Despite objections from parents, a cease and desist letter, and a failed temporary restraining order, the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District’s board moved forward Tuesday with strengthening the district superintendent’s contract to make it harder to fire him.
Previously, the PYLUSD board needed just a simple majority (only three votes) in order to fire Superintendent Alex Cherniss with cause. That same threshold applied to the district’s deputy and assistant superintendents as well.
But in a split 3-2 vote Tuesday evening, Nov. 20, the board opted to raise the threshold to a supermajority, meaning four of the five board members would need to agree to fire the superintendent, deputy or assistants.
The change is in effect until the end of 2026.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Board President Leandra Blades said Cherniss’ contract didn’t include the supermajority rule because of a change in law firms used by the district. Previous superintendents, she said, were hired with the supermajority rule in their original contracts.
But she said it would also “protect” the district.
“There’s some stuff going on behind the scenes that this would actually be a move to protect the district because if anybody made moves to fire Dr. Cherniss in December, as social media is stating, or any of these things, this could be considered retaliatory,” Blades said.
At a June 18 meeting, the school board voted 3-2 to extend Cherniss’ superintendent contract through June 30, 2028. A supermajority clause was not added then to that updated contract.
Trustees Marilyn Anderson and Carrie Buck, who voted against the changes to the contracts, argued that it is not a fair comparison to previous superintendents’ contracts.
Buck said the amended contracts for the superintendent, deputy and assistants will not allow the board to hold them accountable.
“It just breeds corruption to do that,” Anderson said. “I don’t think that’s how the government is set up. It’s not how it works, and I think it’s wrong.”
Hours before Tuesday’s meeting, Blades and Trustees Todd Frazier and Shawn Youngblood attended a court hearing on a temporary restraining order request meant to halt the vote, the board president said Tuesday night. The board also received a cease and desist letter from the California Teachers Association.
“This is a naked attempt to shield the outgoing board’s preferred administrators from termination once the newly-elected board is installed,” the letter said. “The proposed amendments conflict with the law and therefore would not be enforceable.”
The temporary restraining order filed the day before the meeting by D. Lawrence Radlauer argued that the proposed amendments to the superintendent’s contract target the incoming board and would make it more difficult for them to manage the superintendent, deputy and assistants.
Radlauer, a community member for nearly 30 years, said he has seen the school board go through a lot of changes. He said he was attracted to the school district when he moved to the area because of its reputation but is unhappy with the board’s decisions on issues like parental notification policies and restrictions on literature.
He said the judge’s denial of the temporary restraining order was fair but believes there may be more legal issues in the future with the board’s vote Tuesday to change the contracts.
“As the judge said, now they have to live with the consequences of their vote,” Radlauer said. “We’ll see what those ultimately are.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Anderson and Buck said they were not aware of the court hearing for the temporary restraining order.
“We already had litigation today that I wasn’t aware of,” Anderson said. “All this is going to do is take money away from our kids. It’s going to take money away from our education.”
As a result of the recent elections, the board majority of Blades, Frazier and Youngblood, is set to flip. Voters elected Tricia Quintero to join the board to represent Area 1, replacing Youngblood whose term ends this year.
Although ballot counting is still ongoing in California, Quintero has a lead of over 60% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon.
“Unfortunately, the impression I have of these changes is not what is best for the community, but instead what is best for a select few,” Quintero said at Tuesday’s meeting. “The community spoke two weeks ago, they do not want any more surprise changes.”
Blades said the district’s attorney said if the board were to approve the amendments to the superintendent’s contract, they would not be in violation of any education codes.
Anderson said that she believes Blades misrepresented what the attorney said. She proposed the board make public the attorney’s communication to the school board, but Blades, Frazier and Youngblood did not allow it.
While the board approved in split votes to amend the superintendent, deputy and assistant contracts, four in all, most of the ire from parents who spoke during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting was directed at the changes to Cherniss’ contract.
Cherniss has been the board’s superintendent since May 2023 and has more than 24 years of experience in public education. He was the former superintendent of Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District for five years and the former superintendent of San Marino Unified School District.
“It’s truly unfortunate that some people in the community are trying to play politics to the detriment of our students and parents,” Cherniss said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “The focus should be on teaching and learning and not on absurd legal maneuvers.”
An online petition calling for Cherniss’ resignation has gathered nearly 800 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
The board also voted 3-2 to add two more additional meetings on Dec. 3 and Dec. 10.
People interested in attending the next meeting on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. can watch in person at the district’s board room at 1301 E. Orangethorpe Ave in Placentia. Meetings are also available to be watched live through its website, pylusd.org.
