Vote of NO CONFIDENCE for Rosalba Rodriguez, Principal of Castle View Elementary School

We are requesting the RUSD Board of Education Trustees to call for a Vote of No Confidence for Castle View Elementary School Principal Rosalba Rodriguez, and to remove her as Principal of Castle View Elementary at the end of this school year. We are also asking the teacher’s at Castle View Elementary School to cast a vote of No Confidence of Rosalba Rodriguez through the CTA-California Teachers Association (Union). We, the community of Castle View Elementary, have lost our trust in Rosalba Rodriguez and we have no confidence in her ability to lead Castle View Elementary School. We believe she does not demonstrate leadership skills needed to problem solve, lead a faculty, and follow an ethical code of conduct in her role as Castle View Elementary School’s Principal.

Multiple formal complaints have been filed throughout the 2022-2023 school year with RUSD Superintendent Renee Hill, ALL members of The Board of Trustees for the Riverside School Board, Raul Ayala, David Marshall, and Kiersten Reno-Frausto. Additionally, multiple formal complaints were filed during the 2021-2022 school year to the aforementioned officials.

During the last two years in which Mrs. Rodriguez has served as Principal of Castle View Elementary School, we have experienced a drastic decline in the learning atmosphere and student success at Castle View. These past years have been marked with high turnover of faculty and staff, a disregard by Mrs. Rodriguez towards students’ emotional wellbeing, an increase in hostilities between parents which has been fueled by Mrs. Rodriguez, and an inability to provide a safe learning environment for students that is free from bullying, intimidation, and harassment.

VIOLENCE, THREATS, BULLYING, AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT ON CAMPUS

Principal Rodriguez is unable to ensure the safety of students while at school.

There are significant and immediate safety concerns at Castle View. Mrs. Rodriguez seems unable or unwilling to take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of her staff, teachers, and students. She has not satisfactorily dealt with the numerous concerns cited from multiple parents regarding harassment and violent behavior from a student enrolled at the school (henceforth Student A). These concerns have all been documented and escalated to the district, as well, yet the incidents continue.

In the fall 2022:

• Student A slapped a student multiple times in the face.

• SHOOTING THREATS Student A told a staff member “when I shoot up this school I am going to shoot you first.” This staff member informed the office immediately but Student A continued to attend school without interruption and the staff member no longer works at CV. It is important to note that NO parents were notified by the school or district of this shooting threat.

• Student A physically and verbally harassed students and staff. When a female student asked this child to stop touching her, he replied, “I throw chairs at people.” 

• Student A kicked a new classmate in the stomach and another classmate in her shin, and children reported to parents they have seen him spit on a female classmate. 

• A teacher’s aide was physically assaulted and sustained a head injury after Student A used a hydroflask to strike the aide’s head in a classroom. Understandably, students were incredibly upset and disturbed when they saw the teacher’s aide run from the room bleeding from her head.

• Other children in the classroom reported feeling anxious and scared to go to school after seeing Student A swing electrical cords and poke his own eyes. 

• This classroom was evacuated on two separate occasions due to escalating violent behavior of Student A, when he started throwing chairs in the classroom unprovoked. In neither of these evacuations were the parents notified. These parents did not have the opportunity to discuss this experience with their children and ensure they were mentally and physically okay after seeing another child physically throw chairs. Mrs. Rodriguez also failed to support teachers and staff when they needed to evacuate classes during these violent episodes.

• Throughout the school year, Student A regularly tells staff and teachers, “shut the f**k up” and “f***k you” while gesturing with both middle fingers. This is done in the common student areas. His classmates regularly see this behavior and ask questions of the parents and staff about why this is allowed to continue. 

Since the beginning of the winter trimester:

• MULTIPLE DEATH THREATS Student A bullied another classmate and threatened to “kill” him. He repeated this threat a second time a month later. Parents have made reports of these death threats to both Mrs. Rodriguez and the district by filing a bully report. Yet he continued to attend school the next day.

• PHYSICAL ASSAULT AND STRANGULATION Student A bullied the same classmate he had previously verbally threatened by physically assaulting him. He grabbed the child’s sweatshirt and pulled him back so that he fell to the ground. Student A walked up behind this same child he has been bullying all year and started STRANGLING him. Five days later, he tackled the same student during recess; the parents again filed a bullying report and student A continues to attend school without disruption. 

• Student A STRANGLED a second different child unprovoked. Student A continued attending school the next day despite multiple children witnessing it. 

• SEXUAL HARASSMENT Recently, Student A’s behavior escalated to include sexual harassment, which occurred when he showed a replica of a male genetalia made of playdough to at least four fourth grade girls. Additionally, for some girls he placed the replica near his body with gestures. The teacher’s aide witnessed the whole incident, but was unable to intervene and remove the playdough, or stop the harassment from occurring.  Many of these girls are too young to be able to communicate the incident properly to their parents, so their parents may not even know it’s occurring. 

Mrs. Rodriguez has allowed verbal, physical, and sexual harassment by this student to continue and for more children and staff to be threatened and abused daily.  As we know from personal experience from the hostage incident on 31 October 2017 at Castle View, anything in the classroom, including scissors, can be a weapon. We fully recognize that Student A has full rights to a public education. However, at what point do his actions, and the failure of the school and district’s administration to curb his violent and harassing behavior, infringe upon those same rights of all the other students in the classroom and beyond? 

Curiously, on 21 April 2023, a communication was sent out by Mrs. Rodriguez to all parents informing them of a “brief lockout” due to a first grader who “had behavior escalation and was running into classrooms”. While this communication is greatly appreciated, why does a first grader running into classrooms warrant an all-parent notification, but several threats to shoot up the school, violent attacks (choking, injuring someone’s head to cause it to bleed, etc), and classroom evacuations, do not warrant that same type of notification? Given the prevalence of school shootings recently, and the fact that most schools had prior information that warned of this type of escalation, we would assume that the school would take these threats and actions seriously and do everything in their power to keep parents informed and keep students protected. We call on the district to hold Mrs. Rodriguez accountable for her lack of transparency with parents, and for placing the entire population of students and staff at risk of injury, while she concealed the acts and threats of a violent offender on campus. Mrs. Rodriguez and the district concealed material information that would have been crucial for parents to have in determining whether or not to have their children continue attending Castle View following these threats and acts of violence. That decision was made for parents by Mrs. Rodriguez and the district, without their knowledge or consent. It is an egregious abuse of power for school officials to remove the decision-making process from parents, as it pertains to their child(ren)’s safety and wellbeing, in order to facilitate an ongoing cover-up of these incidents. 

HIGH FACULTY TURNOVER AND ACADEMIC CONCERNS:

• At the end of the 2021-2022 school year Castle View lost EIGHT teachers. This included the entire first grade DLI teaching team (and a former Teacher of the Year). Addtionally, at least two site supervisors, one of which received the Classified Employee of the Year recognition by the district, and all of the office staff who had direct interactions with Mrs. Rodriguez also left. In the two years she has been there, we have not been able to keep an assistant principal.  

• In the DLI program, Mrs. Rodriguez made a decision to change from the team-teaching model to a single-classroom model, despite outcry from parents. This change, in conjunction with an influx of new, non-experienced teachers created large disparities between classes (intra-grade level), where the learning environment was not uniform.

• Several teachers have not had their contracts renewed for the 2023-2024 school year. While it is crucial that the school and RUSD maintain high standards, we are concerned that the number of teachers leaving by their own choice or due to non-renewal of contracts speaks to a lack of leadership on the part of the Mrs. Rodriguez. In some cases, teachers had their teaching assignments radically changed only days before the school year began. It is extremely concerning that several of these teachers are new, less experienced teachers. These are teachers who have shown potential to be great educators, but have lacked the support and resources needed to thrive.

• Before the coronavirus pandemic, Castle View Elementary participated in the district science fair and history fair. In previous years, on the day of the fair the Multi Purpose Room would be filled with science projects and the library filled with history projects, especially from the upper grades. This year, there was exactly one CV student who did a science project and there may have been a few or no children participating in the history project. Castle View has always enjoyed a reputation of academic excellence among elementary schools in the district. However, since Mrs. Rodriguez has taken a position of leadership, the focus on academics has declined.

LACK OF JUDGEMENT AND TRANSPARENCY

Morale among teachers and staff is very low at Castle View. The atmosphere between Mrs. Rodriguez and her teachers/staff has been described as ‘toxic’. Staff, parents, and teachers do not feel that she is honest and transparent, and do not feel that she is an ally in promoting childrens’ education. There have been several situations this school year where there has been questionable behavior and poor judgment by Mrs. Rodriguez.

• In advance of a Principal/Community meeting on Sept. 7 2022, Mrs. Rodriguez disseminated a private parent email between her and a Castle View student’s parents, with teachers and some unrelated parents. This was done to undermine the concerns expressed in the original communication, and to rally some of Mrs. Rodriguez’ personal friends behind her. This caused discord among several parents that continues to this day. Sharing private communication shows a lack of professionalism and a disregard for privacy. Is it any wonder that parents cannot trust her?

• Under her watch this year, Mrs. Rodriguez initially allowed a second grade DLI teacher to be coerced by parents into teaching academically incorrect, gender-neutral Spanish to all children in the classroom. This teacher communicated to parents through class apps in gender-neutral Spanish. Gender-neutral Spanish is rejected by the CA Department of Education and the Spanish Royal Academy (who is responsible for maintaining and upholding the standards of correct Spanish). 

• Additionally, as was communicated to CV administration and the District, last year Mrs. Rodriguez allowed the first grade DLI teachers (both of whom left after that year, despite being at Castle View for many years) to be pushed into replacing the National Hispanic Heritage Month with non-approved curriculum at the insistence of some parents in the classroom. Celebrating Hispanic heritage is a core part of the DLI program, operating under standards set forth by the State of CA. Having a principal allow a public school’s curriculum to be altered based on one set of parents’ demands is problematic.

UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

Mrs. Rodriguez seems unaware about the emotional impact of her decisions on students. Castle View has had a number of lockout and lockdown drills throughout the year, and at least one incident of an actual lockdown/lockout for events that occurred in the adjoining neighborhood. We recognize the unfortunate necessity of such drills, but Mrs. Rodriguez has either failed to communicate, or has communicated poorly, to students and their families prior to the drills. On 03 February 2023, she communicated to parents after-the-fact that the school had a lockout, which should have created minimal disruption to learning and to the students’ routine.  The school should have simply locked the doors and continued on with the school day. However, some teachers believed it was a lockdown due to the poor communication provided by Mrs. Rodriguez, causing students to be alarmed, anxious, worried, and fearful. Some children were so upset that they were crying and anxious. One student told their parents afterward that “they thought they were going to die.”  Does Mrs. Rodriguez not remember that some of the current Castle View students were involved in a real lockdown hostage situation that occurred on 31 October 2017, and culminated in the SWAT team shooting and killing of a parent inside a classroom?  Mrs. Rodriguez fails to understand that when she makes decisions to have lockouts/lockdowns and drills, that it is incredibly important that these be handled delicately with the students and to have clear communication with staff, teachers, and parents. She has shown a lack of empathy, sensitivity, and consideration for the experiences to the students currently enrolled at her school.

Another example of Mrs. Rodriguez’ actions negatively affecting students involves the apparent dismissal of a 6th grade teacher. While the exact circumstances surrounding this event are unknown, the teacher’s students were present on campus when she was apparently prevented from entering her classroom, said “Goodbye, I’ll miss you” to students, and then went to her vehicle in tears. To our knowledge, one child was even stopped by another teacher asking where they were in their specific lesson plans and this student believes her response caused her teacher to be dismissed. For many of these sixth graders, they are understandably upset about seeing their teacher leave the campus crying and believe their teacher has been “fired” and will not be returning. The parents and students have had no communication by Mrs. Rodriguez about the possibility of the teacher returning. There has been no communication nor consistency regarding a replacement teacher.  Parents are left in the dark of who to communicate with. On Friday, April 21 the students from the dismissed teacher’s class arrived at school without a teacher due to a substitute teacher no-show, and the students were sent to join a different teacher’s class for the day. Additionally, there were many end-of-year celebrations and promotion activities that were previously planned and are not happening now, due to this teacher’s absence. As a leader, Mrs. Rodriguez should be working hard to fill in this loss for these children. She should be making an effort to provide continuity with the activities that were originally planned and she should be communicating to the children and families about her plan for the rest of the school year. 

Mrs. Rodriguez told parents her main reason for changing from a team-teaching model to a single classroom model particularly with the DLI, was that she wanted to focus on the social-emotional health of the students post-pandemic. This is an interesting observation since she has not prioritized social-emotional health by providing consistent teachers in the classroom. This can be illustrated by the lack of teacher continuity in the fourth grade cohort, and the handling of the teacher situation in the sixth grade. For one fourth grade cohort, they had a new substitute teacher almost daily (parents and students cannot recall how many teachers) for a three week span due to the permanent teacher leaving in part due to their interactions with Mrs. Rodriguez. Many of these children were crying when their teacher left and again parents were not informed by Mrs. Rodriguez of the teacher changes so that parents could prepare and help their children over this continual disruption of their children’s education and emotional well-being.

We are concerned that as the school year ends, we will have additional staff and teachers leave, academics suffer under her poor leadership due to disruptions of losing experienced staff, and continue to have distrust among Mrs. Rodriguez and the children and parents. We request that RUSD remove Mrs. Rodriguez from her position as Principal effective immediately upon the end of this school year.

Concerned Castleview Parents    Contact the author of the petition