Our Modest Proposal...

If, as Black47 reports, no definitive action has been taken on the status of VAPAC or its administrators, perhaps our voices should weigh in on the situation. Judging from comments and our own postings, we strongly urge the SCUSD to consider the following actions:


1. Release the CFO from employment with the district.

This decision should be a no-brainer. Significant portions of the job description, which he wrote and the board approved, deal with raising revenue, procuring donations, running business operations, and writing grants. From what we can discern, none of these activities have occurred with any measure of success. Additionally, several teachers and staff, employed by the corporation and not the district (Attn: SCTA and SEIU) report that paychecks from the corporation were frequently incorrect, 1099 paperwork was improperly filled out, and W2’s were not issued until mid-March.

In his defense, the CFO has offered that he has had to focus most of his energy on “helping his mom with student discipline,” an activity outside of his job description and outside of his experience. However, if the district continues to maintain a relationship with this individual, might we suggest that he write a new job description under the title of “Mother’s Little Helper” with pay commensurate to that of a 1st year hall monitor. Of course, the CFO could do what’s right, realize that he is in over his head, and resign. Then the school could use his salary to hire two real administrators – a principal and a vice-principal – ending the worse case of nepotism we have had the (dis)honor of witnessing.

CFO Job Description

District Salary Schedules (17A and 15A)

2. Release or reassign the Director

As we have shown, back in November, former district CEO Joan Butt considered the Director at VAPAC to be a district employee (see previous post). This being the case, the district has the ultimate word in deciding the fate of this employee. While it’s apparent that the district is reluctant to terminate administrators, the exposure to litigation that the Director has subjucted the district to in her brief tenure is unfathomable and reckless. The harm that she has done to students is unconscionable. The way she manages employees and handles parents is immature and unprofessional.

We have it on good authority that several complaints have made their way through channels to the State Department of Education and back to the school district for correction. Several teachers have also filed complaints with the district regarding her management style, and at least one of those teachers has secured the services of legal counsel. In fact, several faculty and staff members have sworn out statements to this teacher’s counsel saying, in effect, that they were told by the Director (a) to avoid contact with this faculty member, (b) to cease any communications with this faculty member, and (c) instructed that this faculty member was incompetent, untrustworthy, and “didn’t know what s/he was doing.” Since this summer it seems that several more teachers and some parents have agreed to verify this teacher’s claims by also writing statements for counsel. (Note: We have this information from the a source close to the teacher and several of the collaborating witnesses. This is not speculation.)

Let’s not talk about those salaries that she had the executive board approve and that clearly violate stipulations in the charter.

In any other work environment, this employee would have been fired. In the SCUSD, this situation should be handled no differently. However, in lieu or making the obvious right choice, the district, at minimum, really has no option but to reassign the Director to limit its own culpability in her actions.


3. Revisit the charter with the specific aims of making it a district school in some capacity.

We do not want to see this charter revoked nor this school closed. However, work needs to be done in aligning the operations of this school to the practices outlined in the charter or used by most schools. The number of material violations in this charter is mind-boggling, most noticeably the provisions on salary and the composition of the executive board. These flaws need to be corrected, and the current administration is too entrenched and invested in the current system to facilitate any meaningful changes. Remember that this program works and has worked for almost 20 years; it would be a shame to allow a power grab and district indifference to bring it down. If the current administration wants their own school and their impossible-to-defend salaries, let them do it privately and not with taxpayer money. While provisions regarding facilities prompted the school to change its status to that of an independent charter, the Field Act, which prompted this change, can be dealt with in an appropriately legal manner.

Ultimately, we implore the SCUSD to do what is right for the students and the taxpayers of this district and to put an end to this travesty that rewards so few at the expense of so many.