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School Board member Jon Arguello
A second Osceola County School District investigation by an independent arbitrator has returned a finding that School Board member Jon Arguello violated district policy when he harassed a community member whose charity partners with the schools.
John Kalish, head of A Hero For Kids, filed the complaint in February, alleging Arguello repeatedly harassed him regarding his charity, and his past.
School Board Policy 2.70 “Prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against individuals on the basis of ‘race, color, religion, gender, age, marital status, disability, political or religious beliefs, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by law.’”
The report, done by the Gunster Law Firm, backed Kalish that Arguello openly criticized the charity for “placing itself squarely against” anti-corruption and the leadership of Osceola County’s veteran’s museum. Arguello, in an email to Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace said the district had donated an old school bus to “a felon and snake oil salesman” and questioned Kalish’s access to school campuses as a convicted felon, which made Pace bar him from school campuses for over two months while it was looked into.
(Per court records, Kalish was arrested in 1986 on grand theft and forged check charges, and in 2006 on gun transporting charges. He and Arguello share arrest-record backgrounds; Arguello was arrested on a domestic violence charge in 2018 that wasn’t prosecuted, and spent about five weeks in jail in 2002 for failure to pay child support.)
The findings showed, “Mr. Arguello has engaged in a course of conduct designed to denigrate Mr. Kalish, a perceived political adversary, on the basis of his political beliefs. This course of conduct had the purpose and effect of ‘interfering’ with Mr. Kalish’s work … for the Osceola County School District and elsewhere … Several witnesses identified the strife surrounding the veteran’s museum as the beginning of the animosity.”
The report said Arguello “denies the allegations against him and insists … his inquiries were within his authority as a school board member because he was ‘vindicating community concerns’ about felons in schools.” But in the end, as part of Gunter Law’s conclusion, showed testimony from a number of witnesses, and screenshots from a number of social media conversation, “Evidence a toxic online culture where personal attacks against (Arguello’s) political opponents are commonplace.”
Kalish, whose charity provides back-to-school supplies and gifts at the holidays to needy students and families, said the last few months were hard because he’d “never been attacked by a sitting public official.”
“After months of being attacked regularly, this is vindication,” he said. “It caused damaged to our organization. It's hard to quantify, but when we go talk to donors I hear, ‘We can’t this time,’ from groups who had in the past because of his allegations. I almost gave up, but I got messages and emails from the teachers and parents we’ve supported who said, ‘Please don’t.’”
When asked about the findings, Arguello, noting discussion about it was on Tuesday night’s Board meeting agenda, “I guess it will be an interesting meeting.”
Findings of this report and other investigations, two that implicate Arguello and two he called for, have been released. Arguello was found not in breach of Policy 2.70 when he looked into the personnel file of a Maintenance Department employee, or when a member of his residential homeowners association accused him of harassment. Arguello called for investigations into an “Area of risk and deep concern”: whether air conditioning units were being replaced more than necessary to benefit a district vendor; and whether School District employees were using district time and resources to work on School Board campaigns. There were no findings of malfeasant activities.
Earlier this year, an investigation found Arguello had harassed a District lobbyist and some of his business clients. After the finding, the School Board voted to censure Arguello and sent the findings to the State Capitol for a ruling. No word has returned on that matter from Tallahassee.
