Rio District Ordered to Pay Fired Official

A judge has ordered the Rio School District to pay former Supt. Yolanda Benitez full back pay and benefits since her firing in June 2003 over allegations that the administrator was pushing a bilingual agenda.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Henry J. Walsh, ruling on a portion of Benitez’s wrongful-termination lawsuit, determined that the school board violated the state’s open meetings law when it voted 3 to 2 to fire Benitez.

The firing was “procedurally defective, to the point of being null and void,” Walsh wrote in his ruling handed down Dec. 15 and made public Wednesday. The district owes Benitez about $215,000 in lost wages plus interest to date. The 4,000-student district must continue paying Benitez $10,966 a month until the matter is settled, she is properly fired or her contract expires June 30, 2006.

“I feel vindicated,” Benitez said Wednesday. “It was a good Christmas gift to me.”

Benitez, who was placed on paid administrative leave 22 months ago, said she was denied her right to have the board discuss her termination during a public session. Instead, board members met behind closed doors to fire her June 13, 2003, and would only let Benitez attend the meeting without her attorney. She declined.

She filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit three months later accusing the district and three board members of violating her constitutional rights and intentionally damaging her reputation.

Walsh was careful not to comment on the validity of the issues involved in the lawsuit. Benitez charges that she was falsely accused of insubordination and that she coerced low-income parents into keeping their children in bilingual education programs in the mostly Latino district.

“The court expresses no opinion regarding the merit of any of the allegations against Ms. Benitez, only that the procedure followed by the board was not proper,” Walsh wrote. He is scheduled to oversee the jury trial on that lawsuit next month.

Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an Oxnard lawyer representing the Rio district, said the ruling on one portion of the lawsuit should have little effect on the main case regarding why Benitez was fired.

“We’ve got our marching orders,” she said. “We’re going to trial.”

Earlier this year, the California Labor Commission ordered the district to pay Benitez nearly $46,000 with interest for her unused vacation time. That ruling is on appeal.

With the mounting legal bills, school board member Simon Ayala said it’s time to seek a settlement before costs escalate to a point where educational programs are cut or teachers are laid off.

“My main concern is that if we keep going we could bankrupt this district,” said Ayala, a Benitez supporter. “The only ones who’ve been benefiting from this whole thing are the attorneys.”