The Orange Unified School Board voted 4–3 on Jan. 5 to fire Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen and Assistant Superintendent Cathleen Corella.
The decision passed in closed session of a special board meeting, called just 24 hours prior by President Rick Ledesma, who was re-elected to the board last November.
Ledesma along with trustees John Ortega, Angie Rumsey, and Madison Miner voted to terminate their contracts, while trustees Andrea Yamasaki, Kris Erickson, and Ana Page dissented.
“This is the ultimate surprise, because you’re potentially getting rid of the CEO and Assistant Vice President of student services for 27,000 students in this district and 2,300 employees,” Erickson said at the start of the meeting. “This is a huge decision and it’s highly unusual to have it like this.”
The board then voted 4–2 to appoint Edward Velasquez as interim superintendent and Craig Abercrombie, Canyon High’s principal, as acting assistant superintendent starting Jan. 9. Yamasaki and Page cast dissenting votes and Erickson abstained.
The special meeting was called when the district was on recess, and thus staff was not required to be present. Hansen and Corella were both absent from the meeting as both were outside the country, according to Ledesma. Neither were informed of the meeting beforehand and are now on administrative leave for the next 30 days, until their eventual termination, he said.
The board did not give any explanation nor talk about their discussion from the closed session, and the trustees were not immediately available for comment.
Erickson did clarify at the start of the meeting, there had been no complaints filed against Hansen and Corella.
Leading up to the closed session, the meeting was tumultuous. Around 60 speakers made up of parents and former and current district staff showed up at the meeting to comment against the board’s consideration of firing Hansen and Corella.
With only 24-hour notice to prepare for the meeting, the board was not provided recommendations or resumes for candidates to appoint next.
Yamasaki made a motion with Erickson seconding it to postpone the meeting since they claim to have had “zero information” to act on but the board shut the motion down in a 4–3 vote.
