MADERA - Well it looks like the motivations for last months attempt at firing Madera Unified School District Superintendent Ed Gonzales has finally been revealed. It seems that since December, board president Maria Velarde-Garcia and the superintendent have been engaged in a war of words not over text books and test scores but whether or not Velarde-Garcia, as the board president, was entitled to a district paid credit card.
After the January 27, 2015 MUSD board meeting, Big Valley News received a phone call from a district insider stating that a California Public Records Act request for emails and text messages between the board president and the districts executive cabinet might net some interesting conversations. Twenty-one days after that request was made, the district turned over two PDF documents filled with communications between Gonzales and Velarde-Garcia. The two documents are available at the bottom of this story.
The communications start in October 2014 with Velarde-Garcia texting Gonzales, "Thank you for your hard work and I'm hoping the new board is better for you. All I want to do is what's best for the kids too. Be well. Again, I'm proud of you. Thank you so much."
On December 8th the board president texted the superintendent, "We have a great team and we will be united."
Four days later the wheels on the bus came to a crashing halt. Velarde-Garcia was checking into a San Francisco hotel for a conference she was attending there was a problem. She was required to leave a deposit for incidentals that might be charged to her room during her stay. The board president contacted the superintendents administrative assistant Gladys Wilson for the district to "handle it".
Gonzales informed Velarde-Garcia that the district does not pay for incidentals at conferences because it would be a gift of public funds and that she was responsible for any of those charges. What the real problem for the board president was, she doesn't have a credit card of her own.
When she returned from the conference, her answer was for the superintendent to issue her a CAL-Card (a district credit card). A crazy notion that has been disastrous for districts all across the nation and has led to jail time for a few former school board members in Southern California.
In late December the superintendent wanted to call a special meeting to discuss "District Liability due to conduct of the Board President Velarde-Garcia". Gonzales asked for the meeting to take place in the first week of January. However that meeting was never to be held. Instead a meeting to discuss the firing of Superintendent Ed Gonzales took place.
At that meeting an all Hispanic law firm was hired as new legal counsel without either a bid process or a proper vetting by the board of trustees, violating the boards own by-laws. During a marathon closed session meeting Velarde-Garcia could be heard from the hallways screaming at fellow board members. In the end the board president fell one vote shy of achieving her goal of removing the superintendent as she did four years earlier with former superintendent John Stafford. A decision that cost the district over a quarter of a million dollars.
The demand for a district credit card doesn't seem to be the only issues where Velarde-Garcia has over-stepped her position as a board member. The public records request also uncovered a series of emails from the board president to MUSD human resource director Kent Albertson regarding a part-time female employee.
Velarde-Garcia claims that former MUSD superintendent Gustavo Balderas made the employee promises of full-time employment if funding became available for that position. In the email the board president also states that former deputy-superintendent Anthony Monreal was also working on moving this employee to full-time status.
Both of these men no longer work for the district and in a follow-up email Superintendent Ed Gonzales said, "I am not bound by any oral agreements from previous Superintendent or Interim Superintendent, nor will I expect my successor to be bound by any oral agreements of mine."
Velarde-Garcia told Albertson in an email, "I do not appreciate the way [Associated Superintendent Victor] Villar asked (REDACTED) for a letter of resignation just today. He needs to get fired because she just asked or wants what's fair. This is not the first time he has bullied her. He threatened her job security. Also he embarrassed her on occasions and in yet another occasion he yelled at her in front of other staff."
Gonzales responded to the email to Albertson by saying, "Your email to Kent is inaccurate, inappropriate, and a violation of your role as a Board member. The role of the Board is to set policy and approve budgets. Individual Board members should not be involved in suggestions to my staff that a certain employee needs to get fired. The Board has only one employee - the Superintendent. All other employees are mine, and my job responsibilities require that I make decisions regarding the status of their employment."
Velarde-Garcia's response to the superintendent was, "I violated with an opinion? Your response just confirms that you are not fair and do not care if employees are being over worked, underpaid or bullied. I may be wrong in that (REDACTED) did not apply for a coordinator; but I am not wrong defending people."
Tonight the war of words between the Madera Unified Superintendent and the Madera Unified Board of Trustees will come to a head at 5:30pm. At that time the board will go into closed session, after listening to public comments, to decide the fate of Ed Gonzales, the school district and who will control over $70 million in bond monies the voters decided to give the district for a new high school in last November's election.
