Highly praised educator rails at his removal from Redondo Beach post

July 5 2011 by Jake Frodsham in School Section |No Comments

A few years ago, Paul White, a specialist in teaching students with behavioral issues, was a media darling.

People magazine hailed him as one of of five “heroes among us” for his tough-love approach; CBS News credited him for making “miracles happen every day.”

That was while he was in Canoga Park. His subsequent stint in Redondo Beach has been considerably less auspicious.

A year or so after budget cuts forced the June 2009 closure of the community day school White co-founded in Canoga Park, he took a job at the Redondo Beach Learning Academy. That school, like the previous one, is designed for high school students who have struggled in the traditional setting or been expelled. But unlike his prior assignment, which lasted 11 years, his job in Redondo Beach ended after 10 weeks.

Now, he’s railing against the Redondo Beach Unified School District for putting him on paid leave in early November, and then releasing him at the end of the fiscal year on July 1. In the interim, his teaching practices were examined by a district-hired private investigator.

White was paid for those eight months on leave, and says he ultimately collected $100,000 in salary and benefits for just 10 weeks of work.

White’s story illustrates how the kind of fervent damn-the-torpedoes advocacy that sparks positive changes in one setting can ignite trouble in another. Some might say it also indicates that just because the national media has coined a teacher a hero doesn’t mean that he or she a good fit for every school district.

White, a 59-year-old resident who commuted to Redondo Beach from his home in Ventura County, insists that his only crimes were to institute his tough-love brand of instruction at the academy, located in the South Bay Adult School at 3401 Inglewood Ave., and to blow the whistle on what he calls serious drug and behavior problems in the district. He added that he hopes to get his job back.

“Redondo Beach is a wonderful community,” he said. “Yeah, there are social issues there. That’s not something to cover up. You’ll have a much better school and more realistic relations between parents and kids when everyone can be honest and open.”

Constrained by personnel confidentiality laws, Redondo Beach school officials have been unable to comment much on the matter. But Nancy Billinger, the district’s superintendent of human resources, said it is extremely rare for the district to go so far as to place a new “probationary” employee on paid leave midyear – as they did with White – as opposed to waiting until the end of the year, when new employees can be dismissed without added expense. In fact, Billinger said she can’t recall any other such instance during her five years on the job.

“We don’t take it lightly,” she said, adding that the district last year employed 33 probationary teachers, who, by definition, have not yet earned the tenure granted to teachers with two full years of experience at the district. “And yes, is costly.”

White is clearly not intimidated by authority. In 2003, he and another teacher filed 14 complaints against the Los Angeles County Office of Education while at the West Valley Leadership Academy in Canoga Park. Most of the charges were dismissed, but a few – such as an accusation that money was being funneled from the classroom to the administration – were probed further.

In Redondo, the outspoken White took on his boss, then the principal of Redondo Shores Alternative High School, who also oversaw the smaller Learning Academy, which enrolls about 20 students.

White sent the principal a two-page letter dated Nov. 8, and copied the district’s superintendent, Steven Keller. Several days later, White was removed from the classroom and the investigation into his practices was launched.

In the letter, White listed what he viewed to be his own accomplishments. They included enforcing a dress code, holding mandatory tutoring sessions for failing students, and bringing about a “drastic decrease in students’ drug/alcohol abuse and sexually promiscuous behavior.”

“Certainly this kind of kind of achievement defines the `From Good to Great’ goal of our District,” White wrote. “That is why I am so puzzled as to why you … have gone out of your way to try and sabotage all that I’ve accomplished.”

Eight months later, this past Sunday – the day after he received his final paycheck – White sent another letter to the Redondo Beach school board, and forwarded a copy to the Daily Breeze.

“The decision to put me on paid administrative leave in early November , and not utilize my skills in any way for the benefit of students, was the work of the superintendent, his two assistant superintendents, and principal of the continuation high school,” he wrote. “I have decades of experience. Between the 4 of them combined , they don’t have a single day.”

District officials say it is standard practice to hire a private investigator after a teacher has been placed on leave. When the teacher is a tenured employee, the investigator is typically looking into whether there is grounds for termination. But White was a probationary employee, so the purpose of his investigation is unclear. District officials, citing confidentiality laws, declined to elaborate. They also declined to state what, if anything, the investigator turned up.

The investigations are typically conducted by Tom Stewart of the of the Stewart Group at a cost of $50 an hour. Stewart, who handles other cases for the district, spent 67 hours on the White assignment, for a total cost of $3,350, Billinger said.

Redondo Beach teachers union President Amy Santa Cruz had no comment on the case, citing concerns over confidentiality. The union provided legal representation for White.

In any event, White says the district took an aggressive and humiliating approach to removing him.

They arrived several days after he’d sent the letter to his boss. Several administrators – accompanied by a police officer – made a surprise visit to his classroom just as school was getting out, he said.

“I was asked to turn over my keys, computer, school phone, and to leave the room immediately because I was being put on paid administrative leave,” he wrote in the letter to the school board. “No reason was given.”

It is a striking contrast to the high praise he enjoyed in the national media.

The piece in People magazine credited White for the graduation rates of West Valley Leadership Academy: 80 percent, or a third higher than mainstream public schools in Los Angeles.

In a 2009 story titled “Miracles Can Happen at School,” CBS News painted White as a tough-as-nails teacher who has corrected the errant ways of countless at-risk youth. He required his students to have a job, take college courses and perform charity work. He required their parents to attend monthly meetings.

Preceding all the attention was a tragedy. In 2002, a student died in his arms after having been shot just outside the classroom.

“He was able to run upstairs to my classroom,” White told CBS News. “He died right next to my desk in my arms. And it was at that point I realized it’s not enough to recommend or encourage or suggest that kids do the right thing, you have to absolutely do everything to insist and to allow no other way around it, for their sake.”

Redondo Beach school board President Jane Diehl said she has seen the stories.

“People thought he had impressive credentials,” she said. “That’s why we hired him.”

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