Malibu parents blast the school district board’s decision to fire Deputy Superintendent Tim Walker.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
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, resigned last week.
The announcement of his departure was called a tragedy by many Malibu parents and special education teachers from both cities. Santa Monica city officials and special education parents applauded the news.
Former Superintendent John Deasy brought Walker to the district in 2005 as an assistant superintendent of special education. He later served as interim superintendent and, after the hiring of Dianne Talarico as superintendent, he was named deputy superintendent. He has still played a role as the head of special education in the district.
During its meeting at Malibu City Hall last 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.
The settlement agreement, which gives Walker $193,000 to cover the remaining 13 months on his contract, was approved by the board on a 6-0 vote. Malibu resident Kathy Wisnicki abstained.
The district has been under pressure from Santa Monica city officials and parents to make changes in its special education program, with claims being made of harassment and intimidation from SMMUSD officials toward special education parents. Board president Oscar de la Torre said this week those changes could not be made with Walker in the administration. An example he gave of this is that last year when the district placed a moratorium on confidentiality clauses in agreements with special education parents, 28 were still made.
“The facts reveal a pattern that can be disturbing for any elected body when a directive is ignored,” De la Torre said.
De la Torre added that the problems with the special education program were not coming from the teachers and other staff, but from “administrators in the upper level.” When asked if that meant more administrators would be leaving, he said he could not discuss the subject. However, he did say, “We are looking for making comprehensive change a reality. We are looking into our staffing patterns to ensure we have the right people doing the rights things on behalf of the students.”
Walker could not be reached for comment. He did not attend last week’s board meeting. A high-level district employee said Walker was told by district officials not to come.
Wisnicki took an opposite view from that of De la Torre, saying this week Walker’s resignation was a loss for the district. She said she abstained on his settlement agreement because she did not want to reject the agreement, but she did not want to support his resignation. “Tim Walker is a man who gave his heart and soul to the district,” Wisnicki said. “He did everything we asked him to do and more. He did so much behind the scenes stuff that nobody ever noticed. He saw us through the entire transition from Mike Matthews leaving [as interim superintendent] to Dianne Talarico coming on board.”
Wisnicki said the board members knew all the confidentiality clauses made with the district, since they had to be approved by the board during closed session portions of meetings. So if they were troubled by them, they could have rejected them, she said.
Wisnicki has also called for an examination of the recently released special education report by district consultant Lou Barber & Associates, which she said includes many errors and excludes information such as comments made during interviews in favor of the district’s special education program.
Parents blast board
Following the announcement of the settlement agreement last Thursday, the board was blasted for nearly an hour by Malibu parents (as well as a handful of Santa Monica 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 Lou Barber report.
“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 that 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 Sills, 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.
Sills also accused the board of wanting to get rid of Walker because of “Santa Monica politics.”
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.
The district is expected to discuss the special education issue further at its meeting next Thursday at Santa Monica City Hall. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.