The four longer-tenured Morgan Hill School Board members are the
targets of a group of community members demanding increased
accountability.
The four longer-tenured Morgan Hill School Board members are the targets of a group of community members demanding increased accountability.
Board President Tom Kinoshita and Trustees George Panos, Jan Masuda and Del Foster are being cited by the group, Community Alliance for Responsible Education, or CARE, for a lack of responsiveness to the wishes of the taxpayers they were elected to represent, according to CARE spokeswoman Victoria Battison.
“We are a group of concerned citizens in the community who have gotten together to insure representative leadership on the board because of the actions of the four senior members,” Battison said Thursday.
Battison said CARE has basic points or issues that have been raised that are the reason for the group’s formation.
“The board has lost the trust of the public,” she said. “We see a major division between the School District, the community, the teachers and the classified employees. The community needs to take a stronger role in the education of children.”
Calls to Kinoshita, Panos and Foster, who were in San Diego on district business attending a state School Board Association conference, were not returned by press time.
Masuda, who did not attend the conference, said board members have attended community meetings and are interested in the opinions and recommendations of the community.
“This is a most frustrating and challenging time for leaders, whether they are trustees, council members or state representatives,” she said Thursday. “Citizens are not happy, funding is dwindling and answers are in short supply and yet great challenges are before us.
“Either we can spend our time, money and energy working against each other or we can respect each other and pull together working towards a common goal. All board members including ‘the senior four’ are doing their best to keep the communication lines open.”
Battison, who said she joined the newly formed group approximately two weeks earlier, said she didn’t know exactly how many members were in CARE because there was no official sign-up sheet. She said there were more than 20 members, with more people expressing an interest every day.
“We have had a lot of people calling and a lot of people at the meetings,” she said. “We not a minority of the population, we are a voice for everyone in the community. A lot of people are upset, not only parents, but business and community leaders as well.”
According to Battison, the issues raised by CARE in regard to the four trustees are:
“ A lack of oversight, a lack of respect and regard for public input, including official citizens organizations and committees and task forces’ recommendations; a lack of fiscal responsibility and mismanagement of public funds; violation of state education codes and violation of state contract codes; adoption of questionable curriculum changes; the four have allowed the district to become uncompetative in teachers’ and classified employees’ compensation; the four have continued to support a superintendent who no longer garnishes respect from the community, who’s results and results of the district she leads do not justify the amount she’s paid; we believe the actions of the board have also had a negative impact on property values and contributed to losses of people who may have wanted to move into the district.”
Trustee Mike Hickey, reached at the conference in San Diego, said he is not surprised the group has formed.
“When I hear things like this, when a group of concerned people starts a committee or group to confront things they believe need confronting, I believe it is just a natural progression,” he said. “If you are concerned about an issue, the natural step is to get more people involved and attempt to influence people in charge to affect change. In this case, the community is obviously not feeling as if they are being heard. I also think board members would probably do the same thing if they weren’t on the board and if they felt they weren’t’ being heard.”
Trustee Shelle Thomas, who did not attend the conference in San Diego, said CARE could be a wake-up call for the board.
“This is coming from individuals in the community, a concerned community, and I know in my past year we haven’t done enough to reach out to the community,” she said Thursday. “Maybe this is where the dialogue begins.”
When asked about rumors that the group or someone in the community had started a petition to recall the four board members, Battison said Thursday that the group had not.
“We want to make it clear that the board needs to answer to the community and needs to be responsive to the community and those who have elected them,” she said. “They have been making choices independent of community desire, going against people who voted for them.”
When asked if CARE would be seeking a recall of the four board members, Battison said, “We don’t have any comment at this time.”
First-term board member Hickey, Thomas and Khemici were elected in November 2002. Kinoshita was elected to a third four-year term at the same time.
The seats held by Panos, Foster and Masuda will be on the November 2004 ballot.
