Bari Cohn
Executive News Editor
MBX Summer School Principal Dr. Karina Gerger notified Costa History Department Co-Chair Adam Geczi on March 29 via email that his request to teach MBX Summer School this summer was denied.
MBX is a foundation that funds educational programs for schools within the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, including operating MBX Summer School at Costa since 2013. Geczi has taught courses, including economics, as a part of MBX Summer School for the past 12 consecutive summers.
“Every year, we would get a notification from the summer school principal saying that you can let them know if you want to work,” Geczi said. “This year, [MBX] posted the jobs on EDJOIN, where teachers go job shopping, and they said that if you want a job, you can apply and submit your résume, references, etc., which I speculate was so [MBX] could not rehire me.”
According to the lease agreement between the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the MBX Foundation regarding the operation of summer school, when appropriate, MBX will give preference to hiring employees who are qualified administrators, teachers and security personnel currently employed by the District.
“A private sector employer may decide whether or not to hire or re-hire any particular person, so long as the stated reason(s) and circumstances are not violating state and federal statutory or common law protections,” Geczi said.
Geczi emailed Gerger asking for a recommendation, to which she responded in an email that the leadership of the MBX organization was not offering him a job given his “decision to disregard policy on student attendance” and “his frequent and strident public criticism of MBX’s summer program.”
According to MBX policy, students may miss one day of summer school per one-semester course.
“On the last day of [2017] summer school, I gave the final exam in the morning and many students did not return from the break,” Geczi said. “I discouraged [the students from leaving], but they did not violate [MBX’s] attendance policy.”
On March 23, in a private negotiating session between the Manhattan Beach United Teachers Association and MBUSD in the presence of MBUSD’s attorney, Geczi outlined what he believes are the statutory violations committed by MBUSD through its collaboration with MBX, Geczi said.
“MBX [and MBUSD] say that they are independent entit[ies], [but] I am going to prove that they are in fact one and the same,” Geczi said. “There are some clear complications [with the two organizations acting as one] because that would mean that MBUSD through MBX is charging for classes, which is illegal.”
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