Home Antioch Ahead of Antioch School Board Meeting, More than 1,400 Have Signed Petition in Support of Superintendent

Ahead of Antioch School Board Meeting, More than 1,400 Have Signed Petition in Support of Superintendent

by ECT
Stephanie Anello

As of Monday morning, more than 1,400 people have signed a petition in support of Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Stephanie Anello. The change.org petition was created shortly after new School Board President Ellie Householder called a special meeting set for Monday to discuss the Superintendent Performance Evaluation along with changing the Bylaws of student board members.

This agenda item comes just last month, it was announced that Anello was recognized as the Superintendent of the year for both Contra Costa and Alameda Counties.

Householder, who took over the role of Board President as of December 16, was censored earlier in the year over her use of Social Media. She has also been involved in local protests and intimidation tactics against other elected officials.

This meeting will also occur less than a week after Antonio Hernandez and Dr. Clyde Lewis took ceremonial oaths of office as newly elected trustees on the AUSD Board of Education.

The following statement in support of Superintendent Anello will be submitted to the AUSD School Board during the Special Board Meeting on Monday, December 21, 2020.

Good afternoon school board. This message is coming from the leadership of Antioch’s employee associations, AEA, CSEA, and AMA, who together represent the over 1,720 employees of the Antioch Unified School District. Upon seeing the agenda for the special school board meeting on Monday, December 21st, we felt it necessary to share some thoughts about Superintendent Stephanie Anello. In our experience over the last two to four decades, we have seen many superintendents at the helm. In our opinion, Stephanie Anello stands out above the rest as an exemplary leader. She has always had the best interest of the students, community, and employees at the forefront of the direction she has led the district. While we may not see eye to eye on every issue, she always shows a willingness to listen and compromise when other ideas are presented, so long as they are student centered.

We have all seen the impact of COVID-19 in our community and around the world. The challenge of continuing to educate our students has shown the caliber of leader that we have in Stephanie Anello. When schools closed in March, Stephanie’s first action was to ensure that the students in our community were fed. She worked with nutritional services to ensure that food distribution was safe and accessible to all children in Antioch. During that time, she coordinated the distribution of learning materials to students in order to support ongoing learning. At the same time, thousands of laptops were being ordered and Stephanie and her team personally helped to image and distribute them to students and staff. She acquired funding to provide mobile hotspots to help create an equitable learning experience for every student. These efforts were so successful that neighboring districts looked to Stephanie for guidance. In addition to her efforts to keep students learning, Stephanie found creative ways to keep every employee working and contributing to the overall wellbeing of our community.

Throughout this pandemic and since the beginning of her leadership, Stephanie has always had the safety and education of students, community, and staff as a whole as a guiding principle. We appreciate Stephanie’s leadership and look forward to continuing to thrive together in our combined goal of providing the best educational experience for all. 

AEA President, Valorie Luke

CSEA 85 President, Josh Isenbarger

AMA President, Scott Bergerhouse

To sign, click here.

Antioch School District Board of Trustees Meeting Details:

For a look at the Staff Report on the Bylaws, click here.

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6 comments

Amy Dec 21, 2020 - 7:24 am

Ellie Householder continues to prove she is both immature and ignorant. That many signatures over a weekend and ahead of a holiday is impressive. The rest of the school board better be paying attention and not let Ellie lead them off a cliff.

Joe Dec 21, 2020 - 9:11 am

AUSD will never get anywhere with an ignorant public voting in these idiots.

Megan Dec 21, 2020 - 10:03 am

Ellie is a child. How is she president when we have people like Dr. Lewis?! She has shown herself to be immature and short-sighted. She seems to lack the insight and wisdom that comes with a level of experience she simply hasn’t had time to acquire due to her youth. Shame on her for adding more uncertainty and stress on Stephanie’s plate when she is already working with everything she has to keep things steady in a tumultuous and unprecedented time such as this. I’m not impressed. I’m so disappointed in her. Teachers are a strong force when we are united. She would do well to consider more than the personal vendettas she seems to have and act in the best interest of the community she was elected to serve.

Micki Dec 21, 2020 - 10:27 am

I hope the new Board members will realize that Ellie is a political opportunist and will do anything to advance her own agenda. Stephanie Anello grew her wings in this district. She lives and breathes AUSD.

Robert C. Dec 21, 2020 - 10:33 am

What is it about Antioch? The AUSD Board is as disfunctional and inept as the City Council.

AUSD Dec 21, 2020 - 6:40 pm

The teaching community in Antioch should be ashamed of their performance. Most kids will never have a chance to open the many doors of opportunity in this world coming out of AUSD. If AUSD were a public company and had to answer to shareholders, current leadership would of been terminated long time ago.

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