The Antioch Unified school board president has called for Superintendent Stephanie Anello’s resignation, after several employees accused her of failing to discipline a supervisor whom they say bullied them.
The action comes a day after NBC Bay Area News reporter Candice Nguyen broke a story about employees’ written complaints that Kenneth Turnage II — the district’s director of facilities, maintenance and operations — has intimidated, bullied and harassed employees for more than a year.
Kim Atkinson, a district purchasing technician, said that shortly after Turnage became her supervisor in January 2023, he directed staff to use a forklift to place a coworker’s desk on the rooftop of a school building. When the employee, Jim Kesser, complained to the district’s human resources department, he was allegedly told Turnage had done it as a joke.
“Their finding was that (Turnage) did it as a joke to build camaraderie between people,” said Steve Hessler, a carpenter in the district who filed a complaint about Turnage.
Both Hessler and Atkinson said the district had to pay an employee overtime to remove the desk from the roof.
Hessler said Turnage’s treatment of employees ranged from verbal abuse and inappropriate language to public scoldings and threats of physical violence. Hessler added he thought he and Turnage would get into a physical fight “on three separate occasions.”
Hessler and Atkinson said Turnage’s bullying of staff caused them, along with Kesser, to go on medical leave, and led to at least two other employees retiring early.
Atkinson said she spent five months on leave after Turnage’s harassment gave her panic attacks, anxiety, insomnia and migraines. The environment got so bad that Hessler reached out to human resources for mental health support and has been on workers’ comp since September.
“I can’t count the (employees) that have had run-ins with him, that have notes in their phones or little notebooks in their trucks about times where he’s yelled and screamed and said things that no manager should say to an employee,” Hessler said.
The employees said Anello has ignored the complaints for more than a year because she and her husband, former Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando, have a close relationship with Turnage.
And despite submitting a six-page formal complaint to the district and speaking out publicly about Turnage’s harassment, Atkinson said, nothing changed.
“They told me they didn’t find any evidence of bullying,” she said of the complaint. “I went to two board meetings begging for help. I stood up there shaking, begging and saying, ‘someone please help us.’ Nothing was done.”
School Board President Antonio Hernandez said he called for Anello’s resignation because her handling of the Turnage situation.
Neither Turnage nor Anello responded to the Bay Area News Group’s request for comment.
Hernandez confirmed that the board and Anello were well aware of the allegations against Turnage, since “many employees” made statements about his treatment publicly at board meetings.
“Our accountability is on the superintendent,” he said. “I’ve made it very clear that we need to take action to ensure that we’re moving forward as a district and that we’re creating good environments for our employees, and ultimately for our students.”
Anello has also not had an evaluation in at least three years – despite yearly evaluations being a requirement for district leaders. Hernandez said board members have delayed Anello’s evaluation with excuses that other policies and goals took priority.
Hernandez tried to call a special board meeting for Friday to get to the bottom of things, but three of the board members – Gary Hack, Mary Rocha and Clyde Lewis – refused to attend. Hernandez said he’s determined to hold Anello accountable and has reached out to board members to schedule a time to discuss the situation, but has not heard from them since.
Trustee Jag Lagthan, meanwhile, did not mince words on her Facebook page. She urged fellow board members to “heed the call and take the necessary steps to ensure our schools are places of care, respect, and support for all.”
“A healthy school culture starts at the top,” she wrote. “Board and district leadership play a pivotal role in fostering an environment where everyone feels safe and respected — staff, students, and families alike. Turning a blind eye to bullying among our employees isn’t just weak leadership—it’s a disservice to our community. Accountability is non-negotiable.”
Turnage sent an email to some 80 employees last week saying he would no longer supervise them, but as department head, would continue to oversee department supervisors and the recent $195 million voter-approved school bond measure to renovate schools.
In a statement, the district said the direct supervision of the employees raising concerns has been transferred to a different supervisor.
“The district takes all matters concerning our employees seriously and has processes and procedures in place to protect employees’ rights, whether they are being alleged of any wrongdoing or accusing others of any wrongdoing,” the district said. “The district received several complaints from employees, investigated the concerns and took appropriate actions pursuant to the Antioch Unified School District Governing Board Policies and Administrative Regulations.”
This is not the first time that the 51-year-old Turnage was the center of controversy. In 2020 he was removed from his position as an Antioch Planning Commissioner after he declared on social media that businesses should be left alone and nature should “take its course” with the coronavirus.
Turnage, a local home contractor and 2015 Antioch Citizen of the Year, had written on his personal Facebook page that society should adopt a herd mentality, and although that means the weak, elderly, homeless and others would perish, “the nation and planet would strengthen when this is all settled.”
”We would have significant loss of life, we would lose many elderly, that would reduce burdens in our defunct Social Security System, health care cost (once the wave subsided), make jobs available for others and it would also free up housing in which we are in dire need of,” he added.
Then, in 2021, Turnage in the WTF California podcast, repeatedly called Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton “garbage” and said he would “pay the dump fees if Republic Services went to her house, put her in an (expletive) truck and drove her to a landfill.” Turnage accused Becton of developing COVID-19 protocols at the same time she herself broke them to get married.
Hernandez said he plans to continue to press for Anello’s resignation and hopes to be able to work with his fellow board members to change and strengthen policies.
“I would hope that… doing what’s best, being on the side of justice, would not be an uphill battle. But it’s been an uphill battle the entire time I’ve been on the board,” he said. “This is not the first time that I’ve questioned the decision-making and the leadership of the school district, and I hope that this will be a time where my colleagues will step up as leaders and we can be united in support of the community.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com