Before heading off for Spring Break, the Santa Clara Unified Board of Trustees held a short meeting. The agenda was light, but the community had concerns to share, namely about the new principal at Kathryn Hughes Elementary School.
Principal Problems
During unagendized public comment, serious allegations were made against Louis Barocio, the new principal at Kathryn Hughes Elementary School. Shannon McDowd, a staff member and parent, listed off the reasons she and others at Hughes think Barocio should be removed promptly. McDowd claims the principal has allegedly endangered children, showed “contempt for Title 9 regulations and basic lack of respect, … showed frequent disregard for policy or procedure and the general lack of judgment,” and made questionable staffing choices and retaliated against staff.
“Example, requesting the PTA to set up a discretionary fund to reimburse him directly and avoid District red tape,” claimed McDowd. “Aggressively demanded the PTA records from that meeting be changed to cover up this incident and then changed those records himself when they refused to do so.”
She also said that Barocio has fired three staff members. Ken, a parent, spoke up for his son’s teacher, Milonee Desai. He asked the District to keep Ms. Desai as a TK teacher at Hughes.
McDowd said they have brought these concerns to the District. The District told The Weekly that they have opened an investigation. Since this topic wasn’t on the agenda, the Board couldn’t respond or take action, but Board Member Andy Ratermann asked that they get more information on what is happening at Hughes. Since this is a personnel matter, the information may be given to the Board during a closed session.
Other Business
The Board passed a resolution that calls for an election to be held this November. The seats up for election include Area 2, Area 5, and Area 7. This is the first election for these new Trustee Areas since they were put in place in 2021.
The Board passed a resolution affirming April as Arab American Heritage Month. They also passed resolutions making May Mental Health Awareness Month, Foster Care Awareness Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month
The Santa Clara Unified Board meets next on Thursday, April 25. Meetings are live-streamed on the District’s YouTube page, and agendas are posted on their website.
Ms. Desai and Mr. Tom need to stay at our school. They are teacher who passionate about teaching! We can’t loose them, Ms Desai was hired a week or even a few days before the school year started and has thrived in the new TK program with little to NO support from the principal. Mr Tom, he is our SPED teacher and he has magic!
WE BEED TO BE HEARD!