No matter what kids lose. I personally observed this teacher with chewing tobacco in his mouth during school hours. My children told me every one of these stories in their own eyes. From my observations, he didn't put his heart into his job. He wasn't passionate as he portrayed himself to be. He had a negative attitude. Every parent I know was thrilled to see him go.

This is so scary to me, to be forced to deal with someone who isn't wanted with our children. Could we have sat in on classes to observe, or is that not allowed? Parents unite, this should never happen today!

As I read this article a few things stuck out to me that concern me. The school says they acted on behalf of student safety. I agree that schools should always do what is in best interest for students and safety. However, the article mentions, “The superintendent said she had twice observed P.E. classes from an adjacent classroom and not seen the teacher with his students." My question for the Superintendent is if you were so concerned about student safety and you think a teacher is not with his class, why did you not go out and look for him immediately or at least call another person to look for him. So if you suspect students are unsupervised, wouldn't you respond by getting someone to supervise them immediately? Makes me suspicious about those allegations or if they are true then it makes me feel that Dr Pullido is not safe for kids because she does not respond appropriately to situations she claims are unsafe

Another thing that jumps out is the article states there are no passing periods. I have worked at many schools and never have I seen a school with no passing periods in between classes. How does Woodside Elementary get away with counting the time kids walk between classes as educational minutes? No break in between classes is not fair for both teachers and students. Students deserve a full day of teaching (that is what I want for my own child) and thus, it is not fair to students to count walking to classes as educational minutes. Also, teachers need time to go to the bathroom (a legal right at any job) and set up for their next class. I can see the panel's point in this is hard for a PE teacher, especially since I assume they have to get out equipment for each class as they would be doing different lessons if they teach multiple grades.

The article also highlights the cost of this process but it was the District's choice to go through this court process, which seems like a waste of both taxpayer's money and donations to the Foundation. Personally, if that is how they are spending my money, I would not donate anymore. The article mentions they could pay him out. My question here is why did they not do that in the first place in order to avoid high lawyer costs. They could have probably spent less on just paying him out originally.

So this article seems pretty fair and balanced until you get to the end and read the essential editorial comment from the reporter through an anonymous emailer. My kids graduated just recently from Woodside Elm and they had this teachers PE class. He was all of these things written about; he would talk on his phone, he would get sidetracked from his essential goal of babysitting my kid during recess. I heard the other rumors and hearsay. But he was also a good person to my kids and treated them with respect. I liked him as a teacher and I know many people in this community that felt the same way I did.

The first two commenters to this article should be ashamed of themselves. This was not a villain in this community, this was a person who obviously pissed off the wrong segment of this community and I am sure you two were part of the biggest complainers of the bunch. You have to toe the line at a rich "private" school like Woodside is and apparently he wasn't able to do that, but you don't need to be going on comments sections and ripping the guy anonymously. Woodside has become the glowing symbol of rich over indulged, over academicly educated entitlement that is everything wrong with this country, which is why I moved out. When I went to school, the PE teacher had a whistle and set up cones and we ran around. That was it and that was all we needed. This relentless search for having the best for our beloved babies through any financial means necessary is gross and it fosters a hostile environment for the parents, teachers and kids. We need to go back to the days when we didn't elevate positions to above what they are. He was a your yard duty guy and ball collector, he wasn't your home room teacher. He wasn't going to get your kid into Harvard.

it is all fun and games in the ivory tower to slam down the guillotine and cast away the unwanted servants of your community but the guy, based upon the limited charges levied against him should have a right to go find employment somewhere else in a community that may welcome him. This ONE school district with 2 principal's and one superintendent and how ever many board members felt the need to take that away because of the few and powerful parents that can't get enough education injected into their kids? Come on people settle down.

(Part removed) at P.V.'s Corte Madera school had to deal with some horrible parents and admin who also tried to oust him. Glad to hear that this teacher at Woodside was vindicated too. How about these pushy parents back off and allow educators to do their jobs in peace and show them a little..no a TON of gratitude for the great work they do.

This shines a light on the PROBLEM with public education. Teachers should be like all the other employees and their jobs should be at will. If a school chooses to fire them there should be no need for all this expense and drama. Until the unions are eliminated from public education our schools are doomed for failure.

actually this case shines a light on exactly why educators and teachers unions need to be protected. Unsubstantiated claims should never be used to oust teachers - else every time some helicopter parent has a tantrum a solid and respected teacher would be fired. The process worked and the teacher was vindicated. sadly it appears that this Superintendent has zero backbone and failed to stand behind the teacher in this case. Not sure why the teacher's name from Corte Madera was edited from my earlier post as the Almanac covered that story and printed his name in their paper. McGraw, if you don't like teacher's unions then send your kid to private school where teachers aren't afforded the union protection and perhaps parents can influence who gets fired over trivial matters.

Last year, there were a stunning 22 termination hearings out of 300,000 teachers.

That's 7/1000th of one percent.

Yes, it sounds like those teachers don't have sufficient protection from being fired.

With all due respect, Nanc, these claims against Mr. PE teacher were not unsubstantiated. The choice to keep the children from testifying the truth about what was happening (and not happening) in his classroom was a choice that was made IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILDREN. Accepting mediocrity, laziness, favoritism and neglect is rolling over and playing dead when it comes to educating our children. In any private sector job, Mr. PE teacher's job performance would have gotten him fired long ago. Protecting a sub-standard teacher is not a victory for anyone - not the children, not the public school system, and not the tax payer.

I am a parent who never went to the administration to report the stories from my children and their friends, because I assumed nothing could be done as I believed that a tenured (after just two years of teaching) teacher is almost impossible to fire. I know many parents who were under the same assumption so never stepped forward. Turns out we were right.

You are trying to paint a picture where entitled parents tried to get a hard working teacher fired. You are wrong. The only person who is behaving in an entitled manner is the teacher. A teaching job should not be an entitlement. Tenure should be earned, not given away.

This article does not include all the facts of the case clearly showing why the charges were dropped. For example, one may not understand all the facts outlining this situation with a student and her medical note. Here are direct quotes from the judge’s decision (which is public records so anyone can read it for themselves) First of all the teacher did NOT have the student participate in PE. He allowed her to walk with her friends who were also not participating in the regular PE activity. He apologized to the mom in an email below (again direct quote from the judge’s decision write up):
“In his email message, respondent sought to deescalate the dispute with a conciliatory tone and therefore did not disagree with the facts as stated in the message sent by XX's mother. He wrote:
‘I want to first apologize for the misunderstanding with (XX) and her PE. By no means do I want her to re-injure herself or be active during PE. When XX came back to PE I thought she wanted to be around her friends and classmates. I never let (XX) participate in ANY activities during class. Yesterday, I put her In a group to WATCH (not participate) and be with her friends. She did not play football. In fact, she lied down during class while watching her group learn patterns and routes. When the kids take a warm up jog she chose to walk around the turf while the other students jog. My understanding was (XX) chose to modify anything she could. I try my best to have (XX) choose what she wants to do. I even ask her if she wants to go to the library or work on homework. Going forward I clearly understand she should go to (the) library or office. I will talk to (XX) today and make sure she understands that she does not have to come to PE. She can go directly to the library. In the past she started to go to the library and work on community service just recently she started staying in PE and modify what she wanted. I'm sorry for misunderstanding in the past.’ “

Next, this mom emailed the teacher back stating (again direct quote from evidence submitted to the judge and panel):

“XX's mother replied by email message on November 2, 2014 copying Frank stating...’Thanks for your reply and apology. We appreciate your help in this matter. It sounds like we are on the same page. See you Tuesday morning. Thanks. ‘. Respondent understood this to mean that his apology had been accepted and they would move forward with a 504 plan.

Respondent and the team developed a 504 plan for XX in November 2014.
XX did not attend P.E. For the remainder of the school year. XX continued to train in ballet four to five days per week and competed in a ballet competition in January 2015.”

So if you are interested in the facts that clearly show this teacher is not a villain then read the judge’s decision as this article does not include important details. Also, if this family is so concerned about this PE teacher re-injuring their daughter’s foot, why would they allow her to do ballet during this exact same time period she was not allowed to do PE. So they are so angry with this teacher for allowing her to walk one day, yet they allowed her to do ballet including a competition (these are the facts of the case with evidence the judge wrote up).

Look people, there are rules and just because you are entitled and rich does not mean you can’t follow rules. This teacher did not do anything that is firable proven by the fact a neutral judge and panel unanimously voted to drop all charges.

After reading many of the comments I am thinking many of the commentators do not understand that tenure is granted by the school administration (principal) and district personnel after evaluations and observations. As a retired school administrator I can say that I am unaware of a district that would grant tenure after 2 years, in our district it was a minimum of 4-5 years before a teacher was fully tenured. A beginning teacher steps are to be Temporary, generally 2 years, Probational, 1-3 years and finally Tenure is granted only after completing many, many hours of professional development, and constant observation from both peers and administrators. After moving here 5 years ago I have read many articles about the disfunction at this small school district and perhaps all of those who did sign off on this teacher's tenure need to review their procedures and policies. Tenure is NOT and should not be automatic but all teachers and the public deserve a transparent process.

Whether in private sector or a school district, employees have rights and are allowed due process! Managers should address complaints directly, and in a timely fashion, with the employee so they can make attempts to correct or fix the behavior...one can't fix something they aren't aware of. And just because you don't "like" someone, doesn't mean they deserve to be fired! You have to have grounds for termination and clearly an impartial panel didn't believe there were grounds.

It seems the offenses of this teacher, which his termination were based on, are negligible at best. Not following process for notes, not wearing a walkie talkie, carrying the cellphone. This would be like someone trying to get you fired for not picking up your papers off the printer or typing too loud on your keyboard!

The administrative judge, who has likely resided over many of these cases, and the other panel members (OF HIS PEERS) must have listened to these charges as well as the parent who complained that this teacher "made her son a promise he didn't keep" (COME ON!!) in disbelief they had to waste their time and our tax dollars to entertain these charges. As a member of this community, unfortunately I don't find it as hard to believe anymore.

It seems we have a superintendent who failed both the parents, by doing nothing with their complaints (if they complained), and the teacher by not providing specific feedback regarding performance and managing based on improving performance. I'm dumbfounded how it's possible to drop the ball on a people management issue with all of the help she has at our 400 student school (two principals, a business official, a student services director, a director for preschool). If there was a good leader there, and if this teacher really wasn't a fit at WES, it seems this could have been handled with some tact and dignity providing a resolution that could suit everyone.

I have added a link Web Link (PDF) to the decision of the hearing panel to this story.

Also, a clarification regarding tenure in California. I suspect MP2747 may have moved here from another state. In California, tenure must be granted by the end of the second year of teaching or the teacher must be released. A lawsuit trying to change this system, and the teacher dismissal process is now in appeal. This article has more information. Web Link

After reading the Panel’s decision, one can see why it was dismissed. The District made its decision it no longer wanted to employ the teacher and the first step was to file the Notice of Unprofessional Conduct. They had no intention of working with the teacher to remediate the conduct. It would have been interesting to hear the conversations and cost/benefit analysis they used to make the decision to move forward on a “rarely used process”; one in which they were warned that hearsay testimony might be excluded. What a waste of taxpayer’s money. Wonder if the student won her ballet competition!

Sounds to me like this overpaid superintendent doesn't like said PE teacher! First off a teacher does not have to be tenured. After 2 years most good school districts let teachers that aren't up to standards go. I highly doubt this PE teacher changed over night and 2 years is a long "trial" period. I am still in shock that this Superintendent makes the same $$$ at her one school, school district then the MPCSD which has 4 (soon to be 5) schools! Ridiculous!