Alvord schools trustee targeted for recall blasts teachers union

As campaigns for and against the recall of Alvord school board member Joseph Barragan heat up, Barragan says the teacher’s union is trying to remove him so it can remain in power.

The Alvord Educators Association has funded more than half the recall effort, but its president says they’re following the community’s lead.

Barragan began clashing with leaders of the Alvord Educators Association almost immediately after he was sworn in, in December 2016.

He visited several schools and said he found teachers sitting at their desks talking on cell phones rather than instructing. In response, union President Leigh Hawkinson, who called the allegations false, told teachers that unannounced visits could disrupt learning and teachers didn’t have to tolerate them. Barragan also criticized then-Superintendent Sid Salazar, saying he was letting the union run the district, which serves the western Riverside area and part of northeast Corona.

Soon after, fliers appeared with racist comments that appeared to be from Barragan’s Facebook page, alongside with calls for Barragan to step down. Barragan denied writing the postings — which a private investigator and Riverside police were unable to connect to him — and suggested the teachers’ union was behind the fliers, which he called phony.

“I think it’s a no-brainer,” Barragan said in a recent interview, connecting the appearance of the comments to his statements a week earlier opposing Salazar. “They have the most to lose, and now that Sid is gone, they’re willing to do a lot.”

Hawkinson said she has nothing to do with the Facebook post and said she supports — but is not leading — the effort to recall Barragan because he is unfair to teachers.

“The community organized the recall committee; it was the community that signed the petitions,” she said. “I don’t believe he’s qualified for the position. I don’t think he is a fair and equitable person, and I don’t believe he is doing the job that even the board policies say he should be doing.

“I’m not even talking about the racial comments,” Hawkinson said. “He attacks teachers. He says horrible things about teachers.”

By Dec. 31, 2017 — the date of the most recent campaign finance report —the Alvord Educators Association had contributed $5,542 to the campaign to oust Barragan. That’s more than half of the $10,588 the recall committee collected, with much of the remainder coming from individual teachers, according to reports filed by the committee.

Barragan accuses the union of breaking district policy by collecting those donations at schools during school hours. As evidence, he points to a recall flier that lists teachers and counselors at several Alvord campuses who are collecting donations.

All the collections have been after school hours, Hawkinson said.

Alvord Unified School District spokeswoman Cynthia Shipley said Barragan had reported the alleged violation to Interim Superintendent Lou Obermeyer, but she said the district had no evidence that funds were collected during school hours.

“If any information comes to light, the district will look into it,” Shipley said.

Barragan also suspects that the recall effort is tied into contract negotiations over teachers’ contracts.

Hawkinson said that wouldn’t make sense, because Alvord negotiates using appointed district officials and Barragan would be just one of five board members voting on whether to approve the contracts.

“We negotiate with the district and the board makes the vote as a whole,” she said.

The election over whether to recall Barragan is set for June 5. So far, no candidates have stepped forward to replace him.

Regardless of the outcome, Barragan, 22, said he is pleasantly surprised by changes since his election.

“It’s amazing how much things have changed in just the past few weeks (since Obermeyer took over as superintendent),” he said. “I’m satisfied with knowing that my objective to change things, shake things up … I’m surprised I was able to do so much.”

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