Raising Cane
By Rob Perez
New scandal
bedevils Saint LouisSeveral years after a management shakeup rocked Saint Louis School, the all-boys Catholic institution is embroiled in another controversy, this time over the possible ouster of a principal who has worked at the Kaimuki campus for nearly three decades.
The apparent decision by the Rev. Allen DeLong, Saint Louis president, not to renew the contract of Principal Burton Tomita has riled faculty, sparked a student petition drive and raised questions about why the school keeps finding itself in the news for unflattering scandals or controversies.
DeLong told a faculty meeting earlier this month that Tomita decided to resign effective at the end of the school year. But Tomita later told the faculty that that wasn't the case and that DeLong had informed him that his contract would not be renewed.
Tomita refused to discuss the matter with me. DeLong didn't return my call seeking comment.
The turn of events prompted the faculty to seek an unusual meeting last week with a group from the school's board of trustees.
The faculty voiced concerns about DeLong's management practices and also asked the trustees to keep Tomita as principal. But the trustees told the faculty that DeLong's decision would stand.
One Saint Louis employee said Tomita's ouster, which lacked due process and came unexpectedly, has many workers worried about their own job security.
"Morale has never been lower," said the employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.
In a March 5 letter to the trustee board, school workers raised concerns about what they called an environment of fear and intimidation in the workplace.
"Many of us feel insecure about our employment and wonder if we will be the next person to lose our job," the letter said.
The group asked that a direct channel of communication between the board and the faculty and staff be established, ostensibly bypassing DeLong.
The letter was signed "Faculty & Staff of Saint Louis School." No individual signed the letter because of retaliation concerns, said one worker.
The paranoia level has reached such heights that several employees who had planned to meet with me for off-the-record conversations wanted to do so inside a car in a darkened parking structure, believing that would reduce the chances of being seen with a reporter. The meeting eventually was called off.
Rebecca Fernandes, Saint Louis' public relations director, said DeLong, the board and Tomita "are working together, side-by-side, toward the same vision for the school."
She declined further comment, saying personnel matters are confidential.
Saint Louis alumnus Frank Young, whose three sons also graduated from the school and who has known Tomita since 1991, said he asked DeLong to reconsider his decision, believing the principal's ouster would hurt the school.
But DeLong refused, saying Tomita had betrayed his trust and wasn't a team player, Young said.
DeLong was upset that Tomita had written a letter to the trustees about faculty concerns without first informing DeLong, according to Young, attorney P. Gregory Frey, a member of the Saint Louis Alumni Association board, and a school employee.
Frey, who has talked to Tomita about the controversy, said he believed DeLong acted within his authority in terminating the principal's employment.
But the way the decision was made -- swiftly, unexpectedly and without fully informing other governing entities at the school -- has created problems and harkens back to the board's controversial 1999 firing of the Rev. Mario Pariante, Saint Louis president at the time, according to Frey.
"It causes concern, it causes questions, it causes alarm," he said.
Young said he warned trustees that the Tomita ouster could turn into a public embarrassment.
"The departure of Burton Tomita will only be the tip of the iceberg," Young wrote in a March 3 letter to a board member. "Shortly thereafter, you will see a mass exodus of faculty and supportive alumni like myself, which will then put Saint Louis on trial in the worst possible place, the court of public opinion."
That's exactly where the controversy has landed, although the story is continuing to unfold and could turn in new directions.
Tomita spent more than a dozen years as a Saint Louis teacher before being named principal in the late 1980s, as the school was recovering from a grade-fixing scandal. He has weathered a variety of management shakeups and other controversies, including when Saint Louis football players trashed hotel rooms in Las Vegas during a post-game drinking party in 1998.
Tomita in recent years also has had to deal with student athletes getting in trouble with the law.
In 1999, the school garnered more unfavorable publicity when the board abruptly fired Pariante for failing to meet its leadership standards.
Four years later, why is Saint Louis facing yet another management shakeup? Why does such controversy seem to hit Saint Louis more than other local private schools?
One contributing factor, according to Frey and others, is the school's multiple masters.
While other private, religious schools often have a professional lay person running the institution, Saint Louis is headed by a Marianist priest, has a lay principal and is overseen by a board of trustees, all having a hand in governance.
Sometimes, those hands steer in different directions, creating tensions that can add to management turmoil.
If Tomita eventually is ousted, his firing should prompt an evaluation of Saint Louis' governance system.
And even if Tomita isn't booted, the same question should be asked: Is the current system the best system?
Saint Louis students and their parents deserve an answer.
Star-Bulletin columnist Rob Perez writes on issues
and events affecting Hawaii. Fax 529-4750, or write to
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. He can also be reached
by e-mail at: rperez@starbulletin.com.
