Now the only incumbent not running for re-election has turned on his colleagues, endorsing three challengers in the Nov. 8 election.

Harbeson said Larry Layton, Deborah Jauregui-Rocha and Leona Sexton are “the only candidates that I feel really care about the children of our district.”

Harbeson said he now notes when in the board meeting trustees first discuss students.

“Today it was 9:58 (p.m.),” he said after the meeting. Open session began at 7:30 p.m.

“This is the worst board we”ve had since I”ve become involved.”

Harbeson did not publicly state his endorsements, instead passing a note to a reporter before the school board meeting Thursday, so the news caught some by surprise, especially Sexton.

Sexton tried to remove Harbeson from office earlier this year and has become one of the school board’s fiercest critics. But that follows years of close involvement with the district, especially at Vasquez High School.

“That’s very nice to hear,” she said when told by a reporter of the endorsement. “I never had anything personal against him. It was just things happening in district. Actually, he’s a close friend of mine.”

The recall started after the district reassigned Vasquez Principal Steve Pinkston to a teaching post. Pinkston had been serving as an assistant football coach at the time, and many of his critics said he was spending too much time on the field and not enough in the school office.

“She was upset over a personnel decision,” Harbeson said. “Had I shared her view, I would have agreed with her. I think she’s the best candidate there is.”

Board President Fred Heslep, another incumbent who is seeking another term, also was targeted by the recall effort. He changed his tone, however, and proponents admitted he was no longer the problem.

After the recall effort fizzled, Harbeson and Heslep started finding themselves on opposing sides of many votes.

“We’ve had a lot of different viewpoints on way things should be done,” Heslep said. “It’s not a spiteful thing, but I can understand him not supporting us.”

Trustee Max Duran, the other incumbent not getting Harbeson’s backing, shrugged off the endorsements, chalking them up to the ongoing divisiveness on the board.

“He’s entitled to his own opinion, I guess,” Duran said. “It’s unfortunate that we have fallen out of grace with one another. I still like Steve. He’s a caring person and I think the recall took a lot out of him.”

Harbeson was board president in 2004 and usually carried a majority of the five trustees with him. This year, however, he has found himself more often in the minority.

On July 16, Harbeson cast the only vote against canceling a restroom installation project at Meadowlark Elementary and High Desert Middle schools. Underlying the vote was a sentiment that Meadowlark would close and the district would reopen Acton Elementary School, which it shut down in June 2004 to save money.

Harbeson left the meeting early.

The most recent board meeting, on Thursday, saw tempers flare between Harbeson and the two incumbents seeking re-election.

He clashed openly with Duran over a teacher’s plan to restructure the master schedule at Vasquez. The two interrupted and spoke over each other throughout the meeting.

At one point, Duran asked that Harbeson be recused on a vote to call a special meeting on the alternative plan.

Heslep and Harbeson found themselves at odds Thursday night over the new lights at the Vasquez High football field.

Vasquez Athletic Director Tim Jorgensen bought the stadium lights from Georgia Tech in an eBay online auction, then drove to Atlanta to pick them up.

Jorgensen has given trustees updates on the project, either directly or through administrators, but the school board has never voted to endorse the lights. Heslep said he worries about liability.

While Thursday’s meeting ended around 11 p.m. — early for Acton-Agua Dulce Unified, which has had recent meetings go past midnight — Harbeson and Heslep stood outside arguing for another half-hour.

The two said they have been friends for years and don’t let disagreements become personal. Heslep did say things have been more heated lately.

“Everybody is trying to do the best they can for the kids. The direction the board’s been going in, he’s been unhappy with, so maybe he wants to change it,” Heslep said.

“We parted friends as we always do, but he was being pretty hostile about some issues.”

School Board President Fred Heslep refused to hear an update on the lighting project at Thursday night’s meeting, since the school board has never officially voted to endorse the project started by Vasquez High athletic director Tim Jorgensen.

“It doesn’t exist as far as the board is concerned,” Heslep said in the meeting.

Jorgensen bought the lights from Georgia Tech in an eBay online auction early in the summer and picked them up himself from Georgia. Parents and supporters funded the project — which has cost about $17,000 so far, although the district has paid nothing — and Jorgensen brought in contractors, engineers, and architects to handle construction. Everyone is working for free.

Jorgensen still plans to have the lights up and running by Sept. 2 for the first Vasquez home game, if not sooner. The lights were to be all in place on the poles Friday night and the plan was to do the wiring Sunday. If everything checks out, a barbecue under the lights has been planned for Wednesday night.

Trustees first learned of the lighting project in a principal’s report on July 16. Jorgensen told the school board he purchased the lights and would soon drive to Georgia to pick them up. At the time, no one on the board objected, although they told Jorgensen to make sure every piece of paperwork was in order.

This is not the first volunteer-initiated project at Vasquez High. The all-portable campus of about 600 students got its baseball field from parent efforts and almost gained a softball field the same way. Students did most of the campus beautification.

Acton-Agua Dulce Unified has no consistent policy on what must come before the school board, and the shifting foundation of debate kept trustees, community members, and administrators arguing well past the meeting’s 11:00 p.m. adjournment.

Heslep expressed concerns that the board isn’t being kept in the loop on projects. High school administrators grumbled about being micromanaged.

“I’m not against the lights, I’m against the procedure. It should be on the agenda,” Heslep said after the meeting.

Vasquez Principal Martin Young interjected: “If we replace some chairs, is that before the board? Everything we do at the high school can’t be before the board.”

“If it requires kids walking around cranes and 7,000-lb poles, it should come before the board,” Heslep shot back. “We approved putting up volleyball nets.”

Trustee Steve Harbeson said the school board had plenty of notice.

“It should have been (on the agenda for a vote), but that’s our fault,” not Jorgensen’s, Harbeson told Heslep outside the school multipurpose room after the meeting ended.

Heslep responded: “He knew how the system worked and he circumvented it.”

After 20 minutes of arguing, the debate came down to two questions:

“Did he come and tell the board what he was going to do?” Harbeson asked.

“Did he put it on the agenda?” Heslep asked back.

In the background of all such discussions is the Vasquez High gymnasium, which has sat empty and unused for nearly a year since the district learned the building lacked state approval. If a student were hurt inside the facility, trustees might be personally liable.

The lights at Vasquez aren’t tall enough to need approval from the Division of the State Architect, which oversees school construction. DSA is staying clear of this project, except to say what the rules are.

“We don’t normally get involved in these types of issues,” Spokesman Matt Bender said when asked who would be liable if a student gets hurt during construction.

“The best way to deal with that is to make sure those light posts never fall down, and the best way to do that is to have licensed professionals oversee it.”

Superintendent Linda Wagner said the district is insured against such a tragedy.

“This is the type of project that definitely warrants board approval,” she added. “The board has been fully apprised of the project and kept well informed.”

Jorgensen was back on the field with the football team Friday and he said the last lights would be up by that afternoon. He said he understands trustees’ concern, but said he is making sure everything is done right.

“This is adults getting in the way,” he said. He added that the school board needs to trust its employees to do their jobs.

Student Trustee Mansur Ivie, a Vasquez football player, said the lights will benefit more than just the football team.

“We’re not doing this for 60 kids,” he said. “We’re doing this for 600.”

Trustees for the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District voted 4-1 to cancel a restroom installation project at Meadowlark Elementary and High Desert Middle School on Thursday night. Part of the reasoning, aside from fiscal considerations, was a lingering discontent over Acton School’s closure.

“There’s a strong feeling in my mind that we’re going back to Acton,” said Trustee Melissa Harnett, who voted with the majority.

Board President Fred Heslep said the budget and Acton School factored into his decision.

“Primarily, it’s a budgetary issue,” he said. “A week or two ago, we were in dire straights financially.”

But he added, “I don’t want to put restrooms at Meadowlark if we’re going to reconfigure and dramatically change the size of the school.”

The Division of the State Architect, which oversees school construction, told Acton-Agua Dulce Unified to install restrooms at both campuses months ago. Meadowlark did not have enough toilets and High Desert’s restrooms were too far from some classrooms.

The move will free up $196,000 in initial savings. Part of the deal requires the district to pay a $9,450 settlement to a contractor who already started work on the project. The district will now try to sell two modular restrooms it purchased months ago for $53,115 each.

Part of the money released will go to debt service, with any remainder going to campuses for instructional materials.

The move follows two weeks of nervousness over the district’s budget. A draft presented to the board on June 23 projected a $600,000 deficit, an alarming figure to trustees who voted to close Acton School in order to save $400,000 in February 2004.

The $600,000 shortfall assumed the state would take the district’s developer fee revenue upon awarding a hardship grant, for which Acton-Agua Dulce Unified is applying.

Acton-Agua Dulce Unified does not technically qualify for hardship, except on appeal, but the district is running out of options if it wants a permanent high school since the last three bond measures failed.

If the district gets a hardship grant, it would have to trade in some of its developer fees, which currently pay for leases on portable classrooms.

Jennifer Noga, the district’s director of business affairs, recently learned that the state will let Acton-Agua Dulce Unified keep one year’s worth of loan and lease payments.

“The bottom line is, because we have so much debt, which exceeds our expected income (in developer fees), the state allows us to pay our debts first,” Superintendent Linda Wagner explained.

At the board meeting Wagner lined up a soda can with a larger McDonald’s cup to illustrate the difference between what the district could keep (the cup), and what it took in from developer fees (the can).

“We’re expecting to get $380,000 in developer fees every year,” she said. “When you can keep that in there, it makes a huge difference.”

The superintendent added, “Our hardship application doesn’t hurt the budget.”

While trustees expressed concern over the budget, which is now barely in the black, uncertainty over the district’s configuration weighed just as heavily on some votes.

Harnett said the community was still split 50-50 over whether Acton was the right school to close. Harnett is waiting for a district needs assessment and enrollment figures to come in September, but she believes those numbers will vindicate Acton.

“We have time,” she said. Given that, it wouldn’t make any sense if we make decision now if we can wait three months and have more information.”

She added, “We’re being diligent, I think.”

The school board addressed a plan in June to swap Acton and Meadowlark Schools, moving every student and teacher to Acton, then leasing Meadowlark. Trustees failed to reach a consensus and delayed a final decision until after elections in November.

Trustees Heslep, Max Duran and Steve Harbeson are up for reelection, but all three have said they don’t plan to run.

Wagner, the superintendent, lamented another plan reversal by the board.

“In the short term, it relieves the general fund,” she said. “In the long term, I still believe the consolidation into four schools and the leasing of the closed school makes more long-term sense.

“In my perspective, the restroom installation would have been one step closer to the consolidation that needs to take place.”

Wagner added, “Once we’ve made a decision, it seems best to stick to it.”

Heslep admitted the board might appear to be flip-flopping.

“I’m concerned about that, but on the other hand, two weeks ago we were half a million dollars in the hole,” he said.

“If our budget were more stable, these decisions would be easier.”

Harnett said the board itself was changing, and recent decisions reflect that change.

“The board is comprised of five different individuals, and I think there has been a shift among the board,” she said.

“You can definitely see over the course of the past year that there’s been a shift.”

Sharon Millen, who resigned as principal days after the incident, appeared shaken for much of the hearing.

Her alleged assailant, Charlie Bang Sr., appeared without an attorney and said several times that he meant no harm to Millen or anyone else.

Bang faces a criminal charge of battery against a school official in the incident.

“I’m not a violent person,” Bang said. “There was no violence prior, the incident lasted only three or four seconds, and there was no violence after.”

Bang told the judge that his lawyer, who was not present, had advised him against giving details of the exchange with Millen.

Judge Lawrence Hales warned Bang that he would have to waive his Fifth Amendment protection in order to testify. Bang was under oath, the judge told him, and everything he said would be on record.

Bang noted the caution, and agreed to waive his rights.

In Millen’s account of the incident, Bang arrived in her office unannounced on the morning of May 4. He brought his son, who was suspended and should not have been on campus, Millen said.

Bang asked that his son’s suspension be lifted, which Millen refused. Bang next demanded to see student testimonials regarding the suspension.

Millen again refused, asserting then and in court that the files are school property.

On the way out of the meeting, Millen said the son pointed to a stack of papers on the school secretary’s desk, telling his father the student statements were there.

Bang, according to Millen, grabbed for the papers.

“He said, ‘I’m taking these,’ ” Millen recalled, and she put her hand down over the stack of papers.

“He grabbed me by both shoulders and threw me against the wall,” she told the court. “I slid all the way to the floor.”

A student stepped between Millen and Bang, Millen said.

“Don’t you touch her again,” Millen remembers the student shouting.

Bang did not give a full account, as Millen did. He said only that he had come to Vasquez High on May 4 to contest his son’s punishment. He asked to see statements from other students and to speak to a teacher on campus.

Bang continued to insist that he was neither violent in nature nor a threat to Millen.

“I don’t think we need to be here at all, because I’ve shown no desire to do anything to her at all,” he said. “My action was appropriate. It was minimal. It was not extreme.”

Millen told the court in response, “I’m afraid of Mr. Bang.”

Judge Hales said he could not rule on the criminal merits of the case, but decided to establish the restraining order for three years .

“Something happened that put the petitioner (Millen) in fear, and that is enough to grant the restraining order,” Hales said.

Bang must stay 100 yards away from Millen at all times and cannot contact her except through his attorney. If she does return to Vasquez High — she may stay on as a consultant for the district — Bang can drop off his two sons in the school parking lot, but cannot leave his car.

“If you see her on the street, walk in the other direction,” the judge told Bang.

Bang asked to keep a firearm loaned to him by a friend. The gun was not Bang’s and is not in his possession now, Bang said.

Hales told Bang not to get it back from his friend.

“I see no reason for you to have a gun at this time,” Hales said. “Picking up the phone and dialing 911 is usually a better idea than picking up a gun and trying to shoot someone.”

Hales denied a request from Millen’s attorney, Andrew Ward, to make Bang pay Millen’s legal expenses, which are now being paid by the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District.

Bang insisted again that he was not a threat to Millen, even after Hales imposed the restraining order.

“Don’t be afraid of me. I’m not a violent person at all,” Bang told Millen. “If you were in a burning building, I would run in and save you.”

Millen gave no reply, and the judge said it would be the last time Bang would speak to Millen.

Millen, interviewed Thursday evening, said she is pressing charges in the May 4 incident, in which she said the parent shoved her and slammed her against a wall. She said a restraining order has also been filed.

“I am pressing it to the full extent of the law, for all the school’s benefit,” she said.

It was not immediately clear, at press time, what action was in progress resulting from Millen’s decision to make a formal complaint to law enforcement.

Millen said the encounter formed her decision to end her school career at Vasquez.

“When I told my family, they were very, very concerned.”

“‘Please don’t go back,’ ” she said members of her family told her. “So I listened to my family, my God, my heart, and I walked away.”

The parent, identified by other witnesses as Charles Bang, denied any wrongdoing in a telephone interview with the Valley Press on Thursday evening.

“I don’t wish her any harm at all,” he said. “I think she’s a nice lady. If she’s coming after me, I don’t know why.”

Bang said he had not been arrested and that, to his knowledge, there was no restraining order against him.

According to Millen, Bang’s son was suspended for three days last week. The student, whose name was not released, should not have been on campus for three days, but “when I arrived in my office, the father and the son were in my office,” Millen said.

The father demanded that his son’s suspension be lifted, according to Millen. Millen said she refused to comply with the demand. Then, she said, he demanded to see student testimonials regarding the suspension. That was a demand Millen also refused.

On the way out of the meeting, Millen said the son pointed to a stack of papers on the school secretary’s desk, telling his father the student statements were there.

Bang, according to Millen, grabbed for the papers.

“He said, ‘I’m taking these,’ ” Millen recalled, and she put her hand down over the stack of papers.

“He grabbed me by both shoulders and threw me against the wall,” she said. “I slid all the way to the floor.”

She said she recalled someone in the office shouting “to call 911.” A senior student, an athlete, came from around the corner and stepped between Millen and Bang, Millen said. Millen was just getting off the floor, she said.

“Don’t you touch her again,” Millen remembers the student shouting.

“On penalty of perjury, that’s what happened,” Millen told the Valley Press.

Bang gave a different account.

“I didn’t do anything to her,” he said. “She actually pushed me and ripped some papers out of my hand.”

Millen finished the week, but chose to step down. Martin Young took over as the school’s principal on Monday. The school board had already named him to head the campus starting July 1, and Young had started filling in for Millen on some days and making decisions about next year’s staff and programs.

“The time has come for Mr. Young to transition,” said Dr. Linda Wagner, superintendent of the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District. Millen also expressed confidence that the new principal was ready to step in.

Young will be the third principal to lead Vasquez High during this school year. Steve Pinkston began the year, but was re-assigned to a teaching position in December. Millen took over in January after winter break, but said she would only stay until June.

The board put Young in place less than two months ago.

Millen called her half-year at Vasquez a “very positive experience,” despite the altercation.

“It closed the loop on my career,” said Millen, who has been a principal at elementary, middle and high school levels. “I’ve seen them cry when they started kindergarten. I’m sad that I won’t see them cry when they graduate.”

She plans to stay in education, working as a consultant for the Association of California School Administrators.

The once-again-retired principal added, “I will not return to the campus. It is not worth the discomfort and the anxiety.”