I discussed this with my principal/supervisor on ______________ __________
Date Signature of grievant ________________________
CVE/Grievance Level II
Date Signature of grievant ________________________
CVE/Grievance Level II
| CVE Grievance Chair Jim Groth failed to fulfil his legal obligations. If he had honestly pursued the grievance (below), instead of perpetrating a hoax on Maura Larkins, the truth would have been revealed about illegal actions of Assistant Superintendent Richard Werlin and teacher Robin Donlan, and the entire situation would have been rectified without litigation. |
GRIEVANCE REPORT FORM LEVEL II
To be used only after informal conference has been held and grievance is not resolved, or in cases where the
grievance is initiated at Level II.
Type Only
grievance is initiated at Level II.
Type Only
Principal/Supervisor ____________________________
Gretchen Donndelinger
Gretchen Donndelinger
The District violated Article 38.1 of the Agreement when it issued a
letter of reprimand to Maura Larkins without just cause on April 4,
2001.
Proposed remedy to grievance:
The District shall:
1) Provide written, detailed rationale for why the employee was
placed on Administrative Leave on February 8, 2001.
2) Provide specific written details of the behaviors alleged to be
"irrational and unprofessional."
3) Modify the content of the 4/4/01 memorandum by eliminating
completely the second paragraph.
4) Any other remedies mutually agreed to by the parties.
letter of reprimand to Maura Larkins without just cause on April 4,
2001.
Proposed remedy to grievance:
The District shall:
1) Provide written, detailed rationale for why the employee was
placed on Administrative Leave on February 8, 2001.
2) Provide specific written details of the behaviors alleged to be
"irrational and unprofessional."
3) Modify the content of the 4/4/01 memorandum by eliminating
completely the second paragraph.
4) Any other remedies mutually agreed to by the parties.
Last Name First Name M.I. Date _____
Groth Jim 5/22/01
Groth Jim 5/22/01
School/Department Position ___________
CVE for Castle Park Elementary CVE Grievance Chair
CVE for Castle Park Elementary CVE Grievance Chair
| Jim Groth's hoax led Chula Vista Educators and Chula Vista Elementary School District down a path that has cost both himself and CVESD board members Cheryl Cox, Bertha Lopez, Pam Smith, Larry Cunningham and Pat Judd any claim they might have had to being honest or ethical public servants. |
| Donlan and other abusive teachers were transferred out of Castle Park Elementary in 2004, after they had done enormous harm to the children of the school. |
| Jim Groth preferred to take a path that included multiple felony cover-ups rather than to admit that a close personal friend of CVE President Gina Boyd, Robin Donlan, was guilty of a couple of misdemeanors. |
| Teachers Robin Donlan and Linda Watson continued to cause trouble at Castle Park Elementary for three more years. |
| Asst. Superintendent Richard Werlin was covering up his own as well as Robin Donlan's illegal actions. Robin Donlan should have been transferred out of Castle Park Elementary in 2001. Werlin left the district in 2003. |
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| On April 4, 2001, the day after reciving Larkins' fax, the district asked Maura Larkins to return to work, but began to create a paper trail with false accusations to cover-up its illegal actions of February 12, 2001. |
| This grievance was a hoax, created to fool Maura Larkins into thinking the union was representing her. Jim Groth was rewarded for his dishonesty by CTA, which has a policy of supporting local leaders no matter what they do, and is now a member of CTA's board of directors. |
| > > > |
| In order to keep Larkins unaware of the role CVE was playing in the Larkins case, CVE president Jim Groth played a clever trick on CVE member Maura Larkins. Jim Groth, who was then the grievance chairman, and is now a director of CTA, with the help of Executive Director Tim O'Neill and then-President Gina Boyd, convinced Larkins that he was representing her. He was actually trying to prevent her from figuring out that CVE and certain teachers had committed crimes against her. CVE was supporting the teachers who had made the accusations, Linda Watson and Jo Ellen Hamilton. The motive was the upcoming election of Gina Boyd, and the friendship of Gina Boyd with Linda Watson and the originator of the potential murderer allegation, Robin Donlan. |
| At the same time, the union got busy trying to create a fake paper trail to cover up what had happened. The grievance below was created to fool Maura Larkins into thinking that the union was representing her. She was told not to come to the grievance meeting, because it would be in her "best interest" not to come. There actually was no grievance meeting. |
| CVE grievance chair Jim Groth's grievance (below) was never filed, according to the sworn testimony of CVE President Gina Boyd. It may or may not have been filed. In fact, the district responded to it. One thing is clear. The entire grievance process was a charade created to fool Maura Larkins, with the purpose of hiding CVESD's and CVE's involvement in crimes initiated by teachers. |
| Chula Vista Elementary School District, particularly Richard Werlin, worked closed with Jim Groth, Tim O'Neill and Gina Boyd, wasting close to half a million in taxpayer dollars to cover up misdemeanors which would never have resulted in penalties for anybody. |
| Jim Groth worked with Asst. Supt. Richard Werlin to perpetrate a hoax and cover up crimes |
| On April 3, 2001 Maura Larkins figured out that the district had committed a crime against her (violation of Labor Code section 432.7). She sent a letter with a copy of a restraining order against Kathleen Elton to the district and to CVE. The district and CVE realized that the woman whose allegations they had relied on when they had taken action against Maura Larkins seven weeks earlier was actually an unreliable individual. But the district did not apologize. It tried to create a paper trail that would cover-up what had happened, and justify the action by fabricating new allegations. |
| On February 12, 2001, CVESD teacher Maura Larkins was told not to report to work because two teachers reported she might kill them. |
| The teachers union pretended to help Larkins, although it turned out that the leaders of the union had been helping the teachers who had made the allegations. |
| Jim Groth preferred to take a path that included felony cover-ups |
| Asst. Superintendent Richard Werlin was covering up |
| Chula Vista Elementary School District |
| Below: Hoax Grievance by Jim Groth and CTA and hoax follow-up letters by CVE Presidents Jim Groth and Gina Boyd and Executive Director Tim O'Neill of Chula Vista Educators |
| Richard Werlin, Superintendent Libia Gil, and CTA executive director Tim O'Neill all wrote letters to help pull off the hoax. |
| Jim Groth knew the truth when he published the following in March 2008: "CTA works hard to ensure your rights are protected. "A member's rights come through the contract bargaining by SDEA and through laws and education code. "If a right is violated, CTA provides members resources to defend their rights. " found at http://www.sdea.net/column_ct a/column_cta.html In fact, Jim Groth made sure that Maura Larkins rights were violated, that the law was disobeyed, and that absolutely no resources were provided to defend Maura Larkins. The same was true in the case of Danielle Cozaihr. Mr. Groth further writes: "Members also receive ... protection of due process rights, and free legal consultations." Jim Groth knows that this is not true in many cases. It all depends on what CTA officials feel to be in their own interest. Mr. Groth also warns: "Non-members will not be given access to CTA legal resources." At least they don't pay thousands and thousands of dollars which will then be used to pay for lawyers who work to deny their rights! |
| California Teachers Association head counsel Beverly Tucker became involved in the cover-up on April 30, 2001. |
| Chula Vista Educators violated its own bylaws to keep the truth covered up. |
| The CVE board of directors' lawyer, Michael Hersh, who is a subordinate of head counsel Beverly Tucker, worked with CVE President Gina Boyd and executive director Tim O'Neill to prevent Maura Larkins from making a complaint to the CVE board of directors or representative council. This behavior by CTA's top officials was repeated at Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB), where CTA lawyers worked to protect the affiliate's president, who was misusing funds. |
| CTA's top brass has been involved in multiple cover-ups |
| Next, Rick Werlin sent a response. |
| So, was the grievance filed or not? Did Gina Boyd's lawyers, who included CTA head counsel Beverly Tucker and Michael Hersh, give her bad instructions during her deposition? Did they suborn her perjury? Here is Gina Boyd's sworn testimony on the matter: |
| Richard Werlin was assigned by Superintendent Libia Gil to investigate himself. CVESD board members Cheryl Cox, Pamela Smith, Bertha Lopez, Patrick Judd and Larry Cunningham found this behavior to be appropriate. How else could they cover up crimes by CVESD? It is odd that CVESD submitted the above UNSIGNED GRIEVANCE to the Office of Administrative Hearings as its Exhibit 26. CVESD must have copied the grievance provided by Maura Larkins, instead of a grievance that had actually been filed, which would, of course, have been signed by Jim Groth. Was a grievance signed by Jim Groth on behalf of Maura Larkins actually received by the district? The answer is hard to determine when both CVESD and CTA were suborning perjury of their witnesses. Did CVESD (with Lowell Billings as superintendent and Rick Werlin as Billings' faithful liaison with Mark Bresee of Parham & Rajcic) submit a hoax grievance and hoax responses to that grievance? Or did CTA employee Gina Boyd commit perjury when she said the grievance was never filed? |
The following two pages are Exhibit 14 in Gina Boyd's 2004 deposition. |
| Here is a clear transcription of the grievance: |
| CVE Executive Director Tim O'Neill ignored Maura Larkins' calls and faxes, until he finally decided he had better pretend to support Larkins. In July 2001, Tim O'Neill sent the following disingenuous letter to Libia Gil. It's shocking to realize that even though he could clearly express the wrongfulness of the situation, he continued to help Libia Gil cover up crimes. |
| CVESD Superintendent Libia Gil covered up multiple violations of the law by assigning Richard Werlin to investigate himself. And CTA supported her. Why? It turned out CTA was involved in the wrongdoing from the beginning. |
| Libia Gil covered up crimes by assigning Richard Werlin to investigate himself. |
| Gina Boyd contradicted these written statements when she was under oath. Hoax? Yes. |
| It turned out that Mr. O'Neill wrote this letter in an effort to convince Maura Larkins that she was being represented by CTA. But according to sworn testimony by CVE president Gina Boyd, the CTA grievance was never filed. Hoax? Yes. It turned out that Tim O'Neill and CTA were helping the district cover up wrongdoing against Maura Larkins. |
| It turned out that the grievance Libby Gil is talking about in this letter had never been filed, according to sworn testimony by CVE president Gina Boyd. Neither CTA nor CVESD ever produced a signed copy of the grievance in question. Hoax? Yes. |
| It turned out that Jim Groth never filed this grievance, or at least never wanted a positive response. Hoax? Yes. |
| This is just a clearer copy of the above grievance. Hoax? Yes. |
| Gina Boyd contradicted these written statements when she was under oath. Hoax? Yes. |
| When she was under oath Gina Boyd stated that this grievance was never filed. Hoax? Yes--at least by Gina Boyd. |
| When she was under oath Gina Boyd stated that this grievance was never filed. Hoax? Yes. |
| If you guessed that every single document on this page was a hoax, you are correct. Neither CTA nor CVESD ever produced a signed copy of the grievance in question. But is it possible the grievance really was filed? Yes, but that leaves us to conclude that Gina Boyd committed perjury. Which is it? Why would anyone commit a felony to cover up a silly hoax? Answer: They wouldn't. These people were covering up a lot more than one silly hoax. |
| Can you spot the hoax documents below? You may be surprised. The answer can be found at the bottom of this page. |
| Chula Vista Elementary School District was represented by attorney Mark Bresee at the time these documents were created. |
| CVE President Gina Boyd wrote to Maura Larkins that the grievance was filed on May 22, 2001. [Regarding the odd black areas on each side of the fax: who knows why Chula Vista Educators kept these interesting features on its faxes for an extended period of time.] |
| Jim Groth and Tim O'Neill, Masters of Irony? [Note: When the shoe was on the other foot, and Jim Groth's teacher allies were transferred out of the very same school that Maura Larkins worked at, suddenly Jim Groth and Tim O'Neill changed their tune. Now they thought it was wrong not to tell a teacher why she was being transferred, even though this time the superintendent worked far harder to obey the contract, actually meeting with the transferred teachers. O'Neill had told Maura Larkins that a superintendent conference was not required until after her transfer had been completed.] Article from San Diego Union Tribune: Contract broken in transfer of 5 teachers Superintendent needed to give reason, ruling finds By Chris Moran February 11, 2006 CHULA VISTA – Chula Vista's elementary schools superintendent violated union contract rules by not explaining to five Castle Park Elementary School teachers why he transferred them to other schools in 2004, an arbitrator has ruled. Only one of the five, first- grade teacher Nikki Perez, has returned to the school. Jim Groth, president of the teachers union, said the other four teachers declined to return because of the disruption of switching schools mid-year. Tom Cruz, Chula Vista Elementary School District's assistant superintendent for human resources, agreed that a mid-year transfer would be disruptive but said the district had to follow the letter of the arbitrator's ruling. The ruling on Dec. 21 states that the teachers are entitled to reinstatement to their old jobs “commencing with the next semester.” In Chula Vista, that meant Jan. 30. The arbitrator upheld the authority of Chula Vista Superintendent Lowell Billings to move teachers from school to school. But the district's contract with Chula Vista Educators requires Billings to have a “conference” with each teacher. Billings met with each of the five teachers, but did not explain his decisions other than to say, “It is in the best interests of the educational program,” the ruling states. The arbitrator ruled that the contract does not allow the superintendent to repeat this “as a mantra” in meeting with the teachers. “This was not a 'conference,' as that word is defined, but a unilateral ukase,” the arbitrator wrote. “To this day, the five teachers don't know why they were administratively transferred,” Groth said. The case isn't over. The union also seeks payment to Perez and former Castle Park teachers Stephenie Petitt, Victoria Singleton, Robin Donlan and Peggie Myers for expenses related to their transfers. These include time spent packing and unpacking and the purchase of teaching materials needed, as some of them changed grades. The five teachers had been active at Castle Park on the school site council, which governs the school, and the budget committee, which makes recommendations on how to spend money. Then-Principal Ollie Matos testified that several of the teachers refused to cooperate with changes he wanted to make to improve the school, the arbitrator's ruling states. Billings made the transfers. Matos has since left Castle Park to become director of educational services at Lemon Grove School District. Castle Park has had nine principals and interim principals in just over a decade. |
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| Home Why This Website SDCOE CVESD Castle Park Elem Law Enforcement CTA CVE Stutz Artiano Shinoff Silence is Golden Schools and Violence Office Admin Hearings Larkins OAH Hearing |
| Did CTA director Jim Groth file the grievance below when he was grievance chair for Chula Vista Educators, or did he orchestrate an elaborate hoax? Chula Vista Educators President Gina Boyd testified during her deposition that the grievance was never filed. |
| Jim Groth's Grievance Hoax |
| (Mr. Groth had crucial help from CVESD Superintendent Libia Gil) |