Union wants Chesbro gone

MAT-SU -- The Mat-Su Principals' Association, a bargaining unit for Mat-Su principals and vice principals, released a letter dated Monday which stated it had passed a vote of no confidence in Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Pat Chesbro's leadership.

The letter, addressed to Chesbro, lists three reasons for the vote:

"1. Your continued mistreatment of specific principals within our bargaining unit.

2. Your inabilities to effectively communicate, in an open and honest manner, to the employees that compose the backbone of this district.

3. Your curt dismissal of our requests to engage in [a] good-faith effort of cooperation to address current issues impacting the District and us."

The no-confidence vote, followed with a closing line asking chesbro to "resign immediately, so that the healing and mending that is required within our District can begin," was reportedly not on the agenda for the meeting, although Dwight Probasco, principal at Wasilla High and president of the association, said a topic called "superintendent dialogue" was. After what Probasco said was a three-hour "emotional discussion," a vote was taken. Nineteen people reportedly agreed to the vote of no confidence, and 12 people dissented. When the decision to send a letter to Chesbro was voted on, 13 people voted to send it, while 11 voted their disapproval. There are approximately 40 principals in the school district.

Probasco said the vote was held after members of the group experienced repeated frustrations with Chesbro's management.

"This has been ongoing for two years," Probasco said.

Chesbro, in a Wednesday morning interview, said she was disappointed in what she felt was a very public attack by a group that should have held itself to more professional behavior. The letter was addressed to Chesbro, school board members, communities within the district, the Mat-Su Education Association, the Classified Employees Association, the Frontiersman and Anchorage Daily News.

"Certainly, it hurt my feelings," Chesbro said. "I was a member of the group for 10 years. They haven't tried to fix [the problems they discuss]. If they see this as a major problem with the school district, they should be sitting at the table with me instead of delivering little notes."

Although Chesbro said she has never been asked to meet one-on-one with principals to discuss problems that were addressed in the April 22 letter discussing the "no confidence" vote, Probasco said the group felt the impetus to discuss the matter was on Chesbro.

"After a principal meeting where Pat referenced the "issues" letter of Feb. 26 and stated that she saw it as union business … my response was, I thanked her for bringing that up and that we would solicit input from our association on how to proceed with dialogue," Probasco said. "Is it on our shoulders, then, to … request the dialogue? Will Pat seek us out? Does Pat see this as concerns and issues, or is it just 'our stuff'?"

Chesbro denied the allegations in the letter. She said she takes pride in her policy of openness and honesty -- and feels those making the allegations are guilty of secrecy, if anyone is. She discussed a letter sent to her earlier this year, and a subsequent meeting held to discuss her performance, about which she found out later, by chance.

"Anytime any letters have been delivered to me, they were in a sealed envelope," Chesbro said. She discussed a Feb. 26 letter from the association she said was handed to her at 5 p.m. that day. She found out the next day, by chance, that there had been a 7 p.m. meeting that evening with Mat-Su School Board President Dan Contini, at which her performance was discussed.

"It seems to me it's more of an attempt to disrupt the district than to encourage open and honest communication," Chesbro said.

She added that she was frustrated at the message the letter gives to the community.

"I have a real concern about how this kind of an approach can … hurt the school district," Chesbro said. "We need to be trustworthy -- and if we don't trust each other, that's a concern to me."

When asked what the proper procedure would have been, Chesbro said generally, if there is a problem, it should first be addressed by the parties who are in disagreement, face to face. If that doesn't work, Chesbro said the next step is to fill out a form, citing any incidents or actions relating to the disagreement very specifically, sign it and send it to that employee's evaluator. In her case, Chesbro said, the evaluator would be the school board.

The principals' association did hand out a letter to school board members at the board's April 3 meeting, but Chesbro said it was considered an anonymous letter. Anonymous letters, she said, do not belong in the hands of evaluators -- they should be presented to the person with whom there is a problem.

Probasco said the letter was signed -- by him -- and discussed some specific incidents, while striving to keep individuals' names private. Beyond that, he said, he did not understand how the letter was anonymous, unless it was because issues identified were linked to specific people.

"There was no highlighting that this issue is coming from this person or anything," Probasco said. "We did protect our membership's identity."

After that letter, Chesbro said, she wrote a letter to the association addressing what she said were factual errors, and asked it to set up a time to meet with the union. That request, she said, has had no response. Probasco said that's because he and many other principals received her letter after the meeting.

This is not the first request for Chesbro's resignation this year. When her contract came up for discussion at the school board's March 6 meeting, it was approved by a 4-3 vote, but not before a group of around 20 cited concerns about actions Chesbro has taken throughout her three years as superintendent.

The principal selection process at Colony and Palmer High School was one topic discussed, as was action taken by district officials last year after two Colony High School teachers were convicted of having sexual relations with students. Following a district investigation, principal Bill Harlow was transferred to central administration and vice principal Mark Okeson was sent to Wasilla High. Okeson is currently in arbitration with the district over the transfer.

It's also not the first time Chesbro said she has been involved in a principals' association vote of no confidence. She was on the association, she said, when the group gave then-superintendent Dr. Robert Lehman a vote of no confidence. Lehman, in 1997, began a three-year term, but left in 1999. But Chesbro said that vote was handled quite differently.

"Union leadership spoke directly to Dr. Lehman face to face several times before that vote," Chesbro said. "And it was not a quarter of the people -- it was everyone."

Probasco said the feelings expressed in the letter -- and by the votes -- have been brewing for a number of months.

"There were members of our association who, when we met for the first time this fall, at the first start of the school year, they wanted to roll right then," Probasco said.

The details of Chesbro's contract are still being discussed, and are slated for approval by the school board at its May 1 meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Palmer High School's upper library.