Less than one week after Lawrence Hernandez was demoted as chief executive officer of the Cesar Chavez School Network in Pueblo, he was fired from his new, diminished position.
School board members of the Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School, one of the networks schools, acted late Friday to fire Hernandez, along with his wife, Annette, who was Cesar Chavez Academy’s chief operating officer, and academy executive Velia Rincon.
After an 11-hour executive session, the board opened the meeting about 10:30 p.m. Friday and announced the overwhelming decision to parents and school administrators.
“It was devastating to them as it was to devastating to us. They (Hernandezes) were in shock,” board president Dennis Feuerstein said Saturday.
“None of us expected it to come to this. We’ve been friends and family for years.”
Feuerstein wouldn’t give a reason for the firings.
He did say that Hernandez had not honored “the conditions made by the board” after he was placed on paid administrative leave because of “long ongoing incidents” and that this resulted in conditions deteriorating.
He said the Hernandezes decision last week to seek legal counsel “put us in another predicament.”
Feuerstein also said the board was feeling growing pressure from the state-run Colorado Charter School Institute and by the assistant State General’s office to take action.
Feuerstein said the terminations got the “full support” of the Colorado Charter School Institute.
Regarding the termination of Rincon, Feuerstein said Lawrence Hernandez had never bothered to have her executive job ratified by the board.
Beginning in 2001, Hernandez founded and started two charter schools in Pueblo, two in Colorado Springs, one Denver school and one online school.
Nearly 2,150 students attend the Cesar Chavez School Network along the Front Range.
Hernandez came under scrutiny in May after the network was trying to close one of its schools because of financial problems.
Shortly thereafter the salaries of Hernandez, his wife, and Jason Guerrero, Cesar Chavez Academy chief financial officer were disclosed.
Other allegations made against the Hernandezes include questions about students’ test scores on the Colorado Student Assessment Program — the CSAP— and whether proper procedures had been taken while tests were administered.
