School Board Taught How to Get Along

It was a far cry from a 1970s love fest, but the Simi Valley school board spent 6 1/2 hours Friday night playing communication games with a state facilitator trying to rebuild trust and respect.

The five trustees, outgoing Supt. Albert “Bud” Marley and new Supt. Dan Flynn attended the $800 workshop held in the Wood Ranch Conference Center.

The workshop’s timing was ideal. The openly cantankerous board has spent several months arguing over policy issues, such as how much power to give its schools chief.

Flynn’s hiring also caused a deep rift, as two trustees and many community members felt he lacks the necessary qualifications and should not have been the only candidate interviewed for the job.

The usually mild-mannered Marley, whose last day is Friday, said: “Too much of the time I think [the board] has behaved in an in-your-face, down-your-throat relationship . . . including gloating” over 3-2 votes.

To kick off the positive evening, a cheery Kate McConkey of the California School Boards Assn. asked everyone to play by a few basic team-building principles: trust, collaboration, equal participation.

But Trustees Carla Kurachi and Caesar Julian initially were stuck on agreeing with one of the rules--respect--since McConkey had defined it as “not blaming others.”

“I’m mortally wounded,” said Kurachi, who along with Trustee Diane Collins passionately argued against throwing Flynn in with a pool of candidates.

But finally they agreed to the term--which they had to sign on a poster with a purple, green or red marker--and work on team-building, at least for the evening. Julian said he considers the wounds created by Flynn’s hiring “superficial.”

Out of everyone at the round-table format, Flynn appeared especially eager to move on. Taking copious notes and actively listening to others, he was the first to pipe up that he hoped the workshop could help “heal the wounds that went on with [my] hiring.”

Throughout the evening, McConkey thanked everyone for sending “good ‘I’ messages” and “sharing and taking risks.”

She was careful, however, to keep trustees playing get-to-know-you games instead of addressing real issues. That will most likely happen during the second session, she said, which is scheduled for Jan. 13.

On Saturday, Kurachi said she wasn’t thrilled with the workshop.

“I’m not sure we went anywhere,” she said. “I don’t think [our problems] are something that can be resolved. I think we just need to put them aside and move on. A lot of barriers were up, myself included.”

She did add that the self-help session taught her to be more careful in communicating her desires to others. “And I have to just lighten up a little bit,” she said.