In preparation for the beginning of the 2023 school year, Morgan Hill Unified School District leaders have been in the process of replacing numerous longtime staff members who have resigned from top positions in recent months.
The recent resignations include three assistant superintendents who have more than 40 years of collective experience at the local office. While some existing MHUSD staff and officials have suggested the turnover could be due to a number of factors that commonly influence educational professionals in school districts to seek new jobs or careers, some of the former employees and other community members have blamed the departures on the leadership and decision making process of Superintendent Dr. Carmen Garcia.
MHUSD Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Fawn Myers—who worked for the local district for about 27 years—resigned in April. Assistant Superintendent for Business Services and District CFO Kirsten Perez resigned in May, after working for MHUSD for about 12 years. And Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Pilar Vazquez-Vialva, who started at MHUSD in 2019, resigned from the district in June.
Myers and Vazquez-Vialva have subsequently been hired by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, according to their LinkedIn pages.
Additional district staff leaders who have resigned since December 2022 include former Director of Transportation Kathleen Rael (resigned in December); Supervisor of Student Nutrition Patricia Cattoor (resigned in June); Human Resources Specialist Vahlya Eldredge (resigned in July); and Director of Technology Brandon Coelho (resigned in July).
A number of school principals and assistant principals have resigned from different school sites since the end of 2022 as well, according to district personnel records.
Newly hired district officials include Dr. Diana Jimenez, who has replaced Vazquez-Vialva as Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services; Patrick Sanchez, who will replace Myers as MHUSD HR director; Penny Timboe, who has replaced Perez as Assistant Superintendent of Business Services; Maggie Zapata, MHUSD’s new Director of Transportation; and Gianmarie Oddi, recently hired as Supervisor of Student Nutrition.
Upon their resignations, Myers and Rael wrote letters to the MHUSD Board of Trustees explaining their decisions to leave the district. Both expressed their frustrations and misgivings with the leadership style of Garcia, who the board hired as superintendent in 2021. Garcia had previously worked as the Superintendent of the San Marcos Unified School District.
Myers’ April 18 letter/email to the board detailed a dozen specific concerns with Garcia’s leadership as it relates to hiring practices, the overall work environment within the district and “effective evaluation systems” for employees. Her letter begins with the claim that the board “has become increasingly alienated and isolated from members of the Executive Cabinet,” referring to the assistant superintendents.
“Several long-term employees have left explicitly due to current workplace culture, including lack of regard for understanding historical practices in order to examine impact of any changes (and) dismissiveness of existing expertise,” reads a portion of Myers’ letter.
Myers’ letter also claims that “fair hiring practices have recently been bypassed or eroded,” new initiatives or policies “are hastily implemented” and officials “have been undermined or bypassed when they express concerns about implementing new initiatives or ideas.”
When asked about the concerns raised by Myers and others, Garcia issued a statement through the district’s communications office.
“Since I’ve been Morgan Hill Unified’s Superintendent, I have engaged, and continue to engage, in dozens of listening, reading and learning sessions with all stakeholders. All seeking a collective change for the better to meet the needs of all students,” reads Garcia’s statement. “While I recognize that it is impossible to please everyone, I am extremely grateful for the overwhelming support that I have received from parents, employees, students and community members. I’m here to make the Morgan Hill Unified School District a district where every single parent and student feels heard and staff are supported in their efforts to ensure academic success for all students.”
MHUSD spokesperson Lanae Bays added, “It’s not unheard of that people vacate districts.” She noted that school districts are often losing employees and seeking to hire new ones for a variety of reasons.
While leading the San Marcos district, Garcia faced criticism from parents about her hiring practices at a number of school sites, according to news reports from San Diego-area media outlets.
Rael’s resignation letter to the MHUSD Board of Trustees, dated Dec. 29, 2022, says that after working happily for the district for 22 years (starting as a bus driver), it has become “like a dictatorship” under Garcia’s leadership.
She specifically cited a change in bell schedules “at the last minute” last school year that would have made it difficult for bus drivers to safely travel between school sites. When Rael raised her concerns to Garcia, she was told to “just make it work,” Rael wrote in her letter.
“I think you as our board of trustees need to open your eyes and look into why many excellent leaders have left the school district this past year,” Rael’s letter says. “I know I’m not the first one leaving and I’m sure I’m not the last. I thought I was going to retire from Morgan Hill Unified, but being so unhappy I have made the choice to leave for my own mental health.”
When asked for copies of Myers’ and Rael’s letters, Bays said the documents are “confidential personnel items that are not disclosable to the public.”
This newspaper obtained the letters from other sources, and confirmed their authenticity with their respective authors. The Times on Aug. 11 also requested the letters from MHUSD under the California Public Records Act, to which the district has 10 business days to respond. (Update: The district responded Aug. 17, supplying the Times with the requested letters with portions redacted.)
Satisfactory evaluation?
MHUSD Board of Education President Ivan Rosales Montes said the trustees recently gave Garcia a satisfactory performance evaluation at a board session in June. However, that meeting has also been fraught with concerns about its openness and transparency.
“During my tenure on the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education, I’ve collaborated with the past executive team and I want to express my sincere appreciation for their contributions to our district,” Montes said in response to questions about the recent staff departures. “Their efforts and dedication have made a lasting impact, and as they commence new journeys, we thank them for their service and wish them well.”
The meeting where the board voted on Garcia’s performance evaluation took place June 2. Five trustees voted “Yes” for a satisfactory evaluation, with Trustee Nancy Altman abstaining and Trustee Pamela Gardiner absent.
Jim Levis, a Britton Middle School teacher and president of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, noted during public comment at a later meeting that the June 2 agenda did not indicate that the body would take action on the superintendent’s performance. The closed session was rather labeled a “Goals Update” on the agenda.
Thus, the board’s vote on the superintendent’s evaluation was a potential violation of the Brown Act, Levis alleged in his “President’s Report” at the June 20 MHUSD board meeting. Furthermore, the board effectively “silenced” Gardiner—who was present at the beginning of the June 2 meeting but left before the board voted—by not informing her that they would vote on Garcia’s evaluation, Levis added.
Levis has been a frequent critic at recent MHUSD meetings of the trustees’ and district leadership’s communication efforts.
“These departures, along with numerous other departures from the district office at various levels, are very disconcerting,” Levis said at the June 6 meeting of the resignations of Myers, Perez and Vazquez-Vialva. “I have to ask the question: what is causing all these departures? Why now? The only change that I can identify that has happened since the start of these departures is the change in the superintendent. I have noticed that since Dr. Garcia’s arrival, there has been less collaboration and cooperation, and more top down direction.”
After this newspaper contacted the district for comments on the recent resignations and related complaints about Garcia, a handful of current MHUSD employees sent statements in support of the superintendent and new department leaders. School bus driver Diana Semides claimed that the transportation department is “headed in a different direction” and had become more “professional, organized and updated” since Rael’s departure.
“Since Kathleen Rael resigned, Interim Director Brent Hull has injected optimism and enthusiasm into our workplace,” Semides wrote. “He has advocated for us and shown immediate action after listening to our needs.”
After reading this article one has to wonder where the fault lies. I want to say that there are plenty of school districts experiencing growing needs. As a parent and grandparent we just want our children learning in a clean Safe environment and yet at the same time we would like to see a school district that runs smoothly for those caring for our children.
Public Ed needs a complete overhaul. I work in classrooms that have disruptive students diverting the teacher’s attention every day. Nothing is done to curb this so the bright.. respectful.. motivated students are getting a poor education.
Bring back the basics, and stop the nonsense going on in the classrooms now. I don’t blame these employee’s for leaving. I retired from MHUSD in 2010. I know what was was happening then and the teachers were facing so much then to detract from teaching. It has only gotten worse. Let them get back to teaching. I’m sorry these employees felt the need to leave after all the years they put in serving our children due to being disrespected and unappreciated. I worked with Fawn and she is a wonderful educator.
Often in workplaces staff leave when new management is brought in. The superintendent has to be surrounded by people who see her vision. Change can be good. Time will tell but give the woman a chance.