Pasadena Star News (Pasadena, CA)
"Amy: A one-man army"
November 21, 2004

PASADENA -- Shortly after Superintendent Percy Clark came to the Pasadena
Unified School District, he approached vociferous PUSD critic Rene Amy with a
proposition.Aware of the problems Amy had caused school officials in the past,
Clark asked that he consider coming to work for the district in a research job,
something that takes focus, energy and time.


Amy, a general contractor, thought about the offer and stipulated some
conditions. That's where negotiations ended. Clark came back and said it was a
no-go. Amy had too many enemies on the school board.


Three years, a handful of lawsuits and more than 10,000 e-mails later, Clark and
Amy don't have the kind of relationship that would lead to an offer of
employment. It's barely civil at times.


That's nothing new when it comes to Amy and PUSD officials. He has a long
history of being a thorn in the district's side.


He ran for the school board in 1999 and lost. He sued the district, and won,
several times, and he ha s threatened to sue on countless other occasions to
make the district abide by the law.


His public- records requests keep the PUSD communications office busy and the
district's lawyers billing. He has also sued the city of Pasadena and the state
Department of Education.


For years he attended every school board meeting. He'd fill out more than a
dozen speaker cards at any given meeting; totaled together, he could address the
board for up to 45 minutes each session.


In March 2001, he started an e-mail discussion group intended to serve as a
forum for education issues and gripes. It generates hundreds of e-mails each
month from Amy and other list members.


His e-mail signature line quotes Mark Twain: "God made the idiot for practice,
and then He made the school board.'


Not surprisingly, Amy still has enemies on the school board, even though he
hasn't attended a board meeting in about two years. He continues his vigilance
of the district online, critiquing the state of public education via his
greatschools e-mail list. Part of the reason for Amy's two-year absence from
official district functions is a lack of time, and he also got tired of "wasting
his breath' arguing for change, he said.


He has the tools needed to bring his critiques to the forefront, including his
e-mail list and a background in the dramatic arts, and he's working to acquire
another a law degree.


Amy has two years left to go on his degree, through an online program offered by
Concord Law School. Concord is not accredited by the American Bar Association.


Given Amy's litigious history, it's a move that bodes poorly for the district's
future legal bills. It could arm him with the power to represent himself, and
other PUSD constituents, in courts of law.


School districts across the state are engaged in "slimy, sleazy, sketchy
actions,' Amy said, saying he wants to help create quality public education for
every child.


He pulled his children out of the PUSD about five years ago, when he was running
for the school board. He won't reveal publicly where they attend school now, not
even on his e-mail list.


"It's not just a target, like 'Death to Pasadena,' ' Amy said. "I don't have a
grudge. This is one very small but very screwed-up school district. But the
bigger issue is what happens in PUSD affects a whole lot more than just PUSD.'


A man of contradictions


Amy, 44, was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California and the
Midwest. He got his bachelor's degree in French and theater arts from Indiana
University and moved to Pasadena about 25 years ago.


He's persistent, relentless and unapologetic about his passions. He's not afraid
to insult people, and has an uncanny ability to get under their skin, but he
couches the digs with a booming laugh. He can be outgoing and considerate, but
he doesn't hesitate to ban friends or supporters from his e-mail list for any
violation of his rules.


"The critics think I only have issues with those I don't agree with, but that
ain't the case,' Amy said.


He embraces new methods of technology and admits that if it weren't for the
Internet, he wouldn't be able to continue his monitoring of the PUSD while in
law school. Or attend law school at all.


He's also gung-ho for what he believes in. Amy was a corporate adopter of Don
Benito Fundamental School when his children now 15 and 16 were in elementary
school. To help promote parent volunteerism, he offered a class pizza party as
an incentive.


"It was the best 150 bucks I've ever spent,' Amy said.


But PUSD school board member Peter Soelter, who worked with Amy on the parent
workdays, said Amy's abrasive take-charge attitude and penchant for ordering
people around eventually alienated many of the parents at Don Benito.


"He's a smart guy, but he turns people off except for the people who have the
same ax to grind as he did,' Soelter said. "It's just so tiring, so wearisome.'


Other people have a different perspective of Amy, who was a founding member of
the Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association and who worked single-handedly to
get speed bumps installed on North Wilson Avenue.


He and his family always volunteer for neighborhood activities cheerfully, and
they're hard workers, said Bob Kneisel, a past president of the association and
a neighbor of Amy's for 20 years.


"He's a nice guy,' Kneisel said. "He's got a great sense of humor and he's easy
to know. He's a guy who's got strong opinions, but he has a good attitude and a
good spirit. I'm glad we have watchdogs like him around. As contentious and as
cumbersome as it is sometimes, it's democracy. It's got to be open. I really
salute him for doing that for all of us.'


Others say Amy is consumed by negativity. Soelter said he unsubscribed from
Amy's e-mail list about a year and a half ago.


"I have to tell you, I'm a healthier person for it,' Soelter said. "The amount
of bitterness and bile that could flow through just one series of e-mails could
depress a person for the whole day.


"His smarts are overwhelmed by his negativity,' Soelter said. "I don't know what
happened to him and why. He derailed, but I'm sad about it. It doesn't matter
what you do, it's not going to make him happy. He's gone over to the dark side.'


In the spotlight


Amy honed his public- speaking skills in the JPL/Caltech Toastmasters Club. It's
a talent that would come to plague many future PUSD board members.


The club taught him to parse his debate into three minutes the exact amount of
time allowed for any one public comment at PUSD board meetings.


"It's histrionics, and his sort of bombastic appearances at board meetings are
not something I have missed,' board President Ed Honowitz said. "For a while he
did sort of capture the public eye. The district was in a sort of reactionary
posture ... they spent a lot of time reacting to the guy. One thing I kind of
noticed was he really came to meetings that were televised. He didn't really
have any interest in meetings that were not televised.'


Amy is blunt, exuberant and over-the-top at times, and he seems to crave being
at the center of attention.


"He tends to have an excitable personality,' said Altadena Town Councilman Steve
Lamb, who worked with Amy several years ago on school district issues. "If
you're not used to him, it's kind of a little overwhelming at times. He's not
exactly the traditional old Pasadena type of person.'


Amy's moves are calculated to draw the maximum amount of attention. When seeking
an audit of the PUSD, he rented a truck and drove around town with a large sign
calling for more accountability.


When pushing for more textbooks, he carried around papier- mache puppets to
depict children's books being stolen by witches one of which bore a noticeable
resemblance to then-Superintendent Vera Vignes.


"He does a lot of stuff to push forward progress, but he's also out to make sure
that everybody has a good time while we're slogging through the bureaucratic
process,' Lamb said. "It was a lot more fun (when Amy was involved).'


Behind the scenes


Amy says he enjoys the problem-solving aspect of his job as a general
contractor, especially when unexpected things surface in the remodeling of a
home.


In his spare time which isn't much due to his work schedule and law school Amy
likes to bicycle with his family. He started his children off on tandem bikes as
soon as they could reach the handlebars and pedals.


He loves to hike he met his wife, Laraine, more than 20 years ago while working
on local hiking trails with a group from JPL. He also enjoys cooking, especially
working with old cast iron pots, and is a vegetarian. He says he can whip up a
mean batch of baked beans.


Over the past year and a half, he's lost 80 pounds, changed his glasses and
shaved off his beard a change that prompts those who haven't seen him recently
to exclaim over the difference.


Following the paper trail


In addition to the Internet and the fear of litigation, one of Amy's main salvos
against government entities like the PUSD is the California Public Records Act.
In the past several weeks, he's filed three such requests with the PUSD alone.


"Rene interacts with the office of communications on a weekly basis,' district
spokesman Erik Nasarenko said. "In some cases, it's phone inquiries seeking
comment for his e-mail loop. In other cases, it's responding to his requests for
public records.'


The district calls in its lawyers for some requests, whether it's to determine
what the PUSD is legally obligated to divulge or to vet the documents for
confidential information, Nasarenko said.


One 2003 request for all correspondence between the district and the school
board accounted for more than $27,000 in lawyer's fees. Another request for the
district's legal bills accounted for nine hours of staff time and more than
$36,000 in legal fees.


"No one is as prolific in their use of the Public Records Act as Rene Amy,'
Nasarenko said.


The district has in some instances been ordered to reimburse the legal fees
incurred by Amy and other plaintiffs in his lawsuits.


"First, there's a huge value to the information I've received as the result of
the Public Records Act,' Amy said. "And the only time I file a lawsuit is when
the district refuses to follow the law.


"I don't make a dime off these things. And quite honestly I don't go out looking
for them,' Amy said. "I try to avoid them. I used to literally plead with the
school board. I said, 'You're breaking the law. Please don't make me sue you.'


"I'm not looking to be a leech on the system ... but it's like Jell-O. If you
stop pushing it, it's going to return to where it was before.'


The end result


Even some of Amy's most vocal detractors credit him with a modicum of positive
change for the school district, citing things like his work to bring the
International Baccalaureate program to the PUSD or his efforts to get lockers in
the middle schools. He's also been active at the state level, including serving
on a 2002 panel focused on middle and high school instructional and intervention
programs.


Other people seize on the same types of issues, like Amy's lawsuit that forced
the PUSD to stop collecting student fees for extracurricular activities, as
evidence of the harm he's done.


"I think he really hurt our extracurricular activities and our ability to
include students in a lot of programs,' Soelter said.


Critics say he is more concerned with finding an ax to grind than solving the
district's woes.


"He's been an extremely negative force in the district,' board President Ed
Honowitz said. "I think that essentially school districts as institutions need
to be nurtured, held accountable. They need to be supported, challenged. He
seems to be more focused on tearing things down rather than building them up or
coming up with solutions.'


Honowitz said Amy's tactics take a lot of money away from students, and he
questioned Amy's ties to "extremist right-wing groups like the U.S. Justice
Foundation.' In addition to representing Amy in several lawsuits, the foundation
frequently allies itself with conservative causes, including going up against
Planned Parenthood. Honowitz's wife, who has been criticized by Amy in the past,
used to work for Planned Parenthood.


"I'm not sure what his message is other than he doesn't like public education,'
Honowitz said. "Where he comes from is so outside of the mainstream of what I
think are the values of this community. I find any message he might have that
might be positive completely overwhelmed by his antics.'


But school board member Bill Bibbiani said he thinks that overall Amy has been
an asset to the PUSD.


"I think he forces people to realize that there are obligations we have to the
public, to the law and to the (state education code),' Bibbiani said. "I think
the district's mistake from the very beginning with Rene was to underestimate
him. If there is a weakness, he tends to sometimes think there are overly
simplistic solutions to a problem.'


Former school board President Tommy McMullins described Amy as aggressive, but
someone who researches topics and voices his opinions following the proper
procedures.


McMullins said he thought Amy would make a good attorney, adding, "I know he's
going to do his homework.'


Gretchen Hoffman can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4494, or by e-mail at
gretchen.hoffman@sgvn.com .