Alum Rock Union School District Superintendent Hilaria Bauer has been ousted after a decade on the job.
Last week, the district’s board of trustees voted 3-2 to terminate Bauer’s contract, with Trustees Minh Pham, Andres Quintero and Linda Chavez voting in favor, and Trustees Corina Herrera-Loera and Andrea Flores Shelton opposing the decision.
Pham declined to comment on what led to Bauer’s dismissal, but said the decision didn’t come lightly.
“This was absolutely not a joyful decision,” he told The Mercury News. “There was a debate and there was much deliberation and unfortunately the vote turned out the way it did. It was a decision made with a lot of sorrow and with a heavy heart and there was absolutely no joy out of this.”
Herrera-Loera, who is the board’s president, said the decision came as a “surprise” and that the superintendent had done a “great job” leading the district.”
“There was nothing for me so pressing to release her so quickly and abruptly,” she said.
In an email, Flores Shelton said that while she disagreed with the decision, she is “honoring the board majority’s decision and ready to appoint an interim superintendent on Tuesday.”
Bauer was hired in 2014 and faced termination several times during her decade with the district. In January 2018, supporters of the superintendent worried that her time was coming to an end after a scheduled performance evaluation was placed on the board’s agenda. The item caused an uproar among parents, but Esau Herrera, a trustee at the time, dispelled it as just a “political rumor.”
During her tenure, Bauer oversaw a district in turmoil and clashed with several board members over key issues, such as her recommendation to delay issuing $35 million in voter-approved bonds while the district was under investigation over how it handled bond funds.
A 2017 state audit blasted the district for handing over a several million-dollar bond construction project to Southern California-based Del Terra Real Estate Services, which in its oversight role, had missing documents about the project and unexplained fees. The audit led to the state revoking the district’s “fiscal independence,” giving the Santa Clara County Office of Education that power instead.
Bauer, whose last day is March 25, did not respond to a request for comment.
The board of trustees is set to hold a meeting this week to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent while they search for a permanent replacement.