Changes at Guajome Academy ripple onto Web

By: ROB O'DELL - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 16, 2005 9:52 PM PDT ∞

VISTA ---- Three years ago, Guajome Park Academy was one of three charter schools in California to win a Distinguished School Award and students, parents and faculty were singing the academy's praises ---- even as classes were held in trailers and P.E. was relegated to patches of dirt and grass.

Now ---- as the paint is drying on a sparkling new $36 million campus that features an outdoor amphitheater, a modern "wellness center" and a state-of-the art gymnasium ----- some former teachers and students say they are increasingly unhappy with changes at the school and its programs.

Most of the complaints center around the academy's principal and administrator, Penny Harrison, who is beginning her third year at the helm of the 11-year-old public charter school, which serves roughly 800 students.

The school was created by the Vista Unified School District, but district officials said they have almost no oversight of the school other than to ensure that it meets certain attendance goals. It gets much of its money as a public school from the state according to its student enrollment.

Critics say the school has changed from a town hall-style of collaboration where everyone was given a voice to a top-down autocratic management structure where those with different ideas are not just marginalized, but shown the door.

They say the philosophical differences and tension between the two groups could lead to the dissidents forming a new charter school to compete with Guajome.

Harrison said last week that she is proud of what she has accomplished at the school, citing the campus's new foreign language lab, an improved visual and performing arts program and the much-vaunted wellness center that opened in July.

But the complaints are growing louder. A group of dissidents has created a Web site ---- www.guajomeunderground.org ---- where participants can post messages about the charter school that serves sixth- through 12th-graders at 2000 N. Santa Fe Drive.

'Guajome Underground'

The Web site is the creation of former Guajome teacher Lisa James, who administers the site with her husband, Craig.

James said creating the forum was the only option left to mourn the changes at the school. Over the last few years, she said, 25 of the school's 80 teachers have been transferred, fired or not had their contracts renewed. Most of those positions have since been refilled.

Harrison said she didn't think that number ---- 25 teachers ---- sounded right, but added she didn't know how many had left in the past few years.

She said a lot of teachers and parents don't understand new credentialing requirements under the No Child Left Behind federal law. Many teachers did not have their contracts renewed because they didn't have the right credentials, she said.

James said she was not offered a teaching contract at the school after her temporary contract for the 2004-05 school year expired. James said she was told the school was reducing staff, but she questioned that rationale because she said another math teacher was hired after her contract was not renewed.

James and other critics say that Harrison has absolute power at the school because of authority granted her by the school's nine-member executive board in April, which gives her the sole right to hire and fire employees.

Harrison uses her power to remove anyone who disagrees or is critical of her decision-making, James said.

"One of the problems with a charter school is there is no recourse," James said. "There's no union on the teachers' behalf. A lot of the frustration stems from the feeling of powerlessness."

Ron Groenewold, a member of the school's executive board and head of the adjacent Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum, said that Harrison has done an excellent job. He said he had not heard of the Web site and no specific complaints have made their way to the executive board.

In addition, he said it is typical for a principal to have the administrative power to hire and fire employees.

"It's been more transparent than it has ever been," he said.

Harrison said there is a lot of "misinformation" being spread by the operators of the Web site.

She defended the use of temporary teacher contracts, which she said Guajome uses extensively, adding that many schools use temporary teacher contracts that are renewed on an annual basis.

She also said employees are encouraged to speak their mind.

"We work off an administrative structure that allows for multiple areas for input," Harrison said. "I must tell you, I'm very proud of the work that the teachers have done here."

Longtime IB director leaves

James said that when her Web site first went up in May, it had a few registered guests. However, she said use of the site mushroomed after the popular director of the school's International Baccalaureate program was let go unceremoniously on June 17.

James said that's when "the movement became a movement."

Beverly Kanawi, the International Baccalaureate director and a longtime community cheerleader for Guajome's programs left the school in June after her contract was not renewed.

After being at Guajome for five years, Kanawi said, she was given one day to box up her belongings. She added that the stuff she couldn't fit in her car was driven to her house by Harrison and another employee so she wouldn't have the opportunity to go back to the campus.

Kanawi was also a member of the school's executive board and said she feels that she was let go because she vigorously disagreed with Harrison and her allies on the panel. She said she heard that her leaving was a result of not having a teaching credential. But she said she didn't need a credential to be the IB director or teach the Theory of Knowledge elective course that she had been teaching.

She said she only had one evaluation in her five years at the school and said that it was stellar.

"Guajome was founded on the fact that everybody has a voice," Kanawi said. "That doesn't happen anymore."

Still, Kanawi said the experiences of teachers varies by employee. Those who are in Harrison's inner circle or those who identify with her decision making have difference perceptions than she does.

"It depends on who you talk to," she said, adding that Harrison has created an "us vs them" type of culture at the school. "It's a 'my way or the highway' atmosphere that has developed over the past two years."

Opinions vary on campus

Craig Costello, Guajome's former dean of students who will teach high school this year, said the complaints on the Web site are misplaced.

Costello said that employment at a charter school will always be somewhat stressful, especially for younger teachers with temporary contracts. He said charter school teachers will never have the type of tenure that teachers in typical school districts enjoy.

Still, he said the Web site has attracted attention on campus.

"Everybody talks about it," Costello said. "It definitely seems to preoccupy some of the staff and students."

Like Costello, other teachers on campus said this week that Guajome has preserved the characteristics that make its programs successful.

Melanie Paliotti, a German teacher at Guajome, said she enjoys the opportunities to work with students hands-on and design programs to fit their needs. She said she recently helped develop a multimedia language lab manufactured by Sony that will serve as a showcase for Sony's attempts to market the lab to other schools.

Zana Zmily, one of Guajome's roughly 800 students, said that the people who use the Web site are not just disgruntled former employees who have lost their jobs. She said current teachers and students, including herself, are members of the site.

Zmily, who was the school's Associated Student Body president for two years, along with being class president and editor of the school's newspaper, said those who use the Guajome Underground site are not out to hurt the school. She said they want to help the school by letting people know exactly what is happening there.

"In my opinion Guajome has changed over the past two years," she said. "It used to be a positive environment. It's a more negative environment --- you can feel it. There's tension between the teachers and the administrators. It's a lot more negative."

Contact staff writer Rob O'Dell at (760) 631-6620 or rodell@nctimes.com.

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