RECALL EFFORT LAUNCHED AGAINST 4 GUHSD TRUSTEES WHO REFUSE TO RESCIND MASS FIRINGS

By Alexander J Schorr and Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: Students, teachers, librarians, and community members rally outside GUHSD meeting April 24 in latest protest over layoffs.

April 27, 2025 (El Cajon) -- A recall effort is underway seeking to oust four trustees on the Grossmont Union High School District Board:  Scott Eckert, Robert Shield, Gary Woods,PhD, and Jim Kelly. At the April 24 GUHSD board meeting at Grossmont High School, Andy Trimlett held up four notices of intent to recall the trustees, telling the four trustees,  “You  have refused to listen to your community, so we are launching a campaign to remove you from office.”   

The recall effort follows two months of protests over the board majority’s elimination of 61 positions, including 49 credentialed teachers, counselors, assistant principals, and 9 teacher librarians, as well as 12 support staffers. Despite the outcry, at the April 24 meeting, when trustee Chris Fite made a motion to rescind the controversial firings, none of the other four trustees would second the motion. The action intensifies growing mistrust between community members and the four conservative trustees, with each side accusing the other of disrespect.

View video of recall announcement. Recall organizers have setup a website and an Instagram page. Since the GUHSD has district elections, signatures must be obtained in each of the four districts to qualify a recall election for the ballot.

Photo, right: Andy Trimlett announces recall effort against four GUHSD trustees

A prior recall effort launched against then-trustee Nadie Davies districtwide ended with her resignation shortly before a recall election was slated to be held.

In announcing the current recall effort against four trustees, Trimlettt said his oldest son will be a freshman at Grossmont High School this year, adding, “My wife and I are truly scared for his future.”

At a recent GUHSD meeting, trustee Robert Shield was caught on a hot mic suggesting crowds would soon get fatigued and quit coming.  Trimlett testified, “He was right. We are tired. We’re tired of having to fight for the basic needs of our children  We’re tired of explaining that librarians are essential to a 21^st century education...that counselors aren’t luxuries to be discarded...and that safety is not negotiable,” a reference to the board majority voting to eliminate the district’s public safety department and its director.

Before the April 24 meeting at Grossmont High School, hundreds of members of the Grossmont Education Association (GEA) and others held a rally outside calling on the board to rescind the layoff notices. 

The meeting opened with an award ceremony for teacher of the year Kristen LoPrell as well as awards and acknowledgements for Biliteracy Champions Rebecca McMillan and Donny Powers and congratulations to district counselor of the year Breezy Svacina, classified employee Lenny D’angelo, Mick McMurray, and Kendra Vandermeer. Board President Woods acknowledged the hard work of the Mount Miguel High School Army JROTC and their Aerial Drone Competition, the West Hills Best Buddies Club, the Santana High School Key Club, and the student athletes of the Grossmont Union music and girl’s sports programs.

Photo, left:  Grossmont High School Math Teacher Kristen LoPrell, acknowledged as California’s Teacher of the Year.

Of the many who sought to speak in public testimony, few were allowed to do so due to time constraints imposed by the board majority.

GEA President James Messina testified, “Cutting counselors and librarians, ELD (English Language Development) teachers, and dance teachers and theatre programs is not going to improve attendance next year.” Messina emphasized that these cuts will not simply impact those being fired, but will not assist students in the long run.

Next up, Trimlett made the recall announcement. He concluded, “Trimlett concluded, “We’re tired of wondering... are you here to make public schools better, or are you more focused on the private schools you personally work with or the homeschool businesses you run?”

Factcheck:  At least three of the trustees facing recall have ties to private schools or a homeschool program. 

Shield is listed as teaching government and economics at Foothills Christian High School on the school’s faculty page.  He does not mention this teaching position on his biography on the GUHSD website. Nor did Shield list any income from this private religious school on his “Economic Interests” form in the 2022 election.

Scott Eckert teaches as a private math teacher for homeschooled students through Heritage Christian Academy at a cost of $420 per semester/$840 annual - payable directly to the teacher by semester or annually.

Woods is executive director of Equip Biblical Institute, or  EBI International Leadership Institutes, a private religious school that is part of Shadow Mountain Ministries.

 

ECM has reached out to Woods, Kelly, Shield and Eckert for comments but have not received a response as of our publication deadline.

In public comments, the father of student trustee Maggie Kelly aired his concerns. “We chose this school [district] for two reasons: knowledge and compassion… as Christians, my wife and I are proud to say that our school meets the needs of our community,” he said. “Your proposed budget cuts no longer make me proud.”

Matthew Norris, a teacher and former technology coach, emphasized that the cuts act against the needs of the students, adding “I guarantee that if you sit in any of those people’s desks in this district, you could not do their job.”

After Trustee Fite’s motion to rescind the mass firings died for lack of a second to allow a vote,  the audience erupted, with shouts of “shame” and “spineless.”

The previously awarded teacher of the year Kristin LoPrell, returned to the dais, where she gave back a bouquet of flowers celebrating her achievement, to voice her dissent.

Photo, right: Teacher of the Year Kristen LoPrell’s flowers after she returned them before the board to protest their cuts of counselors, librarians, and teachers.

Board President Gary Woods stated that the decision to enforce the layoffs made he and his fellow board members “heartsick.”

But trustee Robert Shields offered a more frank opinion caught on a hot mic recording leaked to Voice of San Diego. On the recording, Shields called librarians “overpaid” and protests “political opportunism.”  He predicted protests would die down in a few months.

Shield was not the only trustee who had a hot-mic moment during that earlier meeting. During a recess, Jim Kelly called  protestors the “rudest crowd” he’d ever seen, going on to say that “some of them are trying to vomit on us in public and trying to bully us and, you know, just humiliate us.”

At the February board meeting, Trustee Robert Shield outright threatened the audience, saying, “You ought to be very careful what you do.” Additionally,  Jim Kelly and Robert Shield searched through their phones during presentations and pleas not to fire employees, in an attempt to ignore speakers. President Woods  even called everyone present “kindergarteners” at the March board meeting, who should go into “time-out.”

There are many other board-related controversies which have generated community opposition. In 2024, a former district administrator sued the GUHSD district, claiming that she had been discriminated against because she was a lesbian. Her suit contained the claim that Trustee Jim Kelly referred to her and another gay district employee as “witches” who were “part of an LGBTQ coven.”

A year before the lawsuit, the board majority voted to terminate multiple contracts with San Diego Youth Services, which provided student mental health services. They cited concerns about the nonprofit’s care for LGBTQ+ youth, which included counseling programs, even though those services were separate from what the non-profit provided the district. When voting to end service, Trustee Gary Woods said that the nonprofit did not “reflect East County values.”

Librarians in particular have been a primary point of the rallies for protestors who have packed these public meetings. Additionally, students held walkouts at various GUHSD campuses in solidarity with the impacted staff recently, with nearly everyone present at the meetings arguing that the counselors and librarians are indispensable. The librarians facing layoffs are credentialed teacher-librarians, which are positions that offer in-class lessons, giving assistance to teachers with curriculum and technology support.

Protestors have argued that the district has sizable reserves that would easily cover the balance, with Trustee Chris Fite, the lone “no” vote on the cuts, saying that they seem to exceed by far what is necessary. “They’re saying these are structural deficits, but they won’t say what they’re caused by,” Fite said. “To me. It doesn’t add up. It does not explain the severity.”

Photo, right: Angry crowd protests of layoffs and lack of transparency from the GUHSD Governing Board.

At each board meeting since February, the majority on the governing board-- Gary Woods, Scott Eckert, Robert Shield, and Jim Kelly--who voted for the cuts, have tried to dissuade as many people as possible from attending their governing board meetings. At the February meeting, where 600 people were present to protest the layoffs, Woods, Shield, Eckert, and Kelly exited out the back door of the audience chamber to avoid confrontation with a bitter crowd. At the March governing board meeting, they required that all attendees obtain a ticket for entry, where only up to 500 people were allowed in, and those who left the campus for any reason would forfeit their seat and ticket. At the April governing board meeting, they restricted attendance to even fewer at 400 people, deliberately provided fewer tickets for participants to speak before the elected governing board members.

According to Voice of San Diego, GUHSD student decline in enrollment is the lowest in San Diego County: GUHSD lost 500 students since 2015, which is five students per year, per school. Sandra Huezo, the acting Superintendent, has argued that due to 200 additional employees, they must cut staff to save money.

 In 2015, when the school district was climbing out of the Great Recession of 2009, GUHSD cut down to the bare bones of staffing in order to continue providing educational services for East County with five years of zero percent cost of living adjustment(COLA) from the state.  GUHSD built back up their reserves gradually, but then needed to fill the vacancies that were cut in previous years.

In 2014, GUHSD had class sizes of 40 students in a class; this extends to a counselor, psychologist, and speech-language pathologist (SLP) caseloads. When the state began to restore funding to public education in 2015, the high school district began to restore services and limited the classes sizes to 36 students.

GUHSD has also added additional career technical education, dual enrollment courses, language immersion, and early college options since 2014. This came about when the district adapted to the demands of community stakeholders. During the last decade, GUHSD has witnessed an increase in the special education student population, requiring additional services by law.

The state of California requires 85% of funds to be spent on personnel, and public education provides a sufficient service for the community and the state, and it is worth noting that the district is not allowed to make a profit from taxpayer dollars.

The GUHSD governing board proposed eliminating 61 positions to solve a projected $2.2 million deficit problem. The board has emphasized that it has a plan moving forward to guard against the projected deficit, but has not explained what this plan may entail, at least not publicly.

While school district cuts are nothing new, the GUHSD is operating with a surplus of money, estimated between $35 million and $40 million, according to trustee Fite, the lone holdout on the cuts.

Acting Superintendent Sandra Huezo has spoken on keeping needs of students for language services and technology in mind, yet the GUHSD board majority voted to cut all of these positions in 2024.

 A lack of transparency has added to public distrust and rising ire, with the governing board still avoiding public comment. The district has indicated that librarians cost $1.7 million, but does not explain how much they will save since these employees will return to the classroom, where they will still need to be paid. They will have to hire new library techs to compensate for the reassignment of the librarians, leading to a projected cost of $300,000 to $500,000 in new hires for the district.

Later on the board agenda, a question was raised about adopting an Ethnic Studies program into GUHSD guidelines, which prompted a five-minute recess due to audience disruptions. Audience members voiced that this program was placed on the agenda without the knowledge of staff, nor were the community members included or updated, with one audience member alleging that the program stemmed from a libertarian think-tank.

The state of California has a law mandating that ethnic studies be taught in public high schools and be made a requirement for graduation in the class of 2030. This requirement originates from Assembly Bill 101, which was signed into law in 2021. The state provides funding to support the implementation of ethnic studies, including curriculum development and professional development for educators. The California Department of Education website provides information about the Ethnic studies requirement.

The Board’s proposed Ethnic Studies curriculum created yet more controversy at the meeting, with Board President Robert Woods failing to disclose the nature or origin of the new format. Trustee Chris Fite made a motion to table the vote for further discussion and information, before Woods adjourned the long and contentious meeting at 10:47 p.m.