Views Vary Sharply on Ousted Simi Superintendent

SIMI VALLEY —  Charismatic, self-deprecating and kind to parents. Acerbic, demanding and rude to staff.

Views of Simi Valley Unified School District Supt. Tate Parker--abruptly put on leave five months into his tenure at a closed-door meeting Wednesday night--depend on who is talking. And almost no one is talking publicly, fearing that Parker might sue the district.

His ouster, which now appears permanent, has reopened what some Simi residents call the revolving door atop the school district.

That door swung even wider Friday when Ruth Lander, an administrator at Parker’s last school district whom he recruited as Simi’s new head of personnel, asked to be let out of her contract. Lander had been due to start work in Simi in July.

“Clearly, we are a ship without a rudder,” said Hal Vick, executive director of the Simi teachers’ union.

Some people who have witnessed the decision making of the reed-thin, whip-smart Parker close up describe him as a district morale buster. A man who ran roughshod over staff. A schools chief so harsh that key district employees thought of abandoning his ship.

But others saw the new superintendent as a consensus builder, a savvy administrator who reached out to parents, inviting them to sit on committees and add to district debate. And as a single father of two who loves nothing so much as sailing his boat.

Parker could not be reached for comment Friday.

Conejo Valley Unified School District Supt. Jerry Gross, who joined occasional east county superintendents’ lunches with Parker, described him as a self-effacing man with a gentle wit.

“Everyone really liked Tate,” Gross said. “He said things were going well in his district.”

*

But Simi district officials, who would not comment on the record, said Parker had racked up a string of mid-sized travails that added up to big-time trouble.

They say Parker offended long-time staff and wanted to run the district without consulting his five-member board. The former head of Riverside County’s Murrieta Valley Unified School District missed work and was inaccessible to trustees, who were not privy to his unlisted home phone number, according to district officials.

At the same time, the Simi Valley Board of Education is known as a fractious panel given to squabbling. When Parker was tapped as Simi schools chief, he said he knew that reputation but was undaunted.

Ellen Larson, the spokeswoman for Murrieta Valley Unified, kept in touch with Parker during his transition to Simi Valley. She listened to his frustrations over dealing with the quarrelsome school board.

“Some people who knew Tate, . . . when he took the job in Simi Valley, they rolled their eyes,” she said.

“He shared with me some of the difficulties he was having with the board, just because it was so different from what he was used to,” Larson said. The Murrieta school board rarely has a split vote, she said.

“I’ve heard about the Simi Valley board. Ours is just the opposite,” Larson said.

One unanimous Simi vote, however, was to put Parker on paid leave from his $108,000-a-year post. On Tuesday, the board will meet again in closed session to tap an interim superintendent.

County schools Supt. Charles Weis said he wasn’t surprised by the ouster, which appears to be permanent.

“I just got a sense that there wasn’t a real strong connection there,” Weis said. “He didn’t seem to fit himself into the community and build relationships--I mean the educational community and the overall community of Simi Valley.”

*

Vick said that in Parker’s five months on the job, the superintendent had little contact with the union.

“Generally speaking, superintendents have been fairly accessible to the union,” Vick said. “That hasn’t been the culture in Simi Valley and particularly not with Dr. Parker.”

Parker’s leave comes almost one year after the district’s last long-term superintendent, Mary Beth Wolford, suddenly resigned over clashes with the district board. Her predecessor, Robert Purvis, then stepped in to guide the district during its hunt for a chief administrator.

With Parker now relieved of his duties, responsibility for shepherding the district through the last week of classes has fallen to Deputy Supt. Susan Parks, a veteran administrator credited with helping the district through the Northridge earthquake aftermath. But Parks has already accepted a job as chief of schools in Baldwin Park and is due to start July 1.

Adding to the vacancies, Lander phoned Parks on Friday morning and asked to be released from her contract. As assistant superintendent of the Murrieta district, Lander had worked closely with Parker.

Parks said the Simi trustees will discuss Lander’s request Tuesday in a closed session.

“The board could hold her to [the contract], but nobody wants someone to work if they’re not comfortable with it,” Parks said.

Parks said she will recommend that the board contact some of the other finalists from the job search that yielded Lander as a way of filling the post soon. “That’s a very logical thing to do, as opposed to starting over,” she said.