Board places on next agenda censure resolution asking for resignation
Published in the January 20 – February 2, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi and Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees will vote on a resolution at the Feb. 2 public meeting to officially condemn fellow board member David Gerard for his controversial communication with a parents activist group last year. Many resident in the South Valley community see the emails he sent as using sexist and racist content as well as covert political campaigning going against district policies.
During the public comments section at the Jan. 12 district board of education meeting, members of an informal group of local leaders calling itself the Morgan Hill Committee for Positive Governance read a resolution advocating “censuring, revoking assignments and requesting the resignation” of Gerard.
Trustee Donna Ruebusch asked to put the censure resolution on the agenda for the next board meeting.
After repeated emails and phone calls, Gerard did not respond to Morgan Hill Life for comment on the resolution.
The committee’s resolution states that Gerard used MHUSD “technology resources” (the district’s computer servers) to create and distribute emails between July and October last year containing commentary and language that violates MHUSD board bylaws, polices and administrative regulations. The emails were released by the district to the Morgan Hill Times and Morgan Hill Life newspapers after the publications filed a Public Records Act request with Superintendent Steve Betando.
Gerard confirmed he wrote the emails, which contain mean-spirited, racist and sexist comments about several of his fellow board colleagues and district administrators. They were sent to members of the Parents For Positive Change group, which last year started a campaign to oust board president Bob Benevento. Gerard’s emails, along with communication from fellow board members Gino Borgioli and Rick Badillo, also show a secret collaboration in the recall movement by the three board members. The emails are considered an ethical breach and a possible legal violation of California state code preventing government agency resources use for political campaigns, according to one expert.
The Morgan Hill Committee for Positive Governance is made up of various local leaders including longtime residents Roger Knopf, former school trustee Julie Zintsmaster, businessman Mike Cox, and community leaders Brian Sullivan and Kathy Sullivan and retired district teacher Steve Spenser. The group’s proposed resolution was written by former Santa Clara County Chief Executive Pete Kutras. District staff are expected to use it in preparing a formal resolution that will be submitted to the board members at the next meeting.
Sections of the committee’s resolution read:
“Board Member Gerard’s conduct is inappropriate and unacceptable for a public official representing the Morgan Hill Unified School District, and this Resolution serves as a formal statement of Censure for Board Member Gerard’s conduct as described above.”
“Board Member Gerard is no longer authorized, designated or assigned to any internal or external committees or organizations as a representative of the Morgan Hill Unified School District.”
“The Board of Education requests that Board Member Gerard voluntarily resign within 30 days from the Board of Education for the Morgan Hill Unified School District.”
A censure vote helps send a message to Gerard that his emails negatively reflect on the district and the Morgan Hill community, Knopf said.
“This is a time of crisis. Now is the time for good men and women to step up,” he said.
The censure resolution will also be a test for board members Borgioli and Badillo, and the public will watch the two trustees to see which side they will take in the upcoming vote, Knopf added.
At a special board meeting Dec. 8 to select a replacement for former trustee Amy Porter Jensen (who resigned due to the stress from the harassing emails from members of Parents for Positive Change), the MHUSD school board ended up in a series of tied votes, showing it was divided into two factions, with Gerard, Borgioli and Badillo on one side and Benevento, Ruebusch and Woolf on the other.
“If this (resolution vote) goes down to a 3-2 vote or if Gerard votes himself and it goes down to 3-3, what does it say about the three who voted no?” Knopf said. “Once again, they are building their own case against themselves. This is a no-win situation for Gino and Rick because if they vote with David, that effectively says they condone his behavior.”
The committee is also sending a letter to various agencies asking them to investigate whether laws might have been broken by the use of district emails by trustees for a political campaign, Knopf said. These include the Fair Political Practices Commission, the county’s District Attorney, Secretary of State, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he said.
During the public comment portion of the Dec. 15 and Jan. 12 meetings, various individuals and leaders of groups stepped up to the podium to directly ask Gerard to resign immediately from the board. These included parents, students, teachers, and concerned citizens. At the Dec. 15 meeting, Gemma Abbels, president of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, which endorsed Gerard in the 2014 election, told the trustee that a petition had been signed by 350 teachers in the union demanding he resign.
At the Jan. 12 meeting, about a dozen members of the Morgan Hill branch of the American Association of University Women stood up in the audience as the club’s co-presidents Jenny Redfern and Mary Cox read to the board an official letter asking for Gerard to “step down” immediately.
“We find it intolerable that our own school board has not yet censured a member who has made it clear he finds it not only acceptable but amusing to share insulting, demeaning descriptions of his colleagues, especially his female colleagues, with other board members, and then, even when these descriptions are revealed to the community, to seem to expect to get away with it,” the letter read.
Former trustee Don Moody, who served as president of the board for several years, told the board at the Jan. 12 meeting that Gerard’s behavior makes him unworthy to serve the district as a public official.
“Mr. Gerard, you have taken it upon yourself to set an example of what not to be as a public leader. Your series of emails full of innuendo and disrespect for your colleagues on the board are reprehensible,” Moody said. “You need to do the professional thing and resign immediately.”
Sobrato High School senior Jordan Atkins, who was the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Student of the Year, read a statement at the Jan. 12 meeting:
“You have offended many on this board whom I call my friends. I am sorely disappointed in you, Mr. Gerard, after reading many of the slanderous emails you have written about your fellow board members and my friends. Furthermore, you are no longer trustworthy,” she said. “If you really care about this community and making sure positive government decisions are being made for our students, you will submit your resignation without delay.”
If Gerard does not resign, the Committee for Postive Governance members have discussed starting a recall campaign but it is reluctant to take this action because it would be “divisive” to the community, Knopf said.
Because the MHUSD board members could not decide on a candidate to fill the seat left vacant by Porter Jensen, Santa Clara County of Education Superintendent Jon Gundry ordered an election for a replacement to be held on Tuesday June 7, the same date as the presidential primary election. The term will end in November.
