Bautista Fired At Tense Session

A resignation from Mildred Bautista, assistant to the superintendent and secretary to the Board of Education, was approved by trustees at a special board meeting Friday night, and School Supt. R. Bruce McPherson denied any knowledge prior to his just-completed investigation that Miss Bautista 's credentials were not valid. More than 350 persons crowded into the Pioneer High cafeteria to bear McPherson report on his investigation of Miss Bautista's credentials and her subsequent letter of resignation effective May 26. She was not present, however, lat the meeting. Many of those present voiced displeasI ure at the conclusión of the brief session, which did not provide for public comment or inquiry and did not confirm lier rumors of a possible resignition from the superintendent. There was some hissing from the audience and a large crowd milled around in the room following adjournment. One man ' cornered Board President . Cecil Warner and shouted, "I want McPherson to resign," bef ore he was told to leave by Warner. Others nearby also asked the man to go home and cool off. During the meeting McPherson read the following ststatement to the board: "I have just completed an inquiry into the most essential facts of the credentials of Mildred Bautista, who has served as assistant to the superintendent since Jury 1, 1971. "I am sorry personally to have to report that the credentials of Ms. Bautista are indeed inaccurate on many counts. A major discrepancy is that Ms. Bautista does not have a bachelor's degree from any branch of the University of California or any other institution, on the basis of my investigation. "I must bear responsibility for not having checked Ms. Bautista's credentials more carefully at an earlier date. I assumed that because she had been employed by the School District of Philadelphia before being transferred to my office such a check had been made. I do not offer this explanation as an excuse, however. "While Ms. Bautista has performed her tasks as assistant to the superintendent in a superlative fashion; while there are extenuating circumstances which my brief investigation only touched upon; and while mány items listed on her resume are accurate, I have found it necessary to ask Ms. Bautista to submit her resignation to me and to the Board of Education. I have received that resignation as of this date and will present it immediately to the board. "I will ask that all personnel records be reviewed to make certain that a routine credentials check has been completed for employés of the school district. In addition, I will review with the assistant superintendent for personnel both the processes used for credentials checks and the monitoring of those processes." Charges were made by The Ann Arbor News that information contained in the resume submitted to the board by Miss Bautista was false. The board reïuested an investigation of the matter and the State Department of Education was also requested by the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA) to tigate the certification status of Miss Bautista and other administrative appointees. It was reported that McPherson withdrew $3,000 in travel expenses for the trip and he was accompanied to California by both Miss Bautista and Philip Mcllnay, deputy superintendent for plann i n g , for his investigation of Miss Bautista's background at the University of California at Berkeley. Warner indicated at the meeting that he was concerned over both Miss Bautista and Mcllnay accompanying McPherson on his investigation trip and he would request that the district be reimbursed for the expenses. It was revealed in an earlier meeting that the board had not authorized McPherson to take the trip without being accompanied by a _board nernber and possibly Stanley bel, assistant superintendent of personnel. In a final report concerning the matter, McPherson was asked to give the board detailed information on what was investigated, who was contacted and why it was necessary for him to take his two administrators with him. Warner also told the audience that during the last week it has been difficult to make people in the community realize that the board had a responsibility to insure due process of law for its employés and equal protection for Miss Bautista [ regarding the charges against her. Richard Creal.who served as secretary to the board under the former administration of W. Scott Westerman, was appomted to serve as interim secretary I Creal is also assistant to the deputy superintendent for planning.