The Stories Never End

In the last El Paisano, the student newspaper of Rio Hondo College, another story was published about the continuing saga that Superintendent Ted Martinez Jr. inflicted on the campus.  I have scanned that story and posted it here.  I would just link it to the El Paisano website, but that site has been down since the story appeared.  More on that later.

The story is basically a rehash of earlier stories dealing with the grievance filed against three faculty members that appeared earlier in the newspaper, but there is some new information courtesy of the Superintendent's Marketing Director, Susan Herney.  She confirmed that the Superintendent filed an appeal after the Board of Trustees decided "that the case did not have merit and would not go any further."

I have it from several sources that this story displeased the Superintendent, and he has demanded a retraction from El Paisano. [NOTE: My sources for this did not include the Dean of Communications & Languages.  If Kenn gets any grief for this article, my apologies to him.]  Why does Superintendent Ted Martinez, Jr. want a retraction?  No one seems to know.  As I wrote above, the only new information came form the Marketing Director.

I find it curious that since the article appeared in El Paisano more than a week ago, the newspaper website has been down for maintenance.  At least that's the official story, but what sort of maintenance takes this long?

http://www.elpaisanonewspaper.com/

UPDATE (04/28):  The real problem was that the bill to the company hosting the site wasn't paid.

And now for the rest of the story….

On March 1, the Board appointed a sub-committee consisting of Trustees Santana and Shapiro who were empowered to make the Administrative Determination with regard to the charges against Professors Wetsman, Young, and Javanmard.  Just to review, the charges alleged by the Superintendent included disparate treatment, character defamation, undermining the Superintendent's authority, creating a hostile working environment, and causing significant distress resulting in a transient ischemic attack.

It appears that this subcommittee reported their determination on March 14, and Superintendent Martinez filed an appeal shortly thereafter.  The entire Board met on April 9 to review the matter.  They next met on April 11.  While the appeal of the Administrative Determination was not on the agenda,* many have wondered if this was the impetus for Martinez's resignation retirement the very next day.

Finally at a special meeting on April 23, the Board upheld its Administrative Determination.  

I saw one of my colleagues today and said "congratulations."  Then I realized how weird it was to congratulate them.    Congratulations on not being found to treat people differently?  Congratulations on not defaming someone?  Congratulations on not undermining authority? Congratulations on not creating a hostile work environment?  Congratulations on not causing significant stress?

(sigh)

If there are any mistakes or if any administrator would like to comment on any aspect of this article, I welcome their input.  I will post any remarks unedited.

*The agenda for the April 11 Board meeting is missing from the Rio Hondo College website.