‘It’s Not Just About the Golf Cart’ Some Parents Say, Others Say ‘It’s OK Now….’

Reported by Patric Hedlund

Several parents filled out blue cards requesting to speak at the El Tejon Unified School District Board meeting on December 12. For over a year, students and parents have been expressing concern about procedures surrounding purchase of a golf cart by Frazier Mountain High School Athletic Director Rob Roy from Associated Student Body (ASB) funds. Roy is also ASB Advisor.

Since 2006 numerous parents and teachers have written and called The Mountain Enterprise, saying they fear "retaliation" by Roy and FMHS Principal Dan Penner if they publicly ask questions about the cart, or dispute Booster Club allocations [over which Roy has also been given authority.*], or object to actions parents say show disrespect to students, or if they question what they feel are inappropriate comments to parents. It has been students who have spoken most openly about their concerns.

Now parents are starting to come forward. At the District meeting, parent Jackie Fleming stood to speak with emotion. She said she is concerned about Rob Roy as an adult role model, citing reports that he attended a teenage drinking party. [Three youths reported to The Mountain Enterprise that Roy attended a Lockwood Valley ‘kegger’ birthday party in 2005. Class of 2005 graduate Evangelina Mullen, who is now 20, spoke of being surprised to see the teacher there.]

Parent Gary Onyshko told trustees he was "more concerned about what happened after the cart purchase than by the purchase itself." He was referring to how administrators responded to students’ inquiries.

Parent Lori Hallmark said she was satisfied that "the administration is taking care of the problems." She also mentioned that she did not like that the newspaper quoted "minor children without the parents’ permission." Her son is a senior and the Executive Treasurer for ASB at FMHS.

The Mountain Enterprise reported his account [Nov. 30, 2007, Green Tue$day at FMHS] of a heated meeting between ASB class students with FMHS Principal Dan Penner and Roy (the teacher who gives students grades for the class).

District Superintendent Shelly Mason said in her report to the trustees December 12 (and explained further in an interview December 18), that three signatures must be on a Request for Purchase Form for items that will draw on ASB funds: the principal’s, the advisor’s and an ASB officer’s.

Robert R. McBurney, retired career school administrator and now Facility Consultant with School Facilities Planning & Management, Inc., contacted The Mountain Enterprise about this matter: "An ASB may not purchase anything unless they vote to purchase and the record of that vote, the item, and the amount all are contained in the ASB minutes," he explained.

FMHS Junior Class President Tammie Christianson and Junior Class Treasurer Nick Onyshko told ETUSD trustees in November that ASB officers could find no records, minutes or proceedings from 2006 regarding the purchase and "want the money returned to the students."

Elected ASB President Mitchell Bates was removed from his office by Penner and Roy after Bates used poor judgement by inappropriately using a teacher’s computer. Bates’ removal happened to occur the day after he refused to sign a letter presented to him by Penner and Roy stating that the ASB wanted to "donate" the golf cart purchased from an ASB account to the school district.

The unsigned letter was presented to trustees in November with a letter prepared for the ETUSD Board of Governors to sign, accepting the cart on behalf of the district 13 months after its purchase. Mason said this was an insurance concern. After the students rose to object, Trustee Anita Anderson moved that the motion be tabled so trustees could investigate.

The cart, which has been used by Roy and Penner to patrol student athletic events for over a year, cost $4,558 and may be the single largest expenditure from the ASB account in 2006. According to ledger sheets, ASB accounts normally pay for student activities, including paying officials to staff athletic games and buying decorations for school dances.

Other students also reported being "pressured" to sign a document regarding the cart. The document appeared to have been created to legitimize the purchase made without asking the 2006 ASB officers to approve the purchase as required.

In the December Superintendent’s Report, Mason told trustees she had advice from legal counsel to "formalize the ownership of the golf cart." She said money in the ASB Athletic Gate Fund was used to buy the golf cart and that it was a "legitimate and appropriate use of these funds, approved by the Principal and Athletic Director but not approved by the ASB Treasurer" [as required].

Mason told trustees she had met "with individual students and the ASB class to attempt to clarify misunderstandings… I think things have to happen for things to happen…We can’t fix what we are not aware of. We can work together to create a solution…."

According to students attending a recent ASB meeting, Mason was present as Roy and Penner lobbied students for their votes about whether Rob Roy should resign as ASB advisor. Principal Penner is reported to have told students before the vote that if they voted against Roy, Penner could not promise to appoint a substitute who wanted to serve in that position. He indicated the class might be dissolved.

After the ballots were counted in Roy’s favor to stay, students were told that those who felt they could not work with Roy as ASB advisor could speak with the counselor about dropping the ASB class and changing their schedule (that could mean loss of their elected office in student government, which most value highly and consider important for college applications).

In the interview, Mason said it is a "mischaracterization" that students were told they could withdraw from the class if they felt they could not work with Roy. She would not define on the record how she believes Penner’s statement should be interpreted. Requests for Penner’s comments about this report have not yet been answered. Roy has politely declined invitations to comment several times.

Students have not had an organized voice to speak on their own behalf within the school, in part because Principal Penner appointed Roy to also be in charge of the student journalism class and Roy has declined to establish an independent student newspaper for FMHS this year.**

The typical purpose of an ASB is to promote student leadership, school spirit, good citizenship and responsibility.

"My son takes his responsibility as an ASB officer very seriously," parent Gary Onyshko told The Mountain Enterprise, explaining that former ASB Advisor Diana Hardesty "taught students to have very high standards about following procedures."

Mason emphasized in the interview that "I truly believe that things are going to be different."

She said there is a uniform complaint form at all school sites for those who have concerns, and that it "is essential for those closest to the perceived problem in the chain of command to have an opportunity to correct things: first teachers, then site supervisors [principals], then the superintendent and then the board of trustees… If the issues do not get resolved it sets another chain of events in motion. Administrators are constrained in the steps they can take."

She said "it is vital that we work together for a solution, everyone, The Mountain Enterprise, the students, the parents, administrators."

At the December meeting, Trustee Anita Anderson proposed a "Discussion and Information Meeting" with the board of trustees in which teachers, students and parents could address their concerns. "I would like to ask Mr. Mullen to come to us [the board] with the concerns [about the performance of the athletic director] that he took to the paper." In a later interview, Anderson said, "I see this as a way to listen, ask questions and respond to community needs."

She also suggested to trustees that the board ask the California Association of Directors of Activities (CADA, a professional association for student council advisors) to make a presentation about the proper conduct of ASB student government. She said that the ASB Constitution requires an ASB representative to make a monthly report to the board of trustees and noted that had not yet happened.

Anderson said that she would like people to be able to reach the trustees through the ETUSD internet website. She asked that staff look into making that possible.

The public is invited to attend District Board meetings. In 2008 they will begin at 7 p.m. and meet at the Frazier Mountain High School library. Those who fill out blue cards have three minutes to speak to the board, either before the agenda meeting begins or when an agenda item is being considered. Agendas are posted at www.MountainEnterprise.com under Community FYI [left column].

* Principal Dan Penner informed all coaches that only Rob Roy may take funding requests to the Booster Club. Penner’s wife, Michelle Penner, chairs the Booster Club Board.

** [In the interest of full disclosure, The Mountain Enterprise offered to subsidize a school newspaper for FMHS. Under the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) mentoring program, students are the editors. They publish responsibly but without censorship, in accord with California law and the United States Constitution. Roy signed himself "Rob Roy, Editor, Wings" as he declined an offer to bring FMHS students into the statewide program. CNPA’s school program coordinator said he had never before seen an advisor give himself the title of Editor for the student newspaper.]

This is part of the December 21, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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