Atascadero school board announced its pick for superintendent. Why are teachers worried?
Update, 7:45 p.m.:
The Atascadero school board announced it won’t hire a controversial candidate to replace its outgoing superintendent after community backlash.
Read our latest story here: Atascadero school district won’t hire controversial superintendent pick. ‘Democracy works!’
Original story:
The Atascadero school board will move to hire a new superintendent on Tuesday — but some teachers, staff and community members have serious concerns.
Trustees’ top pick for the job is E.J. Rossi, according to agenda documents. Rossi currently serves as the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services.
But some district employees have voiced complaints about the choice due to allegations that Rossi previously misappropriated public funds while working for the San Ardo Union School District from 2003 to 2007.
Others said Rossi hasn’t been a successful leader in Atascadero and has acted vindictively toward employees who’ve disagreed with him.
The Tribune reached out to Rossi on Monday. He said he couldn’t comment due to the ongoing search for superintendent, but would be open to speaking after the search concluded. Rossi has denied criminal wrongdoing in the past.
The district’s search for a new superintendent comes after current superintendent Tom Butler announced his decision to retire in November. Butler plans to leave the district at the end of this academic year.
The search for a new candidate has been spearheaded by Leadership Associates, an executive search firm chosen by trustees to conduct a nationwide search for a candidate and assist with the process of selecting a new leader, according to the district website.
What were the allegations against superintendent candidate?
Rossi was alleged to have misappropriated funds over a five-year period while working as a superintendent and principal in the San Ardo school district in southern Monterey County.
Though no criminal charges were filed, the allegations were examined as part of a San Luis Obispo County grand jury investigation into Rossi’s promotion within the Atascadero school district in 2008.
According to the report, Rossi left the San Ardo district in 2007, when he was hired as an assistant principal in Atascadero. Soon after, San Ardo administrators discovered around $6,000 in misappropriations and missing equipment that was attributed to Rossi.
Rossi agreed at the time to pay back the money and return the equipment. But a district audit later found that the real extent of the misappropriations was much larger — amassing a $56,000 shortage caused by “improper actions” from Rossi, according to the report.
The improprieties included overriding system controls, duplicating invoice payments or paying invoices without documentation and approving his own “questionable” vacation time and stipends, the report says.
Rossi was also found to have significantly raised the spending limits on two district credit cards without authorization, and then used those cards to make personal purchases, according to the report.
A county audit later confirmed the district audit’s findings, and the misconduct was reported to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office.
The district attorney found that while there were “significant concerns” about payments made to Rossi during his time in San Ardo, there was insufficient evidence to pursue criminal prosecution due to “lack of oversight and accountability” and “careless or non-existent record keeping” by Rossi’s office and the district, according to the grand jury report.
When confronted by the grand jury, Rossi “admitted ... that he made mistakes while employed at SAUSD, but denied criminal wrongdoing.”
Rossi later settled with the San Ardo district, agreeing to pay back $32,000 of the missing $56,000, according to the report.
The grand jury also investigated allegations that Rossi misused student funds in Atascadero, but jurors were unable to find evidence backing up those claims, according to the report.
The grand jury found that San Ardo notified Atascadero about the allegations against Rossi when the district was considering hiring him as principal for Atascadero High School. Rossi himself also approached district officials to explain that he was under investigation.
Still, the information was not shared with the hiring committee, jurors found.
The grand jury found that despite the allegations of misconduct, Rossi was promoted to principal in 2008.
The district conducted only two reference checks into Rossi, and one of those references denied to the grand jury that they were contacted, the report said.
Rossi was ultimately promoted again to the district office in 2015, The Tribune previously reported.
Teacher survey shows overwhelming disapproval, fear
An anonymous survey sent to around 200 teachers in the Atascadero district showed overwhelming disapproval for Rossi’s selection as superintendent.
The survey was distributed by Atascadero teacher’s union president Andrew Weatherly.
He told The Tribune he had around 72 hours to distribute the survey after meeting with district officials and getting approval. There were about 48 hours between the first response and the last response, he said.
The survey asked participants if they would recommend Rossi for superintendent and also had a series of written response questions about Rossi’s qualifications and alignment with the job description.
The final question asked employees if they had concerns about retaliation from Rossi.
Weatherly provided the survey response data to The Tribune.
Of the 101 teachers who answered, only four said they would support Rossi as the next superintendent.
About 81 said they would not, and another 16 said they were undecided.
Two-thirds of respondents said they feared retaliation.
Employees voice concerns about district pick
Beyond the survey, concerns about Rossi’s hire appear to be widespread among school employees, including one district employee who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution.
He said he would “genuinely be terrified” of a district leadership with Rossi at the helm.
He told The Tribune even though Rossi has denied the allegations from San Ardo, it’s hard to trust his judgment and decision-making, especially when the district is dealing with budget cuts.
“His silence on this as well as his repayment of $32,000 is a pretty damning conviction on its own,” he said.
The employee expressed concerns about district budgeting, special education, classroom technology and curriculum under Rossi’s current leadership.
“He’s just not an effective leader,” he said. “I genuinely don’t think he’s the best choice for our children’s future. I believe he’s just the easiest one for our board members to select.”
Other employees voiced opposition to Rossi’s hire at a March 4 school board meeting — with multiple mentioning a fear of retribution among employees.
“First and foremost, there are numerous concerns from our staff about speaking to the board right now and attending the meeting tonight because of the possibility of retaliation,” Atascadero’s classified staff union representative Laine Hoppert said. “I’m blown away by that.”
She added that she was approached by many employees within the education services department who felt that their concerns have been ignored and that the department has been “lacking leadership” under Rossi’s helm.
Later in the meeting, trustees heard from Robin Dery, a Spanish teacher at Atascadero High School. She said Rossi is not a popular choice among employees.
“You should be asking why,” she said pointedly at trustees.
Dery said while she liked Rossi personally, she felt he was not the best candidate for superintendent because he doesn’t implement teacher input and made questionable staffing decisions. She also mentioned concerns about retaliation.
“A number of teachers I spoke with today at AHS felt strongly that Mr. Rossi should not be our next superintendent, but declined to come here tonight,” Dery said. “Some declined because they felt that it would damage their professional relationship with him. Others declined because, on top of that, they felt Mr. Rossi had behaved vindictively in the past and they did not want to risk retribution. This is not the kind of person people want to work under.”
Trustees to consider Rossi’s hire at board meeting
Despite hearing the rampant concerns about Rossi, the district appears to be moving forward with its pick.
An action item listed on the agenda for Tuesday night’s school board meeting recommended the approval of an “employment agreement with Superintendent, E.J. Rossi, effective July 1, 2025.”
Trustees will vote on whether or not to approve the contract.
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 1:24 PM.
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