Redondo School Official Is Let Go

The Redondo Beach Board of Education has terminated Supt. Carol Leighty’s contract nearly three years early, capping weeks of community uproar over rumors that she was being ousted in a power play by the board majority.

The board’s 3-2 vote late Tuesday immediately sparked a recall drive against the trustees who had voted to sever ties with Leighty. The board will buy out Leighty’s contract for $240,000 plus benefits in an agreement drafted with her attorney’s help. The termination was effective immediately.

Both the Redondo Beach Unified School District superintendent and the board president, Carl Clark, described the departure as mutually acceptable. But they acknowledged that tension between the two was insurmountable.

“It was a matter of agreeing I should leave,” Leighty said Wednesday. “I am leaving with my head held high.”

According to Clark, the board had “major disagreements” with Leighty over financial planning, including whether the last two annual budgets were submitted in time for thorough reviews by board members. In each case, the document arrived about four days before the scheduled vote, he said.

“On July 7 the board sat down to go over goals and how she was doing. We came out of it saying, ‘This is not going to work.’ It blew up from there,” Clark said.

Leighty, who was hired in January 2004 at an annual salary of $160,000, defended her record. “When I came to the district, there was a lack of leadership and accountability,” she said. “I changed that.”

Clark said Leighty did not act aggressively to lease lucrative excess property the district owns. She declined to comment, saying that a proposed lease “is still in negotiation.”

At community meetings, many parents and others voiced support for Leighty as a popular, hard-working superintendent.

Nelson Zager, 56, is part of a new group that has taken out papers at City Hall to attempt to recall Clark and trustees Drew Gamet and Todd Lowenstein. The trio was notified Tuesday night of the recall drive, which needs about 8,000 signatures to quality for the ballot, Zager said.

Lowenstein is unafraid of a recall attempt. “What we do is always in the best interests of the kids,” he said.

Leighty inherited a district in turmoil after a contract battle with teachers helped force out her predecessor. “She got the community behind her, the teachers behind her. She really rolled up her sleeves,” Zager said.

He and others believe that the Redondo Beach Teachers Assn. did not want a strong superintendent for the 7,800-student district and that the board majority bowed to union wishes.

Both Clark and a union spokesman deny the accusations. “I can tell you that we don’t have that kind of power, nor do we seek that kind of power,” said Jeff Good, executive director of the union’s parent organization, South Bay United Teachers.

Bob Paulson, the district’s chief of student services, was named interim superintendent. Clark said Leighty’s replacement probably would be hired next spring.