Confusion surrounds much of the controversy between the District Office and School Employees. Issues include a debate over how many employees are needed at the District Office, limited access to public information, uncertainty over administrators’ salaries, and anonymous communications to the Gazette.

At the April 21st Board Meeting, FUTA President Theresa Marvel had accepted the Board’s offer to hear alternate proposals from the public, and handed out a written budget-cutting proposal suggesting that the District reduce the number of top-level administrators, primarily by demoting administrators and reducing the number of work-days in their year. Marvel argued that the District Office was over-staffed, based on her analysis of other districts’ staffing levels. Marvel’s analysis of the number of top-level administrators in Fillmore, Ojai, Oak Park, and Ventura was based on data she gathered from the Ventura County Public Schools Directory (VCPSD), as published on its website. Assistant Superintendent Evalene Townend disputed those numbers, and provided the Gazette with her own lists based on phone conversations with employees of the referenced districts. The Gazette examined Ventura Unified’s numbers as a sample to determine whether Marvel’s analysis was inconsistent with the data provided. Marvel counted only Supervisors, Assistant Supervisors, Directors, and Coordinators, because she was primarily interested in reducing top-level staff. Townend’s lists of District Office staffs listed many more employee at each office, including specialists, secretaries, and clerks. She noted that Ventura Unified had 135 employees at the District Office. The Gazette based its analysis on the VCPSD but counted Managers and Assistant Directors, in addition to the top-level employees that Marvel counted. Marvel’s count of Ventura Unified included 1 Superintendent, 3 Assistant Superintendents, 13 Directors, and 1 Coordinator. The modified count included 1 Superintendent, 3 Assistant Superintendents, 13 Directors, 2 Coordinators, 4 Assistant Directors, and 2 Managers. From the job titles listed on the web site, it was difficult to tell whether some positions were top-level or support staff. In fact, a person listed as “Risk Manager” on the web site was listed by Townend as “Director of Risk Management”. Whether Marvel is correct in concluding that Fillmore is top-heavy with school administrators is a matter for the School Board to determine, but her data is not inaccurate enough to damage her argument.

Another point of dispute has been Superintendent Jeff Sweeney’s salary. Despite the fact that, as Sweeney has written, “All District salaries are verifiable and public information,” obtaining salary information from the District has been difficult. A member of Friends of Piru, a parent association at Piru Elementary School, said that she requested salary information from the District several times. Finally, on April 28th, upon submitting another identical request for the information, District staff provided her with a form to fill out, which she did. As of May 12, 2009, she has still not received a response. Another concerned citizen told the Gazette that she was unable to get salary information from anyone at the District Office other than Sweeney himself. The Gazette requested a salary schedule for all FUSD employees on April 21st. On April 22nd, Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush provided salary schedules consisting of lists of positions and various salary levels for each position without indicating which level each staff member had attained. In response, the Gazette invoked California Government Code Sections 6250-6276.48 to request specific current annual salaries. On April 23rd, Bush asked that the Gazette fill out and submit a form, and indicated he had asked staff to run a report containing the requested information. The Gazette received three large packets from Bush. Bush informed the Gazette that each packet showed salaries for employees in the three school years: 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. In an enclosed letter, Bush explained that no report was yet available for 2009-2010, described some limitations of the enclosed reports, and offered to meet with the Gazette to review the reports. The first of the above reports showed $117,706 under the “Earnings” column for Sweeney. The later two reports showed $147,350 and $147,351 respectively under the “Earnings” columns for Sweeney. The Gazette did not realize that the increase was due not to a raise, but to Sweeney only working for part of the 2006-2007 school year because he started work after the beginning of the school year. A similar mistake was made in the analysis of Assistant Superintendents’ salaries. In a memo to all FUTA staff, Sweeney stated, “When I was hired in the District, the Board signed a three-year contract with me for approximately $145,000. Currently, my total salary is approximately $152,000.” The Gazette would welcome an explanation from Sweeney as to why the data provided lists his current salary as $147,351.

To add to the confusion, a stack of copies of an anonymous letter to the editor was found next to a copy machine at Fillmore Middle School (FMS). The letter was signed “A Concerned and Dedicated Teacher”. Although the letter was addressed to the Gazette, it was never submitted, and the Gazette only learned of its existence because an FMS employee who found the letter brought it to our attention. The letter praised the FUSD administration, criticized the union leadership, and noted that it was left by the copy machine for teachers to read in case the Gazette refused to print the letter. The Gazette respects sources who wish to remain anonymous to the general public or make off-the-record statements. It is against Gazette policy to print anonymous letters without verifying that the writer is legitimate, but in any case, whoever wrote that letter did not submit it for publication.

Other anonymous communications reveal a disturbing trend. The Gazette first received two anonymous calls regarding the School District’s financial crisis during the week of April 20th. Martin Farrell, the Gazette Publisher, took both calls on two separate days. He believes the same woman called both times. She angrily claimed that Marvel was spreading lies, and that Marvel and Gazette Website Engineer Scott Duckett were working together against the District.

On Monday, April 27th, Assistant Superintendent Evalene Townend spoke with Duckett on the phone and said she would be sending information to counter Marvel’s April 21st figures regarding administrative staff at other districts. Late that same afternoon, an anonymous woman claiming to be a teacher who attended the Fillmore Unified Teachers Association (FUTA) social phoned Duckett. She said that five other teachers were present listening to the call, and proceeded to accuse Duckett, the Gazette, and Duckett’s mother (CSEA Executive Board Member Sheila Duckett) of deliberately lying. She claimed that Marvel’s facts regarding districts’ staffing in the April 23rd Gazette article were wrong, and accused Scott Duckett of collaborating with Marvel to “get the District”. According to Scott, she had very detailed information about a recent and supposedly private conversation between Townend and Sheila Duckett.

At 2:06 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28th, Townend provided Scott Duckett with her lists of other districts’ administrative staffs via email. Duckett replied at 2:34 p.m. by thanking Townend for the information and that he would look at everything as soon as he could. The Gazette’s established deadline for submission of articles is Tuesday 3:00 p.m. Duckett examined the lists on Wednesday, April 29th, and emailed Townend requesting more information and stated, “And to be fair, I’ll give Theresa a chance to respond.” He never received a reply to that email.

On the morning of Thursday, April 30th, before the Gazette staff arrived, an anonymous caller left a message criticizing Duckett for not printing a correction. The caller said, “Yes. This message is for Scott Duckett. Um, looked for the article today correcting the information you and I spoke on the phone last week and you asked me to ask Mrs. Townend to get you that information and I met with her yesterday and she promised me she sent you that information and just as I suspected you didn’t print a correction. Way to go boy.”

After 3 p.m. on that same day, the Gazette received another anonymous call which was also recorded on the answering machine because the Gazette Office Manager had left for the day. The message said: “Hi, this message is um for Scott um Duckle (sic) or some yeah um. I teach at the middle school here in Fillmore. And our union president came to me and asked me if I would be willing to do an article for Mr. Duckle (sic)? Stating that um the district improperly noticed me when I was being let go? And was told that others another teacher was going to make that statement? And I just want to go on record as stating that is completely untrue? I met with both my supervisor and Ms. Townend? At the district office? And neither my principal nor she representing the district ever made that type of statement. And I’m just hoping before you print something from our union president that’s not true as she’s fighting against the district and also spreading other rumors that are not true that you check your information out before you take her word for it because other things I don’t know if you know but other things that she’s given you that you’re printing are not true as well. Thank you.”

Because the caller indicated that she wanted to go on record, but did not leave her name, the Gazette made every effort to locate her. No Fillmore Middle School (FMS) teachers received pink slips this year. Two FMS teachers resigned, but each one of them spoke with the Gazette, and said they did not leave the message. One FMS teacher received a non-reelect notice, but the Gazette was unable to reach that teacher for comment. Several witnesses from FMS said that the voice did not belong to any FMS teacher.

On Monday, May 4th, Townend called for Duckett twice and left messages with the Office Manager each time. During Townend’s second call, the Office Manager told her that Scott was busy and he could not talk to her at that time.

On Tuesday, May 5th, a woman who refused to identify herself called and asked to speak with “Scott.” After being told that Scott was not available, she asked to speak to “Martin.” According to a statement by Martin Farrell, “The caller, somewhat agitated, identified herself as a Middle School teacher who had just resigned, and immediately launched into sharp criticism of the Gazette for ‘writing’ a story which was critical of Ms. Townend.” Farrell said, “I told the caller that she should contact Scott Duckett because he was doing some work on school budget cut-backs. In an exasperated tone of voice she told me that she had called twice ‘yesterday’ and was told that Scott couldn’t take the call at that time.”

--The two messages left on the Gazette's answering machine can be heard by clicking on the play button of the player at the top of this article. The answering machine time stamp heard at the end of each message is slow by 1 hour and 22 minutes. The actual times of the calls are approximately 8:43 a.m. and 3:19 p.m.