Longtime education trustee censured for alleged gender bias

A Santa Clara County Board of Education trustee flagged for allegedly making dismissive and demeaning comments toward women with whom he disagreed has been censured by his colleagues.

The spit 4-3 decision Wednesday night to censure — or issue a formal statement of disapproval — trustee Joseph Di Salvo marks the first time in history that the Santa Clara County Board of Education has censured one of its members. It comes seven months after two County Office of Education employees and two fellow board trustees submitted complaints to County Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan on alleged gender and racial harassment by Di Salvo and following a third-party investigation that substantiated the claims of gender

discrimination.

A memo about the investigation said that his behavior at board meetings consisted of “making negative, critical, disrespectful, dismissive, demeaning and heated comments and behavior when challenging women whom he perceived were not doing what he wanted.”

During one notable instance in 2017, Di Salvo began arguing with thenVice President Rosemary Kamei for picking another trustee to be first to pose questions to the leaders of Promise Academy, a charter school that was petitioning toopen.

Di Salvo repeatedly interrupted his female colleagues on the board and spoke above them. At one point, when trustee Anna Song placed a hand on his arm in an effort to calm him down, Di Salvo threw her hand off and blurted out, “Excuse me. Don’t touch me; don’t touch me.”

Although Di Salvo apologized for his behavior at the subsequent board meeting, some of his colleagues still were disturbed by the outburst.

The investigator hired to review Di Salvo’s conduct did not determine racial bias played a role but did find that his behavior “goes beyond professional discourse, and instead represents a subtle bias against women who disagree with or challenge him,” according to a board memo.

“The investigator found this is stereotypical behavior indicative of gender bias, and further determined that Di Salvo’s conduct ‘appeared to have been undertaken for other reasons, including to undermine or to intimidate a woman into changing her opinion,’ ” the memo stated.

Di Salvo, who has served on the seven-member county education board since 2008, acknowledged during a board meeting Wednesday night that he had engaged in many heated debates during his time on the board and may have, at times, worded his comments too harshly. But, he said, “citing these disagreements out of context is inappropriate” and indicated that the investigation “lacked evidence.”

With his seat up for reelection in November, Di Salvo called the timing of the investigation “dubious at best.”

“It’s an effort to distract voters from important issues and build an effort against my reelection,” he said.

Following concerns raised by Di Salvo that he was not given enough time to appropriately respond to the investigation and discuss the matter with his attorney, board trustee Anna Song asked her colleagues to hold off on a final vote and ensure her colleague was given due process.

“We take painstaking consideration when we hear charter school hearings, explosion hearings, interdistrict hearings and if we don’t afford that to our fellow trustee, I think we are not doing ourselves a service,” Song said.

But other trustees on the board disagreed.

“We had an outside investigation, we had a nonpartial investigation and we cannot have any tolerance of this kind of behavior,” Vice President Kathleen King. “So I think training and censure are warranted at this time.”

Trustee Peter Ortiz — the only other man on the board — stated he believed his colleagues “should have called out trustee Di Salvo’s behavior way before today.”

“I myself, as a man of color, would never think to behave in certain ways on this board,” Ortiz said during the meeting. “I know that the second I talk to someone a certain way, I will be crucified by the public.”

As part of the censure and public reprimanding, Di Salvo also has been asked to participate in training that addresses the prevention of gender bias.