VOLUME 110 ISSUE 6
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
October 2, 2014
COURIER
EDITORIAL
The Board should
rescind Rocha's
severance package
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BOARD SUED OVER ROCHA SEVERANCE PAY
Philip McCormick
Editor-in-Chief
A lawsuit filed on Thursday
by a nonprofit group seeks a
court-ordered reversal of former
president Mark Rocha’s $400,000
severance package, alleging that
the Board of Trustees violated
open meetings laws.
Californians Aware, the group
suing the school, claims that the
Board hid the discussion of the
severance package under the tide
of “anticipated litigation” on its
closed session agenda items.
“There is no reference in any
agenda for any Board meeting
[that] indicated that the Board
was discussing or took action to
provide a severance package to
Dr. Rocha,” the lawsuit states.
The suit also asserts that Cal¬
ifornia Aware received a letter
from Mary Dowell, attorney for
the Board, saying that the Board
had not violated the Brown Act
and, therefore, the Board was
“not obligated to ‘cure or cor¬
rect’ any of its actions leading
up to the final Agreement and
Mutual General Release with
Rocha.”
Californians Aware requested
in its suit against the school that
the Board “cure and correct”
its mistakes and rescind Rocha’s
severance package. It also calls
on the court to force Rocha to
return the money.
Furthermore, it asks that the
board to “disclose each date and
under which agenda item the
Board discussed Rocha’s sever¬
ance and/or resignation.”
Academic Senate President
Eduardo Cairo said that based
on what he had read in the
suit, he thought the allegations
sounded valid.
“The district never noticed
or discussed Rocha’s retirement
severance package. . Cairo
said. “That’s a severe black eye
on our Board of- Trustees for
OPEN MEETING page 2 ►
File photo by Daniel Nerio
Former President Mark Rocha.
Ballerina dances back to class
Daniel Valencia/Courier
Jessica Lauren Taylor in the quad arching back with her fan down.
Mick Donovan
Online Editor
She rehearsed the piece for more
than a year, and when she got up on
stage her mind went blank for the first
eight counts of the song. It was trau¬
matizing. She stared at the judges, lost,
and then she regained her composure.
She stayed on stage, and she danced.
Backtrack some years. She was 8
and she begged and begged her moth¬
er to let her dance.
Her mother signed her up for one
week of class.
The first thing she did in class was
cry, as she had no idea what she was
doing in a class full of 6-year-olds. By
the end of the week, she was in love
with it.
By the age of 14 Jessica Taylor
trained seriously, on a scholarship,
for 40 hours a week and competed at
Youth America Grand Prix in New
York.
“Dance is my life. I know everyone
says that, but I don’t know any other
way to live. At one point, I worked
almost 40 hours a week at a retail job
and I wasn’t really able to dance for
that period of time,” Taylor said. “I
just couldn’t function. It wasn’t me.
I have to dance — it’s what I do. It’s
everything I do. I stop what I’m doing
and dance and my friends are like ‘Oh
my God! She’s dancing again!’ It’s who
I am.”
Since she was 8, Taylor has com¬
peted at dance competitions, trained
in professional ballet companies,
performed with companies in major
productions, made appearances on
talk shows like Good Day L.A. and
Bonnie Hunt, and performed as a
dancer in the movie Honey 2.
“Students come to me, and some¬
times I need to re-train them, that’s
not the case with Jessica,” said Ellen
Davis, Taylor’s performing/ communi¬
cation arts instructor.
All of this success wasn’t always
BALLERINA page 7 ►
Former VP files
lawsuit against
school district
Philip McCormick
Editor-in-Chief
Former Vice President Richard van Pelt filed a
lawsuit against PCC on last week, alleging that the
district breached his contract and failed to reimburse
his business expenses while employed by the school,
according to court documents.
The suit claims that van
Pelt is owed at least $1 85,000
in severance pay for the time
he was on administrative
leave until he was “wrongful¬
ly” terminated, according to
the suit.
. . In the event that Richard van Pelt
the Board intends to act to
terminate this employment
contract prior to its termination date,” van Pelt’s
contract states, according to the suit. “The District
shall pay the administrator as severance pay. . .”
The suit does not identify when van Pelt was
formally terminated, only that he is owed money for
the period between June 2012 and June 2013.
The suit also lumps in van Pelts lawyer and court
fees he had to pay when LED Global, a lighting
firm, sued him, Facilities Services Supervisor Alfred
Hutchings and the district in 2012. They were
accused of soliciting bribes in exchange for the $5
million lighting contract for the school, but the case
was dismissed in early 2013 because it had no merit,
according to court records.
Van Pelt also claims in the suit that the school
never took the necessary steps to investigate the
matter fully before firing him and only eventually
took action to “justify the malicious actions of Ro¬
cha and General Counsel Gail Cooper.”
LAWSUIT page 2 ►
SPEAK OUT!
Should the Board rescind
Rocha's severance package?
Vote at
PccCourier. com
