Why Did a Superintendent Abruptly Resign in the Middle of the School Year?
If you woke up in shock at the news that Superintendent Churchill abruptly decided to leave CUSD in the middle of the school year, take a step back and think about why something like this happens and what many parents may not know about what’s really happening in CUSD.
Dr. Churchill applied for the Poway job in June, which means he’s been thinking of leaving for months. He lives in Carlsbad, his wife is a CUSD teacher, and one of his kids still attends CUSD. To leave an ideal situation like that after 8 years means something isn’t ideal at CUSD.
Not Everything is What it Seems at CUSD
What could that be? For the 4th year in a row, enrollment continues to drop. We continue to miss key academic metrics: only 42% of CHS Seniors are proficient in math, but 97% will graduate. Last month, Churchill recommended removing another standardized test for high school math that recently showed only 22% of CHS students were proficient.
The controversial DEI Plan, 97% of which has now been implemented, showed minority students losing ground academically.
Despite parents and students clamoring for smaller class sizes in March, CUSD and CUTA (the teachers union) negotiated a new $8.4M raise which required Churchill to cut $5.2M in salaries (~37 staff) in order to pay for it. No one is getting smaller class sizes if we're shedding teachers.
Chaos on the Board of Trustees
Finally, the Board itself – which Churchill manages – is in chaos. A few months ago, Board President Kathy Rallings kicked Board Vice President Gretchen Vurbeff out of the Agenda Planning Meetings where they decide which topics to cover at each meeting. The Board majority is now poised to vote next week to force Rallings to include Vurbeff in the meetings again. Rallings lashed out at the last meeting and accused Vurbeff of costing CUSD $10,000 in attorney fees over something that happened behind the scenes.
What could that $10K legal fight be about? Only the Board and Churchill know, but there are two issues the Board hasn’t agendized:
1) a promised discussion on parental notification issues that should have happened by July, and
2) Kathy Rallings recently being found by the Fair Political Practices Commission to have violated state conflict of interest laws three separate times. Why? As we've been saying for years, it is against the law to hide her $200K+ annual income from the California Teachers Association when she continued to vote on CUTA contracts that benefit her employer and help pay her salary.
Was Churchill involved in keeping these topics from being brought up before the public?
School Board Elections Matter More Than Ever
The bottom line is that the next Superintendent will be selected by the Board Members that get elected in November. Who are those candidates?
Ejehan Turker and Alison Emery are candidates endorsed and heavily funded by CUTA, and proudly campaign with the ethically-challenged CTA Negotiator/Board President Kathy Rallings. Their election will create a 4-1 majority of union-funded Board Members who will continue to support the CTA’s agenda to get rid of standardized tests and push for higher compensation instead of smaller class sizes. Alison Emery is a teachers union representative as well.
Their opponents, Jen Belnap and Laura Siaosi, are long-time Carlsbad residents who have sent numerous kids through CUSD schools and still have kids in CUSD. Jen Belnap has been attending Board Meetings for years and has a bewildering grasp on the budget and academic standards. Laura Siaosi is a working mom with numerous kids in CUSD who volunteers across our campuses and is deeply connected with teachers, parents and students.
Vote Against Special Interests - Vote for Balance
If you want a balanced Board not influenced by special interests and plagued with conflicts of interest, Jen Belnap and Laura Siaosi are the clear choices. They are “bought” by parents who want to see CUSD move in a positive direction.
With Dr. Churchill leaving, the November election presents the perfect opportunity to elect a Board who will select a Superintendent who is committed to transparency, accountability and unity.
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