Judge: 11 demoted in '99 should get their jobs back
By Maureen Magee, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 6, 2004

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School unions push for superintendent's ouster

Nearly a dozen San Diego school principals stripped of their management duties during a 1999 personnel shake-up led by Superintendent Alan Bersin should get their jobs back in addition to lost pay and benefits, a Superior Court judge ruled yesterday.

As part of a series of swift, controversial changes made soon after his arrival as superintendent, Bersin recommended that 15 principals and vice principals be reassigned to teaching positions.

San Diego Superior Court Judge William Pate said the district violated its own procedures when it demoted the educators without giving them due process.

Attorneys representing the district are preparing to appeal the case. They insisted the employees were not demoted; rather they were legally reassigned without any intent to punish them. They also said the now-defunct due-process procedure, which would have allowed the educators to discuss the cause of their demotions with the superintendent and trustees, violated state law.

"I can't leave my common sense at the door," said Pate, a former Coronado school board trustee. "You can call it whatever you want, it's a demotion. It's clearly a demotion under any use of the English language."

By some estimates, the judgment could cost the San Diego Unified School District well over $1 million in retroactive salaries, benefits and legal fees.

Eleven of the 15 demoted educators are represented in the lawsuit. All but three have retired. Sitting in the courtroom yesterday, they pumped their fists and wiped away tears as the ruling was announced.

"It's amazing. The message is you can't treat good people so badly, so unfairly," said Anne Tracy Bolton, who was assigned a teaching job after losing her post as principal at University City High School.

The school board voted unanimously to approve the demotions in June 1999. Afterward, the administrators were put on a two-week administrative leave, escorted to their offices by police officers and armed security guards and ordered to remove their belongings.

The district contends that the employees were reassigned because their leadership skills were out of step with the new direction of the school system under Bersin. However, several of the plaintiffs had glowing performance evaluations and supervised schools where students excelled.

Bersin declined to discuss the ruling yesterday, instead referring questions to a district lawyer.

"These were principals that didn't have the skill set to implement the reforms," said attorney Ricardo Soto, who added that the judge's school board experience may have hurt the district's case. Furthermore, public officials are legally blameless for these kinds of decisions except in cases of incompetence or when the law has knowingly been violated, he said.

Contrary to the confidential tone of most delicate personnel situations, Bersin's treatment of the matter was considered brazen. The media were provided a list of the reassigned educators' names, and TV crews subsequently camped outside some of the principals' homes.

Many educators have said the demotions fueled perceptions that the U.S. attorney-turned-superintendent was an intimidating force and not to be questioned.

The personnel shake-up came less than a year into Bersin's tenure and helped establish his reputation as a top-down manager. Principals, fearful of losing their jobs, often enforced Bersin's reforms so forcefully that many teachers developed a resentment for the programs and the administration.

"The whole district fell under this cloud of worry and fear. He did it deliberately," said Barry Bernstein, who lost his job as principal at Angier Elementary School. "Will this ruling help lift the cloud? This, and a new school board, just might."

Most of the demoted educators accepted classroom positions and pay cuts ranging from $12,000 to $35,000 a year.

San Diego Superior Court Judge William Pate, a former Coronado school board trustee, said San Diego Unified violated its own procedures when it demoted the administrators without giving them due process.

The San Diego Administrators Association and the San Diego Education Association contributed to the educators' legal fund. But over the years, the determined group scrimped and sacrificed to pay attorney fees.

Brenda Campbell, for example, lost her job running the ALBA alternative school. She accepted a position teaching English at Mission Bay High School, but said she was forced to take a second job at National University to pay for her daughter's college tuition.

Similarly, Alex Cremidan went from principal at Whitman Elementary School to physical education teacher. After the pay cut, he told his USC-bound son that the family couldn't afford the tuition, so his son went to UC San Diego.

"It was hard," Cremidan said. "I don't think any job is beneath anyone. But my first day wheeling out the P.E. cart, that was tough."

Soto plans to brief the school board on the case Tuesday during a closed-door meeting. It will be the current board's final meeting before three newly elected trustees take office next month. He said the case should be appealed.

But two of the three trustees-elect – Shelia Jackson and Luis Acle – have said they want to reinstate the principals. And trustee John de Beck would not support an appeal.

"I apologized to all of the administrators long ago," de Beck said. "I never should have voted for it. I have always regretted it. . . . I went along with it because I gave Bersin the benefit of the doubt."

During a candidates forum before Tuesday's election, Acle called the 1999 demotions disgraceful.

Jackson said yesterday that any decision regarding an appeal belongs to the new board. "I don't think we should go against the judge's ruling."

Pate's decision is tentative until he finalizes it within about 10 days. In the meantime, the plaintiffs and their lawyer will decide how to tally the back pay and benefits owed to them. They also will request that the district reimburse their attorney fees, which so far have reached nearly half a million dollars.

When the case was in federal court, which was determined to be the wrong jurisdiction, the district hired outside lawyers. District officials could not provide the amount spent on attorney fees yesterday. However, Soto said, the Superior Court case has been paid for entirely by the district's liability insurance policy.

Some of the educators said they might come out of retirement to reclaim their jobs. Others have no plans to rekindle any kind of relationship with the district.

Attorney George "Bill" Shaeffer, who represents the educators, said the significance of the case goes beyond the legal system.

"There were rules in place, and Alan Bersin came in and decided he didn't have to follow them," he said. "But more importantly, this was about human beings and how you treat people."

Maureen Magee: (619) 293-1369; maureen.magee@uniontrib.com
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Removal of S.D.'s Bersin is focus of petition drive
By Helen Gao, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 6, 2004

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Riding on the momentum of Tuesday's election that swept into office three new school board trustees who promise change, two San Diego Unified School District employee unions have started a petition drive to oust Superintendent Alan Bersin.

The San Diego Education Association and the California School Employees Association this week handed out copies of petitions to their school representatives, calling for an end to "Bersin's monopoly of failed educational initiatives."

The education association represents teachers, counselors and other certificated staff while the school employees association represents clerks, technicians and other support staff. The bulk of the district's 15,800 employees belong to the unions

Under Bersin's leadership, the petition says, the district has failed to listen to teachers, adopted questionable classroom reforms and misspent money on expensive consultants. The petition says employees are demoralized because "fear and intimidation tactics have become commonplace during the Bersin Administration and its top-down management style."

All three trustees-elect have echoed some of these sentiments, but not all embrace the petition drive. Two have questioned the teachers union's credibility due to its history of endorsing candidates who fail.

Bersin, whose reforms were supported by U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said he would defer to the views of the newly elected trustees, adding that what the unions are doing is "entirely inconsistent with a fresh start." He has expressed optimism about building a working relationship with the new trustees.

Under Bersin's leadership, test scores have risen in elementary grades, but his reform plan, the Blueprint for Student Success, has not turned around secondary education.

Trustee-elect Mitz Lee, a parent advocate and travel agent, advocates buying out Bersin's contract before it expires in mid-2006 and ending the blueprint. A buyout could cost the district $250,000 to $283,000.

Trustees-elect Shelia Jackson, a former teacher, and substitute teacher Luis Acle want to work with Bersin until he leaves, but they want changes in the meantime. None of the three trustees-elect were endorsed by the teachers union. The union's candidate, Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, lost to Jackson.

Jackson and Lee said the petition drive is unnecessary and premature. The new trustees will be sworn in Dec. 6, and the unions may submit some petition signatures at the swearing-in ceremony.

"San Diegans have spoken loud and clear they want a new direction. I believe the teachers union has to trust the new board," said Lee, who stands by her stance on Bersin and the blueprint.

Jackson prefers giving Bersin a chance to "straighten himself up." She said, "He knows people aren't happy with what he is doing."

John de Beck, one of two incumbent trustees and a Bersin critic, doesn't want anyone telling the board what to do. "We are going to be an independent board and decide on our own," he said.

The other incumbent, Katherine Nakamura, has been supportive of Bersin's reforms, along with Edward Lopez and Ron Ottinger, who are leaving office.

Terry Pesta, president of the teachers union, said the petition drive is meant to show the public's support for the new board to take action. He stressed it's up to the board to decide if, when and how to deal with Bersin. It requires a majority vote to terminate the superintendent.

"We are really concerned it's going to be hard for the district to move forward if Alan Bersin is still the person in charge," Pesta said.

The unions plan to rally other community organizations and the general public to get as many signatures for its petition drive as possible.

Helen Gao: (619) 718-5181; helen.gao@uniontrib.com