Scores Protest Beverly Hills School Chief’s Resignation

In a small auditorium at Beverly Hills High School, the exchange of accusations was harsh, tempers flared and a woman who recited poetry brought people to tears.

The wave of emotion was unleashed as more than 100 residents turned out Monday to air their feelings about the departure of Supt. Sol Levine.

Levine, a 21-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Unified School District, announced his resignation at a special board meeting Feb. 11. The board voted 3 to 1 to accept the resignation.

Neither side would comment publicly on the reasons for Levine’s departure, saying it is a personnel matter. But some in the community have accused the board of pressuring Levine to leave, making him a scapegoat for the board’s displeasure over unfinished school reconstruction projects.

“It offends me that such a great man be forced to resign with only one year left on his contract,” said Jennifer Fenton, a Beverly Hills High senior. “If the No. 1 priority of this board is our schools and the children, then the loss of Mr. Levine doesn’t show it.” Board Vice President Richard Stone denied charges that the board ousted the superintendent, who will retire June 30.

“Mr. Levine has always made it clear . . . that he would only serve as long as he had the confidence of the board,” Stone said. “When he realized that things had changed, he submitted his resignation. This was not some deep, devious, behind-closed-doors event.”

Neither side would discuss how Levine’s relationship with the board had changed.

Other speakers were angry that the board gave only 24 hours’ notice for the meeting at which Levine announced his departure. They said the community should have been involved in discussions that preceded Levine’s resignation and that the board should have given earlier notice of the meeting.

The four board members responded by saying that state law allows them to discuss personnel matters in private unless an employee requests public disclosure, which Levine did not.

The Feb. 11 meeting was scheduled with short notice at Levine’s request, board members said, to control rumors about Levine’s departure.

But there was no controlling the rumors and accusations flying at Monday’s meeting. At one point, Stone accused A.J. Willmer, a former board member who will run for an open seat in the April election, and Frank Fenton, Jennifer’s father, of placing a stridently anti-board ad in a newspaper. Both men denied the charge.

In perhaps the evening’s most dramatic moment, Beverly Vista Elementary teacher Merle Bauer compared Levine’s helmsmanship to that of Abraham Lincoln and quoted a passage from “O Captain! My Captain,” Walt Whitman’s elegy to the slain president.

Some in the audience had tears in their eyes when they stood to applaud Bauer’s tribute to the superintendent. Levine, who had scarcely raised his eyes from his desk all night, removed his glasses and appeared to wipe away tears.

Toward the end of the more than two-hour public comment period, which included suggestions that Levine and the board rescind their agreement on his resignation, the superintendent spoke.

“My decision is irrevocable,” Levine said to the suddenly silent room. “I urge this community, whatever your differences, to join together in the best interests of the children of Beverly Hills. Because when I look back at the road traveled, I want to see as the high-water mark of my career a unified school district.”

Board President Virginia Maas said Tuesday that the board will schedule public meetings to interview four personnel search firms, one of which will be retained to help the district find a new superintendent.