Parlier administrators spent money on themselves before students

Given the investigation into Parlier Unified School District, I wanted to share my experience as a biology teacher at Parlier High.

I worked there for the past two years and feel obligated to speak out because the teachers who still work for PUSD have been told they face disciplinary action if they comment publicly on the investigation’s findings. In the report, the district was charged with spending money on themselves rather than on students — a situation I witnessed too often.

For example, in the science department, we ordered supplies in May 2014 for the following school year, expecting them to arrive before school started in August 2014. They didn’t arrive until January 2015! Most days, we bought supplies ourselves because we didn’t want students to miss out. Meanwhile, we watched district administrators take another $60,000-plus trip to Harvard.

When I was offered my contract for next year, I said I wanted to know why the science supplies were late. Administrators never gave me an answer and then decided they didn’t want me back after all, saying I had until the following day to resign. How will Parlier ever recruit and retain quality teachers with this unjust behavior?

This story was originally published August 2, 2015 at 7:11 AM with the headline "Parlier administrators spent money on themselves before students."