Consultants say ‘mothball El Tejon School’ for 3 years

By Patric Hedlund

The El Tejon Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Oct. 10 heard the Public Consulting Group (PCG) from Sacramento recommend that El Tejon School should be mothballed for three years, to see if district enrollment increases. Middle school grades should be moved to the Frazier Mountain High School campus, PCG said.

The consultants’ report was put online as of Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 16 for the public to review. A special meeting was called by the superintendent, with 24-hours notice, for Wednesday, Oct. 17 for the public to comment on the recommendations. Superintendent Katherine Kleier confirmed in email that there will be a second public meeting Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Then, in the same 3-2 split voting bloc that has marked all major proposals before this board since April, ETUSD’s superintendent won the ability to forego seeking a qualified and credentialed chief business officer for the school district to replace retiring Terri Geivet as director of fiscal services.

In the words of Trustee John Fleming: “You are writing this job description so only one person can fill the requirements.”

He was referring to the current director of maintenance, operations and transportation (MOT), Fernando Nieto, who is not a credentialed financial manager, trustees said in their discussion, and does not have a certification in school financial management.

Ramrod

Before the vote for this unusual job description was held, Trustee Stephan Kiouses asked Kleier: “Why are you trying to ramrod this through like this?”

Trustee Fleming objected to what he characterized as a decision not to seek a qualified and credentialed financial officer.

Kleier said Geivet, who has worked at the district for 34 years, is retiring on December 14. Kleier said she wants “to have an overlap” between her employment and the person who will be taking over the job. None of the trustees proposed that Geivet be paid to come back for two weeks as a consultant to assist after a qualified and experienced chief business officer had been hired.

Kleier proposed giving a $20,000 raise to the MOT, and hiring “two part time clerks, an a.m. clerk and a p.m. clerk, at $10 an hour to do most of the work, but without benefits.”

Stephan Kiouses said, “This is the first time I have heard of this plan, to hire three people to do the work of this position. Where are your projections? I want to see some figures on this.” Kleier did not reply, and did not offer a projection of the costs of managing the position in the manner she proposed.

A member of the community stood in protest to say he wanted to ask questions about what was being done so quickly and why. Paula Regan, president of the board, told parent Joe Flores, as he continued protesting while walking toward the door, to leave the meeting.

Regan said the vote was going to be held and that no one could ask questions. Flores stood at the door to the conference room, angrily saying, “you have no power,” to Regan, inviting her to call the sheriff to throw him out of the meeting.

MOT Fernando Nieto is said to live north of Bakersfield, about a 120 mile daily round trip. He and the superintendent have both been given district vehicles, fueled with district gasoline, which has been challenged by taxpayers concerned about the layoff of teachers and aides from the district.

Superintendent Kleier said it was not necessary for Nieto to have earned a credential for school business management, but to have just enrolled in the course, which takes a year to complete. “If he does a terrible job after a year, we can fire him,” she added.

Request to table for new board to decide

Trustee Stephan Kiouses asked that the proposal be tabled until the new board is elected in November, so they can decide: “This is a significant change in our district,” he said, “I think it should be tabled.”

The motion to table was voted down, 3-2.

Trustees Paula Regan, Ken Hurst and Anita Anderson voted to approve issuing the job description crafted by the superintendent. Hurst and Regan made no comment about why they decided to vote that way. Anderson started a statement about errors that had been made by the outgoing director of fiscal services but was stopped. Trustees Fleming and Kiouses voted against the job description as proposed by the superintendent. The proposal carried 3-2.

The job description requires the applicant to be proficient in heavy equipment and diesel vehicle maintenance as well as school district financial management. This description was placed on EdJoin, an employment listing service often used by school districts. The job search closes on October 25.

The position is advertised in this newspaper, today. Qualified local applicants with strong financial management qualifications, who might also be interested in enrolling in the class for an education-oriented Chief Business Officer certificate, may wish to apply.

You can see the job description here, which has a hot link to the job application website and to the Public Consulting Group’s report about the proposal to close El Tejon School.

This is part of the October 19, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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