Re “Sheila Silver and Her Heart Cruise to a Happy Landing in Orange County”
Re “School Board Bombshell: Sheila Silver Is Back on a 3 to 2 Vote”
Officially she has been gone from the Culver City High School campus for two months, since notifying School District officials she was resigning to accept a similar position in southern Orange County, not far from her last previous teaching position.
That should have been the end of the Culver City portion of the Sheila Silver Story, the most controversial and, some say, the most popular teacher in the system. It wasn’t and it isn’t.
Since early in her second award-winning year at Culver High, 10 to 12 months ago, the veteran of 30 earlier years in Orange County has been a controversial figure.
After word leaked 10 months ago of reported Silver feuds with the leaders of the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program and with former Principal Dr. Pam Magee, her status has been as befogged as it has been avidly talked about.
With the Nov. 8 School Board election running a sometimes-angry fever, Ms. Silver’s name has been irreverently invoked in recent days, mainly because of the cloud under which she departed. School District insiders turn up the palms of their hands and ask, “What controversy? Not here. Yes, she was temporarily laid off, as others were, was recalled, and when she chose to leave not long before this school term started, she had a fulltime job with every responsibility intact. What controversy?”
While sources would not agree to speak on the record, persons with access to privileged information told the newspaper today:
• Rumors and assertions to the contrary, Ms. Silver held a fulltime job at Culver High this past summer as classroom/drama teacher until she notified the administration she had accepted a position at San Juan Hills High School.
• Although Ms. Silver and her supporters have indicated otherwise, administration sources say that her position as Creative Director of the Theatre Dept. of the AVPA, was hers until she quit. It had not been offered to her eventual successor. “She resigned so close to the new school year,” said one person, “that the District had to hire two people — one to fill her classroom job and one to take over her drama roles.”
• In her second year in the District, she was a probationary not a tenured teacher. Late last winter, after Ms. Silver was not recommended for rehiring for the present school year, streetside student-parent protests broke out, disputes raged and the School Board reversed the recommendation. The Board voted 3 to 2 on Feb. 18 to make her conditionally eligible to return.
• About one month later, according to the District sources, Ms. Silver informed them that because of a medical condition, she would need a leave of absence for two months. Promising to return in May, the sources said that Ms. Silver announced in May that she would be unable to return for the balance of the school year for health reasons.
Nevertheless, they said that Ms. Silver, who had been temporarily laid off in March when numerous teachers receive such notices, her fulltime position was restored in July, and she was so notified.
(To be continued)
