Fired Newport-Mesa HR director blasts school board

Calling for greater transparency, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s recently fired personnel director on Tuesday asked the school board to investigate the complaints he lodged against the superintendent.

“You heard only one side of the story,” said John Caldecott, who spent 10 years with the district. “The board’s hands-off, unconditional support has allowed the superintendent to be prosecutor, judge and jury. At the very least, you owe employees an investigation of the facts.”

The school board fired Caldecott on Jan. 27, shortly after he asked an Orange County Superior Court judge to compel Newport-Mesa to release internal documents that he argues are public under the law.

Caldecott wanted a copy of a written response to an internal complaint he filed against Supt. Fred Navarro, but a school district attorney denied his request in December on grounds that “the privacy rights of the employee outweighed public interest in the case,” according to Caldecott’s court filing.

The court hasn’t ruled yet, and it remains unclear whether Caldecott’s request, or action in court, caused the school board to remove him from his post.

Caldecott, who was appointed executive director of human resources in 2010, has declined to describe the nature of the complaint against the superintendent.

“I want to prevent this from happening to another employee who raises questions about improper activity on the part of management,” Caldecott said before the meeting.

Navarro declined to comment last week, aside from repeating an earlier response that “this is a personnel and current legal matter that the district has a practice of not responding to.”

Caldecott’s latest public records request raises more questions about the dust-up between Caldecott and Navarro.

In it, Caldecott requests eight separate items, including an email sent Jan. 13 to the school board by Caldecott with the subject line, “IMPORTANT: Forward of letter from [employee name] 1-9-15 incident with superintendent.” The employee’s name is removed from the request.

He also asks for the superintendent’s “confidential Friday updates” to the board between Sept. 5, 2014, and Feb. 6, 2015.

Additionally, Caldecott requests a Dec. 29 email that indicates an impending audit by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

A spokesman for the retirement system said Tuesday that the audit will start March 16. Spokesman Michael Sicilia said audits are routinely conducted about every five years. The last time the district was audited was in 2008.

On Tuesday Nicholas Dix, executive director of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, told the board that the union had “tested the district’s transparency” by filing a public records request identical to the one Caldecott filed in December. Dix said the union’s request was denied.

“I’m sad to report that the board failed the test,” Dix said. “To quote the Bard, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark and we intend to find out what it is.”

An identical records request by the Daily Pilot also was denied.