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Board of Education Takes No Action on Polarizing Principal
Education Aug 30, 2016
Proposed rendering of the Hyatt Place Hotel project. Construction is expected to be completed by winter 2019. - Courtesy photo / City of Pasadena, Department of Planning and Community Development
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Madison Principal Juan Ruelas. – Photo by Terry Miller
By Gus Herrera
On Aug. 25, the Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education was given an update regarding Madison Elementary School.
The issues surrounding Madison have been well-documented over the past year, most recently 169 of the school’s parents signed a petition to remove Principal Juan Ruelas, who was appointed by Superintendent Brian McDonald without the oversight of a principal selection committee of site stakeholders (i.e. parents, teacher, administrator’s, etc.).
READ MORE: Madison Petition
Since Ruelas’ appointment, Madison has seen a significant number of employees walk away, with one teacher even filing a million-dollar defamation claim against the principal.
READ MORE: Teacher Files Million-Dollar Defamation Claim
With numerous accusations flying back and forth for quite some time between parents, teachers, administrators, attorneys, and everyone in between, the board of education decided to officially agendize the matter. “The intent of putting this on the agenda, in case it wasn’t clear, is we’ve heard an enormous amount of public, parent, teacher voice about Madison, so this is an opportunity for us, rather than just sitting stone-faced and not replying, to be able to have a conversation amongst ourselves about what’s going on … ” said Board President Kimberly Kenne.
Shawn Bird, chief academic officer, presented the board with the update, which cited Madison’s California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) test results, in addition to suspension, attendance, and staffing statistics.
According to Bird’s presentation, “Overall improvement in ELA [English Language Arts] was 1 percent (all students) and the math results decreased by 3 percent (all students).”
Attorney Dale Gronemeier pointed out during public comment that even if Madison did see miniscule improvement in some numbers, it is still stands below its fellow PUSD establishments, “what we see from Madison is, number one, they’re way down in terms of the percentage meeting standards, as compared to PUSD and the state … half the testing looks pretty bad.”
Moreover, Gronemeier continued by challenging the notion that Principal Ruelas is responsible for any improvement in performance, particularly the fifth grade ELA scores, which saw better results, “the data looks very good superficially, however when you drill down … what you find is it all occurred in the fifth grade … I suggest that the reason [it] did so well is because they were more fully resourced, I believe that the central office put more resources, in terms of literacy and coaching, into the fifth grade … It’s not better leadership by Mr. Ruelas, but it is more resources … that led to it, but there may be some other explanation and I welcome that be explored … ”
Attorney Skip Hickambottom also took the podium, posing comments towards Board Member Scott Phelps and Superintendent McDonald, specifically.
To Phelps, he directed the following: “ … you’ve allowed Dr. McDonald to blame the Madison school teachers for the low scores at Madison the prior year. Dr. McDonald goes all around town calling these teachers lazy and incompetent and I know it because I’ve heard people say that’s how he reported that to them. He goes in the paper and says he thinks the reason that there is an upset over Mr. Ruelas is because these teachers don’t like the high expectations placed on them – so the teachers are being blamed.”
Hickambottom continued his statements towards Phelps, focusing on the seeming disregard for the petition recently signed by parents, “In 2014, when you became president of the school board you talked about working in a productive and collaborative way with the community, now in 2016 you question whether or not the 40 percent of the parents who signed the petition to get rid of Mr. Ruelas understood what they were signing. Dr. McDonald says he’s going to verify the petitions – so you question our intelligence and he impugns our integrity. And then he says, ‘even if the 40 percent are [valid], we aren’t going to do anything.’ Is that really collaborative? Is that really productive? Is that working together?”
Hickambottom concluded with a plea to Board Member Pat Cahalan, “What I’m asking you … is to not allow Dr. McDonald and Mr. Phelps to treat the parents in our district the way that they’re treating us, with disrespect and contempt. Please look to us to work collaboratively to solve this problem.”
The board’s deliberations amongst themselves did not last very long and there were indeed more questions asked than solutions or strategies proposed. Some board members and Superintendent McDonald did not seem convinced that the data presented was conclusive enough to initiate any form of action.
“We have turnover, that happens in education, we have turnover at the last minute, that’s the nature of it,” said Board Member Adrienne Ann Mullen.
“Educational change takes a very long time and a lot of times you can’t tell year-to-year how things are moving and which direction they’re moving in,” said Board Member Lawrence Torres.
There was a visible discontent amongst the audience, in regards to the board’s stagnant approach, a discontent which culminated in a burst of laughter when Superintendent McDonald made the following statement, “I say very clearly, last year was a difficult year and so I think what we should do is to look at a year-over-year comparison. So we’ll see what happens this year, we’ll see what happens next year, and then we’ll go from there.”
Bird revealed in his presentation that Madison will be categorized as a “Focus School” and thus afforded extra attention and resources. Other PUSD establishments listed as “Focus Schools” include: Washington Middle School, Charles W. Eliot Middle School, Cleveland Elementary School, and Jackson Elementary School.
The board of education will meet again on Sept. 22 at 4:30 p.m.
