School Superintendent Followed Procedures in Firing Baseball Coach, Investigator Says

A San Diego school administrator hired by the Santa Cruz City School District found that Superintendent Gary Bloom didn't violate policies when he launched the firing of popular baseball coach George Arnott in August, after receiving a complaint from a friend whose son played on the team.

According to the report filed this week by Rita Sierra Beyers, of  Sierra Professional Investigations, the fact that a former coworker Charlene McKowen, whose son played on the team, complained to Bloom about an email sent by the coach to parents "is insufficient to assert that he decided to not renew Mr. Arnott's contract as a favor to a friend."

Beyers, whose estimate for the month-long query is around $5,000, said Bloom didn't violate the authority given to him in firing Arnott, although none of the policies used for full time staff members were brought to bear. Arnott, a rookie coach, was never warned or given counseling about how to resolve complaints against him, but the report made no mention of that.

"It looks like a white wash," said Attorney Ed Chun, who filed the complaint against Bloom.

The strongest criticism of the process was that "a review of communications styles may be in order."

Among the worst of those was that administrators thought that Bloom told them the decision was made to fire Arnott with no meeting or hearing and Bloom denies that.

Two administrators told the investigator that they wanted to keep Arnott in his position, even though he had written a harsh letter to parents,  but thought that Bloom told them a decision had been made to get rid of him even before a meeting with the coach was held.

Santa Cruz Athletic Director Erik Redding and District Athletic Director Tim McGuire told Personnel Director Karen Hendricks in a July 23 meeting they supported keeping Arnott, a high school and college star who played in the minor leagues. 

They said Bloom walked into the meeting and said something they remembered to be: "You know how I feel about this;" or "I don't think there's much to talk about;" "I thought this was a done deal."

According to the investigator, both Redding and McGuire "said they were surprised by Bloom's statement because they interpreted the remark to mean the decision had already been made not to renew Mr. Arnott's contract."

Bloom told the Santa Cruz Sentinel "What I was saying was the email (from Arnott to parents) was unacceptable, not to say 'He's gone.'"

The "miscommunication" got so bad that the husband of Santa Cruz High Principal Karen Edmonds made an anonymous call to the lawyer representing Arnott complaining that the principal supported Arnott but was afraid to support him because Bloom wanted him out. 

In another example of poor communication, Bloom told Ed Chun, the attorney, that the issues shouldn't be brought into an open forum because "googling" the coach's name would hurt his other business, as a mover. Chun took this as a threat, but the investigator said Bloom may not have intended it that way and "these instances do not rise to the level of intimidation of witnesses and employees."

There was no explanation of why Bloom offered Arnott a job as assistant coach after he was so perturbed by the email sent by Arnott, which the 36-year-old coach declined.

The report did include Arnott's email to parents, which ultimately cost him his job (see separate story).