By Patric Hedlund, TME

El Tejon Unified School District Trustee Misty Johnston made an impassioned plea to the public at the board’s regular June meeting: “Sign up to run for the board,” Johnston begged, adding that candidates can file between July 16 and August 10 with the Kern County Elections Board in Bakersfield.

There are two seats opening on the five person ETUSD board. But why is Johnston so concerned?

Lark Shillig and John Fleming ran unopposed last year They have two years still ahead.

To people close to the district who pay attention to behind-the-scenes drama, it is said that these two trustees appear to have formed a power bloc with Sabrina Rouser, in a Survivor-style move to put pressure on…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above: Wendy Watson pleads with the ETUSD board at a Special Meeting June 22 not to maneuver to try to put Chuck Mullen into a principal position again. Right: Chuck Mullen, former teachers’ union boss and former principal, denies he lost his temper and physically abused a four-year-old student while principal at Frazier Park School at the start of the 2016-17 school year.

Trustees Lark Shillig and John Fleming ran for reelection last year without opposition. This year, the elections may bring long-overdue debate.

Sara Haflich, FMHS principal, as Trustee Lark Shillig suggested eliminating Haflich’s stipend for extra work that brought over $400,000 in needed funding to the schools last year.

Alexi Svierny stood to speak against considering Chuck Mullen for another ETUSD administrative position: “We should be standing up for love, care and honesty,” she said.
She added in an interview: “I am shocked that this could have been brushed under the carpet. It is scary. He is being protected by someone. When you mess up in an educational setting like that…This is insane. You do not promote an administrator who doesn’t handle children in a proper manner….”

Right: The Mountain Enterprise received this screen grab from a concerned parent, who said: ‘I took this Friday, June 22 at 6:53 a.m. [Chuck Mullen] wrote it sometime earlier that morning. It was gone later that morning. Mullen was responding to a Thursday, 10:30 p.m. post by Alexi Sveine,’ asking parents to go to the board meeting Friday morning.
Please note: Mullen refers to a special board meeting agenda that could cripple the school district’s balanced budget and damage the FMHS principal as ‘inauspicious.’ He refers to an alert for concerned parents to become involved as ‘hysterical.’  [The message printed in the newspaper is Mr. Mullen’s denial of the allegations made by witnesses, a matter that is still in civil litigation.]

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This is part of the June 29, 2018 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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