school chief. Montgomery and Haryung used to meet every two weeks before board meetings to talk about issues.

“I felt like I had a good rapport with him,” Haryung said Tuesday.

But Haryung, like many teachers and parents, had urged the school board to avoid embroiling the district in a lawsuit with Montgomery that could harm the district’s already fragile financial condition.

Turner said on Tuesday that she could not make any assurances that the board won’t end up in court over the matter, because Montgomery has stated his intent to sue.

The latest leadership crisis comes at a difficult time for the board, which must decide next month whether to enroll up to 342 additional students from developments along Newport Coast. Many parents have urged the board to pursue a boundary change so the new homes would be in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

But the school board may accept a $6.6-million mitigation agreement from the developer, the Irvine Co., to add the students so it can use the money to rehabilitate its aging school buildings. The board also is considering a bond referendum to pay for school renovations and repairs.

Barbara Callard, principal of Laguna Beach High School, has been named chief administrator in Montgomery’s absence, dividing her time during the last two months between the high school and the district office across the street.

School officials said Callard will continue in that role temporarily. The process to search for a new superintendent has not been decided.