Bruce McEwen contributed to this story
Testimony continues in the civil trial of Point Arena School Superintendent Mark Iacuaniello. Iacuaniello is accused of “fraudulent inducement” — hiring principal Matt Murray to improve Point Arena’s troubled elementary school then firing Murray after he’d successfully lifted the school from what amounted to state probation. Testimony so far indicates that Murray’s insistence on improved job performance alienated the school’s long entrenched teachers who complained privately to their pliable, $100,000+ a year superintendent who subsequently sacrificed Murray to appease the teachers, one of whom replaced Murray as principal.
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In regards to your coverage of the bitter Matt Murray v. Mark Iacuniello case. Follow-up: Matt Murray lost all 4 counts! Maybe Mark Scaramella should check his facts a little better as the “District Employee” who took over the Principal job after Matt was fired was a teacher from Point Arena High School and NOT Arena Union Elementary School. Therefore, she was not one of teachers YOU claim that needed appeasing from Mark.
Well, that can’t go uncommented. Ms. Fraser is the wife of one of the Elementary school teachers, Scott Fraser. The underhanded contortions that Superintendent Iacuaniello (which Ms. Fraser palsy-walsy-ishly calls “Mark”) went through to get Paula Patterson into the Principal slot in the wake of Murray’s dismissal will be described in the upcoming week’s AVA. The claim that Ms. Patterson wasn’t part of the “circle the wagons” gang of elementary teachers is a distinction without a real difference. The verdict was more of a technical legalistic decision (one juror said afterward “our hands were tied”) than an exoneration of Iacuaniello. Most of the jurors felt Murray got screwed in Point Arena. It was quite obvious. Trouble is getting screwed is not concept the law recognizes. PS. We’re reliably informed that when one of the former principals (who now works as a edu-consultant) came back to the PA campus for a program review of some sort after being forced out, she told people there that she was worried about being accosted by teachers who were still angry about the improvements she tried to make.
But Ms. Fraser is right about the bitterness at Point Arena Elementary. Now let’s see if Ms. Patterson gets the school out of the program improvement status it returned to after Murray left.