Official Resigned, District Insists

Is Margaret Reed the superintendent of schools for a sprawling suburban district in the east San Gabriel Valley, or isn’t she?

That is the question a judge may have to resolve. And the answer probably will determine how much it costs the Bonita Unified School District to get rid of Reed after hiring her just four months ago to oversee kindergarten through 12th-grade schools in La Verne and San Dimas.

It is a dispute ratcheted up by accusations that the all-white school board in those multiethnic bedroom communities discriminated against Reed because she is African American.

Reed submitted her resignation letter Aug. 16, apparently after criticism from board members about her ability to communicate with them and the public. The next day she rescinded her resignation.

The school board, however, announced Aug. 20 that it had accepted her resignation the day it was received and reaffirmed that decision Monday night.

But Reed insisted that she never quit. “She is as of today still the superintendent,” said Eric J. Bathen Jr., her attorney. If the board moves to fire her, Reed will be due 18 months of salary, worth $210,000, and benefits under her contract, he added.

Case law, Bathen said, gives a superintendent the right to rescind a resignation before a board formally accepts it. But the board disputes that claim, and contends that she is due just the 12 months of severance, worth $140,000, that she requested in her resignation letter.

Bathen said Reed might sue for discrimination and violation of her civil rights.

“The appearance of discrimination is there because there is no other reason for forcing her out. Five white board members replaced an African American superintendent with an interim [superintendent], who is a white male,” he said.

Board members are furious at the accusation and deny it.

“In other words he’s saying we’re racists,” said school board President Robert Olander II. “The same five people who enthusiastically voted to hire Mrs. Reed. That doesn’t make sense.”

About 42% of the district student body is minority, with Latinos the largest. The 10,000-student district has a good academic reputation, but its management has been plagued with problems.

“If I ran my business this way, I’d be out of business,” said Olander, who is not seeking reelection in November.

Richard McKee, a parent activist, agreed, saying: “There are so many good things going on at school sites, and all bad publicity comes out of the school district headquarters.”

Reed, a former Lynwood school district assistant superintendent, took the job when Bonita started staff layoffs to make up a nearly $4-million budget shortfall. The district had been without a permanent head for almost a year.

School board members said the relationship soon soured after they heard complaints about Reed’s ability to communicate. In July, Reed clashed with Olander and Bruce Colburn, another board member, over her decision to exclude Ron Vera, a district lawyer, from closed sessions of the board.

The California First Amendment Coalition and local activists filed four complaints about alleged violations of the open public meetings law since Reed took the post.

Bathen, however, said board members criticized Reed for designating a parking space for herself and keeping her door closed too much. “Maybe she wanted to close the door now and then,” he added sarcastically.

“They are going to have problems getting a superintendent. Anyone who’d do a good job won’t touch Bonita,” Bathen said. “It’s a troubled district.”

A year ago, the board voted 3 to 2 to hire Susan Brown, then a La Verne elementary school principal, as superintendent. She declined because of concerns about board divisions.

A previous superintendent, Ron Raya, was fired in 1997 after one assistant alleged that he had sexually harassed her and another claimed that he made false comments about him to employers. Raya denied the charges.

A permanent replacement for Reed is expected to be chosen after the November school board election. Said Olander: “Right now, the only people I’d hire are Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa.”