The El Monte Union High School District is scrapping $1.1 million in design work on a new campus for adult students with disabilities, deciding instead to rent the proposed site to a board member’s employer.
Pasadena City College has used the property owned by El Monte Union for its Rosemead satellite campus since 2013, but the high school district previously announced it would let that lease expire this summer so it could begin construction on a permanent space for its Adult Transition Program, which serves about 100 students with disabilities who have aged out of the high school’s special education program.
In 2021, after a year of internal discussions, El Monte Union’s Board of Trustees voted to relocate the students — ranging in age from 18 to 22 — from deteriorating trailers in a parking lot to the Rosemead Boulevard property used by PCC. The board, which at that time included four of the five members currently in office, extended PCC’s lease to July 2023 as a courtesy and warned the community college there would not be an extension.
Now, just four months before the start of construction, three board members — Ricardo Padilla, Esthela Torres de Siegrist and Qui Nguyen — have reversed course and instead directed the district’s administration to reintegrate the Adult Transition Program students back into their high schools. The three board members fired the architects working on Rosemead project and then, in closed session, directed staff to reopen negotiations with Pasadena City College.
Both decisions received a majority only because of Torres de Siegrist, who works as an adjunct professor at PCC.
The district spent $1.1 million from the $190 million Measure HS bond on the designs for the Rosemead property and has another $200,000 to $300,000 in outstanding bills, according to a presentation at the board’s Jan. 18 meeting. The district has faced criticism in the past for lax oversight of bond monies.
Meeting turns chaotic
Board meetings about the future of the Adult Transition Program have descended into shouting matches among trustees, with accusations of wrongdoing lobbed against both sides.
“You’re the pathetic liar,” Padilla said to Trustee Florencio Briones during one heated exchange. Briones accused Padilla of not living in the district he represents, while Padilla accused Briones of lying about his education. Both referred to the other as “George Santos,” the U.S. representative from New York accused of fabricating his qualifications.
Padilla and his allies later passed a motion to censure Briones. There was no internal investigation and the unsubstantiated findings, presented Wednesday, Feb. 8, were authored solely by Padilla.
Student Trustee Ruben Carrazco, a senior at South El Monte High, expressed his disappointment in the elected board members’ squabbling and urged them to consider the impacts on the district’s students.
“The people in this district have given me so much, but tonight, as I stand here, I am embarrassed,” he said at one meeting. “I am embarrassed for you guys and I am embarrassed to be a part of it.”
Parent protests
Parents have protested at the last three meetings, calling for equity for the adult special education students and condemning the school board for allegedly trading the well-being of their students for approximately $600,000 a year in rent from Pasadena City College.
In interviews, parents of the adult students and staff at the transition program described the board’s actions as frustrating and potentially dangerous. What was supposed to be a long-awaited win for the students is now a source of anxiety. There is currently no plan for how the district will logistically and legally accomplish the board’s sudden edict.
Previously, El Monte Union held community workshops and conducted a feasibility study before voting to relocate the adult students to Rosemead in 2021. None of that happened this time around.
“It’s disheartening, they got these committees together before and asked for input, and told us we’re going to get a new site, and six months before that happens, it’s like the carpet got ripped out from under us,” said Katherine Alamillo, a special education teacher who has worked in the program for 10 years.
Conflict of interest?
Trustee Torres de Siegrist’s employment at PCC has sparked allegations that she violated conflict-of-interest laws. Parents and Briones have called for her to recuse herself from discussions, but, so far, she has not.
“I feel that not only does she have a conflict of interest because it is her employer,” Briones said in an interview, “but she also has an ethical obligation to be impartial.”
Instead, Torres de Siegrist appears to be advocating for PCC’s students over those in her own district, Briones alleged.
During the board’s Jan. 18 meeting, Torres de Siegrist said she told her boss, PCC President Erika Endrijonas, that there was a “new board” in power and suggested requesting a renewal of the lease. A spokesperson for PCC confirmed the meeting and Endrijonas formally sent a letter to the board in December.
“I saw Dr. Endrijonas and I asked her, are you still interested?” Torres de Siegrist said at the meeting.
Torres de Siegrist suggested she supported renewing the lease with PCC over using the site for the adult transition program because it would benefit more students. PCC students had also directly asked her to intervene, she said.
In a phone call, Torres de Siegrist declined to speak about her vote, or the alleged conflict. She directed questions to Padilla and to her son and attorney, David Torres-Siegrist.
Padilla told a reporter to contact the superintendent and then hung up when asked to explain his decisions as an elected official.
Torres-Siegrist denied there was any conflict with his mother’s actions, noting the board has not yet voted on renewing the lease with Pasadena City College.
“My mom has not participated in anything that would implicate a conflict of interest,” he said.
Torres de Siegrist has asked the district’s counsel for a legal opinion and will follow that advice once the lease is before the board, her attorney said. Superintendent Edward Zuniga confirmed the board directed staff in closed session to renegotiate the lease. He declined to say if the district’s attorneys have made a determination regarding any potential conflict. Two of the five board members have publicly stated they do not support renewing the lease.
‘Serious ethical concerns’
Public officials should generally err on the side of caution if there is even the potential for a conflict, said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics and accountability program manager at California Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization advocating for good governance.
“I do believe that she should have recused herself from voting to end the contract if she had already had interactions with people regarding the matter and the impetus was to renew the lease to the community college,” McMorris said. “The lawyers will need to decide if what took place was illegal, but, at a minimum, it does not look good.”
The California Public Reform Act states public officials with a conflict “may not make, participate in making, or in any way use or attempt to use his or her official position to influence a governmental decision when he or she knows or has reason to know he or she has a disqualifying financial interest.” Disqualifying financial interests include any source of income exceeding $500 in the previous 12 months. Torres de Siegrist is paid between $10,000 and $100,000 as a professor, according to her financial disclosures.
The board member’s discussions with the PCC president could also be seen as an attempt to influence the decision, McMorris said.
“It raises serious ethical concerns,” he said.
Jay Wierenga, spokesperson for the Fair Political Practices Commission, declined to comment on the specific allegations, but said it is always “the responsibility of any public official to know the law, to take efforts to know the law, to anticipate and know their potential conflicts, to ask for advice from their local agency counsel or the FPPC ahead of time, before any discussions or votes take place, or at the first instant of a discussion happening where they become aware of and/or should see the red flags ahead.”
Torres de Siegrist has not asked the FPPC to weigh in yet, but may in the future, according to Torres-Siegrist.
Current site floods, leaks, lacks privacy
The transition program has operated out of “temporary” trailers in a parking lot on Granada Avenue in El Monte for more than a decade. Parents and staff have complained of deteriorating conditions and dwindling space as the school’s population has grown. The entire campus is paved and floods during the rainy season and scorches during the summer.
Students eat their lunches under an awning outdoors, regardless of weather, because there is no indoor cafeteria.
Classrooms leak, the sewage system backs up during flooding — creating unbearable odors near the eating area — and private spaces are not available for adult changing rooms or the nurse’s office, the stakeholders said. The administrative offices aren’t even wheelchair accessible, forcing staff, students and parents to meet outside in some instances.
The decision to send students back to the high schools came suddenly, with only three weeks from the first motion to the last. Parents were caught off guard, said Paul Arellano, whose 20-year-old son attends the program.
“They had been promising us all along: ‘This is only temporary, your students are going to be in a new site,’” Arellano said. “We were shell-shocked.
“How am I feeling? Frustrated and unfortunately powerless,” he said.
What happens next?
After firing the architects, the school board had initially agreed at its Feb. 1 meeting to conduct a feasibility study to identify potential alternative locations for the transition program. Torres de Siegrist highlighted closed schools in neighboring districts that could be an option, including within the El Monte City School District, where her husband is board member.
But then at an emergency meeting Feb. 8, Torres de Siegrist rescinded her vote on the study. Padilla, Nguyen and Torres de Siegrist then passed a motion to direct staff to “immediately” integrate the students back into the high schools.
In comments at the meeting, the three members said they are attempting to promptly address the concerns about the conditions at the Granada Avenue site. Integration provides more opportunities for students, Padilla said when he first presented the idea.
“Integration is my keyword, not segregation in a parking lot all by themselves, where they never get to see students without disabilities,” Padilla explained. Other local school districts operate similar programs out of their comprehensive high schools, though few are the size of El Monte Union’s program.
The motion has been criticized by the two dissenting board members, staff and parents because of the lack of consultation with staff.
“The way they’re going about this, so quickly, is very concerning,” said Alamillo, the special education teacher. “And not just for the transition center, but for the entire district, for all students.”
Many of the adult transition students have behavioral issues and would need constant chaperones at the high schools, costing them the independence offered at the current site, she said. An adult student could become aggressive, or choose to disrobe or perform sexual acts in front of high school students, she said.
Alamillo, who joined the district in 2013, compared the adult transition program to going to community college or university. These students’ peers are other adults, not high schoolers, she said. Under integration, a student with a disability might take special education classes at the high school until 18 and then, instead of moving to a new site, they’d end up at the same school for four more years, depriving them of that next step in life, she said.
“This is their rite of passage, this is their opportunity to explore what they like. Let’s teach them to cook, let’s teach them to take the bus,” she said. “The high school is not the proper environment for an adult transition program of our size.”
In an interview, Superintendent Zuniga said the district staff do not know which sites could work yet. It hasn’t been decided whether the district will split up the 100 students across the six high schools, or build new space for the entire group on a single campus.
“It is going to take some time to plan everything thoroughly over the next coming months,” Zuniga said. “It is more about going back to the drawing board and looking at how we can make this work in a timely manner.”
El Monte Union will ensure the students receive the same, if not better, services wherever they end up, Zuniga pledged. He noted integration would give them access to the high schools’ cafeterias, gymnasiums and outdoor areas — amenities they do not have now.
The idea of integration was previously looked explored by a consulting firm. In 2020, when El Monte Union was first considering the move to Rosemead, the DRL Group ranked the district’s high schools below other options because of concerns about access to public transportation, limited space and the proximity to community businesses where the adult students might shadow workers.
Zuniga said his staff is weighing those same factors again as it investigates the best option for the students.
PCC might not stay long
Despite all of the turmoil, there’s a chance Pasadena City College won’t be a tenant for long even if its lease is renewed by El Monte Union.
The city college, fresh off passing the $450 million Measure PCC bond in 2022, is in the market to buy its own property in the area, according to spokesperson Alex Boekelheide.
“With the passage of Measure PCC, the college can continue its search for suitable property, but buying land and building a new building — or renovating an existing one — can take 2-7 years,” Boekelheide said. “While this effort is being made, we need PCC Rosemead to serve our students.”
