More than 70 people crowded into Shepard Hall in the Santa Maria Public Library on May 8 to hear a local group’s proposal to recall a member of the Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s board of education.
Glenn Goldin—a special education teacher and parent of two children in the school district—welcomed other parents and community members to the meeting and shared the group’s reasons for attempting to recall board member Will Smith.
“As the Santa Maria-Bonita School District faces funding challenges and a shortage of classrooms, we need a school board that works as a team and makes effective decisions,” Goldin read from a pamphlet distributed at the meeting. “Will Smith has made poor decisions both as a school board member and adheres to his own private agenda. This is destructive to kids. It is important that the facts be told.”
The group, Unity of Purpose for our Kids, believes that, based on his record as a board member and teacher, Smith is unfit to serve on the board.
Goldin ultimately garnered the 10 signatures needed to file a notice of petition with the county. He told the Sun his group planned to serve Smith a notice of petition at the May 16 school board meeting. In order to be successful, the petition will need approximately 10,000 signatures from registered voters living in Santa Maria.
“It’s time for us to come together and exercise our democratic right to recall a candidate—actually, an incumbent—who we don’t believe is up to snuff for the job,” Goldin said at the recall meeting.
He listed several incidents at recent school board meetings as an example of Smith’s alleged misconduct: One board meeting had to be halted in April because Smith kept calling “point of order” and started arguing with a presenter. District officials have called in police several times in response to what they call Smith’s aggressive and disruptive behavior. Additionally, Smith is unable to visit some school campuses because of existing restraining orders filed against him by other district employees.
Goldin also questioned Smith’s behavior as a former Santa Maria-Bonita School District teacher.
The district initiated dismissal proceedings against Smith in 2009 because of multiple unpaid disciplinary suspensions. The district moved to terminate Smith based on a report compiled by a third-party arbitrator, which alleged Smith verbally and physically abused his students.
Smith contested the report, and the case went to an educational appeals court in Los Angeles, ending with a settlement agreement between Smith and the district. Smith agreed to resign from the district, but continues to receive settlement payments. District officials are now challenging those payments in court because board members aren’t allowed to be on the district’s payroll.
Another issue the group has with Smith is what members call his “record as a frivolous litigator.” Smith currently has ongoing litigation against the district stemming from the settlement agreement. He also filed a suit against former board president Ike Ochoa, and filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming the district is discriminating against him because he’s African American. The Attorney General’s Office declined to investigate those claims.
“This movement has nothing to do with race. It’s about having a viable member of the school board,” Goldin told the crowd at the recall meeting. “We do not need to have people on the board who are trying to take the district down.”
One audience member, Ernest Armenta, spoke out at the meeting, saying Smith was being targeted unfairly. Armenta is a former school district employee who also experienced legal troubles with district officials. A case against him was eventually dismissed.
“I vote that we should recall the whole board,” he said. “I voted for Mr. Smith, and I support him. He’s the one who brings a fresh light to the district.”
Emotions ran high at the meeting when Armenta started speaking in Spanish, telling Latino people in the audience not to believe everything they were being told.
Former school board member David Rilquio then stepped in, saying, “I encourage you to attend board meetings and decide for yourself whether you want this individual representing your district and your children.”
That statement was greeted with loud applause.
When asked to comment on the possibility of being recalled, Smith said he wasn’t worried.
“I’m not even concerned. I go about my daily routine of talking to people in the community,” he told the Sun. “I get a lot of calls from people who support me and people who want to support me but can’t because of ties to the district.”
He said his behavior at meetings is “very legitimate because in parliamentary procedure, you have the right to ask questions and have [district staff] clear things up for you.
“I will continue to ask questions and make sure the people’s business is done,” he said, adding that a big reason why the district got in so much trouble with the TurnKey embezzlement case was because no one asked questions.
In regard to the settlement lawsuit, Smith said there’s no conflict of interest with him serving on the board because that decision was made before he was elected to the board.
“If they would have paid me, they wouldn’t have been sued,” he said.
But the district, he said, has a history of not honoring contracts it makes with people.
“The district is a lightning rod for litigation,” he said. “I’ll take the blame for what I did, but I only have one lawsuit, and the suit brought against me was district initiated.”
But that hasn’t stopped some parents and community members from taking action against Smith.
At the recall meeting, Goldin said his group plans to reach out to the Latino community because the vast majority of the district’s children is Latino, and more than 50 percent of the families aren’t English-proficient. Spanish translation will also be available at all coalition meetings.
Spanish-language translation has been a point of contention for Smith, who recently filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights alleging the district denies non-English speaking parents the opportunity to participate meaningfully in open session board meetings because it doesn’t provide oral or written translation of important decisions or documents.
The Office for Civil Rights sent Smith a letter dated May 2 confirming it would investigate the matter.
District spokeswoman Maggie White said the district has always complied with the guidelines for language translation at school sites, distributing all fliers, newsletters, and other notices in Spanish. The guidelines, however, for public meetings are non-regulatory and more open for interpretation, she said.
White said, in her 16 years with the district, there has never been a formal request for interpretation at a board meeting, but the district still has informal translation services available.
“There are always two to three employees in the audience available to provide translation,” she said, and often a board member Ike Ochoa or Superintendent Phil Alvarado, who are both fluent in Spanish, will provide translation as well.
The district also has 25 headsets available for larger groups that require concurrent translation.
“Our business is to teach and inform. If there is someone in the audience who is clearly at a loss as to what’s going on because of [a language barrier], there are 20 people in the audience who would reach out to them,” White said, adding that district officials have already reached out to the Office for Civil Rights in response to the complaint but have yet to hear back from anyone.
If the office ends up doing an investigation and making new recommendations, White said, the district will accommodate accordingly.
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at [email protected].
