Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Jim Hilton, business manager for Hillbrook School, says the school tower would be the first project to be renovated.

Venerable old school hits rough seas

By Nathan R. Huff

As an old wooden ship being pounded by swells from all directions, Hillbrook School's turbulent journey continues.

A week after Hillbrook headmistress Sarah Bayne's trial over failure to report an alleged case of child abuse was to begin, the school is still far from finding acceptable solutions to its neighborhood problems while old internal conflicts continue to resurface.

While the trial has been delayed until Nov. 13, controversy has not. Neighbors on opposing sides of the hillside school say no progress has been made regarding traffic issues, and several are questioning Hillbrook's commitment to finding a solution. Completely unrelated to those problems are the comments of several former teachers and former parents who have spoken out on what they see as the negative direction the school has taken under Bayne.

School officials, for their part, are mum on the trial. They maintain they are committed to finding a solution to neighborhood traffic issues that have pitted two streets' residents against each other. As far as dissatisfied former employees and parents, Hillbrook supporters said that it was an unavoidable part of any change in leadership. Bayne was also quick to note that the vast majority of teachers and parents are extremely pleased with the quality of education at Hillbrook and the changes that have been made over the past two years.

The Trial

Bayne, who took over as headmistress of Hillbrook two years ago, surrendered to authorities in November 1999, after being charged with a misdemeanor of failing to report a suspected case of child abuse.

According to police, a teacher had noticed red finger marks on the face of a third-grader. The boy said his mother had slapped him when he refused to eat his breakfast. The teacher reported the incident to Bayne, and, knowing the boy's parents were large financial supporters of the school, also reported it to police in case Bayne did not.

In Bayne's testimony to police, she said she followed school procedure, meeting with the parents and the teacher. She also said she placed an anonymous call to Child Protective Services in San Francisco, but was told it was not a case that would normally be reported.

No proof of the phone call could ever be found, and CPS offices in both Santa Clara County and San Francisco told police that the incident would definitely be something on which they would take a report.

Because of the crowded court schedule, the trial has been delayed several times. It is now set to begin on Nov. 13. This has frustrated Bayne's attorney James McManis, who said they have been ready to proceed since June.

McManis said Bayne's plea is and will remain unchanged. "There will be no plea bargaining in this case; she did nothing wrong," McManis said, adding that a police investigation found no child abuse had occurred. "The prosecution of this case is disgraceful. For the life of me I can't figure out why she's being prosecuted for the failure to report a nonevent."

McManis added that three of the deputy district attorneys have children at Hillbrook School and none of them are particular fans of Bayne. Charlotte Chang, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, confirmed that three people in the district attorney's office have or have had children at Hillbrook. However, a judge has already dismissed a defense motion to disqualify the district attorney's office from prosecuting the case, stating that there was no inherent bias. Chang is not connected to Hillbrook in anyway.

Dissension in the Ranks

Apparently the district attorney's office isn't the only place where Bayne has critics. Five teachers left following Bayne's arrival and, according to several former employees, the new administration is at the heart of the problem.

"Her way of managing was different, to put it kindly," former yearbook teacher Florence Houser said. "She was not a very nice person."

Houser, who taught off and on at Hillbrook from 1973 to 1999, said the change in management following the departure of former headmaster Robert "Robin" Clements resulted in immediate tensions. Houser said Bayne's style of management was adversarial and secretive, as opposed to Clements who, for 21 years, "really ran it with the teachers in mind."

"She felt there was resistance, and rather than confronting the resistance, she decided to ignore them," Houser said. "What she wants to hear is her own opinions repeated."

Houser said the tense atmosphere led to teachers feeling as if they couldn't talk about certain issues. She said Bayne brought in a professional mediator in December, but the mediation was slanted toward the headmistress' views. A community meeting at the end of the 1999-2000 school year was equally unproductive. The agenda was scripted, Houser said, not allowing open comments until late in the evening.

Robert Dunne, board president of Hillbrook, strongly disagreed with Houser's interpretation on both the community meeting and the mediator, which he said was a misnomer. "There was a team-building facilitator brought in who met with Bayne, the administration and teachers," Dunne said, adding that the majority of faculty gave very positive feedback. "It was an extremely open process."

Dunne said the community meeting was well attended and that everyone who wanted to speak had a chance. He said that while board members spoke for some time, it was in response to questions they had solicited from staff and parents.

Dunne, who currently has two children at Hillbrook, said the teacher turnover and dissatisfaction with the new management was unfortunate, but predictable. "When a new CEO comes in anywhere there's attrition," Dunne said, adding that it was Bayne's specific charge from the board to update the school that irked many of the veteran teachers.

"There hadn't been enough attention paid to faculty skills and the ability to keep up with new teaching techniques," Dunne said. "The charge from the board was to bring teachers up to date."

Bayne agreed, explaining that for many years there were very few changes at Hillbrook. The median age of teachers when Bayne arrived was in the mid-50s--now it's 34. "I was hired by the board to oversee bringing the school into the 21st century," Bayne said, "and not everybody is going to be happy about that."

Bayne noted that turnover in schools is always high, especially in an area with such a high cost of living. "I think so much of this has been blown so out of proportion," she said.

But according to former art teacher Jeanne Aikman, the real effect has been a changing in the school's unique and rural character. Aikman resigned from Hillbrook in mid-August for reasons of "personal integrity," she said. Aikman's personal complaint is with the administration's handling of the new master plan. While the majority of public discourse on the new plan has been centered around the neighbors' traffic complaints, Aikman believes the bigger issue is the plan itself.

Hillbrook, which had completed a number of new buildings over the past several years, recently submitted a new master plan at the town's request. Most of the new facilities detailed in the plan will remain roughly in the existing footprint, but completely new facilities are also proposed. Most of Hillbrook's older buildings are not in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, or earthquake safe, Hillbrook business manager Jim Hilton said.

The biggest addition of the master plan is a new, 5,500-square-foot library/media center and art classroom proposed for the central courtyard area. The existing library, approximately half the proposed library's size, will be demolished.

Aikman argues that the location of the new library will ruin the rural, communal feel of the existing central courtyard area. The grassy, tree-covered area is the heart of the campus, according to Aikman. It presently houses four small structures built by students more than 50 years ago. The unique, quaint playhouses are in serious need of refurbishing which, Aikman said, was promised by the administration in 1997. Now, she said, the administration is planning on moving the structures away from their central location.

Slow Process

However, according to Hilton, moving the student-constructed buildings was "never the school's intention." One of the four buildings may have to be shifted over a few feet to make room for the new library, Hilton said. He added that the school plans to restore the old buildings, but that at $6,000 to $7,000 for each structure, progress will be slow. Bayne agreed with Hilton, adding that rumors suggesting a plan to remove the buildings were floating about before she even arrived.

Dunne disagreed with Aikman's claim that the master plan process did not include input from staff. "The opportunity was there for all those who were interested to comment on the plan," Dunne said, citing several groups of teachers, parents, board members and alumni who worked on the plan. "There was never any jamming of the master plan down anyone's throat."

Nineteen-year Hillbrook veteran Jimmye Mollin said that, even two years after Bayne's arrival, she still doesn't know what all the controversy is about. She was part of the 23-member committee that worked on the new master plan. Mollin has nothing but good things to say about Bayne's administration.

"I think she is a wonderful administrator," Mollin, formerly a teacher and now a learning specialist, said. "She's straightforward and honest in what she does--she's a true educator." Mollin added that she believed Hillbrook was "better than it has ever been."

The master plan now sits in limbo--by order of the town council. The planning commission had passed Hillbrook's new plan in April. Marchmont Drive residents Arthur and Elaine Myers filed an appeal following the decision, claiming the commission did not adequately examine parking and traffic problems, among other things.

When the matter was placed on the town council June 5 agenda, Marchmont Drive and Ann Arbor Drive residents packed the council chambers, arguing over whether the access gate at Ann Arbor should remain closed. Marchmont residents have said that as the only access, they bear the full brunt of Hillbrook traffic. Ann Arbor residents have repeatedly stated that Marchmont residents knew what they were getting into when they bought their homes, and that Ann Arbor residents were assured the gate to Hillbrook would remain closed.

Caught in the middle, the town council sent the master plan application back to the planning commission, asking that Hillbrook, located at 300 Marchmont Drive, first meet with neighbors to come up with workable solutions.

Before the first of several meetings, Hillbrook sent a letter to the surrounding neighbors on both sides of campus with a list of steps it would take to ease traffic problems. They included prohibiting off-campus parking, a shuttle service to major events on campus, insisting on more regular police patrols of approaches to school and facilitating carpooling by "providing the networking mechanism for carpool link up."

But, according to one neighbor, all those solutions have been proposed before, with limited enforcement and success. The Marchmont Drive resident said the street endures hundreds of cars over a 15-minute period in the morning, making it nearly impossible to get out of one's driveway. After speaking out on the issue at a public meeting, the resident said she was approached by two different Hillbrook parents, one saying she needed to change her schedule and the other saying she was just "jealous because her kid wasn't smart enough" to go to Hillbrook. She asked that her name be withheld for this story.

The Myerses also expressed little optimism on the progress of meetings. Elaine Myers said that while the previous administration had been responsive to resident complaints, Bayne was less inclined to talk.

"She really didn't realize how disturbing traffic issues were to the public," Myers said of Bayne.

Bayne admits she came into the situation blind, but said she reacted quickly once convinced of the seriousness of neighbors' concerns. "As soon as I realized what a huge issue and legitimate issue it was, I moved on it the next day," she said.

Hilton said the school is continuing to try to find a compromise, but that the positions the two neighborhoods had taken left very little wiggle room. He said the number of evening and weekend events had been drastically cut, and there was even a proposal to eliminate them entirely. That would mean no more Boy Scout or organizational meetings on the premises.

"It's a school, and that's a tough order to fill," Hilton said. Hilton had no specific date when the school would return to the planning commission. Bayne said that while the school would continue working with residents to be "good neighbors," the town would have to make a decision eventually.

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