A new Alisal Union School board member accused her fellow trustees of not taking needed action on poor test scores when they could not rearrange their schedules to attend a special board meeting thereby the district to opt out of calling the meeting. -DB
The Monterey County Herald
September 24, 2009
By Claudia Melendez Salinas
A newly elected Alisal Union School District board member is accusing fellow trustees and the superintendent of stonewalling her while she’s trying to jump-start much needed reforms for the district.
Meredith Ibarra, who succeeded Jesus Velasquez after he was recalled in an Aug. 25 election, asked the board last week to schedule a special meeting to discuss issues such as bilingual education, trustees’ compensation, board meeting schedules and student attendance, among other issues.
The meeting was to be held Wednesday, but one of the board members immediately responded he had a scheduling conflict. By Friday, two other board members told Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas they could not attend.
In an e-mail, Zendejas told Ibarra she would not post an agenda without having a quorum.
“If I post an agenda, I’m misleading the public on the meeting that will not take place,” Zendejas wrote in an e-mail dated Sept. 18.
Ibarra, who ran on a campaign that decried the district’s spending, told Zendejas to schedule the meeting anyway. The meeting was posted late Tuesday; by early Wednesday, it was canceled.
“The meeting was very important,” Ibarra said.
The district’s state test results “are really bad and we need options to improve,” Ibarra added. “It’s an immediate situation that needs to be improved as soon as possible.”
Ibarra said that canceling the meeting is a violation of the Brown Act and that she’s going to seek a legal remedy.
But Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said there seems to be no Brown Act violation.
“Knowing that you’re not going to have a quorum, to have to show up and then adjourn is not in anybody’s interest,” he said. “That happens if you don’t poll the members.”
Trustee Lupe Ruiz-Gilpas said Ibarra never contacted her to explain what the meeting would be about.
“I commend her passion for the district, but … only as a team are we going to make the schools better,” Ruiz-Gilpas said.
At a news conference Ibarra organized Wednesday, she accused long-term board members of indifference and said it was under their watch that the district fell down academically.
According to the latest Accountability Progress Report, six of Alisal’s 12 schools failed to meet their state academic target this year. Ten of them are in “program improvement” status, which means the schools are under close scrutiny to ensure reforms take place.
Alisal faces an incredible demographic challenge: 70 percent of its students are English learners and 98 percent are considered low income.
But for trustee Jose Castañeda, who is constantly at odds with the rest of the board and has aligned himself with Ibarra, the lack of achievement is more the result of politics than of demographics.
Trustees Juan Flores, Gary Karnes and Ruiz-Gilpas “are doing the same things they’ve done to me: The veteran board members there, along with the superintendent and the attorneys, find every way possible to stall and not pass anything that affects them,” Castañeda said. “That’s why our district is not progressing.”
Copyright 2009 Monterey County Herald