Tim Walker, the school district’s deputy superintendent whose handling of the special education department drew fierce criticism from Santa Monicans and great praise from Malibu residents, is leaving the district.
During its meeting at Malibu City Hall on Thursday, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education approved what the district called in a press release on Friday, “a mutually agreed upon settlement” between the district and Walker. Although Walker submitted a letter of resignation effective June 30 (he has accumulated enough vacation days so he will not have to return to work), the numerous Malibu parents and district special education employees who spoke at the meeting said Walker was forced out.
Board President Oscar de la Torre announced at the beginning of the public portion of the meeting that a 6-0 vote with one abstention was made on a $193,000 settlement agreement during the closed session. Board member Kathy Wisnicki said after the meeting that she was the abstention. In his announcement, De la Torre only referred to the agreement by a serial number. The district did not officially say Walker would be leaving until the issuance of the press release the next day.
Walker did not attend the meeting. A source said he was told by district officials not to come.
Following the announcement of the settlement agreement, the board was blasted for nearly an hour by Malibu parents and special education teachers from Santa Monica and Malibu schools. They applauded Walker’s work and said he and the special education program had been unfairly criticized by Santa Monica parents and the recently released special education report by district consultant Lou Barber & Associates.
“If you think by firing Tim Walker, all of your problems are going to be solved, then shame on you,” said Teresa Fazio, parent of an autistic student at Malibu High School. “And you’re all going to be very disappointed that you’ve done that.”
Nathan Garden, a special education teacher at Franklin Middle School in Santa Monica, called Walker “the backbone of our special education department [who] continues to make sure we are moving in the right direction.”
Teachers union head Harry Keiley told the board the special education teachers’ “morale is low and frustration is high.”
The board also heard from Malibu students, who had good things to say about the special education program.
“In my special ed class, I learned so many things, like reading Braille and working on computers,” said seventh-grader Rex Lewis-Clack, a blind and learning disabled child who has received worldwide attention for his piano playing. “It’s an amazing program. And I have wonderful teachers.”
Malibu Middle School sixth-grader Danny Sills said, “I don’t understand why everybody is mad. I don’t want my teachers to feel sad. Be nice to special ed kids. Don’t fire people.”
Sills’ mother, Laureen, was one of two Malibu parents who spoke during the public portion of the meeting prior to the closed session. She pleaded with the board not to terminate Walker’s contract since the members had mostly heard from Santa Monica parents following last month’s release of the Lou Barber report.
“There is a whole other side that I wish you would explore before you hand Tim’s head over to the angry mob,” Sills said.
Meanwhile, The Lookout News, a Santa Monica news Web site, quoted several Santa Monica special education parents and city officials who were pleased Walker would be leaving the district.
Following the public comments, the board members were only able to make limited responses because state law prohibited them from discussing the issue in depth since it was not on the agenda. The public comments had come during a portion of the meeting when the public can talk about items not on the agenda. The board members said the special education issue would be on the May 15 agenda. While the board members spoke, several Malibu parents yelled from the audience, with one parent comparing the board’s action to President George W. Bush’s claim prior to the war that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Wisnicki said there were many false statements in the Lou Barber report, including the absence of positive comments about the special education program made by Malibu parents during interviews, and she wanted the issue addressed soon by the district.