LAKEPORT, Calif. – The morning following a heated Lakeport Unified School Board meeting in which the superintendent was released from her contract, the board member who was the dissenting vote in that decision tendered her resignation.

Board member Lori Holmes told Lake County News that she notified Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg on Thursday morning that she was leaving the board.

Separately, Lakeport Unified Board Chair Dan Buffalo told Lake County News that they received an email about Holmes’ resignation on Thursday morning, and that he confirmed Falkenberg had been notified.

Holmes is the senior board member in time served, having been first elected in the fall of 2011.

Last month, Buffalo, Carly Alvord and Jennifer Hanson – who had been elected in November in a united campaign effort – took office. Since then, they have participated in two regularly scheduled meetings, in addition to a special meeting called Dec. 27, when the district was closed and both Holmes and Superintendent April Leiferman were on vacation.

Holmes, who was in Mexico on a family vacation, had nonetheless managed to call in and participate in the Dec. 27 meeting, during which the board majority voted to hire its own attorney to advise it on its relationship with Leiferman. Holmes had disagreed with that action, pointing out that the board had access to legal help that had been paid for already.

Then at the board’s meeting on Wednesday night, Alvord, Buffalo and Hanson overruled Holmes and voted to terminate Leiferman’s contract without cause, as Lake County News has reported. Board member Phil Kirby abstained.

Leiferman, hired in May 2017, has a three-year contract that stipulates that she must be paid a year’s salary totaling $154,234 and health and welfare benefits not to exceed $14,500 each year.

Much of the impetus for the decision to end Leiferman’s contract appears to stem from the previous board’s October decision to remove Terrace Middle School Principal Rachel Paarsch from her position. Paarsch was then transferred to a teaching position she refused, and she said she is suing the district.

Paarsch’s removal by the board was based on a formal district investigation led by Leiferman that found many instances of serious misconduct — including issues with job performance and personal behavior — reported by numerous witnesses, according to a copy of the document obtained by Lake County News.

Paarsch, who has denied the allegations, is the daughter of Kirby and a longtime friend of Alvord, and was present for the Wednesday night announcement of Leiferman’s contract termination.

Holmes had told the other board members after the termination decision on Wednesday that she didn’t agree with them, and that Leiferman’s intent had always been focused on what was best for children.

She also told them that they were moving really fast, that she found it scary and that they were spooking district staff. Holmes also had told them that their decision to hold the special closed session on Dec. 27 was a bad move.

Holmes said on Thursday that since the three new board members took office, they didn’t meet with Leiferman and actually rebuffed her requests to sit down with them to discuss district business, which Holmes said made it difficult for Leiferman to do her job.

On Thursday, Holmes took swift action herself, deciding to step aside. “It was just time for me to go.”

In her resignation letter, which she shared with Lake County News, Holmes wrote:

“After 8 years, it is with great reluctance that I resign my position as a member of the Lakeport Unified School Board. Serving the people of this wonderful school district has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Over the years, I have met so many capable and committed employees – superintendents, administrators, department heads, certificated and classified staff – who put the children they teach, support, and care for at the center of their work. I thank them for their service to our community.

“As a board member, I have taken seriously my legal obligations. A school board is designed to have independent-thinking individuals meet at open public meetings and use board policies and laws to do what is in the best interest of the students. Until recently, that has been the established practice of the Lakeport board. Now, however, I believe critical decisions have been made recklessly that do not serve the best interests of this district. Because I do not share the new board's vision, I believe it is time for me to step down.

“I wish the new board success. The future of our students depends upon on their ability to do what is best for the district.”

She told Lake County News that the new board needs to slow down and listen, and to meet with the district’s administrative team, and the teachers’ and classified employees’ unions.

“I want them to succeed. I feel like the district depends on them succeeding, but I’m just sick about what I’m seeing,” she said.

The board has called a special meeting at 2 p.m. Saturday at the district office to discuss its superintendent recruitment and transition.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.