Patch Blog: Improving the LCUSD Complaint Process

It is no coincidence that the day the formal complaint about LCUSD employee Mrs. Gabrielle Leko made it to the Governing Board for review was also the same day that a conversation about the policies and procedures regarding public complaints was on the Board’s agenda.  The agenda item was meant to include a presentation by Superintendent Wendy Sinnette on said policies and procedures, but quickly became a forum for the community to express their deep concerns with the system for forwarding complaints, and particular experiences where that system had failed them.  These concerns were very raw, and the public expressed them for multiple hours.  Ultimately, the direction from the Board to the Superintendent was to prepare potential revisions to the policies for Board discussion at the next meeting.

The goal was to ensure the process was an accessible and transparent mechanism by which the community could give feedback to the District.  Specifically, the process needs to efficiently and fairly identify instances where there is doubt as to whether or not the conduct of employees aligns with District and school policies, and with community standards.

Based upon feedback from the community- at this forum and through other channels- the Superintendent created a proposal for the January meeting.  This proposal represented a huge step forward in reaching the goals of an effective complaint process.  After some revisions across several meetings, the vast majority of the policy has been voted on and approved.  As of last meeting, Board members Joel Peterson (jpeterson@lcusd.net) and Ellen Multari (emultari@lcusd.net) have been tasked with drawing up language to describe how the District will respond to complaints filed by “third-parties” (not direct witnesses nor direct victims of the complaint).

While we will have to wait and see how this one element of the process ultimately works out, the thorough review under which the complaint process has gone has now yielded a near-final product that is far stronger than it has ever been.  I wanted, then, to take some time to review some of these improvements, and otherwise comment on the complaint process (new and improved as it is) as a whole.

Improvements

Below, you will find a list of just a few of the changes that have been made to the process that will strengthen its effectiveness.  It is not exhaustive.

• When an employee has reason to believe that the conduct of another employee is inappropriate or otherwise in violation of District or school policies, that first employee is required to notify the immediate supervisor.
• Retaliation against students for complaints filed is made explicitly a violation of Board Policy.
• Upon learning of a complaint from a parent, the principal is required to inform that parent of the complaint procedures, and to provide a written copy of the process to that parent.
• In addition to learning of the procedure, complainants will be made aware of policies against retaliation, and principals are required to take necessary steps to uphold this and other policies governing the complaint process.
• The Governing Board will be notified when complaints reach the formal level.
• Administrators are required to maintain records of informal complaints, and to adjust employee’s goals/objectives when two or more similar complaints are made in the same year.

Most of these improvements speak for themselves.  However, the community should be aware of the significant impact some of these changes will have.  For instance, the final bullet refers to an administrator’s responsibility to record informal complaints and to adjust annual goals accordingly.  This will ensure that a parent’s decision to forgo the full, formal complaint process does not imply that the subject of concern is without merit or without need of attention and improvement.  Instead, it will cause a review of the employee’s goals (against which that employee is ultimately evaluated) to reflect improvements where members of the community have felt there was a need.  This leads us to the next important topic: the impact of pursuing a complaint.

The Impact

In discussing the complaint process with parents in the community, I have often received feedback that there is a sense of futility surrounding the process.  Some wonder why they would expend the energy and time to pursue the complaint; they often feel it exposes their child to unwanted attention, and yields very little for them.  Indeed, we have all heard of the massive obstacles public schools face in dismissing permanent (tenured) teachers.  However, I want to implore you to reconsider any sense of irrelevance you think you or a complaint may have, and offer to you the following information for consideration:

The complaint process can very likely result in some sort of corrective and/or disciplinary action, the content of which you might not be made explicitly aware, but which is crucial for management decisions—including dismissal, should be deemed appropriate.

It is not our District’s practice to release confidential information from an employee’s personnel file to the public, and this includes disciplinary action.  In a public school, this can include formal Memoranda summarizing meetings with a supervisor about poor conduct, Letters of Warning, Letters of Reprimand, etc.  These documents can be added to a file at any point in a teachers’ career, including as a result of a complaint process.  However, even when it comes about as a result of a complaint, the complainant is not made aware that these additions are made.  Too often, I have heard parents interpret this to mean that no action has been taken at all.  This is not the case.  This lack of understanding can be frustrating, but these additions to the file are very important.  They are used to set the employee’s goals and to evaluate the teacher.  And though initiating dismissal proceedings is a challenge in our public schools, having a personnel file that effectively documents past bad behavior with unsatisfactory improvement is vital.

More Resources

I encourage you to become as familiar as possible with the complaint procedures in our District.  As a community, we are all responsible for the quality of the District, and one important way to help hold us accountable is via the public complaint process.  One important resource is the District’s website, which has a lot of information on the different complaint processes here.

I have also recently added a “Parent Resources” tab to my personal website, and the inaugural entry has compiled many resources on understanding the complaint process, including a flowchart I have created to help give a general and graphic depiction.

Our work in improving our schools is never done, and this includes ongoing reflection on the tools we empower the community to use in offering feedback on our services. I hope these improvements to the complaint process will be met with your approval, but I also welcome input on how we can continue to enhance this process and all areas of our educational program.  Please always feel free to email me (aj.blumenfeld@gmail.com) and/or to give me a call (818-970-0129).