CALIFORNIA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOLSignOnSanDiego.com > News > Education -- Educator is focus of theft inquiryEx-principal rejects district allegations
By Tanya Sierra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 13, 2005

NATIONAL CITY – Police are investigating former National City Middle School Principal Marti Urias-Islas in connection with stolen school property, including computers and other equipment.

They also are investigating whether there is a connection between property that district officials found at her home and items that were reported stolen during burglaries at the school over the past two years, said National City police spokesman Sgt. Jose Tellez.

"I can't confirm what (school district officials) found at her house because I wasn't there," Tellez said.

Sweetwater Union High School District officials placed Urias-Islas on leave Aug. 23 and are conducting their own investigation. They wouldn't elaborate on the investigation but said they expect to be done Monday.

"Technically, I can't tell you what was confiscated," said Lillian Leopold, the district's spokeswoman.

Urias-Islas, who said Tuesday that she has resigned, acknowledged that she kept school property at her home, but was planning to give it back. She also said she was unaware of a police investigation.

"The stuff that was found here was given right back," Urias-Islas said. "It was all stuff I was working on. I was never hiding any of it and it was all returned."

Urias-Islas said she kept computers, a treadmill and another piece of office equipment – she said she didn't know what it was – at her home.

"Everyone at National knows you have to take things home because things get stolen from the school," she said. "The treadmill was only housed here until we could figure out where to put it. One of my teachers who is a writer has two computers at home. I know she's going to give them back when she leaves National."

After police complete their investigation, in about two weeks, they will present the case to the District Attorney's Office, Tellez said. The District Attorney's Office has the final say on whether charges will be filed.

The investigation began when someone at the school complained, Tellez said. He said he did not know how Urias-Islas became the focus of the investigation.

The president of the Sweetwater school board, Jim Cartmill, said he and the other trustees are updated on investigations during every closed-session meeting, which is at least once a month. Cartmill said trustees agreed that in this case the district should conduct a wide-ranging investigation because of "alleged improprieties."


Under scrutiny
Urias-Islas said she resigned because "they blew everything out of context."
"They told me, 'You have to improve scores and get the school out of program improvement,' and I did. I felt like all of that didn't matter," she said.

"It was a matter of principle. They were treating me really bad and I didn't feel like putting up with it anymore."

National City Middle School has been under scrutiny before. Parents and teachers have staged protests at the school, saying the district was taking too long to renovate the campus. They have complained for years about crumbling plumbing and wiring and infestations of cockroaches, rodents and fleas.

Urias-Islas said this week that she was frustrated with the conditions at the school and at times encouraged the protests. District officials were displeased by that, she said.

Judith Castillo, a parent who organized the protests and admired Urias-Islas, said she is disappointed.

"I don't even have the words to tell you how upset this makes me," Castillo said. "It was a real shocker to me."

Castillo said she remembers the day Urias-Islas was put on leave.

"She came to me and said, 'They're asking me to drop everything to go to the district,'" she said. "We both thought it was because of the protests."

In 2003, National City Middle School was placed on a federal list of schools that must improve academically or face sanctions. It was released from that status this year after making progress for two consecutive years.

About 85 percent of the children at the school qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches, and more than 45 percent are learning English.

Abusing power at a school with some of the most disadvantaged students in the district is unforgivable, said Janice Hona-Carrillo, a former teacher at National City Middle School.

"If this is true, I think it's really sad for the students because they already are deprived of a lot of the necessary funding," Hona-Carrillo said. "The public sort of blurs all these things together. When they hear this they're going to say, 'See how our educational money is spent.' "


Revealing records
According to Sweetwater school district records obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune through a public records request, Urias-Islas' annual salary was $112,179 a year.
Property records show she and her husband, Javier Islas, purchased a $1.2 million home in the Eastlake neighborhood of Chula Vista in February. They also own a condominium in San Diego and one in Hawaii, according to the records. In 1993, the couple filed for bankruptcy, court records show.

School district records show Urias-Islas' son, Julio Islas, and her mother, Gloria Franco, were employed at the school while she was principal. Franco worked as an arts and crafts instructor, an intramurals coach and coordinator, and a site technology facilitator. She was paid $17,903 for work she did between July 2004 and June 2005, district records show.

Julio Islas worked as a Webmaster and was paid $3,881 for maintaining the school's Web site from August 2003 to July 2005. He was supervised by his mother, which violates school district bylaws, which do not permit an employee to be supervised by a family member.

"All of this is part of the investigation we've been doing," Leopold said.

Urias-Islas said she never supervised her son.

As part of the public records request, district officials provided a receipt for $126 worth of plants and soil that Urias-Islas purchased with Associated Student Body funds. Those plants were supposed to be for the school but were not found there, Leopold said.

Urias-Islas began working at the school district in 1989 as a bilingual-education teacher at Mar Vista High School. In 1994, she taught at Palomar High before becoming an assistant principal at Bonita Vista Middle School for summer 1997. In fall 1997, she went to National City Middle as acting assistant principal. She left the school for Montgomery High in 2001, then returned as principal of National City Middle in 2002.

Former co-workers described Urias-Islas as a fitness enthusiast who taught exercise classes. According to the Web site for the Purefitness health club in Bonita, Urias-Islas teaches kickboxing Saturdays and Mondays.