Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) Superintendent Kirsten Vital Brulte will leave her position by the end of the year, following a 4–3 vote by school board members during a Dec. 21 special meeting.
The decision was made “without cause,” the board’s President Krista Castellanos said during the meeting. Vital Brulte’s contract was originally set to expire in June 2026.
Castellanos, along with Trustees Gary Pritchard, Michael Parham, and Amy Hanacek, voted to end Vital Brulte’s contract, while Lisa Davis, Gila Jones, and Judy Bullockus dissented.
In an email sent to the Capistrano Unified community the following day, Castellanos reiterated the termination was not an outcome of any employee misconduct committed by Vital Brulte.
“It is important to emphasize that the action taken was not for cause, and we wish the superintendent the best in her future endeavors,” Castellanos wrote.
Vital Brulte had been the district’s superintendent since 2014, and her contract was set to expire in June 2026.
The district’s contract with the superintendent includes a provision to allow either party to terminate the contract before it expires without cause, Castellanos’s email explained.
Some parents expressed confusion at the district’s decision, calling on the district to be more transparent with the school community at the Dec. 21 meeting.
“A lot of us are questioning why Vital Brulte’s [contract may be terminated],” one parent said during public comments. “I don’t think that [trustees] have been very forthcoming about what is going on in the district. There’s a lot of other parents that have felt that you have not been forthcoming, and we’d like to know why.”
Another parent called the board’s special meeting an “unfair, mean-girl political move.”
“Is there any legit reason to fire Brulte? Has she done anything wrong? We’d like more information, please,” the parent said. “I don’t see anything wrong that she’s done. Is this fair, doing this in the dark of night a week before Christmas? Before doing something like that, please communicate with the public.”
Vital Brulte had been the district’s superintendent since 2014, which is twice as long as a typical tenure of a superintendent in California, according to Parham, one of the trustees who voted to terminate the contract.
Parham told The Epoch Times parting “without cause” simply meant separating amicably and not without reason.
“I know that my concerns are not based on any political motives or personnel issues whatsoever,” Parham said. “I voted the way I did because I believe that [the district] needs a different style of leadership to resolve certain major issues that will not go away without a significant change in strategy.”
He said the district’s current strategy—in addressing faculty needs, declining enrollment, and other concerns the board heard from community outreach efforts, he said—“has not been effective, and the problems are only getting worse.”
“I can tell you that we all have the best interests of the district and our children in mind at all times, and I am happy to be a part of this team,” he said.
Trustee Davis, who voted against the termination, told The Epoch Times in an email Vital Brulte is “an excellent superintendent that has [led] CUSD with strength, integrity, and grace” and “has gotten us out of the mess we were in before she came on board.”
“Superintendent Vital Brulte was instrumental in the safe and early reopening of CUSD schools and that decision reduced the learning loss that all other districts are dealing with today,” Davis wrote. “She stood up for kids, kept CUSD schools open, not forced the vaccine, but worked on choice, and protected our district from the influences of neighboring counties.”
Counsel for the district and the superintendent will be working out a severance provision for Vital Brulte, according to district officials.
Deputy Superintendent Clark Hampton will take over starting on Jan. 1, 2023, for a maximum of six months as the district begins its recruitment and hiring process for the next superintendent.
Vital Brulte and trustees Castellanos, Pritchard, Hanacek, and Jones did not respond to request for comment by press time.
