13 May Superintendent Accused of Inaction on Staff Bullying Keeps Job

Antioch Unified School District employee Kim Atkinson alleged her “safety was of zero concern” when it came to the behavior of a co-worker. (Screenshot captured by Julia Métraux / The CC Pulse)

By Julia Métraux

Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Stephanie Anello on May 8 survived a motion to terminate her contract immediately, with a 2-3 vote by the Antioch Unified School District Board of Education during closed session. Anello was not at the meeting.

Due to the vote happening in closed session, how individual members voted was not revealed at the meeting.

The motion related to Anello’s alleged inaction in handling a case of workplace bullying. Back in January 2023, AUSD Director of Facilities, Maintenance and Operations Kenneth Turnage instructed people to move an employee’s desk to a roof because the employee disagreed with him, NBC Bay Area reported. Ten different ASUD employees told the district that Turnage had been bullying them.

The employees told NBC Bay Area that they thought that Turnage did not face any consequences because he was friends with Anello’s husband. AUSD placed Turnage on leave on April 17, three days after the NBC Bay Area story broke. Anello had called for an independent investigation into how the workplace bullying complaints were handled, according to the Mercury News.

Before the school board went into closed session, AUSD purchasing technician Kim Atkinson, who worked with Turnage, said Turnage was at a district golf event on May 3. “Is this how the district handles administrative leaves?” she asked.

“This is after I had sent multiple emails fearing for my safety and was assured that he did not have keys or codes,” she continued. “On the video, he opens the door with his keys and he uses his his alarm code to disarm the alarm.”

Atkinson, who went on medical leave following stress from working under Turnage, said that her “safety was of zero concern.”

The decision to not remove Anello, which was announced at the beginning of the meeting, was very divisive among members of the community who shared their thoughts during public comment.

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The California School Employees Association chapter president Brian Atkinson, Kim’s husband, shared that the executive board of the chapter, which represents Antioch, took a vote of no confidence in the district leadership.

“We’ve tried for 18 months to go down the proper chain that we were told to go down [and] file grievances,” he said. “It gets kicked to one side of HR, we come back, and [HR] says ‘Nah, didn’t see nothing here.’ ”

Patricia Granados called keeping Anello as AUSD superintendent an “embarrassment.” Granados said that “minimizing the experience of the victims here is shameful” and encouraged people to recall or vote out members of the school board that supported Anello.

Not everyone was for Anello’s termination.

“I have known her as an administrator for around 20 years and always found her to be kind and listens to what people have to say,” said Lori Rodriguez. “ I don’t understand what is going on. I would like to question your motives and why you have created this media circus.”

The following speaker, Nicole Arrington, said Rodriguez must be “living under a rock.”

Arrington also spoke about the importance of bullying not happening among the adults in the district.

“It’s amazing to me how people want children not to be bullies, but yet adults are the biggest bullies there are,” she said. “Anello needs to go away and everybody else that feels the same way as her or is complicit or whatever, you got to go too.” Arrington’s comments were met with applause.

The next regular Antioch Unified School District Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 22.