Pueblo teacher questions school board decision, citing false allegations
A state champion baseball coach and Pueblo teacher said the Pueblo City Schools’ board president and a candidate for school board have been spreading false allegations about him, and it cost him a job for a school he loves.
Terry Montoya was turned down for the head baseball coach position at East High School at the Sept. 22 board meeting, despite being recommended for the position by Superintendent Dr. Constance Jones and the selection committee. Board members Phyllis Sanchez, Kathy DeNiro and Patty Milner voted against it.
“I think the hardest part was my little boy asked me in the morning if I got the job and I had to tell him I didn’t get it,” said Montoya, who’s been an art teacher at East for nine years.
Board President Kathy DeNiro said during the meeting she had concerns about hiring Montoya, but wouldn’t say why, saying it was a personnel issue.
When Montoya looked through his personnel file, it was clean. He found five positive evaluations and a recently issued teacher’s license valid through 2020.
“It’s pretty hard to accept that it’s just a personnel issue when there’s nothing in my file,” said Montoya, who helped lead the Rye High School baseball team to a state championship earlier this year.
Montoya was determined to dig deeper for answers, so he requested emails from the school and found former East head baseball coach D.J. Latino wrote in his resignation letter not to hire Montoya because he was “guilty of illegal acts of intentional loss and destruction of school equipment and property.”
That letter was sent to all the school board members. Additionally, Montoya found an email in which DeNiro writes about talking with Frank Latino, a school board candidate and D.J. Latino’s father, about Montoya.
“It’s scary because anybody can make an allegation against anybody, or an accusation and for your employer to take that without giving due process to someone,” Montoya said.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 called DeNiro, Sanchez and Milner, as well as D.J. and Frank Latino, but has not heard back..
Frank Latino provided KRDO NewsChannel 13’s news partners, The Pueblo Chieftain, a statement, “…I will not comment at this time on something that is in the distant past,” Frank Latino wrote. “I will spend the next week concentrating on my campaign and working for the betterment of Pueblo.”
District 60 Spokesman Dalton Sprouse said the district can’t recall a time that an employee candidate has been recommended for a job by the superintendent and a selection committee, but rejected by the board. Still, the board has the final say.
According to district policy, “The vote of a majority of the Board shall be necessary to approve the appointment of teachers, administrators or any other employee of the school district. If there is a negative vote by the Board, the superintendent shall submit a new recommendation to the Board for approval.“
Montoya said board members have yet to tell him why they voted against hiring him.
“Apparently I’m qualified to teach some of our brightest kids in Pueblo with the IB program we have at East. I’m qualified to coach for the defending state champions, Rye Thunderbolts, and apparently I’m not qualified enough to coach baseball,” Montoya said. “It doesn’t make sense, really. If there were really a personnel issue that big, then I shouldn’t be in the classroom either.”
