Q&A with ERHS Principal Salvador Velasco (Video Part III)

This is the third installment of a video recording by Patch of this past Wednesday’s Q&A between Principal Salvador Velasco and a group of parents who attended a meeting moderated by LAUSD District 4 Coordinator of Operations and School Safety Stephen Koffman.

Here are some of the highlights of this video clip:

• Velasco recounts how he verbally informed Steven Jovanelly, a junior varsity football and basketball coach who was also a substitute teacher at the school, that he was being dismissed for creating what the principal described as a “conflictive environment” stemming from a February conflict between Jovanelly and PE teacher Roman Cisneros.

• Velasco says that he told Jovanelly he would be welcome to return to his duties after June, when Cisneros is scheduled to retire (in July), and the potential for any further conflict between the two individuals would effectively cease to exist.

• Pertinently, Velasco says that part of Jovanelly’s dismissal was a formal letter that Assistant Principal Koh Ikdea issued to the coach. Ikdea issued this letter in his capacity “as the person who was in charge of this employee [Jovanelly],” Velasco notes.

Jovanelly has provided Patch with a copy of Ikeda’s letter, dated February 10 and typewritten on an official LAUSD letterhead containing the names of three individuals: Superintendent John Deasy, District 4 Superintendent Dale Vigil, and Principal Velasco.

For the record, when Patch asked Velasco during a brief interview in his office last Wednesday—on the afternoon of the LAUSD-moderated Q&A featured in this video clip—whether Jovanelly had been issued any formal communication to stay away from school, the principal replied that the coach had been given no formal letter.

When it was pointed out to Velasco that Jovanelly had given Patch precisely such a letter signed by Ikeda, Velasco instantly picked up the phone and called Ikeda, who arrived in his office moments later with an A4-size piece of paper in his hand—presumably the same letter of which a copy was given to Patch.

Velasco read the contents on the page that Ikeda gave him and then confirmed to Patch that a formal letter had indeed been issued, thereby effectively conceding that he had been unaware of any such letter until then.

The letter that Jovanelly gave Patch asks him not to enter the school premises before, during or after school hours, and not to have any interactions with anyone on campus. Here’s a verbatim copy of the letter:

February 10, 2012

To: Steven Jovanelly

From: Koh Ikeda, Assistant Principal

Thank you for your services as the junior varsity coach for basketball and football. Effective, Monday, February 13, 2012 your services will no longer be needed. Please turn in all school-related keys to the Main Office by Wednesday, February, 15, 2012. You are not allowed to come on campus before, during or after school to speak to students, coaches, and staff. Should you need to come on campus, you will need to receive prior approval from me or the principal.

Sincerely,

Koh Ikeda

Assistant Principal

Click here to see Part II of our video recording from Principal Velasco’s May 9 Q&A with ERHS parents.

Click here to see the previous video recording from the May 9 meeting.

And click here to read our first post in this series.