Retribution by school officials was one of the examples of possible consequences of such actions I mentioned. Some people may think that isn't likely. Well, take a look at this developing story in San Juan Capistrano, CA:
School district kept tabs on parents
Capistrano Unified compiled list of recall proponents. Parents are upset – one calls it 'Nixonish' – and a trustee vows an inquiry.
By SAM MILLER and TONY SAAVEDRA
The Orange County Register
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The Capistrano Unified School District kept lists of 150 families who supported last year's board recall campaign, detailing such personal information as where their children went to school, according to documents obtained by The Orange County Register.
The district also received inside information on the effort to oust board members from an informant with access to the recall campaign, documents show.
Three spreadsheets list the names of parents, teachers and activists who were in contact with the recall campaign as well as the neighborhoods in which they live, the schools where they teach and their community affiliations. One couple is described in the spreadsheets as "NIMBY." Another woman is described as "outspoken."
David Smollar, the district's former chief of communications, said he saw copies of the spreadsheets stored in the office of Superintendent James Fleming, who he says directed him to keep them secret last spring despite a public-records request by recall supporters.
"He ordered me not to include those," said Smollar, who resigned in May. "He just said, 'I can't do it, it would be too embarrassing.' "
Fleming, in an interview, said he had not seen or heard of the lists.
"It doesn't sound familiar, like anything I know about at all," said Fleming, describing Smollar as a "disgruntled" ex-employee who "left not on the best of circumstances."
District trustee Mike Darnold promised an inquiry.
"Guaranteed, the board wants to find out what is going on. ... As far as we're concerned, nobody on our side would do such a thing," Darnold said. "If any person in our employment has done something inappropriate, we need to find out about it."
The lists – titled "Recall of CUSD Board of Trustees E-Mail Database – were included among hundreds of pages of district documents, many of them on district letterhead and signed by district officials, provided to the Register.
There is no district logo on the spreadsheets. It is unclear who compiled them, whether district computers were used and what was done with the information.
Still, some parents on the list were concerned.
"This is Nixonish," said Kevin Murphy, the San Juan Capistrano dad who led the recall effort. "This is little kids. There's not even a situation where anybody on the planet could not think this is unbelievably wrong."
The three separate spreadsheets all contained the same information but with slightly different formats. The names appeared to be gleaned from an e-mail blast by the recall group. Names on the spreadsheets – including misspellings – match those in the recipient area of the e-mail.
Documents show the e-mail was sent by Murphy on April 21, 2005; forwarded to the district office by Vista Del Mar Principal James Sieger on April 22; and faxed to trustees by Fleming the same day.
After being contacted by a reporter, Fleming said he called staff members into his office and asked them about the spreadsheets. No one had any information, he said.
However, Smollar remembered seeing the spreadsheets in May 2005 after Murphy sent a public records request to the district asking for "copies of any and all documents … that make reference to the recall."
Part of Smollar's job at the time was to respond to such requests. He said he was ordered by Fleming not to release the spreadsheets, as well as a memo written by the superintendent about a board sympathizer who infiltrated the recall campaign. The Register has obtained that April 21, 2005, memo.
The informant's identity was unknown to Fleming, according to the memo. The superintendent passed along the notes, along with his own analysis of the recall group's strategies.
According to Fleming, no further contact was made with the informant. He said he never ordered the documents be withheld, and said Smollar would have been responsible.
Some trustees said Friday they don't remember receiving the memo about the informant. But Trustee Sheila Benecke said she has no problem with Fleming passing along such information.
"Do I think it's good for Jim (Fleming) to know what's going on out there? I do," Benecke said.
The proposed recall faltered after election officials concluded there was a lack of valid signatures – sending campaign supporters to court in an effort to overturn the Registrar of Voters Office.
Murphy said many of the recall supporters worried about the district keeping tabs on them.
"There were a lot of people who didn't want their names out, that were scared," he said.
Rebecca Bauer feared her son at Ambuehl Elementary was the target of district retaliation last year when he was left off the printed program for the school talent show. There were other mistakes: He was left out of a video montage that included 125 classmates and denied an academic award that he earned, she said.
Now, Bauer says, she doesn't know what to make of the news that she was on the list, which noted that her children attended Ambuehl school.
"My husband was telling me I was being a little paranoid. But we were convinced they were giving my son a little retaliation for my outspokenness," Bauer said.
Ambuehl Principal Shele Tamaki said there was no retaliation, but a series of errors by a teacher too busy to care about district politics.
Besides the mere existence of the list, Bauer said she was troubled by allegations that the district had it withheld from disclosure in violation of the California Public Records Act.
"It really doesn't matter what the list is or isn't," she said. "The fact is they kept it secret, and that by itself means they shouldn't keep their jobs."
Beth Faskowitz, who was involved in an effort to unify Mission Viejo students in one high school, was named on the list, along with the elementary and middle schools attended by her children.
"I guess they have me blacklisted, don't they?" said Faskowitz, 42. "Why even have it? Why would they identify my children?"
District critics Lynn Baydu and her husband, Ates, say they've seen parents chilled into silence many times. Ates Baydu said Fleming once wrote the family's license plate number in a Starbucks parking lot.
"This is just typical behavior for them," Lynn Baydu said. "They have an above-the-law attitude and they love to keep tabs. They love to intimidate."
Fleming summed up the Baydus' allegation in one word: "Paranoia."
District Trustee Shelia Henness said she didn't believe Fleming would ever approve of such a list.
"He's very good about not doing anything like that. The recall doesn't have anything to do with the district, so he does not get involved with that," she said.
A sidebar to the article reads:
Why the list isn't published here
The Orange County Register e-mailed the families listed by the Capistrano district as pro-recall and asked if there were objections to publishing part of the document online. Only their names would be visible, all other information would be withheld. Nearly three dozen responded that they were fearful that their privacy would be breached. The Register decided not to publish the list.
ocregister.com
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As it happens, I was once quite familiar with the school district and this superintendent before he got the job there, but that was a long time ago. None of this surprises me, but I may be getting a tad cynical in my advancing years. |
