School Board Demotes San Marcos Principal Despite Community Support

Principles are are all the same- trying to protect their backsides at the cost of students.
DP's principle is no better. She failed to act a couple years ago in a timely fashion when one of her coaches was bullying several of his players - well documented. Finally after enough complaints and another year of coaching he was forced to leave "to spend time with family" only to surface coaching at another local high school. Rather than look out for the kids as they all claim - they tacitly allow these folks to move from school to school without consequence.

As a retired Superintendent of Schools I'm chuckling as I read the comments above.

Two things happened at the school board meeting this week. Ed Behrens was demoted from San Marcos High School and that act drew all the noise and attention. Meanwhile, after most of the parents had left the building, the REAL agenda became clear. After Mr. Behrens was demoted it was announced that John Becchio, the principal of Santa Barbara High School, was promoted to the superintendent's office so he will be leaving his post at Santa Barbara High School as well. Think about that. This Tuesday Cary Matsuoka cleared the path so HE can appoint two new handpicked principals to two of OUR three high schools. Let's watch what happens with DP next. Will that be a demotion or a promotion? Principals have a lot of power about how schools are run and can use that power suddenly and without warning. Your child might be in a program this year that you suddenly find no longer exists next fall. Bottom line is; Cary is playing 3-D chess while we are just chasing our tails debating narrow issues.
He has already set up the legal mechanisms to profoundly remake our schools along the lines of his own highly political agenda while we are all distracted bickering and divided. Make no mistake about it. Superintendent Matsuoka has come down to our town from the Bay Area with a radical agenda. He has power and he is not afraid to use it. We were so comfortable and complacent in the past that three of our five school board members "automatically" joined the board as they ran unopposed. And if you don't believe me check it for yourselves. There was NEVER a vote for those three as nobody else wanted to run. The forth one was appointed by Cary because a seat became vacant outside of the election period. The FACT is there is only ONE elected school board member currently serving on our board. So Cary, with the aid of a largely UNELECTED school board, now has a clear run to take a wrecking ball to the status quo of our schools and there is not a thing we can legally do about it right now. Or indeed until the next school board election. Our only hope is to vote some of these unelected board members out in November. And don't think this is just about our high schools. He is tinkering with the leadership in our elementary and middle schools as well. Come on people..if you love or even like our school district get WOKE and find out how to vote in our next school board election. If you hate our schools and want to see them fundamentally changed from the bottom up then you can just sit back and relax. Cary's got your back!

Does anyone not see the irony of this? They were unhappy with him for not “communicating”. Yet when asked why they came to the decision to demote him they said nothing. Dodging the question. “It’s a personal matter”, nothing personal about smeering him on a live stream, during a public meeting in front of parents and kids.

Kudos to Capps. Why is PODER being given any legitimacy in this or other issues? They’ve disgraced themselves thoroughly. Like listening to the Minutemen. Who cares what they think?

I think PODER did a good thing by standing up for kids put by the way side... I'm sure there were more things involved for the school board to make the decision that they did. Hopefully in the future everyone could come together and work things out instead of putting others down.

I agree and support the decision made by the School Board, Ed Behrens was put in a position to uphold school policies and protect the students. One year ago, I posted on Edhat an incident my son had at SMHS, it was about a student that made threats of killing my son as well as another female student, he also brandished a knife. His own parents reported him to Administration over their concern for my son and the other students safety. A police report was filed the same day, my son fully cooperated w/the school and the authorities, he did everything the school ask students to do if they are being harassed or threatened. The same student who self disclosed/confessed that he had a knife at school and made a valid threat to want to KILL my son was suspended for 3 days, (school policy does no allow Admin to disclose what type of disciplinary action was taken), we only knew because the parents of the boy were very forthcoming about their son returning back to school and what precautions my son should take should their son harass him again. On the very day he returned to SMHS he threw a glass bottle at my sons head just barely missing him. My son immediately called me, I frantically called the school and after waiting for 15 mins they informed me that someone had already unanimously reported that this kid had a knife on him again, I called the aggressors father and we were both on campus within minutes. My son got into a physical altercation with this boy, after another student took the knife from him. My son who had never been in any trouble, was suspended for five days, & referred to Juvenile Probation, the student that took the knife from the assailant was suspended for one day, (he should have received a medal of honor). Once in the office the treatment from Ed Behrens was appalling to say the least, he spoke down to us in an open area, it was clear he did not know the events that lead up to the altercation, he's the principal I mean clearly he should have known my son was a victim! Ben Drati was the Superintendent of Students at the time and concluded in closing his investigation that SMHS missed some steps in protecting my son, and for not following their policy for zero tolerance to bullying and harassing, but again they could not disclose how they addressed these issues, Juvenile Probation could not make sense of the two conflicting police reports that were filed, they immediately new my son was wronged.

His record of proven accomplishments is admirable. Now he will never get another job anywhere. Thank you Ms Capps for being a vote of reason. May others soon join you on the SBUSD school board. Yes, it does matter who gets elected even to your local school boards.

Why is PODER involved at all? Where the students all latino?

This is a damn shame. A horrific public scapegoating of a good man. Mr. Behrens was my principal and he was firm, fair and respectful. He expects the best from his students because he knows they are capable of it. The kids who disliked him were the ones who were constantly acting out and causing trouble; of course they disliked him! Nearly 20 years after graduating (eeks.) I still have fond memories of Mr. B. The Board should be ashamed.

The headine for this news item concerns me. As the son, husband, son-in-law, brother-in-law, and friend to great teachers, I object to use of the term "demoted to a teaching position" in reference to this personnel matter. Great administrators are nearly always great teachers. Teaching is not a demotion.

Don Lubach

What people seem to be missing is that the School Board never explicitly said why Behrens was demoted. None of you have all that facts except you're assuming it's because of the social media threat. For all we know, he could have done some shady stuff behind closed doors that board is keeping quiet. And props to PODER for being the ONLY voice standing up for students and recognizing that Behrens has flaws while most people have put him on a pedestal without all the facts or information.

I attended SMHS for four years and graduated in 2001. Lil Eddie was a horror of a Vice Principal. He was clearly out to punish students and enjoyed it. He prowled around looking for reasons to bust kids and cast a shadow of fear over the school. That is not how professional educators work.
During my senior year, some friends and I were involved in a prank “war.” While the other group of students did actually vandalize, we never did. We brought our own materials and basically did installations of silly things we’d made at home. We made a point of not damaging any property. The morning after we put up a tarp with “PRANK” written on it on the baseball backstop (with wire we broight from home) I saw the janitors in cherry pickers taking it down. An hour later, having been pulled from class and brought to Lil Eddie’s office, he told me he personally had climbed the backstop to take the tarp down. I told him he was lying, and that I had seen the janitors doing it barely an hour earlier. He didn’t appreciate it.
The man should not be working with kids. I speak from experience when I say that he uses his position to settle some ancient beef he has with whomever picked on him as a kid. This demotion is fantastic news for the well being of SMHS students. Eddie ought to be washing dishes in the cafeteria if he’s allowed to stay at all. He is grade A scumbag material.

The terrible decision by this 4/5 unelected school board that can't stand up to this out-of-town bureaucrat who is so clearly out-of-touch with this community. What has been done to Ed in such a public way is just the latest humiliation that has happened to far too many very fine individuals who were dedicated to providing educational opportunity to our students, but he either intimidated into leaving or outright let them go. And this is the same team that decided to close Open Alternative School without convening a study group to even look at options, despite the pleas of the public. After two years, he's really put his stamp on this district, and it's devoid of understanding of Santa Barbara. Ironic that PODER is supporting this decision when so many Latinas (many with Ph.D.s which he doesn't have) have been forced out of high-profile jobs with the district under Cary's reign.

I am wondering why the principal at LaCumbre Junior High has not been "demoted." There is concrete evidence that she consistently breaks District policy, bullies staff at her school and the school she shares a site with and yet she continues to keep her position. It appears that Mr. Behrens is being "used" as a scapegoat here.

Would you let your child join PODER?

SMHS has had a long string of ineffective principals. Mr. Behrens was the most effective one in a long time. If in fact he did make mistakes regarding the handling of the school threats, I'd think he'd have learned from his mistakes and be in a better position to manage the school moving forward. I thought teachers were instructed to teach students to learn from their mistakes. Shouldn't the same thing apply to staff? Instead of a smarter/wiser Mr. Behrens, SMHS will probably get stuck with another ineffective principal, resuming the previous paradigm.

This is not a big mistake. Read through what PODER has said. At least they recognize the fact that he has had failures along with his successes. Unfortunately his failures have left many students behind and in fear. The principal is supposed to represent all students. Not just the ones he favors. Ill say this again too, this guy spent way too much time with the girls volleyball and softball teams and families. I'm a man and understand his MO perfectly. It is also convenient that he wears his sunglasses even when in dark classrooms. I had two kids go through SM while he was there both as assistant and principal. One child was constantly admonished sometimes rightfully so and other times not. The other child was never admonished as he never did anything to get in trouble. His remark when he heard he might be demoted....Its about time. The guy would pass me in the hall and say "whats up bro". We know what's up bro. Time for you to step down. Should be immediate, but the heart of the people on the board have given him a reprieve to serve out this year.

The school board is supposed to represent the public in overseeing the school system. So why would they take this action over the wishes of the vast majority of the public that they are supposed to be serving? And what does this PODER have to do with running the school system?

I wonder if we will ever find out the answer to "why" Behrens was fired.

Big mistake on the boards part. Expect a recall now.