BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Palo Alto Unified School District hasn’t paid a law firm that successfully challenged the district’s policies for placing students in ninth grade math, according to a new lawsuit by four parents.
The district owes attorney David Tollner $38,311 for his firm’s work on a lawsuit that said the district was holding students back from advancing.
Tollner said his emails to attorney Mark Davis, who represents the district, have been ignored since Dec. 1.
So Tollner filed a lawsuit on Monday on behalf of four parents — Edith Cohen, Xin Li, Yiyi Zeng and Marek Albostza — asking a judge to find the district in contempt of court and to order another $4,018 payment.
Math placement lawsuit
Cohen, Li, Zeng and Albostza sued the district in July 2021 for allegedly violating the state’s 2015 Math Placement Act, which requires districts to establish “a fair, objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy” for students entering high school.
“All opportunities to excel in math are based on bogus tests designed so that students fail and are railroaded two to three years before they start high school,” said the lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Davis argued that students were tested and allowed to advance rapidly ahead of the typical path, with four levels of math offered in three years of middle school.
Judge’s ruling
Judge Carrie Zepeda in February 2023 found that freshman are placed in a math class based on their eighth grade level and ordered the district to test students in the first month of high school.
Zepeda also found the district failed to post its math placement policy online and didn’t collect and analyze data related to math levels, as required by the Math Placement Act.
Zepeda ordered the district to annually report the number of students, broken down by gender and ethnicity, who moved up or down after a placement test.
District claims victory
After the ruling, former Superintendent Don Austin declared “a significant victory” because Zepeda didn’t require any changes to middle school math and only minor changes to high school math.
“We won on everything that matters,” Austin said in a text message at the time.
But the parents said their victory would allow hundreds if not thousands of students to reach more advanced levels of math.
Tollner’s firm asked for $104,531 in attorney fees, but Davis said a $425 hourly rate was “unsupported, excessive and unreasonable.”
Zepeda ordered the district to pay $38,311 in attorney fees on Sept. 5, 2024, court records show. She signed the order a year later.
Tollner’s firm sent the order to the wrong place but then corrected the issue and sent it to Davis by Oct. 2, according to the latest lawsuit.
Tollner followed up with Davis about the payment on Dec. 1 and Jan.
“Our clients and I would much prefer just to get the check,” Tollner said in an email filed with the lawsuit.
Davis replied that he was out of the country on Jan. 3 and apparently still hadn’t responded by Jan. 22.
That’s when Tollner said he would be filing a motion for contempt if Davis didn’t commit to paying.
“I hate to have to write that message, but you have to admit this is more than a little silly,” Tollner said.
Payment delay
Davis told the Post in an email yesterday that he has a good relationship with Tollner, and the fees will be paid.
Davis said there was a delay because Tollner’s firm switched attorneys, and the district was trying to clarify if the fees would be paid by the district or a joint powers authority that provides liability insurance.
“I have let opposing counsel know that the fees will be paid shortly and this matter will be concluded,” Davis said in an email yesterday.
Related lawsuit
One of the parents in the lawsuit, Edith Cohen, sued the district on April 21 over its handling of two former superintendents who were paid to resign.
The board agreed to pay longtime Superintendent Don Austin $596,802 on Feb. 20 and Acting Superintendent Trent Bahadursingh $346,673 on March 17.
Cohen said the board should’ve approved the separation agreements publicly in a regular meeting because they included large payments, non-disparagement clauses and releases of liability.
Records dispute
Tollner recently scored a victory over the district in another lawsuit by parents William Nee and Wei-Wei Lin.
Nee and Lin requested hundreds of documents in November 2022 meant to show the district is failing to support disabled students. They sued after Austin and Compliance Manager Amanda Bark allegedly dragged out the request and provided incomplete records, without legal justification.
On April 15, the district on agreed to fulfill the records request and pay $29,459 in attorney fees within 30 days.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse or more embarrassing for PAUSD, it takes another turn south. With all the pending lawsuits against them, they absolutely can not afford any bad publicity about not paying their own lawyers. If only there was a business out there that could help with public relations and business strategies. Hmmmmm, sounds familiar……. I got it! They can pay Don Austin and Trent Bahardursingh even more money and hire Simple Wins to do damage control. Herb was paying close attention to Don’s lesson, he’ll turn the PAUSD ship around. Step #1 is still TRUTH.
It is now confirmed: PAUSD and all that was good about it was destroyed by the Dauber’s and their two lackeys who did all there dirty work: Donnie and Trentie. Those two are laughing all the way to the bank while the Daubers and that Debrienza woman just walk away scotch free. Just imagine if Colombo did not haven the guts and grit to not back down to those people, Donnie and Trentie would still be doing their dirty work and it would just be business as usual. I have no doubt in my mind those two were paid to keep their mouths closed and not to go on record with what really went on. Dharap is still around so don’t expect much to change until he is gone!
“Donnie” and “Trentie” is insane and being so sure of yourself that you’d say it not once, but twice is hilarious. You should be a stand up comedian. “That DiBrienza woman” was a missed opportunity though. You could have called her Jennie. Don’t know why the bit had to stop with Don and Trent :/ commit next time.
Stonewalling is part and parcel for 25 Churchill. It seems as if there is so much to hide. Why? What are the leaders at PAUSD so afraid of?
As a teacher, if I treated students, parents, staff, or administrators the way 25 Churchill treats its stakeholders I would have been in professional peril. That’s why transparency and timely responses were one key to my career success.
Sure, any organization must navigate legal waters carefully, but this is getting absurd. I once did a public records search because I was summarily denied overtime pay by a vindictive and under qualified Austin hired principal. Surmising that others had received vouchers for lesser activities with scant documentation, I requested vouchers issued at my site to staff over a five-year time span. I was told by the district legal secretary that, “the board would not approve my request because there was no clear public interest involved”.
I was not aware that the school board had to approve such requests, yet I replied, “The expenditure of taxpayer dollars is a clear public interest”. I was then told that my request would require hours of labor and would take months to produce”. I simply replied, “I have plenty of time to wait”.
At the end of the day, after receiving the requested records, it became apparent that some folks got paid without providing any documentation for vague requests, and that there were really no set standards for allocating such funds other than favoritism. I even told the former Head of Certificated Personnel, who stonewalled a meeting with me, that such practices could lead to problems down the road. Clearly my words fell on deaf ears.
In sum, it would behoove 25 Churchill to clean up its act and start behaving more like a public trust than a secret society shielded from stakeholder scrutiny. As the old saying goes, “The cover up becomes bigger than the crime”. Let’s hope the new leaders understand that maxim.
We are the problem Austin and his team went out of their way to build bridges. Sure, we didn’t agree all the time but he made an effort. What did our union do when they didn’t get what they wanted ? Started screaming fire and mobilized their two patsies on the board (Shawna and Rowena). We want change ? WE need to change. We could have Barrack Obama and superintendent and our entitled community is going to do what it does best- whine and cry.
We were lucky to have Don Austin as our superintendent. The truth is, we are very difficult community to manage as we are very entitled and always want our way. Under his leadership, we achieved stability and a positive working environment. I thank him for his service, and will miss him being our leader. I am not the only teacher that feels this way, but we are afraid to speak.
We went from having a stable district to now being in disarray simply because the union wants its way. I do not understand how constantly screaming negatives (that aren’t even true) when you don’t get your way is good four our community?
Like it or not, Don Austin was a great leader for our community and our students. We went from having a well respected superintendent to now going back to the chaos that we have always brought in ourselves because we want the unrealistic goal of a leader that agrees with us 100% of the time.
People can disagree, but the lawsuit counts, legal costs, and settlement payouts during Don Austin’s tenure deserve serious scrutiny.
Two petitions — one with about 600 signatures and another with more than 1,200 — called for his removal. Many teachers, staff, parents, and students spoke openly about fear, retaliation, and culture erosion under his leadership.
As a parent who dealt with him directly over a complaint, I found him manipulative, dismissive, and lacking basic integrity. In my experience, protecting the district’s image mattered more than honestly addressing facts or student well-being.
Many families and staff are relieved he is gone and hope the district finally moves toward transparency, accountability, and a healthier culture.