Commentary: There's too much info against PUHSD to ignore

Superintendent Dr. Luis Araux (right) and board members have been accused of unethical practices. (File photo)

Commentary By Doug Spoon, Editor

First in a two-part series.

The theme of Superintendent Dr. Jose Luis Araux for Perris Union High School District is “Integrity and Transparency.” The problem is, district administrators and school board members keep acting in ways that contradict their theme rather than support it.

We’re not on a witch hunt here. At Menifee 24/7, we’re just asking for a school district that sticks to state and district policies that have been on the books for years. It seems that cleaning house, as board members and Araux did after last school year, has eliminated many of the people who used to do just that. As of the publication of an August 2 news article here, at least 14 administrators had left PUHSD -- some forced out, some leaving because of demotions and dissatisfaction with the new regime over the last two or three years.

Unfortunately, current PUHSD administrators hide behind a “personnel issue” defense in declining to respond to our questions, which are based on hours of research and dozens of interviews with current and former district employees. Granted, there are laws that protect them from discussing certain issues. But you would think that when they are accused of unethical and perhaps illegal actions, they would find some way to respond to the media and the general public.

To the many residents who are begging for Menifee Union School District to take control of local high schools through unification, that is a related but separate issue we will discuss in another news article. First, we’d like to hold PUHSD accountable for what is happening and get some answers. It appears the district operates with no oversight from other agencies – not even the Riverside County Office of Education – and some sources say change might come only from a recall of school board members.

Our mission is what it has always been – to act as the watchdog over local institutions. After all, who else is going to do it?

Let’s start with the accusation that school board members have taken control of most major administrative decisions, including interviewing and hiring employees such as school principals for Menifee schools. This appears to be in violation of the State Education Code and PUHSD Board Policy.

Board Policy section 9000 regarding the role of the school board states, “Establishing an effective and efficient organizational structure for the district by (a) Employing the superintendent and setting policy for hiring of other personnel.” There is no section giving the board authority over anything regarding employment of other employees other than the ability to “set policy for hiring.” If a new policy has been enacted, it has not been documented.

PUHSD board members have never had the authority to lead the interview process or issue an employment contract to anyone other than the superintendent. But several sources within and outside district administration have told Menifee 24/7 that such violations of state and board policy have been taking place for at least three years.

One of those sources is Elizabeth Vallejo, who served on the board from 2020 to 2024, when she chose not to seek re-election because of concerns over the conduct of her colleagues. Her concerns centered around board members Steve Campos, elected in 2022, and Edward Garcia, who lost to Vallejo in 2020 but was re-elected to the board in a different district in 2022. Garcia apparently moved to a different district to fill the board position vacated by Araux -- who was hired to return as superintendent in 2024 by his former colleagues.

Complex issue? But wait, it gets worse.

In an interview with Menifee 24/7 in August of this year, Vallejo said that following the arrival of Campos and Garcia in 2022, the rest of the board was asked to participate in the interview and decision-making process of job candidates other than the superintendent -- against district and state policy.

“Why should we as board members be hiring principals and other administrators?” Vallejo said. “You can tell they were steering people toward their agenda. They wanted to hire their friends.

“Always before, our superintendent [the now-retired Grant Bennett] would say, ‘I recommend this person’ and we would vote to approve or not. Then it came time to hire a new HR director [now with Araux as superintendent]. They said, ’No, we need to know who the final three are and we have to interview them.’ I said, ‘I don’t have time to do this. It’s not our job.’"

The new HR director hired was Alfredo Andrade. He has HR experience in the private sector, but not in the education sector. On Aug, 21, 2024, prior to his hiring, the job description for the position of Chief Human Resources Officer – which had been deactivated years earlier in favor of an Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources position – was amended to delete portions of the requirements.

Removed were requirements including “an administrative services credential, a secondary teaching credential, or five years of experience in an administrative capacity within a school district” – none of which Andrade has. Those requirements were still required of the Assistant Superintendent position at that time, but the board chose in a closed session meeting on Oct. 28, 2024 to hire Andrade under the new conditions. Curiously, the job description of the old Assistant Superintendent position has been removed from the district website.

"I told them that he doesn’t have the experience,” Vallejo said she told her colleagues. “He only worked in the private sector. This is completely different. Everybody said, ‘No, he’s fine. He’s perfect for it.’”

Vallejo was outvoted in the choice for Andrade, 4-1. She was even more upset – as were many employees who have contacted Menifee 24/7 requesting anonymity – when she found out that Andrade’s wife Daniela had served as campaign treasurer for Garcia in 2022 and Jamie Anaya in 2024 and Alfredo had done the same for Anthony T. Stafford Sr. in 2020.

“I didn’t learn any of this (campaign connections) until I got an anonymous letter and started seeing it online,” Vallejo said. “I had no idea. In closed session, I asked to speak to the whole board. I said, ‘I’m being told that the person you just hired is the person who was treasurer for three of your campaigns.’ They said, ‘I didn’t think it was relevant.’ I said, ‘You guys shouldn’t even have voted on this. That’s a conflict of interest.’

“I said I want full transparency because I have to go out there and tell people what’s going on. This looks like an inside job. They said, ‘We don’t think you should. It’s none of their business.’”

Vallejo continued: “[Former board member] David Nellisen said, ‘I was pretty upset too that you guys didn’t let us know.’ Then they said, ‘We shouldn’t even be talking about this right now because it wasn’t listed on the agenda for the closed session.’”

Another PUHSD employee who left after being demoted said the alleged nepotism and mismanagement of the school board is obvious to many.

“Elizabeth was the only board member with the courage to stand up to the others,” the former employee said. “Every time, she was shut down by Campos and Garcia.”

And this from an employee who left the district:

“Araux is wholly inexperienced to be a superintendent. We all knew the board would pick Araux, even though there were other candidates with experience. Things will never change unless Garcia and Campos are voted out. As much as Araux thinks he’s doing the right thing, he struggles with integrity.

“Everyone is afraid. They are using fear and intimidation. The people left in the ranks aren’t going to say anything. They’re keeping their heads down.”

As a current district employee told us, employees are afraid to publicly object to district leadership for fear of retaliation – and because they believe nothing will change anyway.

“Their philosophy is ‘shut up,’” the employee said. “They just don’t care.”

We have reported much of this before. It is restated here because district officials have never denied any of it. Moreover, we wanted to inform newcomers as well as people who are asking us, “What’s going on over there?”

Unfortunately, this background information is only the tip of the iceberg. Actions taken by Araux and board members in recent weeks appear to be more evidence of their unethical practices. That will be discussed in part 2 of our series on Friday.