Alain Guevara withdraws his candidacy for MPUSD's top job

After facing an unprecedented amount of scrutiny over his involvement in a sexual harassment lawsuit, Alain Guevara of Lake Elsinore Unified has withdrawn his application for the superintendent job at MPUSD.

Board President Jon Hill tells me the board received a letter announcing his decision late Saturday.

I'll write more about it for tomorrow's paper. Stay tuned.

Of test scores, credit card charges, and where the truth really lies...

It's not just the sexual harassment lawsuit that has MPUSD's pants in a tizzy. Opponents to naming Alain Guevara as the new superintendent for the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District are citing issues with how Lake Elsinore Unified, the district where Guevara comes from, failed to count migrant students scores in years past and how that inflated their schools and district  Academic Performance Index.

Here's a story about it, courtesy of the Press-Enterprise.

I talked to my personal test scores guru, Doug McRae, to ask his take on it. First of all, he says, a change in rules for API calculations is very different than a cheating scandal, what happened in Atlanta and Washington D.C.  And second he said that "virtually all school administrators in the state pay a lot of attention to API calculation rules, and if those rules permit a district to include or exclude certain students from their calculations and those inclusion/exclusion decisions positively affect their API's, they are likely to use the rules to their own advantage."

"It's not unlike deductions on your tax returns . . . . if you can legitimately claim a deduction, most folks claim it and reduce their taxes regardless whether they think the deduction is "fair" or not, regardless whether others are claiming the deduction or not. A lot of the inclusion/exclustion rules for API calculations are pretty arbitrary [just like rules for tax deductions]."

"But, it appears that Lake Elsinore was the beneficiary of previous rules for inclusion/exclusion of migrant students, at least in terms of absolute API scores, and when the rules changed they were no longer the beneficiary. It makes Lake Elsinore look bad when folks look at absolute API scores before the rules change and after the rules change. But, since the API system is based on changes not from year to year, but rather from base to growth where the rules are the same from base to growth, Lake Elsinore's API gain scores did not benefit from the change in rules."

It could have been, McRae conceded in a conversation, that Lake Elsinore officials were taking advantage of existing rules to make their API scores look better. To find out truly what the intentions were, we probably need a time machine to be sitting at the room where the decision was made.

We likely will never know.

Just like we probably won't know if John Ramirez, superintendent for the Alisal Union School District, really used his credit card in legitimate district business to stay at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco the first weekend in December.

Of lawsuits, trustees, and starting with a clean slate

I was once named as a witness in a racial discrimination lawsuit. From my vantage point, the lawsuit had absolutely no merit at all: yes, the person who filed it was receiving a miserably salary, but it had nothing to do with skin color. It had to do with seniority, budgeting, and a series of other unfortunate events that make corporate America the fun place it is.

I've never seen lawsuits the same way since then. Add to that the fact that I've done my fair share of courts coverage, and the end result is my belief that hardly ever what lands in court is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

This bring us to Alain Guevara, the man who was picked as the new superintendent of MPUSD in spite of being named in a sexual harassment lawsuit. I can see why trustees would believe in his arguments. He hasn't been convicted, he's only been accused. And why destroy an entire, 20-plus-year career with a few lapses of judgement?

Here's what I don't get. Why, in the name of Jolly, would the trustees put themselves in this position?

After the bruising battles they had to fight to defend former Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd -- with salaries, with her departure, with the closure of Bay View, etc -- why would they put themselves in that position again? With someone who's not even in the district yet? Was there nobody more palatable and suit-free than Guevara? Is he that AWE-SOME (using my teenager voice here) that there can't possibly be anyone like him? Are the trustees that courageous that they're willing to defy the outcry that was sure to follow?

Or are they just naive?

Or do they just know that, no matter who they pick, the community is never going to be happy?

Board President Curt Parker told me he wants to bring in Guevara because he's the type of man who would bring in people who have not been felt a part of MPUSD. I get that too. The district's already more than 50 percent Latino, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the people who attend board meetings. Maybe if you have a Latino in charge, the common folk would feel more welcome? Who knows?

And there's another thing that I don't get. The lawsuit talks about not just one incident, but what appeared to be a pattern of behavior. Can the sense of humor that apparently so many people found acceptable at Lake Elsinore -- a place where Guevara worked for about 20 years -- be replicated here?

Like teacher April McMillan wrote to Parker " if you have to be defending Mr. Guevara's decision to wear a clown hat with two noses dangling from it at an administrators retreat, you should not be offering him a job."

Scuttlebutt tells me plenty of people will be showing up to tonight's board meeting to express their dissatisfaction. Given past history, it's unlikely that will change anything.

But it will make for good theater. See you tonight.

Alain Guevara coming to MPUSD

Barring any unforseen circusmtance, Alain Guevara is coming to MPUSD.

My blog is off the charts. My phone's ringing off the hook. Scuttlebutt is mad as hell.

I need more than Scuttlebutt. I need real people, real names.

Please, if you have anything to say about this -- and are willing to see your name in print -- call me. 753-6755. Email me: cmelendez@montereyherald.com. Post something on my blog (with your name on it).

Let's give Scuttlebutt a rest for now.