School Board Meeting Redux, as Teachers and Parents Continue Separate Protests

Pasadena Unified teachers protested stalled labor negotiations in the hallways outside the Pasadena Unified School Board meeting on January 28, 2016.

 

For the sixth straight month, protesting teachers and parents dominated the opening of a Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) board meeting with protests over unsigned labor contracts and complaints about Madison Elementary School Principal Juan Ruelas.

As representatives of United Teachers of Pasadena, the California School Employees Association, Teamsters Local 911, and the Association of Pasadena School Administrators filled the hallway outside the chambers with chants and drum beats, a new wrinkle was added to the ongoing Madison Elementary drama.

Attorney Dale Gronemeier, whose office is representing Madison Elementary School teacher Patricia Guzman in a case against the Pasadena School District and Superintendent Brian McDonald, presented the school board members with a 91-page document with a cover page questioning whether or not Associate Superintendent Mercedes Santoro “lied” in response to questions asked by Pasadena Now about the investigation of complaints and accusations against Principal Ruelas.

Santoro told Pasadena Now on December 18, 2015 that “the allegations against Principal Ruelas have been investigated and found to be without cause.”

“That statement is untrue,” said Gronemeier. “It is multiply untrue.”

Gronemeier told the board members that public records had been sought from the district with regard to 48 separate allegations against Ruelas since August, and the district “not produced any, not one document to prove that there were any investigations of them.”

His document, a copy of which was obtained by Pasadena Now, includes copies of 48 separate requests for information regarding investigations of Principal Ruelas, as well as 48 separate responses from legal representatives of the school board.

Santoro did not respond to a request for comments regarding Gronemeier’s complaints.

Skip Hickambottom, Gronemeier’s law partner, devoted his public comment time to contend that no investigation had ever been conducted with regard to the allegation that test scores at Roosevelt Elementary were manipulated while Ruelas was principal.

Others rose to make complaints about Principal Ruelas, with one former teacher at Roosevelt Elementary calling him “a bully and a tyrant.”

Meanwhile, there is no clear end in sight to the continuing contract negotiations impasse between the various teachers’ unions and the PUSD.

Scores of red-shirted teachers and administrators noisily filled the halls of the PUSD building with shouts of “Good to Great….Compensate!”

“In June,” UTP President Alvin Nash told Pasadena Now last October, “the district adopted its budget for 2015-2016 with more than $10 million undesignated. This is more than sufficient to provide a 6 percent salary increase effective January 2016. Both UTP and the District agree that we should begin negotiating salaries and heath benefits for 2016-17, no later than January 31, but we will be unable to do that if we cannot settle the salary issues of [previous] years.”