2 Resignations Put District at Center of Controversy : Ojai Valley: Popular principal who says he was ousted wants his job back now that superintendent is leaving. But the school board isn’t putting out the welcome mat.

OJAI — Two resignations. Two months. One small school district.

It’s not uncommon for this city and the surrounding valley to be up in arms about something like radar towers, smelly landfills or tree pruning. Few expected that the highly regarded and smooth-running Ojai Valley Unified School District would ever be in the midst of a storm.

But that’s just what happened when several hundred parents called for Supt. Andrew C. Smidt’s resignation at a board meeting last week. It was retribution, they said, for the resignation last month of popular Nordhoff High School Principal Michael Maez. Smidt, they cried, “railroaded” the 51-year-old educator out of town.

Maez concurred.

Smidt resigned, effective in June, 1996.

But it wasn’t the angry hordes that got the better of Smidt--it was the Santa Barbara County Office of Education, which offered the superintendent of 12 years a plum job. Smidt maintains--and Santa Barbara officials confirm--that they were in serious discussions about the new job before Maez left for the desert.

Maez, who originally said he left Nordhoff for the Desert Sands Unified School District because the offer was too good to refuse, now says it was a lateral move. He wants his old job back and wishes he never had to leave in the first place.

He’s not alone. Several hundred parents and students also want Maez back in the principal’s office of the 1,100-student school, which consistently ranks among the county’s top in academic achievement.

They speak of Maez with a fervor bordering on the religious.

“He was the best educator this town ever had.”

“To know him is to love him.”

“He believed in justice.”

“He was the raddest principal, a total Ranger [school mascot].”

In his own words: “I’m a loyal soldier . . . I’m a risk-taker . . . Humility is a quality I greatly admire . . . I still want to be the No. 1 Ranger. . . .”

Although mythical in stature to some, he was a lousy administrator to others.

“He was incapable of implementing a coherent policy,” said Rick Mahony, a Nordhoff English teacher for 16 years and a Maez antagonist.

But aside from jabs by enemies and Maez’s version of events, the full reason for Maez’s long walk may never be revealed.

Did Smidt push Maez out? Did Maez cause his own demise?

The answers are locked away inside Maez’s personnel file, which cannot be opened to the public unless Maez agrees to release the records. He won’t.

Which puts the naturally tight-lipped Smidt and the more gregarious five-member school board in a difficult position.

Everybody but them has had a chance to say their piece.

Maez has spoken freely with the press.

“I think I was pressured out by my boss, the superintendent,” Maez said in a recent interview. “I was told it wasn’t working and I’d be better off finding another job.”

Maez said he didn’t have the support from the top to push for several issues he cared about: empowering parents and students at the expense of faculty and administrators, closing down an experimental education program, and disciplining a teacher he contends is physically and verbally abusive.

The teacher in question--who has subsequently incurred the wrath of Maez supporters--said he was cleared of any allegations after a lengthy investigation, a fact that school district officials will not confirm because it is a personnel issue.

School board members will say they supported Maez’s two-year tenure, liked Maez and renewed his contract early. They acknowledge that Maez’s reforms were met with some resistance, but Maez never told them he left because of it. In fact, they wish he had spoken up.

Maez maintains he was just being a loyal soldier and didn’t want to complain to his boss’s superiors. But just weeks later, Maez started complaining. Loudly.

“I thought loyal soldiers fell on their sword and that was the end of it,” board member Rikki Horne said.

But beyond that, board members are mum.

“By law, I can’t discuss the issues,” board member Karen McBride said. “My hands are tied.”

That doesn’t sit well with Norm Davis, who is helping organize a recall of the board members.

As far as he knows, Smidt and the board members could be hiding behind the law to squelch the truth, Davis said.

“What they’re basically saying is, ‘You have to trust us, we’re handling it,’ ” Davis said. “But people today need to see it to believe it. And we can’t see anything.”

Others are bursting at the temples with frustration at being stonewalled.

“We still want answers and we haven’t gotten them,” said Linda Kapala, a parent.

“Someone isn’t telling the truth,” said Maez’s wife, Diane.

“Why can’t we ask Mike Maez back?” demanded Mike Morris, a parent.

Slim chance.

Unless the entire board is successfully recalled, the “Total Ranger’s” chances of getting back in the saddle at Nordhoff are slim.

“If for no other reason, I couldn’t support his return because of everything that has happened since he left,” said McBride, echoing the sentiments of several board members. “His statements have been too divisive.”

And so the charismatic Maez--who still owns a house in Ojai and has a daughter at Nordhoff--will probably continue commuting home 225 miles from Indio on weekends.

In short, he’s the victim of lousy timing. Had he waited another month, he probably would have seen his mild-mannered nemesis announce his resignation for a better job. Now Maez’s coveted position will either go to acting Principal Jack Smith or another applicant.