Former principal’s husband defends, supports his wife

Grant Chambers

This letter regards the Nov. 23 Daily Pilot story, “Former principal

sues officials, parents.”

My wife is the “former principal” in the above headline. In

another headline she was an “embattled principal.” It was a horrible

battle, indeed, that ended my wonderful wife’s 23 years as a

principal. Five parents (four from the same classroom) from Newport

Heights Elementary School plotted and planned a purposeful attack on

her exemplary principalship at the Jan. 27, 2004 Newport Mesa Unified

School District’s Board of Education meeting. One after another the

five parents walked up to the mike, stated their names and then

leveled vicious and intended allegations about my wife, all recorded

via videotape and broadcast throughout the community. The PTA

president, who had a child in Shannon Jay’s class, used this board of

education meeting to dramatically resign her position as president of

the Newport Heights Elementary School PTA, citing the principal as

the cause.

What led up to this attack at the board meeting? Simply, my wife

was following the direction of the district. Shannon Jay, a

substitute, was told she could not teach the second semester because

of a policy that states if a long-term substitute teaches for two

consecutive semesters, she becomes a tenured teacher. The district

said it was against district policy and that my wife could not hire

her the second semester. When the first-grade parents inaccurately

accused my wife of letting Jay go, the district was silent and kept

dodging the bullets by telling my wife to keep meeting with the

parents and inform them it was contractually illegal to hire Jay, as

she had not gone through the proper procedures or training for a new

teacher, and that she would be jumping over the heads of qualified

teachers who had.

The parents, however, insisted on meeting with the officials. My

wife, Assistant Supt. of Human Resources Lori McCune and Assistant

Supt. of Secondary Education Susan Astaritas met with the parents.

The district officials never informed the parents that contracts are

strictly under the district office’s jurisdiction (not the

principal’s) or admitted it was their direction that Jay not return

to the classroom. Upon perceiving the parents’ ire, the district

immediately rescinded its decision, called the substitute teacher and

offered her a teaching contract. Jay refused. After the district

increased the benefits and perks by assuring Jay a full-time, tenured

contract and some personal time off, Jay agreed to sign.

Within days of the “demanding parents” voicing their accusation at

the videotaped and broadcast board meeting on Jan. 27, my wife’s life

as a principal was over. She had been a devoted principal for 23

years in three states. She was the recipient of the National Award

for Excellence in Education, personally awarded to her by President

Ronald Reagan in a Rose Garden ceremony. She became the leader of a

National Blue Ribbon school for increasing low academic performance

in an under-privileged attendance area to superior status. On another

occasion, the secretary of education, William Bennett, visited her

school to give credit for establishing one of the most comprehensive

drug-prevention programs in the nation. She was a representative who

traveled to Singapore with the Minnesota governor’s office to study

the attributes of its educational system. She was recognized for

outstanding service as a principal at the Minnesota state conference

of principals. She was the president-elect of the Minnesota Assn. of

Principals before I was transferred to California.

She trained teachers and principals statewide. She was awarded an

honorary lifetime membership in the national PTA for contributions

including speaking at their conventions. She attended Harvard

Graduate School in 1994 for classes in brain research and learning.

She also received a certificate in leadership from Harvard Graduate

School in 1995. She is an avid student herself, receiving a

bachelor’s in education, a master’s in psychology, a specialist

degree in administration and nearly completing her doctorate with a

business degree in organization development.

When hired at Newport Heights, she was excited by the challenge to

raise the school’s test scores that had declined the previous year.

Each year she was there, the school’s test scores raised, a feat not

easily accomplished.

What took 30 years to accomplish in a resume was wiped out in just

a few minutes by five parents with an agenda and three officials with

no backbone to stop them. Read the transcript of the taped meeting

and judge for yourself.

The district, intent on justifying its decision to terminate my

wife, held two more public meetings. One of the five accusing parents

organized the parents who spoke out so viciously at the board meeting

to give a call to other parents “interested in making Newport Heights

a better school and addressing administrative issues.” My wife was

told not to be there, at a meeting of parents on her own campus. As

described to my wife, most of the parents did not understand what

this meeting was about, questioned why the principal wasn’t there and

couldn’t believe the vocal parents were allowed to be so rude. One

parent continued to yell from the back, “Fire Chambers.”

This unfair type of meeting is embraced by the district and

referred to as its “process.” Other principals in the district have

been subjected to such meetings but were allowed to be there while

the disgruntled parents beat up on them as their supervisor sat on

the sideline taking notes. Newport Heights has a record of a

principal leaving every few years.

However, they’ve gone away quietly. One parent noticed that some

parents at the meeting did not even have children at the school.

Other parents told us this seemed more like an angry mob scene than a

parents meeting. The officials sought information for improvement by

asking: What’s working? What’s not? Continue doing? Stop doing?

We received copies of those forms. The facts are:

Thirty-two nameless forms were turned in to the officials. Twelve

of them were made up of vicious personal and professional attacks.

There were 628 students at the Heights. If each one has two parents,

that means there are 1,256 parents to consider. Thirty-two had input

through the district’s format, which means only 2.5% of the parents

had issues they cared enough about to write down.

What about the other 1,224 parents who gave no input? My wife

asked the officials to assess the other parents, but again the

officials allowed a few parents to control the results and tone of

the meeting.

Just a note: One of the 12 responses accused my wife of

“misappropriation of Foundation funds.” The officials called in the

two presidents of the Newport Heights Foundation to inquire about

this. They were adamantly informed that nothing of the kind was even

remotely true. Too bad the officials didn’t inform the school

community about this meeting and its findings, but instead let the

accusation linger in the public mind-set.

The third meeting took place four days later, conducted again by

the school officials. All teachers and staff, including custodians,

were called in for an on-campus, closed-door meeting. Once more my

wife was told not to attend. The same questioning format was used. A

few teachers spoke up against my wife. The officials left that

meeting and walked to my wife’s office, and within minutes demanded

her resignation upon threat of termination. The facts speak for

themselves.

Three big meetings in four working days. My wife was not allowed

to attend or respond to any one of them. Horrible things were said

about her, much of which is recorded and a matter of public record.

Her life as a principal is over. She has applied in five other

districts, and not one gave her a first interview. With her resume,

this is highly suspect and unprecedented for her.

No one ever deserves to be treated with such disdain, disrespect

and total disregard.

As I think over these sad events in our life, I realize it is just

another story in the newspaper. My purpose in writing this letter was

simple. I needed to take up for my wife, who was put through a

horrible experience that played out on the pages of the newspaper for

all to see. I needed to let the community know how deeply hurt she

was and still is, and the pain never goes away after such an

experience. She didn’t deserve this harsh light of public criticism,

and it should never have been allowed to happen. But it did. Judy

loved being a principal. She was great at it, too. She was loved by

thousands of children, parents and hundreds of teachers over the

years.

To the few officials and parents who had no respect or regard for

her leadership qualities, I am sorry you chose to take matters into

your own hands in ridding Newport Heights of its principal in

February. You underhandedly and viciously ruined her name, reputation

and career by publicly defaming her. This will follow her no matter

where she goes. We are asking that you be held accountable for your

words and actions in the only civil way possible -- the legal system

via a civil lawsuit. Contrary to what the district attorney said in

the paper, this case has not been heard by a judge yet. There was a

writ of mandate hearing about procedures, not the civil lawsuit.

Unfortunately, an amount must be attached to such a suit, and our

attorney tried to assess that amount. But believe me when I say this

is not a matter of money; there is no amount that could compensate

for what my wife lost and can never get back.

In closing, I want to thank those parents, teachers and principals

who have remained in contact with us and maintained our relationship.

My wife is especially grateful to the principals who have been

supportive and who will always be frightened of the same possible

demise in this district. It is her hope that what she is doing will

help other principals in a meaningful way in the future. I especially

want to thank those parents who have helped us in financing our legal

efforts to try and reclaim lost honor, dignity and reputation in the

community. Our story is told in the lawsuit, which is now a matter of

public record. We have always tried to live private lives. I am sorry

we were placed in a position where we had to be defended and legally

protected from a few people in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Grant Chambers is a Newport Beach resident.