HAYWARD SCHOOL BOARD SCANDAL | Amid public calls for Hayward school board President Jesus Armas to resign following an alleged affair with fellow board member Maribel Heredia, an agendized discussion over procedures for a vote of no-confidence never occurred Wednesday night after school district staff and legal counsel failed to comply with the request.
Hayward school district superintendent Dr. Donald Evans told school trustees Wednesday night he was unclear about the request from board member Dr. Luis Reynoso sent via email last Aug. 13. Reynoso’s request contained just one sentence: “I [would] like to request for the agenda of meeting 8/22/12: Information on how to proceed the vote of no confidence for the for president leadership of the board.”
Evans added there was further confusion over the item since the school board’s bylaws are silent on the matter of no-confidence of its members. School board staff similarly failed to provide information at a Aug. 8 special meeting requested by board members regarding a second first-reading of its updated bylaws, which ended in adjournment after only 20 minutes.
“I’m really disappointed here about our staff,” said Reynoso. “This is a legal issue. Where’s staff to guide us for what takes place and doesn’t take place on a vote of no-confidence?” Evans added legal counsel was not in attendance to answer any questions about the item.
Earlier in the over five-hour meeting, set on the eve of the first day of school for many Hayward students, McGee registered similar complaints over staff’s inability to provide information requested by board members. He also called for an investigation into the allegations levied against Armas and Heredia.
“I do have to implore staff to do their job and work with legal through counsel to have an investigation into possible collusion and the possibility of some votes that may have been inappropriate,” said McGee, who later added the potential of Brown Act violations occurring on the board.
Bad blood between Armas and Reynoso again spilled over Wednesday night starting with an attempt by Reynoso to move the discussion of a no-confidence vote to the top of the agenda. “Your motion is out of order,” said Armas. After a bit of maneuvering, McGee was able to force a vote on the matter. However, without embattled board member Maribel Heredia, who was absent from the meeting (Evans said she was tending to a family emergency in Southern California), the motion died following a 2-2 vote. Later, Armas refused to address Reynoso with the honorific of “doctor” nearly a dozen times. In each instance, Reynoso took time to correct Armas. Reynoso earned a doctorate in education last year.
Despite the lack of legal guidance from board staff, Reynoso again laid out his argument against Armas’ tenure as board president, including the presence of inappropriate text messages between him and Heredia and a renewed focus on the allegations of conflicts of interest surrounding Armas’ duties as a noted local consultant, public official and his ties to firms he has previously represented concurrently before the City Council and as a school trustee.
“Those affairs have an affect on the voting process,” said Reynoso, referring to speculation Armas and Heredia violated the Brown Act on, at least, one occasion surrounding the firing and rehiring of a principal at Hayward High School. Armas denied any impropriety and challenged his critics to find any voting patterns to bolster their argument. School board member Lisa Brunner, in what some construed as a signal the allegations were, indeed, true, said there are many instances around the country of public officials sitting on boards with personal or familial relationships. “Yes,” Reynoso said, “there are board’s out there who have members that are related to each other, but the difference is when they got elected the community knew about the relationship.” Reynoso also speculated whether Measure G, the school district’s parcel tax, would have passed last June if news of the alleged romance was known beforehand.
With children back in school, the school board will return to its twice-monthly schedule with a meeting Wednesday, Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m., Hayward City Hall.
If Heredia is paid for missing the last board meeting, the BOE will be providing her with “a gift of public funds.” This action is against the education code. Let's see if she votes for herself and does not recuse herself from any discussion and vote.
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How true your words are.
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Now that it is clear Heredia was not absent due to a “medical emergency”, Dr. Evans needs to be accountable for his remark at the end of the meeting saying that was the reason behind her absence. If Heredia was a student in the District, she would be a truant given all her absences and tardiness. At which point, what does the District do but suspend and/or expel that student. Why? Usually not because of academics but economics since each student costs a certain amount of money the District doesn't receive because they weren't present. Well, Heredia definitely costs the District money every time she isn't present!
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Please, while expressing outrage, please do NOT forget to sign the petition demanding Heredia resign. The petition includes information about her relationship with Jesus and failure to perform due diligence as a board member Here is the link and full text is below:
http://www.change.org/petitions/hayward-unified-school-board-trustee-maribel-heredia
It is the responsibility and privilege of Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) Board of Trustees to promote the education of Hayward's children to the highest standard possible. We are demanding Maribel Heredia resign immediately due to her dereliction of duty and unbecoming behavior for an elected official.
Maribel Heredia has failed to fulfill her duties in a manner that is transparent, forthright, and shows goodwill to students, parents, teachers, classified staff and administrators.
Ms. Heredia has an ongoing problem with her commitment to attend meetings; she is frequently tardy and leaves early.
According to a story published in ebcitizen.com on July 26, 2012, Ms. Heredia admitted under oath that she does not read board materials, but depends on the judgment of another, unnamed HUSD currently elected board member to make decisions on how to vote. This is collusion and creates a myriad of possible conflicts of interest.
Ms. Heredia, is a subject of an ebcitizen.com article, published July 25, 2012, that exposed a scandalous illicit affair with fellow HUSD board member, Jesus Armas. Both have families. This behavior demonstrates poor ethical judgment.
We believe that Ms. Heredia was obligated to disclose her new relationship (that may have started over a year ago) with fellow board member, Jesus Armas to the community at large. Since that time, Ms. Heredia has voted on hundreds of agenda items that greatly affect and influence the quality of education in our community and working conditions of HUSD employees.
The community believes that Ms. Heredia has failed in her duties as an elected Trustee for HUSD. Therefore, we demand her immediate resignation.
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LISA BRUNNER HAS GOT TO BE THE MOST STUPID BOARD TRUSTEE EVER. EVEN MORE STUPID THAN MARIBEL HEREDIA OR SHEILA SIMMS.
LISA STOP TALKING PLEASE YOU MAKE MY EARS HURT.
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I feel Brunner doesn't know what she's talking about. she showed how much of a bitch she is. she doesn't know anything. and that painted face is horrible. and the 70's hairdo is bad. very bad. is Armas aware of how much he has hurt the school district and city? I remember he messed up the city when he was manager. police fire mayor and the city council hated him. my guess is they still do. if Armas had any decency he would resign.
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Please let us know immediately about where to sign the recall petition!
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I and my fellow home owner neighbors of over 1000 will not vote for anyone endorsed by the Chamber. Any one that wants to Recall Lisa Bruner stay tuned for places of where to sign petition.
The CoC needs to go too.
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The Chamber of Commerce has decided to endorse Buffette, Sara Lamlin and Annette Walker. We know that young Peter will take all he can get from the Chamber…Let's see if Lamlin and Walker will have the ethical cahones to reject the endorsement and proceed without the help of the Chamber. How much you want to bet they don't????
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Cat is out of the bag now Maribel Heredia. What excuse are you going to come up with now that we know you did not have a family emergency, but a hooky or hooker emergency. You are bad for HUSD. I hope your boyfriend Armas buys you a life because he ruined this one for you. Get out of here. Do not even come to anymore board meetings. Do one thing good for the community, although you never listened to us before, listen to us now, RESIGN, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! Take your cheating snake of a boyfriend who is married with kids with you. And take the idiotic Brunner with you.
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The next school board race will be ugly. My prediction is Armas contributes big bucks to help Buffete who will come out with an expensive mail campaign to target Reynoso. Right now, he may not have the money to fight fire with fire. We have to be prepared for this and may need a strategy to counter this. Here it is:
Vote for REYNOSO ONLY. Do not dilute your vote by voting for more than one candidate.
We will have three open seats. IMHO, the other school board candidates will not fight the HUSD crooks like Reynoso.
Eliminate Peter Bufette for being an Armas stooge and John Taylor for supporting defiant staff who are obstructing Reynoso and McGee's attempt to investigate Armas/Heredia and to censure Jesus with a vote of no confidence. The others are dead silent. Do any of them really deserve your vote anyway?
Remember, vote for REYNOSO ONLY.
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11:26 Don't worry I think people in HUSD have had it and don't too be surprised if Dr. Reynoso gets the most votes.
I will vote for him again for the 3rd time. I am actually glad he lost the primary for assembly because we cannot lose someone like Dr. Reynoso. I was sadden that he was thinking of not running for board. I do not think we will get another one like him for a long, long time.
I want a thorough clean up at HUSD and Dr. Reynoso is the clean up champ we need.
Mr. McGee and Dr. Reynoso did a fine job in last meeting by being very professional and demanding an investigation of vote collusion. Lisa Bruner and Jesus Armas can be seen now working together and both were very childish and corrupt. I saw Maribel Heredia facebook attending her family emergency.lol
http://www.facebook.com/femenista
Heredia says “In the pool, one last treat b4 kids go back to school — at Marriott's Newport Coast Villas.” lol
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By MW:
If the legal counsel for the HUSD and/or the city of Hayward has the same “standards” and level of “honesty” and “integrity” as the lawyers in the County Counsel's office for Alameda County, then its two real primary functions are to: one, feed the public a lot of lies and garbage, and at the same time refuse to allow the public to direct any serious questioning toward it as the “thinking” and “logic” it used to come up with its nonsensical decisions, rulings, and opinions; and two, after first finding out what the higher ranking officials in the HUSD and/or city government want, to then come up with the lies and garbage to “prove” that decision was the “intelligent” and “proper” one.
In other words most lawyers, and extra especially including virtually all of the lawyers working for government agencies, do not practice law but instead are primarily involved in coming up with any lies and garbage necessary to prove the “legality” and “correctness” of the people who pay them.
In fact if we got rid of eighty percent of the creatures who are law school graduates and also have law licenses and replaced them with high school dropouts who were selected at random by pulling their names out of a hat, virtually all of those high school dropouts would do a much better job of arriving at the facts and the truth and coming up with the proper course of action than the jokers, parasites, and professional pathological liars with law licenses and who pretend to practice law.
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To 10:21 pm:
Yes it is true that Armas and Pacheco Brothers were a part of the Chamber interview committee. There is no part of Hayward politics that is not contaminated by the likes of them.
The unfortunate thing is that candidates need money and bodies to run a campaign in this town…even for the board of education. As a consequence they must begin to sit at the feet of the “movers and shakers” to get the money to run the campaign and thus they sell any semblence of ethics or morals to the highest bidder. To run a campaign and win without big bucks is a monumental task and very often the candidate who tries goes down to defeat. 4 years ago Luis Reynoso was able to beat the odds by walking and talking to every household he could reach, and it was a victory for someone who was not willing to sell his soul or his principles. Please help him and any other candidate who is willing to decline the endorsements of the Chamber, local politicians and others who have an ulterior motive.
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Steve Tavares can you do a research piece on Dutra real estate development, Zaballos real estate, and Pacheco Gardening doing business in City of Hayward and HUSD. What is their connection with Jesus Armas, Maribel Heredia, Lisa Bruner?
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B st buss owner,
I am ticked of how much I pay to the Hayward Chamber just to support cronies of Jesus Armas. I am out of here. DO not renew my membership please.
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Is true and confirmed what Reynoso said on TV. Jesus Armas and Pacheco brothers were in the CoC interviewing school board candidates. What a scam. I will not be voting for anyone that was endorsed by the Hayward Chamber of Commerce. I will not renew my membership when due.
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Ditto! Nobody has come to Armas' defense other than Brunner who basically admitted her colleagues are a couple. Why can't he admit it and more forward? He is the person along with Evans who are pushing this subject forward to every meeting.
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THANK YOU 12:20 !!!!!!!!!
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And you, 11:12 are an Armas troll. Now that we have that all cleared up, can we move on to the issue at hand about educating the children of Hayward otherwise you're just as bad as the Board.
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Most of the comments here are from reyNOso trolls…sad but funny.
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Hear hear! 9:18!!!
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Gramatical errors? is that the best you can come up against someone who has balls and integrity to clean up corruption and . That's it?? That is all you have? Let me guess you probably don't like that Dr. Reynoso does not smile when he votes.
If you can understand what was written then move on. It's the power of the prose, not the angle or the dangle of the participle.
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What candidates are going to be endorsed by the Chamber of Armas? That's who I will vote for. Not!!!
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Well if we are going to do a grammatical review of our trustees then let's be fair and do it with all of them and let's also remark on the grammar of the two candidates who spoke to the board on Wednesday night.
Ms.Brunner has made many grammatical mistakes when she speaks, as has Ms. Heredia and Mr. Armas.
Candidate Taylor used a plural nown followed by a sigular verb…kids/is when he spoke. Mr. Buffete also had errors in his speech to the board.
So 11:35 what is you tryin to prove????? Ooops, is see a grammatical error there, must mean that I am less of a person than you and whom ever you support.
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Here is the link for resignation of Maribel Heredia.
Just copy and paste the text below onto your browser.
http://www.change.org/petitions/hayward-unified-school-board-trustee-maribel-heredia
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I think he earned it in the United States.
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Where did board member Reynoso earn his doctorate in education? His grammar and sentence structure certainly isn't graduate level.
“I like to request for the agenda of meeting 8/22/12: Information on how to proceed the vote of no confidence for the for president leadership of the board.”
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please use proper titles. you guys are rude just like Jesus Armpits and Lisa Dummer, their proper name. be respectful. and what is wrong with Lisa dummer's face? It seems stuck on dumb. She's an idiot. recall on Lisa Dummer now. what's the web site?
She is big on perception but why is she not jumping on armpit and hoheadia's relationship? That's reality and not just perception. and didn't Dummer say she doesn't believe everything she reads or respond go the blogs she did at the meeting Wednesday.
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HUSD staff was awful last night. Dr. Evans is all show and no go.
Where can I go to sign the petition to recall LISA BRUNNER since she likes secrets of the sexting-sexual affair of JESUS ARMAS and MARIBEL HEREDIA?
by
Spartacus
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good reportng Mr. Tavares! For those who didn't watch the meeting, Ms. Terrasas read directly from the board by-laws regarding “conduct of board members” and pointed out how Mr. Armas and Ms. Heredia failed to meet those standards of ethical behavior. Mr. Armas laughed and giggled. His reactions were the same to others who spoke to the issue of no confidence; rolling his eyes; smirking; shuffling papers; looking off in the distance and making sure that the time keeper held up the red card so he could shut people off.
Ms. Brunner conducted herself in much the same manner. Attempting to be condescending to Dr. Reynoso she only made herself look foolish and ignorant.
Dr. Evans, our illustrious Superintendent, boardered on being rude and insubordinate when Dr. Reynoso questioned him about why there was no legal representative there to guide the discussion. He feigned having difficulty hearing the questions from Dr. Reynoso and then mumbled his answers. Guess he is afraid of the long arm of Armas and his cronies.
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Dr. Reynoso should be the superintendent, Will McGee should be the vice-superintendent, Lisa Brunner needs to be recalled, Maribel Herdia and Jesus Armas need to resign. Get a new board with more then 2 people in background in education.
I never realized how bad HUSD staff has become. We got a lucky hit with Dr. Reynoso, since I do not know of any other politician that is as tenacious as he is(Democrat or Republican) for making sure taxpayers get their moneys worth in public education. I am glad he is running again.
I have a question why the attorney was not present to answer questions on the vote of no confidence against Jesus Armas. I agree with Dr. Reynoso that the staff did nothing.
I think Jesus Armas is resentful that someone else on the school board has higher education then he does since he refuses to use the Doctor title on Reynoso. I have known Jesus Armas from the city for a while. He did use proper tittle for Dr. Evans and Dr. Wayne but not for Dr. Reynoso.
Jesus Armas grow up because your performance on TV last night was very much like a mental midget and rude.
Lisa Bruner I will join the speaker calling for your resignation. You too are rude and come cross very low skilled.
Dr. Reynoso and Mr. McGee we appreciate your leadership on the district, do not think it goes unnoticed.
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Vote No for Reynoso.
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