In January 2015 I, along with five other well-qualified Trustee Area 1 residents applied to fill a temporary School Board vacancy in the Garden Grove Unified School District and were not interviewed or given reasonable consideration.
Since then, unethical actions lacking effective and independent oversight of the superintendent have become apparent after the appointed incumbent was selected who had only just recently retired as a high-level GGUSD administrator.
We ended up in 2015 with a recently retired high-level administrator being appointed to the School Board and tasked with watching over a superintendent and other administrators she was close to. Since then, based on credible evidence and testimony from parents and staff, many others and I have experienced or witnessed an ongoing pattern of numerous unethical and unfair outcomes caused by an apparent lack of effective, transparent School Board oversight to hold Superintendent Gabriela Mafi and those under her accountable regarding misuse of authority and GGUSD taxpayer-funded school district resources and staff time!
At the School Board’s Study Session, a day or so before her appointment to the Board, I was in the room when Trustee Lan Nguyen said (to paraphrase) ‘We [the Board] should not appoint Teri Rocco because this is an oversight body and [therefore] we should not be promoting someone from within the bureaucracy.’”
Example: In 2016, I began calling attention to the Garden Grove Unified School District’s decision to eliminate skilled trades Wood Shop classes at all 10 Intermediate Schools and Auto Shop at four High Schools.
I decided to run for the GGUSD Board of Education that year but narrowly lost. However, I did not abandon advocating for returning skilled trades Wood, Metal, and Auto Shop classes the district cut/eliminated.
In August 2017 i discovered evidence GGUSD administrators, allegedly under direction from Superintendent Gabriela Mafi, unethically used taxpayer-funded school district resources and staff time to influence and undermine the election to favor influencing voters to cast their vote to elect the appointed incumbent.
For the next eight years, I spoke at over 130 School Board meetings, but was met with indifference from GGUSD’s Board and superintendent who repeatedly refused to place this important topic on the Board’s meeting agenda.
Last month, on September 25, just before Election Ballots were mailed out on October 7, the district made a “surprise” announcement that in August 2025 over 10 months away, there will be a new Skilled Trades Career Pathway at only one school – Rancho Alamitos High School – a four-year program designed for students interested in pursuing a career in carpentry, electrical, welding or plumbing. Students who complete the Pathway will be eligible for direct entry into a paid skilled trades apprenticeship.
With no prior transparent School Board discussion or approval, GGUSD has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to make this “surprise” happen – without any transparent School Board approval until October 15 – thereby giving the incumbent substantial taxpayer-funded publicity just before the election even though she publicly did nothing or very little, until only last month, to bring back any skilled trades Shop classes back and she allowed the last two Wood Shop classes to close in June 2016 at Alamitos and Ralston Intermediate Schools.
I am running again to unseat Rocco, who is seeking a third four-year term on the GGUSD Board of Education. My goal is to bring back the Wood and Metal Shop classes GGUSD eliminated at all 10 intermediate schools, and the Auto Shop classes the district cut and eliminated from four high schools.
It ought to be a moral imperative for the district to help students acquire CTE skilled trades training to obtain living-wage jobs! For over 20 years, GGUSD has failed to provide thousands of Grades 7 – 12 students with this viable career option at a time when there is an acute shortage of skilled trades workers.
Although I suspect politics influenced the timing of showcasing this Pathway less than two weeks before Election Ballots were mailed to voters even though it doesn’t start for another year, I welcome the progress.
It’s about time. After over eight years of pressure on deaf ears, they are finally bringing back some much-needed skilled trades Shop classes, even if it is at only one school and only one career Pathway. And ASAP they need to expand this to all GGUSD schools. If/When I am elected to the School Board, this will be done under my leadership.
During the difficult pandemic I unsuccessfully challenged Rocco in 2020, garnering 44% of the vote. And I am disturbed that during the 2018 election, Rocco and Superintendent Mafi canvassed together in support of incumbent Bob Harden’s re-election. I think it is inappropriate and improper for a superintendent to campaign for the school board member who exercise oversight over them.
I also want the School Board do a better, more effective job providing accountability, ethics, fairness, governance, oversight and transparency to help bring much-needed positive change for the benefit of Garden Grove Unified students.
And we must scrutinize an apparent pattern of district resources being unfairly used to affect School Board elections. GGUSD isn’t alone in this. School districts have engaged in this improper behavior for years. It’s time school board members adopt a zero tolerance toward such breaches of trust.
From my perspective, the use of taxpayer resources by district administrators to influence/shape voter opinion, or to benefit allies, has not abated.
As an example, since about December 2022 the GGUSD has allowed a local realtor with political connections to incumbent Rocco, Board members, and Dr. Mafi – to use school district resources to promote themselves on the website of a district school.
Last month, that realtor hosted a fundraiser for Rocco’s re-election. Jen Tackney told me in April of last year she would be running for School Board in Area 1 if Rocco did not, and if Rocco decides to run again, she will be supporting her.
The district has no guidelines for this sort of thing. For nearly two years district resources are paying to promote this realtor’s name and business and potential voter visibility of someone who has ambitions to run for school board, and fundraises for the school board member she wants to succeed. I addressed this issue at several School Board last year and requested the establishment of clear criteria as to who and how a person or business can have a promotion-type video hosted on a GGUSD school website. To date, there has been no response from the district.
GGUSD residents shouldn’t tolerate this. The families of the Garden Grove Unified School District deserve better than this.
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Nicholas Dibs is a credentialed Science and Career Technical Education (CTE) Teacher running in the Nov. 5, 2024 Election for the Garden Grove Unified School District’s Trustee Area 1 seat.
