Overtime issue erupts into Sweetwater lawsuit
Administrator says she faced retribution
BY TANYA SIERRA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2010 AT 7:34 P.M.
Priscilla Ryan, with her son Eric, 2, goes through paperwork involving controversies at the Sweetwater Union High School District
DOCUMENT
Players
Charlene Lemons-Shivers: Director of Alernative Education, Sweetwater Union High School District, claims she was retaliated against for questioning a secretary’s overtime.
Ricardo Del Rio: Program manager, Alternative Education.
Priscilla Ryan: The former secretary in Alternative Education, who says her overtime was all legitimate. She has been on paid leave for over a year.
Bertha Lopez: School board member that Lemons-Shivers said retaliated against her, which Lopez denies.
On a Tuesday in June, two Sweetwater Union High School district workers in Alternative Education were summoned to the department head’s office and asked a series of questions about a co-worker.
What’s her middle name?
Where does her mother work?
Does she know important people in the district?
Who are the godparents of her youngest child?
They were asked not to tell anyone that the department head, Charlene Lemons-Shivers, was involved in the questioning. One was asked to forget about the conversation entirely.
This version of events is described in a memo by the school district’s Human Resources chief, who conducted one of several reviews of infighting at the Alternative Education Department, which serves about 3,100 struggling students.
The dispute centers on a secretary’s overtime, which Lemons-Shivers questioned. The secretary has been on paid leave for a year while the issue is sorted out. And Lemons-Shivers is suing the district, saying she was retaliated against for raising questions.
The dispute has sparked four reviews — one internal and three external — and will be discussed by the Board of Education on Monday. The Watchdog is seeking under the California Public Records Act an accounting for spending on all the reviews and legal work.
“To be spending this kind of money and this kind of time is just frivolous,” former district board member Jaime Mercado said. ”It’s cheating the students, the employees and the taxpayers.”
According to the memo, the probing questions were asked by Lemons-Shivers and her second-in-command, Ricardo Del Rio.
They were trying to determine whether the secretary in question, Priscilla Ryan, had any connection to district board member Bertha Lopez.
The memo concludes, “It appears that both Ms. Lemons-Shivers and Mr. Del Rio inappropriately questioned employees regarding Ms. Ryan and her connection/relationship with Ms. Lopez. Such activities will not occur again.”
But that was not the end of it.
Lemons-Shivers filed her retaliation lawsuit in July, claiming harassment by Lopez. She claims she was singled out for questioning Ryan’s overtime. She objected to Lopez coming to her department and asking questions.
The lawsuit contends that Lopez violated a district policy saying “individual members of the board shall not exercise any administrative responsibility with respect to the schools.”
It also claims Lopez’s “questioning, probing and interference in the operation of the Alternative Education program are designed to undermine” Lemons-Shivers and “create strife within the department.”
The lawsuit said that Lemon-Shivers was placed on administrative leave after Lopez enlisted disgruntled employees to speak against her and her department at a board meeting.
Lemons-Shivers referred questions to her attorney, Joshua Gruenberg. He said his client has a long history in the South Bay and has been harassed by Lopez for “trying to protect public dollars.”
Gruenberg said he had no prior knowledge of the Human Resources memo. When he was told about it by The Watchdog, he checked with his client about complaints that she interrogated employees and said, “My client disputes her involvement in those meetings.”
The district hired an outside consultant to review Lemons-Shivers’ claims, and the board will review that report on Monday. Puente Consulting found that there was no collusion and no relationship between Ryan and Lopez. In fact, the report found, Lopez was raising questions about Alternative Education months before Ryan’s overtime became an issue.
Ryan told The Watchdog all her overtime was earned and approved. She said Lemons-Shivers asked her to work it, and signed off on it.
The Puente report concludes that Lopez does not have direct power to affect Lemons-Shivers employment and that Lopez was not seeking adverse information about Lemons-Shivers when she visited the department.
The report states that a number of employees under Lemons-Shivers “including teachers, counselors and classified staff have lodged complaints against Lemons-Shivers for a variety of concerns including complaints of harassment.”
Lopez would not discuss the lawsuit against her. She said she frequently asks questions and researches programs in her role as a trustee. Because she is a longtime teacher in another district, she is particularly interested in curriculum and students who are learning English.
“As a board member I have the responsibility to be visible in the community,” Lopez said. “I get invited to many events and after-school activities. My day is not over until sometimes 8 o’clock.”
As a result of this piece, I have been contacted by parents indicating that the Sweetwater district is also funding numerous official robocalls “from Ricasa” as well, touting various district events and such, throughout the election season.