After criticizing MBX, Mira Costa teacher not rehired for summer school
Mira Costa Social Studies Department co-chair Adam Geczi and English teacher Shawn Chen, who also is the head of the MBUSD teachers association. Photo
Longtime Mira Costa High School teacher Adam Geczi will not be in the classroom this summer. MBX, the parent foundation that runs summer school classes at the campus, declined to rehire him for the coming term, in part because of his “strident public criticism of MBX’s summer program.”
Geczi taught summer school in the district for the past 12 years
MBX principal Dr. Karina Gerger, who is also the principal of Pennekamp Elementary in Manhattan Beach, told Geczi in an email that he would not be rehired for the coming summer. Geczi is co-chair of the Mira Costa High School social sciences department. In January, his department voted to lower its grading standards in response to what the department said in a statement was as many as one-third of Mira Costa students avoiding school-year social science courses by taking them over the summer at MBX and similar programs.
“Given your decision to disregard policy on student attendance and finals on the last day of class last summer, and given your often-stated and strident public criticism of MBX’s summer program, the leadership of the MBX organization must decline your request to teach this summer,” Gerger wrote in a March 28 email to Geczi.
Gerger did not specify the criticism she was referring to. Geczi said that at the time of his department’s vote he had been raising concerns about the growing use of summer courses, and their allegedly lower academic standards, with Manhattan Beach Unified School District leadership for more than a decade. In a February 1 Easy Reader story on the department vote, Geczi claimed a colleague had not been rehired to teach summer school for grading too strictly. MBX officials disputed Geczi’s assertion that its summer courses are easier than those offered during the school year.
Along with operating summer school, MBX oversees fundraising for dozens of campus sports and other afterschool programs and donates money to district programming and facility needs. Geczi said that Gerger linking the decision to his past criticism of MBX caused him to forward the exchange to Sandra Goins, executive director of South Bay United Teachers, the local California Teachers Association affiliate.
In an interview, Goins said that MBX was retaliating against Geczi.
“It’s not related to his qualifications, or his experience, or the standards he holds students to, but because he’s outspoken. He’s outspoken in his role as a department head, and as an educator,” she said.
Gerger did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment on the issue. Jennifer Williams, executive director of MBX, said, “We’re just not going to comment publicly on personnel issues.”
In a reply email to Gerger, Geczi intimated that Gerger’s actions could run afoul of California’s wrongful termination statutes. The legislature updated the state’s “whistleblower” laws in 2014 to expand protections for anyone reporting suspected illegal behavior either internally to an oversight body, or externally to any public body conducting an investigation. SB 469 imposes fines of up to $10,000 per violation, penalties which are triggered either by an employer’s action or by someone acting on an employer’s behalf.
Geczi described the allegation that he “disregard[ed] policy on student attendance” as “pretextual.” Under MBX rules, students may miss one day of a one-semester summer school course, like the economics class Geczi taught last summer, without impacting their grade.
Geczi said the vast majority of his students did not miss any class leading up to the final exam. On the day of the final, they took the test in the morning during the first half of class, they did not return after a scheduled break. Those who did not return were marked absent for half a day, Geczi said.
Wyatt Robb, a senior at Mira Costa and editor-in-chief of La Vista, the student newspaper, has taken a one-semester course with MBX. He said not returning to class after completing a final exam is a common practice.