Lynwood Board Dismisses Schools Chief

Monday may have been the first day of spring break, but school officials in Lynwood sure didn’t spend the morning sleeping in.

Meeting in special session roughly one hour after sunrise, school board officials voted to dismiss Supt. Audrey M. Clarke in closed session.

The meeting, which began at 7 a.m. and lasted about 10 minutes, ended when the board ordered a security guard to usher Clarke from the district offices to her car.

The move followed years of wrangling between school officials and the longtime superintendent, and is likely to stoke further ill will among a sharply divided school board. Although three of the five board members approved Clarke’s dismissal, two did not--and refused to take part in the closed session.

The dissenting board members, Rachel Chavez and Margaret Araujo, said they sat outside the meeting in protest, and charged that the session was held illegally.

“They didn’t tell anyone about the meeting until late Friday night,” Araujo said. “Most of the staff were already on vacation.” State law permits closed sessions when government boards are discussing matters of personnel or litigation. The minimum notice for a regular meeting is 72 hours, according to a spokesman for the county Office of Education. However, proper posting for a special meeting is 24 hours.

Chavez said she believed the meeting was scheduled in the early morning to avoid the scrutiny of parents and faculty.

Clarke, who was placed on administrative leave without pay until her contract ends June 30, was informed in December that the district would not renew her contract.

Clarke has supervised the 16,000-student Lynwood Unified School District for nine years, and was earning about $105,000 a year.

Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, a district teacher who said he was handling the district’s press inquiries, declined to comment on either the dismissal or whether it violated state public meeting laws.

A release prepared by Bradley stated that “the action was taken in order to assure the community, parents, students and staff that ample time would be spent conducting a national search for the best superintendent the [district] can provide.”

Fred Kennedy, a deputy superintendent, has been named interim superintendent of schools, and was directed to come up with a list of recommendations for the position by July 1.