Antioch school superintendent calls for outside investigation into district’s handling of boss bullying case

Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Stephanie Anello this week called for an “independent investigation” of the district’s handling of employees’ complaints that their boss was bullying and harassing them and that the district had turned a blind eye.

At the same time, the AUSD Board President Antonio Hernandez has called for a special closed-session meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday to discuss Anello’s handling of the matter and her performance, which hasn’t been evaluated for several years. The school board will also meet for a discussion about an unnamed public employee’s “discipline/dismissal.”

Hernandez said any possible independent investigation of the matter should be initiated by the school board — not the superintendent. He has called for Anello’s resignation over a situation involving Kenneth Turnage II, the district’s director of facilities, maintenance and operations who underlings have accused of workplace bullying and harassment.

“I want us to talk about the things that we need to talk about as a board,” Hernandez said this week. “The superintendent did not handle this situation properly and continues to bring into question her ability to lead this school district.”

Anello told this news organization that she was ill on Tuesday and could not answer questions. She went out on a medical leave that same afternoon, and said she will be out through Friday.

In her email to school board members on Monday, Anello wrote: “Given the media coverage of the Director of Maintenance and President (Antonio) Hernandez’s public call for my resignation, I have called for a third-party, independent investigation into the District’s handling of the matter.”

She added that she “looks forward to updating the board on the findings.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, AUSD Chief Human Resources Officer Robert A. Martinez said the district “takes all matters concerning our employees seriously and has processes and procedures in place to protect employees’ rights, whether they are being alleged of any wrongdoing or accusing others of any wrongdoing.”

“The district received several complaints from employees, investigated the concerns, and took appropriate actions pursuant to the Antioch Unified School District Governing Board Policies and Administrative Regulations,” the statement said. “Last week, the responsibilities for direct supervision of the employees raising concerns have been transferred to a different supervisor. As this is a personnel matter, there will be no further comment on these matters.”

NBC Bay Area first broke a story last week about several employees’ written complaints that Turnage has intimidated, bullied and harassed employees for more than a year. In one instance, he had employees use a forklift to place another district worker’s desk on top of an AUSD building, they allege.

Four of the employees who complained suggested that Turnage was not appropriately disciplined because the superintendent’s husband, former Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando, is close friends with Turnage. At least three employees are on stress-related medical leave and another said he took an early retirement because of the situation.

Turnage, meanwhile, sent an email to the 80 employees he supervises, saying he would no longer be their direct supervisor, but as department head, would continue to oversee department supervisors and the recent $195 million voter-approved school bond measure to renovate schools.

AUSD board trustees first learned of the issues in mid-September when an employee, Kim Atkinson, complained during public comments at a school board meeting that “absences are through the roof in the (facilities) department” and employees’ mental and physical health was “suffering at the hands of this not being handled.”

“There have been countless, countless inappropriate behaviors that I could give you example after example, after example, but nobody wants to hear us, and we’ve begged since January (of 2023). It’s been begging for help, and nobody will help us. …I can’t stand by and see my friends go home in tears and be scared to come to work.”

Then-school board President Clyde Lewis promised at the time to look into the “workplace environment” issues.

Hernandez, who began leading the board in January, said he asked Anello about the investigation into employee complaints months ago. He said he was told the employee was disciplined but not given any details.

“I was told that all the proper procedural steps are being followed, but clearly, again, we’re not doing right by our employees,” he said.

Hernandez said that Anello has also not had an evaluation since 2020 – despite yearly evaluations being a requirement for district leaders. If a third-party investigation happens, he said the school board should select the outside firm.

“I just want the public to know that I take these matters very seriously,” Hernandez said.