The Antioch Unified School District Board will meet Wednesday in closed session to select an acting superintendent to temporarily replace Stephanie Anello, who has been on medical leave since late April.
Anello went out on leave after claims surfaced that a maintenance director had bullied and harassment employees, and while school board President Antonio Hernandez called for her resignation. A vote to oust her failed, 2-to-3, at a meeting on May 8.
Hernandez said he had asked the superintendent to brief him on the claims and was told they had been properly dealt with, but after that, employees continued to say there was a hostile work environment and complaints hadn’t been resolved.
“I made it very clear that we’re not moving the school district in the right direction, and we’re no longer aligned in values, and that’s a perfectly valid reason to terminate a superintendent’s contract without cause,” said Hernandez, who twice tried to hold special board meetings on the matter but couldn’t reach a quorum.
It is unclear how long Anello will be out, and while the board could temporarily promote anyone from the district, Hernandez said he is pushing for an external candidate “to rebuild trust.”
Also on Wednesday, the board will discuss the superintendent’s evaluation, which has not been completed since 2020. Records show Anello earns a base salary of $353,045, and has received raises despite not being officially evaluated.
The board will also discuss launching its own investigation into “the policies, practices and culture” of the district that impact the employees and students.
“I’m trying to see if the board will agree with me to start an investigation into the culture of our school district because there are employees who want to share their story but are terrified to come out publicly,” Hernandez said. “And through an investigation, we can create a mechanism where we can still get these stories and these experiences that are happening from our employees in confidence, so that we can address these things within our school district.”
In the meantime, Rob Martinez, the head of human resources, sent a letter last week to employees saying that two of the four complaints highlighted in media reports were “processed consistent with the District’s protocols, procedures and board policy.” A third-party investigator the district hired to review the complaints came to a similar conclusion, “finding no irregularities in the investigation process or findings,” the letter said.
Two “more recent complaints” will undergo a similar, third-party investigation, Martinez’s letter said. It was unclear which two complaints had already been investigated, which ones will be investigated or what type of investigation was done or by whom.
Because it’s a personnel matter, the district has said it would not answer any questions about the complaints.
Earlier, Hernandez had said that the trustees should hire the outside investigator. Employees had complained about Martinez’s handling of the initial investigations and argued that Anello would not do anything because her husband, former Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando, is good friends with the accused supervisor.
In his letter to employees on May 15, Martinez said Anello “was not directly involved in the investigations, findings or disciplinary actions.”
The complaints first surfaced publicy last September when AUSD purchasing technician Kim Atkinson spoke at a school board meeting, outlining instances of alleged abuse by maintenance and facilities manager Kenneth Turnage II, including 24 in a formal complaint.
Atkinson and others said that Turnage, who oversees more than 100 employees, had a 29-year employee’s desk hoisted up and placed on a school rooftop more than a year ago, taking it down only after district officials told him to do so. A photo of the desk showed a sign with the employee’s name, Jim Kesser, and an arrow pointed to the desk above, while another photo showed two push carts filled with Kesser’s personal items.
Kesser told this news organization he thought he was being punished for an earlier disagreement about a work issue. He said a district investigation concluded it was a prank.
Turnage also has been accused by several others — two of whom went out on medical leave — of creating a hostile work environment. Turnage did not return calls for comment.
But for Hernandez, the issue is not about the maintenance supervisor now, but about the district’s culture. He said he will not tolerate an “environment where bullies are allowed to run rampant in our school district.”
“This is about a greater district-wide issue, and the leadership of our school district,” Hernandez said.
The closed-session meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m. at district headquarters, 510 G. St.