Last week’s R. Roger Rowe School Board of Trustees meeting was all about one Board member and an enigmatic allusion to an incident. But blink and you may have missed it. Surely legal and difficult but necessary discussions muted the desired messaging, yet instead of addressing the issue straight on, the School Board danced around it. The meeting was like watching this delicate, contorted pussyfoot jig, when it should have been a straight-up, bald-faced Haka.
So what happened? Over the summer on June 12, an alleged assault between the School Board president’s husband, Bill Ross, and current Board trustee, Paul Seitz, took place on school grounds in the elevator following a regular School Board meeting. Law enforcement was dispatched to Rowe and a police report was filed the same day. However, according to the report, Mr. Ross declined to press charges.
“Innuendos and Threats”
Fast forward to last week, where Mr. Ross spoke briefly during the School Board meeting’s member input. He referred to the above “altercation” and recent consequent harassment, specifically “innuendos and threats with the intent to bully and intimidate my wife,” as reasons for his request that the Board recommit to its Code of Ethics pledge, especially since we’re in the thick of election season. Board President Annette Ross is up for reelection this November.
It’s debatable whether Mr. Ross — not a School Board trustee — should’ve been the one to alert us of the obvious living-room elephant, yet his acknowledgment of the incident perfectly teed up the Board to take it from there and discuss what the heck is going on here. But instead, we got a “stiff-upper-lip, nothing-to-see-here” vibe, where the glaring subtext of Mr. Ross’s statement was met with a “thank you” and swept away as perfunctory business as usual. As an outside observer, you couldn’t help but imagine the need for the equivalent of one of those sign language interpreters Shrinky-Dinked into a TV screen corner or closed captioning to communicate and clarify all the behavioral cues and political machinations at play here.
Loss of Credibility
Quite damning, School Board Trustee Jee Manghani stated, “The public has relayed to me that they think that the Board has lost credibility with safety.” Mr. Manghani’s motion (quickly seconded) to rescind Bylaw 9007, which in 2023 established the position of a School Board trustee serving as a Security and Safety Liaison, was likely in response to the most recent incident. The motion passed 4-1 with Trustee Paul Seitz dissenting. Read into that what you will, but it would seem a bit rich, and ironic, if the School Board appointed one of its own trustees as a representative or arbiter of school security and safety when it has its own in-house laundry to wash.
This whole thing is impossibly awful, sad, and deeply serious. This is an accusation of alleged battery involving Board leadership taking place at the school. It’s not some trifling kerfluffle between parents down Paseo Delicias at a local bar or nearby ballgame. As adults, how can we expect our children to resolve conflict peacefully and not bully each other or resort to physical violence on the playground or in the classroom if we can’t lead by example in our own personal and professional lives?
Uncomfortable and Unprecedented
We’re sure there are a multitude of reasons why there has not been more head-on engagement with the issue at hand. And we can’t imagine how deeply uncomfortable and unprecedented this predicament is for all involved as neighbors, colleagues, and friends. It’s understandable that all parties just want to put this behind them and move on. But not confronting the issues here provides little comfort to Rowe families and the public at large. Who’s to say this won’t happen again? And how will the School Board ensure that it doesn’t?
Indeed, such questions are hardly histrionic melodrama, since it wasn’t too long ago that Mr. Seitz, prior to being elected to the School Board, allegedly behaved inappropriately on school grounds. The latter resulted in the District’s legal counsel, Kendall Swanson of Currier & Hudson, issuing a Cease and Desist letter on March 18, 2019, to Mr. Seitz, which was uncovered by a broader California Public Records Act request relating to the School Board candidates running at that time.
“Threatening Conduct”
The letter goes into specific detail of the events that took place on March 11 and 13 of that year involving Mr. Seitz, which led Ms. Swanson to inform him that his “threatening conduct was unacceptable and would not be tolerated,” and to “be prepared to control your temper and emotions the next time you observe law enforcement on District property,” as supposedly the latter is what triggered Mr. Seitz to be initially angered. Three years later, Mr. Seitz was elected to the RSF School Board of Trustees. If these details are true, it seems particularly odd as to why Mr. Seitz, who, in his current role, has advocated for greater campus security and pushed for the School Board trustee security and safety liaison, would be upset by the presence of security and, in turn, greater safety. Make it make sense.
Parents want to know their kids, staff members, and fellow neighbors are safe and the campus is secure. Period. Instead of enabling the predictable rumor mill of speculation to continue swirling about the Ranch, the School Board trustees, as adults and our elected leaders, should spell out exactly what happened and reassure the Rancho Santa Fe community that conflicts have been resolved and full accountability has been taken.
Control the Narrative Now
Issues concerning school safety and the behavior of elected leaders rarely if ever go away quietly. San Diego Union Tribune reporter Karen Billings today published the particulars of the Board meeting as it relates to rescinding Bylaw 9007. And sources tell us the photographer taking pics during the latest session was from the Voice of San Diego, which will be penning an investigative report.*
Before it’s way too late, the Board needs to take control of this narrative now. Interpretive dances won’t do.
To communicate with your elected School Board Trustees, you can email them at: aross@rsf.k12.ca.us; rrohatgi@rsf.k12.ca.us; jmanghani@rsf.k12.ca.us; pseitz@rsf.k12.ca.us; and mmoreland@rsf.k12.ca.us.
* This article was updated Mon., Sept. 9, 2024, to include a link to the Voice of San Diego report published after this first went to press.