Evergreen Teachers Association (ETA) members voted unanimously to declare “No Confidence” in Trustee Jim Zito during a March 5 general membership meeting. They will provide a briefing on why #ZitoMustGo before the March 12 school board meeting to highlight and protest Zito’s controlling and inappropriate behavior towards both employees and community members. Individuals also plan to address the Evergreen School District (ESD) School Board.

ETA members say they want Jim Zito to resign from the Evergreen Elementary School District Board of Education for a variety of reasons, ranging from repeatedly making disrespectful and inappropriate statements on social media about teachers and attempting to bully and intimidate female teachers during and after board meetings and at school sites. Some of the teachers he confronted and tried to intimidate will speak at the rally.

“He doesn’t care about rules,” says ETA President Brian Wheatley,  adding that in the teachers’ view, Zito can’t be trusted because he illegally took a confidential document from the last state contract mediation session, violating a non-disclosure agreement, and distributed it on the social media platform, Nextdoor.  ETA filed and won an unfair labor practice charge over the incident. In fact, says Wheatley, the ESD school board is receiving a training on the appropriate use of documents during negotiations and non-disclosure agreements during Thursday’s school board meeting. 

“We know Trustee Zito should not be in a position of power over children and over a profession that is predominantly made up of women,” said ETA Vice President Suzanne Lima. “We care about our kids and our colleagues too much to put up with this behavior. It’s important for all the trustees to know that ESD teaching and certificated staff have no confidence in Jim Zito.”

Community members have also taken Zito to task, questioning his behavior.

The briefing outlining ETA members’ concerns begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, at the ESD offices, 3188 Quimby Road in San Jose.