Parents and teachers confront El Cajon dual-language charter school officials
EJE Academies parents, teachers and community members demand Spanish resources and changes to protect staff from terminations.
Written by Jenna Ramiscal, Edited by Kate Morrissey
More than 100 community members packed into a recent EJE Academies Charter School board meeting, where parents yelled at school administrators in the middle of a presentation, and students cried as they criticized the board's dismissal of their long-time teacher.
At the June 29 meeting, community members — including parents, teachers, students and former-staff — demanded school officials provide translated resources for Spanish-speaking parents and just-cause for dismissal of educators. The school board and administrators defended the schools’ practices, and when tensions escalated with parents, they warned they would clear the room if disruptions didn’t stop.
El Cajon parents formed EJE Academies in 1991 to advocate for access to quality education in both English and Spanish with priority for those in historically underserved communities.
“Our community already is a mostly marginalized community,” said Claudia Rios-Gastelum, a parent to a third grader and a transitional kindergarten student. “Most of our parents are Latinos. Spanish is the primary language in the home. So for a school that has these values and is engaging in these practices, I don't feel that they're fair.”
The school's teachers recently unionized under Equitable Educators United, and their demands go beyond negotiating for different contract terms that they say will help retain quality educators.
Teachers, along with parents, want to see more transparency from school administrators and greater access to resources in Spanish including translated board meeting agendas and presentation slides as well as the hiring of fluent bilingual staff. Dozens of educators and parents chastised the board at the June meeting, saying the school should better accommodate its Spanish-speaking community because the academy is a dual-language charter school.
The union held a rally on the school’s lawn before the beginning of the meeting. Teachers, parents and other allies held signs that read “¡Padres y maestros en solidaridad!” or Parents and teachers in solidarity!, and, “Fair contract now.”
“We are not asking to be praised. We are asking to be respected, heard and treated as professionals,” said Gustavo De Santiago, a sixth and seventh grade history teacher, at the rally. “To our board members, we are educators. We dedicate ourselves to our students every day. We ask that you recognize our contributions, address our concerns and work with us, not around us.”
At the beginning of the board meeting, Jose Preciado, the board’s president, introduced Rhea Faeldonea-Walker as the academy’s new principal.
“I came here in 1998, and I'm an English learner, so I speak three languages. Hablo inglés, hablo filipino pero un poquito español, but I will try to learn,” Faeldonea-Walker said. I speak English, I speak Filipino but a little Spanish, but I will try to learn.
Audience members hummed in disappointment.
“This is a bilingual school,” one shouted. “We should have a Spanish-speaking principal.”
Griselda Delgado, the school’s executive director, said that Faeldonea-Walker will help the school’s multilingual students increase English proficiency. Historically, the majority of EJE students have been English learners, according to Ed-Data.
“A principal who is bilingual and understands language acquisition to the skill set that Ms. Walker brings is exactly what our school needs,” Delgado said.
After Faeldonea-Walker's introduction, school administrators gave presentations about standardized testing, educational goals and finances.
Usually members of the public can comment on non-agenda items at the beginning of EJE board meetings before the board enters in-depth discussions on specific topics, according to previous agendas from this year. But on June 29, the board scheduled comments for the very end.
Parents and teachers waited over an hour and a half — about halfway through the agenda — before a parent cried out through a megaphone, “Let the parents talk.”
The plea prompted the board to open the meeting up for public comment, earlier than originally scheduled.
When Daylight asked the board and school leaders about the parents’ and teachers’ complaints, the school provided a pre-written response dated June 4 — weeks before the meeting.
“Our students and the quality of their education remain our highest priorities,” the statement reads. “At EJEA, we deeply value our teachers and recognize the essential role they plan in student success. We strive to provide a competitive and comprehensive employment package that includes strong compensation, great benefits, smaller class sizes and supportive educational environment.”
The school declined requests for interviews and did not answer questions beyond what it said in the statement and an accompanying FAQ about teacher salaries and turnover.
During the meeting, members of the public spoke about staff contracts and family resources for over an hour and a half.
Rebeka Rizo, who attended EJE’s middle school starting in 2019, shed tears as she addressed the board.
“You are taking away teachers who truly have made a change and impacted so beautifully the lives of those students they've all come across,” Rizo said. “It's truly so saddening that the teachers (that) individuals like me have had the privilege to be taught by are slowly disappearing with no further context.”
Former staff members attended the meeting to show their support for their old co-workers and school community.
“I love this community so much,” said Jessica Preciado, a former EJE teacher who worked at the school for ten years. “I only want this school and this community and our children to flourish and to succeed. So, I want to make that clear. I'm here in support of the educators. I'm here in support of our children.”
Her comment earned applause and cheers from members of the audience.
Union members, including Steven Florindo, held fair contract signs and wore the union's blue as they pushed the school to change its at-will employment clause to prevent the firing of staff without reason.
“This creates an environment where teachers, regardless of their dedication or years of service, never truly feel secure in their positions,” Florindo said.
He said that within the last few months, EJE lost staff, including its principal, community schools coordinator, parent liaison and school psychologist as well as paraprofessionals and special education teachers.
“These decisions do not affect employees alone, but also every student who walks through our doors,” Florindo said. “When students continually experience a revolving door of trusted adults, they are asked to repeatedly start over, rebuilding relationships with the people they spend most of their waking hours with. That instability is harmful for our most vulnerable students.”
Recently, the school didn’t renew its contract with Juan Samaniego, an active organizer with the union and a teacher at the academy for over 10 years.
“Given that context, it is difficult to view the nonrenewal of my contract as unrelated to my union advocacy,” Samaniego said. “More importantly, this moment highlights a broader issue. Without just cause or due process protections, any dedicated educator can be dismissed without care, explanation, transparency or recourse.”
Rios-Gastelum told Daylight that she is concerned about the school board's transparency and adherence to state public meeting laws.
Rios-Gastelum took matters into her own hands and created a Facebook group called “Familias Unidas de EJE,” or United Families of EJE. She digitally gathered around 30 other parents to inform them about public meeting rights and the school's responsibilities.
“I just want us to all have the same information, the accessibility and the transparency,” Rios-Gastelum said. “That's what the school was founded on. The school was founded by parents who were saying, ‘Hey, we're not treated justly.’ They wanted to bring a dual immersion school to Cajon Valley, so it has 20 years of saying that they value social justice issues, equity in education. Then, why is that not happening?”
