Friday, June 23, 2017

Emery Schools Superintendent Dr Rubio Blasted by Outgoing Teachers



Teachers Blast Rubio,
'Bullying, Incompetent, Racist'


A roomful of vacating veteran teachers at the June 15th School Board meeting blasted Emery Unified School District’s Superintendent John Rubio for what they said was his incompetency, lack of leadership and racist practices he has instituted at Emeryville’s schools.  Among the nine speakers one of whom said by quitting she was “voting with my feet”, was the Anna Yates Elementary School Principal who is also leaving, citing that she was being “undermined” by the Superintendent.
The spectacle was summarily dismissed by Mr Rubio who tersely said of the criticism, “I’m not perfect. I’m trying my best” after the near 50 minute onslaught but before he urged the Board to move on to the business at hand.

The united teacher front, colleagues granting extra time by yielding their allotted three minutes to those speaking, is but the latest in a series of exigencies highlighting a school district in chaos led by a dysfunctional superintendent.  The portrait painted by the onslaught of distressed teachers is of an Emery superintendent that is a bully, leaving "even parents crying” as one teacher recalled, her colleague adding “I’ve never seen a lack of leadership as I’ve been seeing here.” 

The bullying recalled by the fleeing teachers has had a negative consequence for the District: the speakers excoriating Mr Rubio represent but a fraction of the 37% of teachers that have fled Emery in the last year, a hard number provided by the District itself but nonetheless refuted by the Superintendent.  The teacher retention crisis, brought on by Mr Rubio, has given Emery the dubious distinction being the worst among all school districts in the Bay Area.

Superintendent Rubio has faced a rocky road here at Emery, starting with his hiring of an abusive predator as the elementary school principal as his first act as superintendent, an act for which the District lost almost $100,000.  Mr Rubio also over saw a program wherein he turned over students private confidential information to a for profit online corporation without the consent of parents. He also made draconian budget cuts he claimed would improve educational prospects and he moved to cut community engagement in the building of the Center of Community Life.  The local press took Mr Rubio to task when he met with three allied Board members behind closed doors to work out details of an upcoming vote in an egregious Brown Act violation.  But perhaps the most distressing development has been the recent emerging story on his alleged violation of State ‘mandated reporter’ requirements in the on campus sexual assaults case

The teacher comments at the June 15th Board meeting however were mostly directed at Mr Rubio’s hostilities to teachers, treating them as “roaches and dogs” according to one of the teachers.  Teachers noted how the Superintendent ‘talks a good game’ especially on equitability at the District but “There is a surface politeness covering a man I have come to distrust, not responding to issues but instead attacking teachers.”  said one.  Another noted how racist practices had grown since Mr Rubio was hired on, stating “It has been difficult to be here and watch the institutional racism that I see around me” she said.
Teachers came to the defense of the elementary school principal.  One commented how Mr Rubio would subvert the principal, stating “I’ve seen many examples of how his leadership seems to lack the ability to reflect upon what he’s done, to ‘stay in his lane’ and let the principal do her job.”  For her part the Principal took the Superintendent to task for his “selective accountability”, her finding based work derided as ‘opinion’ and for keeping her in the dark about new directives coming from on high.

Teachers spoke of a changed district since the hiring of Mr Rubio, an “administrative heavy” district and that the fleeing teachers represent a loss of more than 100 years of institutional service and connection to the children. One teacher lamented the loss of the Anna Yates Elementary School campus before the building of the new Center of Community Life or Mr Rubio as Superintendent, “Our best years were when [Anna Yates] was Kindergarten through 6th grade” she said.
That same teacher finished her comment by informing the Board and Superintendent Rubio “The last few years have been so difficult that I must leave.”  She warned the Board they should be careful when hiring a new superintendent, presuming they would do that, stating, “Look for a superintendent that is competent and culturally sensitive.”

One particularly popular teacher (as confirmed by his colleagues) gave a heart rending accounting of the district under Superintendent Rubio and finished by saying to the assembled crowd he was leaving now and “I never thought I would leave here so early in my career.”
Another fleeing teacher was more circumspect about Emery Unified School District under John Rubio; standing with her young child at her side, she said simply “I would never send my son here.” 

Video provided by Ken Bukowski (action starts at the 1:10 mark) 




22 comments:

  1. Just fire him already. Jeez, what is wrong with Emery? They're going to wait and see how this turns out probably. Meanwhile the kids suffer. Why can't Emery ever seem to get it together?

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  2. I will never forget my first and last year at Emery 2014-2015, when Rubio got word of our new principal sexual harassment reports, his response was, "A Zebra can't change his stripes." So glad I left.

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  3. In addition to what was said at this board meeting, the hiring of new teachers was done almost exclusively by two BRAND NEW young white teachers, cherry picked by the superintendent. Typical of most districts (and one would assume as best practices), teachers are hired by committee including the principal and teachers who hopefully have the 'institutional memory' of our unique educational family. This gives me pause.

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    1. Thank you for this story tip. I have not heard about this distressing allegation. I will investigate this and try to get Mr Rubio answer to it. I presume before Superintendent Rubio was hired the better and more widely used process you describe was used at Emery. That being the case, we need an answer as to why the change and why the regrettable new racial overlay.
      Again thank you for the tip.

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    2. One of those teachers also did the initial screenings of principals, as well. Then, he tried to cover his tracks by inviting EVERYONE to be part of the formal interviews of the principal(s). Additionally, he wrote an email to the staff addressing this issue and included names of teachers who were never asked to interview candidates. Basically, he lied or embellished the truth.

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    3. So one of the two (white) teachers served as the gatekeeper for the new principal selection? Meaning the other teachers that were finally allowed to weigh in only got to decide among the choices provided by the one teacher in question?

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    4. yes, as far as I know.

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    5. Dr. Rubio treats black parents and students with disdain. His arrogance and narcissism have destroyed the school community. I guess what is most disturbing is the board is either blind and deaf or they are just as racist. There is no where for a parent or child to take their concerns or complaints of his racist treatment of them. I am shocked he has been rehired. I watched as he took out restraining orders on a black mother after he illegally expelled her child and she asked his reason. He threatened Ms. Lang when she attempted to explain the situation. I observed this man violate multiple state and federal education laws. He was sued when he was a principal in San Francisco. The board needs to be fired.

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    6. They should have hired Mr. Rodgers as the principal he is amazing , all the Teachers that are leaving are amazing. It is sad that one person has such control. How many good people are we going to lose just for the power. The School Board should do their job , like give our kids a safe environment to learn in, safe environment to play in, open the eyes that see and open the ears that hear.It is sad that the Teachers really don't know who the School Board members are, they have been there for a full School year, if they don't want to make Emery a strong great School step down.( These are our children , I don't care what race any child is, we all bleed the same.) School Board members you are the leaders(you call the shots) and when you have a head of the school tell Parents if you don't like the way things are ran take you child out, Teachers are telling you what's wrong, Parents are telling you, and you still have a deaf ear, somethings wrong. If this is how you feel a School should be run put your child, niece/nephew, grandchild in this school and let them get exposed to all of your neglect, that is getting worse day to day.

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  4. It is interesting that Dr. Rubio has not posted any new content to the Emery United School District website since December 21, 2016 (https://emeryusd.k12.ca.us/blog/letter-to-parentscommunity/) or to his own professional blogs for more than two years (see http://johnrubiosuperintendent.blogspot.com/ - June 22, 2015; http://drjohnrubio.weebly.com/ - June 18, 2015; and https://drjohnrubio.wordpress.com/ - June 18, 2015). For a superintendent of a city school system, the amount of personal outreach to the community he serves is seriously lacking. And what's up with three blog sites? One was not enough so he had to start two additional sites?

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  5. so am I to understand Dr. Rubio's contract has been renewed?

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    1. Yes. They think VERY highly of him. Something about that worst teacher retention record in the entire Bay Area they must find extremely compelling. That was done before the newest Board members came on board so only Donn Merriam is to blame. The Tattler has reached out to Donn to ask why renew Mr Rubio's contract but he has so far refused to respond. He feels he doesn't owe any explanations to the voters I guess. Certainly three out of five are standing by the Superintendent so far...maybe four out of five...sort of like the Republicans in Congress standing by Trump.

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    2. I testified before the board last year regarding his non compliance with fed and state regulations. Are there any law suites against him? Parents and teachers must organize. I have known this man for a long time and he is dangerous. He does not have an option to not report an alleged sexual assault. It is against the law. Anyone who supports retaining this man is colluding in child abuse and racism.

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  6. the school district's history of superintendents has not improved since 1993:

    1993-2000 j.l. handy, misappropriation of public funds leaving the district $600,000 in debt.
    district goes into state receivership
    2004-2007 tony smith
    2008 steven j. wesley, falsifying resume
    2008-2011 john sugiyama
    2011-2014 debbra lindo, terminated by district. no reason given
    2014-present john rubio


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  7. Over at Rob's blog he's saying the problem isn't the superintendent. The problem is the teachers and Brian Donahue. The school district would be great if they could get rid of the teachers and Brian Donahue.

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    1. Yes I read that! Mr Rubio said the problem is people without children enrolled in the District...they're not legitimate, they shouldn't criticize. If only teachers and I would get in line everything would be great. Actually it's more nuanced than that though: he makes it clear I'm bad for the School District to be sure but among teachers, as they said it's the African American one's he's got the problem with. Watch for a future Tattler story on this BTW.

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  8. I have read the article and comments and noticed that no one has brought up the positive that Dr. Rubio has brought to the district. As a former staff member, I would like to note the following:

    1) Dr. Rubio came in seeing a big lack of systems at the schools. As a result he created two systems that had an immense impact on the teachers, thus the students. He created a substitute system and a report card system (all within the first few months of acting superintendent)

    2) Dr. Rubio saw a need to support teachers in their instructional practices. He used two contacts from his previous district and embedded 3 days of professional development on the Lucy Calkins Writer's workshop and Thematic back mapping approach.

    3) Dr. Rubio guided administration through difficult and intense situations regarding specific families and students. He provided support for teachers in these situations as well and was very hands on.

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    1. Ask ANY teacher who has been there over the last three years and get their input on report cards (that the middle and high school teachers struggle with), our substitute system (what a joke since we have NO substitutes), the whole district Lucy Calkins Writer's workshop (that was only appropriate for elementary school teachers) and the thematic back mapping which we could have done by ourselves (and we're sure the district paid a fortune for). As far as number 3...huh???? No words. LOL!

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  9. Brian has always had the teacher's back and we appreciate it. The district is always long on talk and short on action. The board will ignore this so the tattler does an important job keeping this active.

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  10. Agree with the previous comment - 'Brian has always had the teacher's back'. Voice of reason - for years. Thank you, Brian.

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  11. Former employee here. I've seen some things over the years (since the early 2000's) that often made me question the "Powers that be" but that man Rubio is a terminal cancer for EUSD. I'm not disgruntled by my layoff he kind of did me a favor in my eyes. But as an ousider looking in that actually was on the inside, this man is going to cause FAR MORE damage than Handy, Wesley or Lindo could have EVER done. He's a Misogynistic, Bigoted, Racist Bully suffering from LMS who probably has NO other option BUT to stay at EUSD. He couldn't get away with even a quarter of the things he's done. Only the mindless EUSD Board drones would tolerate it. A REAL School Board and REAL School District would have bounced his butt out a long time ago. The FAILURE to report a Sexual Assault allegation as a Mandated Reporter should have been the nail in the coffin. The man NEEDS charges brought against him!!! Any other person at any other district would have been fired and charges filed. Come on Emeryville you have got to do better.

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