After just six months into the job, Superintendent Eduardo Reyes of the Chula Vista Elementary School District has already demonstrated he failed his probationary period. He dropped the ball on this year’s school calendar, the most basic of functions. The Common Calendar that CVESD used to have with the Sweetwater Union High School District is off-schedule for the first time in about a decade. This is causing many families to abandon vacation plans, or pull their children out of school for the break, which would mean a loss of average daily attendance (revenue) and instructional time across two systems.
School principals, administrative staff, and even teachers have fled the district in record numbers under Reyes’s brief tenure. He also bungled school safety concerns from Harborside Elementary parents. Notice a pattern here?
Leadership matters. This is what happens when an unqualified leader is appointed to the top job of the largest elementary school district in the state. The CVESD Board of Education was warned this would happen.
Troubling questions over Reyes’ qualifications and the circumstances surrounding his selection continue to surface. “He wasn’t a top candidate of the superintendent search committee,” said a superintendent search committee member. “In fact, he wasn’t even in the top five.” Yet, he somehow was added to the finalists at the last minute.” Stunning! In the “Year of Female Empowerment,” the CVESD Board appointed Reyes, an unqualified male, over more qualified female superintendent candidates.
These kinds of political tricks should not be a surprise, nor his failures already in the top job given Reyes’ political history. He was dogged by carpetbagging allegations during his failed Chula Vista City Council race in 2016. We can’t afford to gamble with our children’s futures any longer. Send Reyes back to Sweetwater.
Laurie K. Humphrey resides in Chula Vista.
