Ex-Principal Sues County Superintendent

Claiming he lost his job because he challenged county schools chief Charles Weis for election, a former principal has filed a lawsuit against Weis and county school officials for more than $3 million in lost wages and damages.

Dan Flynn filed the suit in Superior Court, claiming that Weis conspired with other officials to fire him because he ran against Weis for county superintendent of schools last June.

Although Flynn lost the election, he received 48% of the vote. And less than three weeks after the election, Weis told Flynn his contract would not be renewed when it expired July 1.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the genesis and motivation of this termination,” said Glenn J. Campbell, Flynn’s attorney. “It was a political termination.”

Weis, who has maintained that Flynn lost his job for poor performance, has declined to give details of the dismissal because of laws protecting an employee’s privacy.

But now that Flynn has sued, Weis said his office can eventually make Flynn’s personnel file public in court.

“The good news is that the people of Ventura County, because of this lawsuit, will have all the facts,” Weis said. “They’re going to see the other side of the story.” The 42-year-old Flynn had worked more than two years as principal of the county’s three juvenile court schools, which serve teen-agers who are in jail or on probation, when he challenged Weis for election.

Not only was the election the first contested race for county superintendent in history, it developed partisan overtones.

Flynn, a Republican, attracted the support of many conservative Republican voters and public officials, while Weis, a Democrat, received backing from school district superintendents, teachers and other county educators.

When Weis terminated Flynn’s contract after the election, Flynn’s supporters charged that the action smacked of revenge.

And the suit charges that both Weis and Phil Gore, the juvenile court schools director who was Flynn’s immediate supervisor, concocted a poor performance evaluation to justify the termination.

Although Flynn had expected to have his job review in March, Campbell said Weis and Gore deliberately delayed the evaluation until after the election.

Flynn got the written review June 22, when Gore told him he would lose his job.

But Weis said the decision against renewing Flynn’s contract had no connection to the election.

A week after Flynn lost his job, he took an administrative position with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, where he had worked previously.

His new job pays $5,600 a month, or $67,200 annually--$5,200 more a year than he earned in the Ventura County job.

But Campbell said Flynn’s current position is only temporary and is renewed on a month-to-month basis.