11 months after Poway Unified Superintendent Marian Phelps abused her power to harasses Del Norte High School softball team players, the Poway Unified School District Board (PUSD) held a special board meeting earlier today and eventually terminated her, effectively immediately.

This is an important victory for educational accountability and transparency, as the PUSD Board finally considered the community’s rightful outrage and weighed all evidence in its independent investigation into the former superintendent’s wrongdoing. Thanks to proactive organizing and legal pressure mounted by local parents and community members, the board was forced to start its independent investigation in November 2023 after initially dismissing an administrative complaint filed by the victims to cover up her bad conduct. While the PUSD Board had refused to take into account evidence against Dr. Phelps and called it “misinformation” at the beginning, the board trustees could no longer ignore the facts. They finally had to acknowledge:

“The investigation brought to light previously unknown evidence from witnesses with direct firsthand knowledge, that contradicted Dr. Phelps' statements and assertions to the Board, District staff, and the public.”

The evidence was “unknown” to those board trustees only because they were unwilling to listen to the other side of the story and blindly trusted Phelps. When there is a conflict between the students and the school district employees, these board trustees failed their job to represent parents and students. Instead, they hid behind the so-called “TEAM PUSD” banner to protect the Superintendent whose conduct they were supposed to supervise proactively.

While every community is different, we believe that you may face similar challenges and issues in your local school district. Perhaps, your school board trustees don’t necessarily represent your interest or respect your concerns. Only when enough local community members become involved and get organized that public education will be safeguarded and improved. We encourage you to start today in your community!

As a PUSD resident, CFER President Frank Xu spoke up at today’s special board meeting, urging the Board to take swift action, just like he did at PUSD’s board meetings on 11/9/2023, 11/15/2023, 12/14/2023 (and again at the same meeting), and 1/18/2024. That’s because he and CFER firmly believe in local organizing as the only way to get school districts and public education back on the right track. And we hope you are encouraged by this latest development from the PUSD today!

Please do not hesitate to contact CFER if you are ready to commit to organizing in your local school district. We have a recipe for success to share with you. As always, we hope you will consider supporting CFER’s work today!

Thank you!