Hundreds of Upset Parents and Teachers Expected at Meeting Over Fired Principal

More than 500 people are expected to gather at a Temecula Valley winery tomorrow to vent their frustrations over the firing of a middle school principal and add their names to a petition demanding that she be reinstated.

“Former teachers and students will be here. They’ll be sharing their own allegations about the type of bullying that has been going on,” Wilson Creek Winery co-owner Craig Johns told City News Service.

Johns, the event organizer, is among those who have voiced outrage over the dismissal of Karen Hayes, principal of Margarita Middle School for the last 13 years. On March 17, the Temecula Valley Unified School District Board of Governors voted 4-1 to place her on paid administrative leave and, effective June 30, terminate her services with the district.

“I’ve known Karen Hayes for seven years. She’s a stellar principal and educator,” said Johns, who has an eighth-grader enrolled at Margarita and another son who graduated from the school.

“My biggest frustration is, we were given virtually no notice that the school board was going to take this thumbs up or down vote,” he said. “Despite that, we had 125 people at the meeting, ready to speak. It was standing-room-only. And they gave us 10 minutes. They voted, and the next day they’re cleaning out her office.”

The board action followed an investigation into email correspondence between Hayes and a teacher, according to Hayes’ attorneys. The emails were apparently related to a confrontation between the female teacher and a male colleague, who used profanity in front of students and caused the woman to cry, according to Hayes’ supporters.

District officials would not comment on the specifics, releasing a statement to City News Service saying that “further inquiry into the circumstances of the case” was underway.

In an earlier statement released to the media, TVUSD Superintendent Timothy Ritter stated that, “in these circumstances, the public is often acting on misinformation.”

“We encourage the public to recognize that there is always another side to the story and that these decisions are appropriately left to the judgment of district administration and the board,” the statement said.

The decision to remove Hayes triggered a student walkout and demonstration on March 20, with several hundred youths, along with their parents and guardians, walking more than a mile from Margarita Middle School to district headquarters, where the demonstrators chanted and waved signs for around three hours, demanding the principal’s reinstatement.

Supporters have praised Hayes for active involvement in programs such as Bring a Parent to School, the campus Watch Dogs, the Peanut Butter and Jelly Club and Focus on the Future. She’s also been a booster for efforts to honor members of the military and has taken part in negotiations with the teachers’ union, according to published reports.

Johns said that Hayes will be attending tomorrow’s meeting at the winery, which begins at 7 p.m. She may elect not to address her case for legal reasons.

--City News Service