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Community members urge Los Alamitos Unified to reinstate choir director placed on administrative leave
Summary
At a Los Alamitos Unified School District meeting, dozens of current and former students, parents and staff urged the board to reinstate longtime choir director David Mollenkamp, while at least one speaker alleged abusive conduct; the board moved to closed session to consider personnel matters and cited confidentiality rules.
Members of the Los Alamitos Unified School District community filled public comment to press the board about the administrative leave of David Mollenkamp, the district's longtime show-choir director.
Dr. Kathleen McLeod, a retired physician and parent, opened public comment by describing Mollenkamp as a "highly respected, creative, and accomplished tenured teacher" and warned that "finding firing him would be an unbelievable loss," saying a non-performance-related termination could lead to costly litigation. Multiple alumni and parents gave personal testimonials about Mollenkamp's impact on students' confidence and school engagement. Emily Soule said Mollenkamp kept her in school and urged the board, "Please do the right thing. Reinstate mister Mullenkamp and protect the integrity of our arts programs and educators." (Speaker spelling in the transcript varies; the article uses the most frequently appearing form, "David Mollenkamp." )
Not all testimony was supportive. Former student Luke Navenbreida contradicted the supporters’ accounts and described a different experience, calling Mollenkamp "a racist, sexist, egomaniac" who created a "toxic" environment and urging the board not to reinstate him.
Superintendent (speaker 14) thanked those who spoke and noted the district must follow state and federal confidentiality rules for personnel matters, including restrictions under the Brown Act that limit board responses during public comment. The superintendent said the district will follow "a thorough and deliberate process" guided by policy and legal obligations and that the board could not comment further in open session.
After public comment the board recessed into closed session to consider the personnel matter. The meeting agenda and public-comment rules were read aloud at the start of the meeting: each speaker was limited to three minutes and total public comment to 30 minutes.
What happened next: the board moved to closed session to continue discussion of the personnel item; no open-session decision about Mollenkamp was recorded in the public transcript.
Sources: public comments recorded in the meeting transcript and superintendent remarks during open session.
