In article <sve3bv$m62$1@dont-email.me>
governor.swill@gmail.com wrote:
>
> That obese fat Democrat cunt Katie Porter is behind it.
>

So they convene a special public meeting with just 24 hours
notice, boot the superintendent of the county�s largest school
district days before Christmas, then refuse to say precisely why.

�Please investigate and report on the reasons and make sure this
was not political!� folks asked us, which made us spit out our
coffee.

Officially, the Capistrano Unified School District�s board
�released� Superintendent Kirsten Vital Brulte from her
contract without cause last week, effective Dec. 31. We have
contacted every board member by phone and/or email, suggesting
this is a rather important bit of public business and folks have
a right to know why they did this. Some board members were
gracious enough to get back to my colleague Erika Ritchie and
me, but the answers went something like, �If we told you, we�d
have to kill you.�

Capistrano Unified Trustee Judy Bullockus, who with trustees
Lisa Davis and Gila Jones, opposed �releasing� Vital Brulte
(doesn�t it sound like she was held captive against her will?!),
described the board majority�s decision as �a vote of no
confidence in the skill set they think she has for going forward
with the vision for the district.�

Hmm.

Others said the couldn�t speak because of confidentiality rules
about personnel matters. Michael Parham, Amy Hanacek, Gary
Pritchard and Krista Castellanos were the board majority who
voted to release Vital Brulte.

�As you know, personnel matters are highly delicate, so I will
not be providing any additional information about the rationale
behind this decision,� said Parham by email.

Okay.

We also left messages for the released superintendent, trying to
get her view on things, but she didn�t respond. It�s possible
she�s been asked to avoid public comment as part of a severance
deal. Breaking her contract (which ran through 2026) means
Capistrano Unified taxpayers will fork over some $550,000 to
Vital Brulte to ease the shock. (If you paid me a half-million
dollars there�s a good chance I�d shut up as well, though at
least one of my editors highly doubts that).

We promptly filed public records requests with the district to
try to shed light on these events � thanks, district folks, for
taking that request over the winter break � but it will likely
be some time before we get those records.

So let�s just look at what�s in front of our noses, shall we?

First, there is no such thing as a governing body that is free
of politics, and that is doubly and triply true for school
boards in our current post-pandemic, critical-race-theory, anti-
vax mandate, �parents� rights,� masks-suffocate-children era.

Also, South Orange County has long been a bastion of vaccines-
are-for-others thinking, and state data showed that just 88.9%
of Capo kindergarteners had received required childhood
vaccinations for the likes of polio and measles, mumps and
rubella. The state says that metric makes many of Capo�s schools
�more vulnerable� to outbreaks of preventable diseases. Granted,
the data is a couple of years old (state officials said fresh
numbers would be posted by the end of the year, which gives them
a few more hours) and some of Capo�s elementary schools were
nearly 100% up-to-date on mandatory vaccinations. But a couple
of Capo Unified schools were less than 60% up to date, vaccine-
wise, which makes them officially �code red� in the state�s eyes.

Finally, the superintendent had to explain to the board that the
district is required to follow the state�s rules on vaccines and
COVID rules and everything else.

So, who�s surprised by her ouster?

Over the past two years, boisterous crowds have jammed Capo
Unified board meetings denouncing mask mandates. Some students
have tried to enter classrooms without face coverings (and were
sent home with unexcused absences). Hundreds of pairs of shoes
appeared at protests, allegedly representing Capo Unified
students who would walk out over COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In
March, a board member proposed ditching the state�s mask
requirement entirely, while another (Pamela Braunstein) actually
resigned, alarmed by her colleagues� anti-COVID-safety bent.

The whole �parents� rights� movement � which, far as I can tell,
seeks to put parental opinions and desires ahead of expert
advice � seems to have a better-than-average foothold in O.C.
The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District banned
critical race theory, prompting CSU Fullerton to pull student
teachers from its classrooms. The conservative Orange County
Board of Education repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) sued the
governor over pandemic-related mandates and his emergency order.
The battles between that elected OC Board of Ed and elected
Superintendent Al Mijares have been epic, expensive and, some
might argue, completely unproductive.

At some $550,000 � we�re still waiting on the official numbers
from the district, but that�s our rough calculation for 18 month
of severance pay as per the former superintendent�s contract �
ditching Vital Brulte may end up being cheap. But, as the board
starts its search for her replacement, it may find that the cost
of the latest political battles will be dear indeed.

We�ll let you know when we get the records. Until then, feel
free to weigh in with any wisdom.

<https://www.ocregister.com/2022/12/29/was-capo-unifieds-
superintendent-ditched-over-politics-the-silence-is-getting-
louder/>