Community members urge reversal of staff nonrenewals; board approves administration recommendation in closed session

The Palmdale Aerospace Academy District Board of Directors voted unanimously in closed session to approve the administration’s recommendation to nonrenew multiple staff contracts after public comment speakers urged the board to reconsider.

During the meeting’s public-comment period, more than a half dozen employees, parents and community supporters spoke in favor of retaining staff members who had received nonrenewal notices. Speakers repeatedly pressed the board to weigh employees’ service and student impact before finalizing personnel decisions.

The public-comment period began after the board pulled the personnel report’s nonrenewal section from the consent agenda for separate consideration. Custodial staff and instructional aides described long service to the campus and warned of operational disruption if the nonrenewals were finalized. Joseline Gonzales, who identified herself as a custodian, said the board should consider “the value Erica brings to the school.”

Luis Gonzalez, who identified himself as a SPED instructional aide, said the nonrenewal notice was unexpected and tied the timing of recent write-ups and evaluations to other personnel actions. “My name is Luis Gonzalez, and I’ve had the honor of being a SPED instructional aide for 6 years,” Gonzalez told the board. He described submitting a discrimination and retaliation complaint in a prior year and said he later received write-ups and a low evaluation after taking approved FMLA. “This isn’t a coincidence,” he said, adding that he provides “emotional support, compassion, and safety, which can’t be trained or replaced.”

Erica Gonzalez, who spoke after others and identified herself as custodial staff, told the board she received a nonrenewal letter after more than a decade of service with no prior write-ups or negative evaluations. “I was painfully surprised to receive a nonrenewal letter with no warnings,” she said, stressing that losing experienced custodial staff would create “a real gap in operations.”

Several teachers and instructional staff also pleaded for reconsideration. Tyler Wheeler, introduced as the eighth-grade lead teacher, said he was informed of his nonrenewal after three years at the school and described his classroom and extracurricular contributions. Dan Reed, the school’s athletics director, outlined program growth under his supervision and said he was surprised by the nonrenewal notice.

Cindy Farber, representing PATA (the employee bargaining group), said the union planned to “sunshine” (formally open) its proposal for contract bargaining at the next board meeting and expressed a desire to work cooperatively with the board. Timothy Spears, a manager at a local nonprofit, urged the board to reconsider the decision regarding Luis Gonzalez and stressed Gonzalez’s long-term student impact.

After the public-comment period, the board moved into closed session. At the meeting’s close, the board announced that in closed session “Mister Knowles motioned to approve the recommendation of administration for nonrenewals, seconded by Mister Trujillo; the vote was unanimous.” The board did not read individual roll-call votes in open session.

Meeting materials and remarks during the public-comment period noted that the nonrenewal section had been pulled from the consent agenda so it could be considered separately; speakers were limited to one minute and 40 seconds each.

The board’s announcement gave the formal outcome but provided no additional detail about which individual nonrenewals would be finalized, or any appeals process. The board did not discuss individual personnel files in open session.

The meeting record shows a mix of personal testimony from staff and supportive community statements; no new administrative explanation for the nonrenewals was presented in public session.