What to all appearances seemed a heavy-handed effort by the legal counsel to the Adelanto Elementary School District to tip the outcome of the race in that district’s Governing Area 1 in Tuesday’s election in favor of the incumbent failed, as the challenger in that contest, the district’s former superintendent, has scored a narrow victory in the combination of Tuesday’s polling place ballot casting and mail-in ballots received and tallied by the registrar of voters so far.
Former Superintendent Michael Krause’s victory over Christine Turner creates what promises to be an awkward circumstance, as he is now in a position to influence district policy, potentially in directions that the district board in the recent past resisted when he was in charge of the district’s administration and educational mission.
More pointedly, what is at stake is whether the law firm the district has used over the last several years to guide it in terms of legal advice and governing procedure will be able to remain in place after the attorney with that firm who is assigned to the district engaged in a bare-knuckled effort to prevent the election of the individual who is likely to prove the most knowledgeable member of the board with regard to educational issues, approaches and policies from a professional standpoint.
A question that yet stands is how civilly and cooperatively the other members of the school board will be able to accept Krause as a colleague and work toward improving the academic performance of the district’s schools. Three of those four board members earlier this year voted along with the board member Krause is to displace to suspend him from his role as superintendent before he and the district entered into a separation agreement in June.
Krause has been active in the educational field for more than two decades, having participated in local school education programs as an undergraduate when he was at Northern Alabama University in the 1990s. Upon graduation, he went to work as a stockbroker, but left that profession to enlist in the U.S. Army after September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. He served as a medic with the 11th Armored Blackhorse Cavalry Regiment, in which capacity he was eventually stationed at Fort Irwin. While at Fort Irwin, he obtained his emergency teaching credential to fill the gap in substitute teachers in the Silver Valley School District, which serves the children of soldiers stationed at Fort Irwin. Upon his discharge from the Army in 2004, he used the GI Bill to further his education, achieving his master’s degree in management at Webster University and his teaching credential by 2007, whereupon he went to work as a teacher in the Victor Valley Union High School District, teaching at Silverado High School. After four years there, in 2011, he transitioned into educational administration, going to work with the Baker Unified School District as its chief business officer. In 2013, he jumped at the chance to go from overseeing a district budget of $2.7 million with an average daily attendance of less than 400 at Baker Unified to becoming the associate superintendent with the South Whittier School District, with a budget of $34 million and an average daily attendance of 3,300. Thereafter, he worked for more than three years with the California Association of School Business Officials. In 2018, he returned to the role of school district administrator as the assistant superintendent for administrative services with the Anaheim Elementary School District, which had 23 schools and a budget of $230 million. In October 2020, he was lured to the Adelanto Elementary School District, which was in a pinch and needed to fill the position of assistant superintendent of business services and had the added benefit of its district headquarters being located within a ten minute drive of his home. His performance in that role was exemplary, so much so that in July 2022, he was chosen as the interim superintendent to replace Dr. Kennon Mitchell. In January 2023, halfway through the 2022-23 academic year, the board voted to make Krause the full-fledged superintendent.
Krause remained on what appeared to be positive terms with the board, which suffered the loss of Holly Eckes in February 2023 and filled that vacancy with the appointment of Miguel Soto the following month.
In January 2024, Krause resisted what he said were actions by the board collectively or requests by board members individually which he felt were illegal, constituted graft or were conflicts of interest or what he otherwise deemed to be contrary to the interests of the district’s students and the district’s overall educational mission. When members of the board redoubled those requests, according to Krause, he again objected. On April 9, during a closed-door session of the school board, by a 4-to-1 vote, with members La Shawn Love-French, Christine Turner, Miguel Soto and Christina Bentz prevailing and Stephanie Webster dissenting, Krause was placed on administrative leave. John Albert, the assistant superintendent for human resources was appointed as the interim superintendent.
In June, the district and Krause signed a separation agreement, effective June 30, by which he was to continue to receive his salary as superintendent through to the end of 2024 and was to continue to receive for six months or until he found employment elsewhere the health benefits he had been provided as an employee, which included coverage for his family.
In July, Krause, a resident of Adelanto within the School District’s Area 1, filed for candidacy in the November election for the District Area 1 position on the board, held by Turner, which was up for election. The registrar of voters office determined he had met all of the requirements to qualify his candidacy and his name was placed on the ballot with that of Turner, who likewise was qualified to stand for reelection.
In his campaign, Krause primarily made reference to his educational and managerial experience and credentials, as well as his academic game plan for the district. He mentioned during candidate forums that the district had a lack of administrative continuity extending back over the last decade in that it had employed  eight superintendents in the last ten years and that the district had not provided raises to faculty for more than two years running.
On October 18, Dominic Quiller, the district’s legal counsel, informed Krause by letter that he was being given notice that the district was rescinding the separation agreement it had with him, further demanding that Krause reimburse the district all of the payments made to him and benefits provided under the terms of the agreement since it went into effect on June 30, 2024. In addition, Quiller in the letter issued a “demand that you immediately withdraw from the race for a district board seat.”
Quiller made no bones about his demands being an ultimatum.
“Failure to cooperate will result in immediate litigation,” Quiller wrote.
According to Quiller, Krause had abrogated the separation agreement, in particular its non-disparagement clause, which prohibited both the district and Krause from making any disparaging or derogatory remarks regarding the other party. Krause and the district had also agreed to take no action intended or reasonably anticipated to harm the other party’s reputation or interests individually or collectively, in the language of the agreement “even if truthful, or which would reasonably to lead to unwanted or unfavorable publicity to the other party, regarding issues related to Krause’s employment with the district, [extending to] statements made to the press [and] in social media.”
It was Quiller’s contention that by running for a position on the board and campaigning, Krause disparaged the district.
“Even though you agreed to discontinue all contact and relationship with this district, you ignored your promise and entered the race for a board seat,” Quiller wrote.
The posting of Krause’s political signs ran afoul of the separation agreement, Quiller maintained, since this violated another provision of the agreement pertaining to his not having contact with the district’s employees during working hours.
Krause’s candidacy “filing evidences your intent to come upon district property [and] contact district employees,” Quiller stated in the letter.
Quiller’s letter went on to state, “As you are aware, you have made several comments in public forums that are disparaging to the district. This includes publicly discussing events that occurred during your employment, which you pronounced reflected badly on the district – in other words, disparaging the district’s reputation.”
While the district, unilaterally, had the authority to discontinue the regular payments Krause was scheduled to receive until the end of 2024 and to cancel his family’s medical coverage, which it did, its authority did not extend to extinguishing his candidacy for the school board.
At least some of those within the limited circles knowledgeable about Quiller’s letter and the demands it contained, which included those close to Krause and his campaign as well as others who were associated with the district or the local political establishment, were taken aback by the boldness of the letter. Some questioned the propriety of Quiller involving himself and his firm, McCune & Harber, in a political campaign in which the composition of the school district board was at stake, particularly since Quiller seemed to be militating in favor of one of the board incumbents.  The October 18 letter to Krause bore McCune & Harber’s letterhead. Moreover, Quiller’s letter, some believed, constituted an effort to interfere with Krause’s First Amendment principle of free speech and expression. More disturbing still for some of those who were privy to the October 18 letter was its blackmail implication.
In July, Krause and his daughter were in a vehicle that was rear-ended by a semi-truck. Both were helicoptered to Loma Linda University Medical Center. Krause was released in August, but his daughter has been transferred to a facility specializing in pediatric trauma and recovery. The threat of ending his family’s medical coverage was therefore especially poignant to Krause, and this led to the perception that Quiller was attempting to extort him into ending his candidacy.
Defying the demand contained in the letter, Krause remained as a candidate on the November 5 ballot.
As of yesterday, Thursday November 7, at 4 p.m., Krause with 1,216 or 53.01 percent of the 2,294 votes cast,  led Turner, who had polled 1,078 votes or 46.99 percent.
How, precisely, Quiller and McCune & Harber will recover from what might be fairly described as a self-inflicted wound, is yet to be seen. Whether that wound extends to the possibility that the firm will lose its contract with the district is an open question. At present, the district has a contract with McCune & Harber that pays the firm $38,333.33 per month or $460,000 per year for the provision of legal services.
Before Krause is sworn in next month or perhaps after that, he and Quiller may get together to smoke a peace pipe. While Quiller having, if not an amicable, at least a working, relationship with Krause is probably in the best interest of the district and its students, tranquility between the two is not absolutely necessary if Quiller is able to remain on decent terms with at least three of the other four members of the board. Intense public scrutiny of what occurred, however, might make Quiller’s continued role as the district’s legal advisor untenable.
Unfolding events have made it so that not only did Quiller’s October 18 letter to Krause put his and his law firm’s contract with the Adelanto Elementary School District in jeopardy, it might yet touch off a round of reexamination of the law firm’s representation of a host of other school districts and public entities and the degree to which it and its attorneys have involved themselves in machinations in favor of the individual members of the school boards and city councils they represent. McCune and Harber and/or its attorneys  serve as the general counsel for the Long Beach Unified School District, the Pomona Unified School District, the Irvine Unified School District, the Las Virgenes Unified School District, the Fullerton Joint Union High School District and the Antelope Valley Union High School District as well as in the role of city attorney with Montebello, Culver City and Manhattan Beach.
-Mark Gutglueck