Bylaw research brings up familiar name

When the Fallbrook Union High School District Board of Trustees heard numerous complaints about Board Bylaw 9250 (extended benefit for retiring trustees) at their board meeting of November 27, one was from Fallbrook Union Elementary School District Trustee Maurice Bernier – the same individual who seconded the motion to pass the bylaw when he was seated on the high school board in 1995.

A review of the minutes of the May 9, 1995, meeting show that Trustee Paul Finot (seated from 1992 to 1996) made the motion and, following Bernier’s second, the board passed that bylaw unanimously along with other policies, bylaws and regulations that had also been carefully analyzed by the California Association of School Boards.

“I really have to apologize; that was probably one of the biggest blunders of my career,” Bernier said in a telephone interview on Monday. “I wish I had been a little more studious and more careful at what I was looking at, but we reap what we sow.”

At the November 27 meeting of the FUHSD board, when teachers and other attendees verbalized their outrage at the bylaw, on which outgoing Trustee Jim Hutcherson is now contemplating exercising his option, Bernier said to the board during Public Comment Session, “I’m sorry to see this come before us. I’m very much acquainted with perks and there is no way any member of [the FUESD] board will ever receive lifetime health benefits.”

At the high school board meeting, Bernier added, “Since this is a board bylaw, by its very name it means that the board can change the bylaw. It’s not made by the state.”

Bernier, who holds a master of arts degree in human resources management and a doctorate in education administration, was just re-elected to a second four-year term with Fallbrook Union Elementary School District. He served in an appointed position on the Fallbrook Union High School District Board of Trustees from January of 1995 until December of 1996. He ran for election to the high school board in both 1996 and 1998 but failed in his bid.

Hutcherson, the only trustee sitting on the board both when Bernier seconded Finot’s motion to approve the bylaw in 1995 and when he made the negative comment about it at the November 27 board meeting, said, “It was just kind of sad.”

When asked why he didn’t bring that information forward at the November 27 meeting, Hutcherson said, “I could have told Maurice that he sat there and seconded that motion but I didn’t want to start a contentious situation. And I felt that he was a good board member.”