LYNWOOD — Lynwood school Superintendent Dhyan Lal was officially released from his duties by a 4-1 vote during a Monday night special school board meeting.
School board President Jose Solache announced the board’s decision after the five board members emerged from closed session.
“A motion was made to release Dr. Dhyan Lal pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement,” Solache said.
The motion was made by board member Oscar Espinoza and seconded by Rachel Chavez. Maria Lopez cast the dissenting vote.
Patrick Leier, who served as acting superintendent while Lal was on vacation, will continue to serve in that capacity.
Board members said they were advised by the district’s legal counsel to not release any further details about the board’s actions.
“The board has officially released Dr. Lal from this school district as its superintendent,” Solache said. “Based on legal advice, it is believed that the board has acted in the best interest of the school district. … We are confident that we are moving in the right direction to move this district forward. … That’s all I can tell you.”
Lal’s contract with the district ran through October 2010.
Board members refused to confirm any details, but it appears Lal will leave the district with pay for the following year, which amounts to about $250,000.
However, it was made public during the week of July 22 that the school board had authorized its legal counsel to investigate certain “concerns” they had regarding the district’s management.
Solache said he could not comment as to whether the investigation was still open or closed, nor was he at liberty to say whether the decision to release Lal had anything to do with the investigation’s findings.
During the public comment part of recent board meetings, Lal has been accused of allegedly mismanaging district funds, authorizing large purchases without board approval, nepotism, favoritism and promoting an administrator to assistant superintendent without double-checking her credential’s status.
Almost five years ago, Solache, Lopez and former board member Guadalupe Rodriguez, were big supporters of Lal. All three of them, later joined by Alfonso Morales, have been accused by residents and members of the Lynwood Teachers Association of letting Lal do whatever he wanted.
Lal was initially hired by a 3-2 majority vote. Less than a year later, after Martina Rodriguez lost to Morales in the 2005 school board election, Lal’s contract was renewed by a 4-1 vote, with Chavez dissenting, giving him a raise and new clauses added to his contract.
But after two years, Lal lost the support of Lopez and Rodriguez, who was later replaced by the newest board member, Espinoza.
“After that, no one at the district really knows what happened,” said a high-ranking district official this week. “It’s like we’re in the middle of a bad divorce. No one knows what happened, but when the superintendent first came on board, everyone was happy with him, but then, people started opening their eyes and seeing things that could have been done differently, and now here we are.”
Asked what happened to his full support of the superintendent, Solache said, that as any employer assumes in the beginning, “In hiring Lal we thought we were bringing in the best person, at the time, for the district,” he said.
“We looked at a lot of résumés. He had some really great ideas, and based on all of that and his background, you hire someone like him. At the time, he was the best choice for the district. … But we’ve gotten to a point where we need a change in leadership, that’s all.”
Before the 4-1 vote was made public on Monday night, Lydia Hollie, a teacher who was in the audience, said she didn’t know how the district could get to the point to dismiss its superintendent.
While she said she questions the alleged financial mismanagement of district funds — particularly $34 million that she said has not really been accounted for — Hollie said that Lal should be credited with some of the improvement of scores at some of the district’s schools, including Lindbergh Elementary School.
“I don’t know what happened, but when [Lal] came in, he came in with great ideas and made changes in this district for the better,” Hollie said. “He immediately recognized what the needs in this district were, and addressed our [teacher’s] concerns. … With those corrections we were able to demonstrate our best work. So I can’t speak to the more finite details or the nuances that resulted in ultimately where we are today, I can only speak to when he came to the district, and … what he enabled us to do with class-size reduction, which benefited all of our students, and all of our schools.”
Hollie said she is saddened by the outcome of everything that has happened over the years, and agrees that there are questions to the $24 million in reserve funds the district had only 4 years ago, plus a reported $10 million deficit the district has now, but believes that everyone who has dealt with the finances of the district should be held accountable.
“It is truly my hope, and my prayer and my expectations, that all of these issues will ultimately right themselves, so that we can get to the business of educating the children of the city of Lynwood, and move this district forward to a place of academic and scholastic recognition that [teachers] certainly have the skills to be able to do.”
Arturo Ramos, a parent who has voiced his concerns about the district’s management over the years, said he is relieved to see the school board take a leadership role and do what is best for the district.
“It’s about time that this school board agreed to take this district into another direction,” Ramos said. “There has been a need for new leadership in this district for a long time, and today, the board heard our concerns. The board gave the superintendent 100 percent of their support in the beginning to turn this district around, and unfortunately, this district is going backwards now. Without this change, the state would definitely be here within the next two years and take over.”
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