SAN YSIDRO
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Facing imminent removal as San Ysidro school board president by her fellow trustees, Sandy Lopez resigned from the position Thursday night.
All four of the other board members indicated they were ready to approve a motion to remove her before Lopez offered her resignation – an offer she said she had made Monday morning and questioned why her removal still showed up as an agenda item.
“I think that it's a sabotage, a continuing of disrespect,” Lopez said. She remains on the board. Yolanda Hernandez was elected to succeed her as president.
Board member Paul Randolph said he asked that her removal be put on the agenda because of Lopez's strained relationship with Superintendent Manuel Paul.
Lopez has insisted on having an attorney present when meeting with Paul to establish the agenda for board meetings. Lopez said she fears for her safety because Paul has mentioned several times that he is proficient in martial arts.
Paul taught karate at San Ysidro Middle School in the late 1970s, or as he said in an interview Thursday, “about 50 pounds ago.” He said he has never mentioned martial arts to Lopez.
The meeting to establish the agenda has typically taken 30 minutes, Paul said. In each of the past two months it has taken three hours, he said, at $200 an hour for the attorney.
Lopez was perhaps Paul's most vocal champion when the board suddenly promoted him to superintendent last year after failing to grant him an interview during the months-long search for a chief executive.
“I regret supporting Manuel Paul because I do not believe he has the knowledge to do the job. He has the heart to do it. He does not have the knowledge,” Lopez said in an interview Wednesday.
At the board meeting, she was even more blunt.
“He doesn't know what he's doing,” she said, and continued to verbally assail Paul until the board's attorney stopped her because her remarks amounted to an evaluation of the superintendent, which was not on the agenda.
Randolph said he initiated the move for a new president because Lopez does not work well with Paul.
“You don't have an effective leader in your board president when the board president cannot work with and speak directly to your superintendent without having an attorney work as a mediator,” Randolph said.
Trustees said they became particularly frustrated with Lopez's leadership last month when their monthly meeting lasted until almost 1:30 a.m.
Both Randolph and trustee Raquel Márquez-Maden said that Lopez sometimes mischaracterizes board actions in speaking with people in the community, particularly regarding personnel moves. Paul has reassigned and replaced principals at several schools since he became superintendent nearly a year ago.
Lopez was appointed president in December. Typically, the board installs a new president each year. But the district has a history of contentious board relations, and infighting prompted then-President Jean Romero to try to resign three years ago. She withdrew the resignation when she could not get another trustee to make a motion to accept it.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
