The Palo Alto school board has called a special meeting for 5 p.m. today to discuss two student expulsions and possibly how to proceed on issues raised by mid-level district administrators concerning alleged "lack of trust"issues with Superintendent Mary Frances Callan and her senior cabinet.

The second item will depend on whether the board has gotten adequate feedback from mid-level administrators, according to sources.

The special closed-session meeting at 25 Churchill Ave. is in addition to the board's regular meeting Tuesday night, during which board members also met in closed session. The closed meeting is held under permitted exceptions to the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state's open-meeting law.

School officials are considering bringing in an outside consultant of some type, but school board members want to be sure the management team members are in agreement and are willing to collaborate in the selection process.

There are reports of some discussions between representatives of the "management team" of about 48 mid-level administrators and school officials to define what an independent consultant might do to help get through the emotion-laden situation. The situation was triggered by a document presented to Callan Sept. 6 that cited trust issues as the top priority concern of principals, assistant principals, program coordinators and directors and school psychologists.

The question has been raised as to how many of the management team subscribe to the sharply critical views expressed in the document. But an effort by some principals to develop a letter expressing support for the superintendent and senior cabinet was set aside with no action after management team members held an extensive discussion about it at an afternoon meeting Sept. 29, the day the Weekly broke the story about the document.

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

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