By Kathleen Acuff

Fifth-grader Adrienne Whitlock is so upset about the imminent departure of her Montclaire Elementary School teacher that she took a clipboard to recess last week and collected the signatures of 92 students on a petition protesting what they view as an unfair dismissal.

The Cupertino Union School District views it as a confidential personnel matter that it is not at liberty to discuss.

The teacher in question is 20-year education veteran Erika Hizy, serving her second year in the Cupertino district. Parents of Hizy’s students say the popular teacher was forced out. Montclaire Principal Todd Shimada did not return phone calls by press time.

Superintendent Bill Bragg issued a statement through district spokesman Jeremy Nishihara: “It’s unfortunate that a personnel issue has now involved the students. It’s an adult issue, and it should be kept away from them in the classroom.”

Nishihara added that Hizy submitted a letter of resignation, which the district accepted.

“I’ve never been let go before, I’ve always left on my own,” Hizy told the Town Crier.

Eleven-year-old Adrienne said, “Mrs. Hizy is a great teacher. When I found out she had been dismissed, I thought of making a petition to let the district know that we thought Mrs. Hizy was a valuable teacher and that we disagreed with their decision to let her go.”

Her petition stated: “We, the students of Montclaire, believe that Mrs. Hizy has been unfairly dismissed as a teacher and would like you to reconsider this decision because she is a valuable and caring teacher.”

Adrienne and three of her friends circulated the petition. They said they felt the whole school would have signed it if they’d had more time to gather signatures. The four girls delivered the petition to Bragg’s office last Tuesday. He was in Sacramento, so they left the petition and a note with his secretary.

Hizy met with Bragg the next day and later characterized the meeting as “an exit interview.”

Hizy thanks parents and teachers for their support.

“There is so much support that I would hope that there could be a solution,” she said.

Adrienne’s mother, Allyson Whitlock, is a retired teacher.

“It’s a really puzzling thing,” she said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. I think all the parents feel this way about it. Mrs. Hizy is gracious, caring, competent. She taught good writing skills and some strengths my kids haven’t had in the past. Giving no reason causes people to speculate. It’s an injustice - you can’t just let things like this happen. People had to speak up because it’s unfair.”

Whitlock was among the group of parents who went to Shimada’s office a few weeks ago to find out what was behind the apparent dismissal. The district is not required to cite a reason for dismissal or nonrenewal of a teacher’s contract if the teacher has been with the district less than two full years.

“He said he couldn’t say anything. I don’t think he ever believed this would blow up into anything like this - he thought that she’d go away quietly. Why should she when in our viewpoint there’s no reason for her to. She’s a good, competent teacher with a lot of experience. I think he was surprised that so many parents would take a stand,” Whitlock said.

She speculated that a disagreement over discipline may have arisen between the principal and the teacher. She described Hizy’s approach as strict and Shimada’s as “making friends more than guidelines and discipline.”

Whitlock said, “He is not much of a disciplinarian, and that may be where the disagreement came in. Mrs. Hizy brought up the zero-tolerance thing, and he may have felt she was putting him in his place.”

Whitlock added, “I have really liked him in the past, and my daughter likes him. He’s very personable, so this is kind of a shock - this is kind of out of character. He’s someone who doesn’t take much action, but he’s a nice guy.”

Hizy is on Montclaire’s leadership team and has a class of 31 students, five of whom were new to the school last fall. By all accounts, among Hizy’s students are all the fifth-graders with behavior problems. The other fifth-grade teacher, Kit Bragg, the superintendent’s son, has a student with extremely challenging physical problems in his class. Hizy said she and her fellow teacher are friends and work together well. She said her class was a challenge in the first few months of the school year but has grown into a more compassionate, sensitive group.