School Board member Patricia Siever said this afternoon she was so shocked by the decision at last week’s meeting to reconsider the contract of the Interim Superintendent that it was nearly impossible for her to concentrate the rest of the evening.
Further, and even more seriously, Ms. Siever, in her second year, was hospitalized Monday night for nearly 24 hours, suffering from atrial fibrillation, a greatly accelerated heartbeat.
She believes she knows why.
“I was so upset about the business that happened at the School Board meeting,” she said. “I was having dinner, and I noticed immediately my heart was beating faster than normal. ‘Oh, this is bad,’ I said.
“The doctor in Santa Monica said I could have had a stroke. I am taking blood thinner medication now.
“You know how you internalize things? That is what was going on. I was trying to do something about this mess we have.”
Changeable Terms
“This mess” was the School Board’s abrupt decision to hew to a little-noticed clause in the temporary contract of Interim Super Patti Jaffe, whereby a majority vote can eliminate the phrase that she may not be considered for permanent appointment.
Ms. Siever is sharply nettled because the Board had just completed interviewing the three finalists for the job that Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté suddenly quit last May.
A longtime faculty member at West Los Angeles College and a community college professor for 36 years, Ms. Siever makes two strong complaints:
• She was and still is taken aback that Board President Scott Zeidman did not offer colleagues a clue, in private, of his intention to seek a vote to possibly obliterate the “fulltime” clause, and
• She maintains such a move is archly unfair to all three of the finalists, on the grounds that they thought they were the only ones in the race for the Culver City position that will pay around $200,000.
Regretting Lack of Warning
“In Closed Session, we had not talked about any such potential development,” said Ms. Siever. “We had just finished interviewing the finalists, and the next step was supposed to be to choose one. “Who wants to come to a district where two members of the School Board (immediate past President Steve Gourley and Mr. Zeidman) are doing the cheerleading for one person who, officially, is not even a candidate?
“This is not personal, not at all. I like Patti. But this is a matter of honesty, integrity and fairness.
“What the Board did is something you just don’t do. I have no problem with freedom of speech, with people standing up to speak about what they want.
“But when you start…it almost seemed contrived. We had been in Closed Session for an hour, and (Mr. Zeidman) never mentioned it.
“So we go out to the Board Room, this subject comes up, and I am going ‘What! What is this?’
“We had agreed to this process. But if he wanted to do this earlier, why didn’t he say that months ago?
“That was a problem for me. I have served for years on boards. I have been president of a statewide organization, and I never have experienced anything like this.
“If I am going to vote against something, I am going to let you know. We don’t have (the Jaffe) contract. I didn’t know… I was going ‘What! What?’
“It leaves you in a position where everybody hates you because they think you don’t like Patti. It’s not personal, and it’s got nothing to do with that, how I voted and how I will vote. It is about principle.
“You don’t just leave three people after their second round of interviews. You don’t do that. It’s not fair. And you don’t notify them for three weeks?”
The School Board, which meets twice monthly, is scheduled to consider the conditional terms of Ms. Jaffe’s contract at Tuesday night’s 7 o’clock meeting, at the moment still planned for the Board Room on Irving Place.
(To be continued)
