Alum Rock Union School District Superintendent Hilaria Bauer has been ousted after a rocky, decade-long tenure in which her handling of a series of controversies put her at odds with school board members — but also won the support of some parents who defended her when her job was rumored to be at risk.
Last week, the district’s board of trustees voted 3-2 to terminate Bauer’s contract, with Trustees Minh Pham, Andres Quintero and Linda Chavez voting in favor, and Trustees Corina Herrera-Loera and Andrea Flores Shelton opposing the decision.
Pham declined to comment on what led to Bauer’s dismissal, but said the decision didn’t come lightly.
“This was absolutely not a joyful decision,” he told The Mercury News. “There was a debate and there was much deliberation and unfortunately the vote turned out the way it did. It was a decision made with a lot of sorrow and with a heavy heart and there was absolutely no joy out of this.”
Bauer was hired in 2014 and faced termination several times during her decade with the district. She faced a number of complaints about facilities, including bathrooms and playing fields, at district schools.
But perhaps the biggest controversy of her tenure came after an anonymous tip to the Santa Clara County Office of Education in 2016 that Alum Rock had paid Southern California-based Del Terra Real Estate Services $329,000 for work at four district schools that had not materialized.
The next year, a scathing, 150-page state audit on the matter blasted the district for handing over a several-million-dollar bond construction project to Del Terra, and failing to provide adequate oversight; auditors said the company failed to provide documentation of its work or otherwise cooperate with investigators. The audit called for “immediate intervention,” leading to the state revoking the district’s “fiscal independence,” giving the Santa Clara County Office of Education that power instead.
Bauer, whose last day is March 25, did not respond to a request for comment.
But the superintendent had her supporters, both on the board and among parents. Herrera-Loera, who is the board’s president, said the decision came as a “surprise” and that Bauer had done a “great job” leading the district.
“There was nothing for me so pressing to release her so quickly and abruptly,” she said.
In an email, Flores Shelton said that while she disagreed with the decision, she is “honoring the board majority’s decision and ready to appoint an interim superintendent on Tuesday.”
Some parents in the district have also defended Bauer, such as in January of 2018, when supporters of the superintendent worried that her time was coming to an end after a scheduled performance evaluation was placed on the board’s agenda. The item caused an uproar among parents, but Esau Herrera, a trustee at the time, dispelled it as just a “political rumor.”
The board of trustees is set to hold a meeting this week to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent while they search for a permanent replacement.
Source: www.mercurynews.com