School Board Leader Ousted

The Centinela Valley Union High School board ousted newly elected trustee Jorge Arroyo from his post as board president Tuesday in response to accusations that he had made racist and sexist remarks about staff and school officials at a dinner this month.

Reading from a letter she had written to the board, the district’s general counsel, Bonny Garcia, said that on Dec. 11 at a dinner at the California School Board Assn. convention in San Diego, “Arroyo engaged in a profanity-laced tirade, speaking in both Spanish and English.”

Arroyo “over the course of my excruciating dinner, lambasted almost everyone at the table, including myself, with the net result every other person at the table and every person within hearing at my table could not help but feel morally offended,” Garcia wrote.

Garcia said Arroyo had used profanity in reference to board members Maria Calix, Angelina Moller and Rafael Ramirez and other district officials.

Garcia also accused Arroyo of talking about matters during the dinner that the trustees had discussed in closed session.

The five-member board voted 3 to 1 to remove Arroyo from the president’s position, although he remains a trustee.

Moller, who introduced the motion, said she had been at the dinner and had heard the comments Garcia referred to.

“The racial and gender slurs directed at people also working for the district simply cannot be tolerated,” she said

Arroyo said: “All of those accusations and allegations are false and inaccurate and taken out of context.”

A representative of the teachers union, Shane Ellis, called the action a “total setup” and accused the board of using the allegations as a pretext to remove Arroyo from the presidency.

“This is so transparent, everybody sees right through this,” Ellis said.

Arroyo and board member Ramirez were elected with the support of the union in November.

Ramirez, who was vacationing, was not present at the meeting Tuesday.

Supt. Julian T. Lopez said he was appalled and embarrassed by the accusations.

“We suspend and expel students for that type of behavior,” he said.

The board elected Calix as its new president.